Hitting Balls With Your Eyes Closed
If you’re following this blog, I’m getting into the zone where golfers fear to tread…
But in my life, I’ve made the greatest discoveries by taking that next step when I wasn’t sure what would happen…
We’re working on playing golf from the subconscious mind and improving THAT process. The response is to a comment on the post below.
Here’s the catch: Your goal isn’t to just hit the ball…
Your goal is to “see” the image the subconscious is trying to see.
When you see the image, you’ll hit the ball.
It sounds backwards, but that’s how it always works. That’s also how I know that the ball on the ground is the present and the target is in the future…
The subconscious MUST stay in the present because that’s where it must be to keep the body alive.
And the subconscious controls movement through the use of images.
SO… Any image that the subconscious uses to control a movement is positively in the present!
If the target were the present image, that’s what you would see, but that is the goal of the shot and doesn’t come into play for the subconscious until AFTER the ball is hit.
You see, there’s an argument as to whether the target is present or future. I base my findings on the pictures the subconscious uses to control movement (which again, HAVE to be in the present).
Those on the other side of the argument use a demonstration of throwing a ball to a farget, which makes the target the present… And for that case it is, because the ball is in your hand and the subconscious can FEEL it, making it part of the feedback the subconscious can use to gauge the movement needed to propel it toward the target. The target is the present because the distance and the arc of the throw between the hand and the target is what the subconscious has to picture.
But when you hit a golf ball, the golf ball is NOT connected to the body; the GOLF CLUB is, so the feedback the subconscious uses to make the swing can only be gauged by getting feedback from the weight and movement of the golf club towards it’s target… the golf ball.
As a side note, Biomechanically, the golf swing IS a throw, but in this case we are throwing the club, NOT the ball, which is why Fred Shoemaker’s method of throwing golf clubs in his book “Extraordinary Golf” gets results.
What decides the target for the subconscious is based on the goal of the movement the subconscious has to control combined with the live feedback from the object being moved. The subconscious uses the feedback from the object the body is controlling to adjust that movement toward the goal.
In golf, the target is an additional step away from the goal of striking the ball, so unfortunately, the target of the shot is in the future.
And this is why focusing on the target during the golf swing has caused so much anguish for so many golfers for so many years. The damage is caused when the golfer finds that focusing on the target isn’t working…
AND HE HAS NOWHERE ELSE TO TURN. Imagine that feeling of loss… I know because I was there (yup, I used to focus on the target and wonder WTF when the shot didn’t work), and it took ONLY 20 years or so to figure out the answer that DOES work.
Sorry, just a little bit of pent-up frustration venting there…
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I wonder what the golf channel would think if you called them up and said you wanted to have a challange with the “great” Hank Haney? They could film you giving lessions to Sir Charles or Ray now thet they both appear to be no closer to their target of good golf than ever (Ray is not finished yet, but I don’t see much progress have way through). If you fixed either of these guys, I suspect you would have even more high paying clients beating down your door to learn these secrets. Just a thought. Thanks a bunch for sharing what you have.
Alright! Thanks Tracy! I cannot wait to get out to the range and try this!
Tracy, thanks for sharing these great insights.
So if we are not to dial in the subconscious to the outcome target (i.e. the flag stick) then does the outcome for the subconscious become a sweep spot contact with the ball square to the target?
Everything I’ve read on involving the sub-conscious mind has taught that we have to tell the SC exactly, and precisely, what we want out of the shot i.e. by using visualisation.
Using your method, does this not change the focus to hitting a great shot rather than dialling in exactly where we want it to go? And if so, how does we programme how far we want the great shot to go?
Is the picture that the SC sees the balance in the feet? That’s what I’m seeing when I close my eyes and swing. You seem to become consciously aware of keeping balance. Because you have no visual feedback you are totally reliant on feeling the balance, and this primarily feels like it is coming from the feet.
Thanks, Jon
http://www.golfswingeureka.com/
Thanks Jon for a GREAT question!
First the picture you are looking for is the one the Subconscious is trying to see. It has to see something in order to hit the ball… Namely the ball!
The subconscious is trying to see the club come through impact and strike the ball.
To control this in order to get the ball to the target, you need only tweak the picture to get the desired shape of shot.
Here’s the key: We ARE NOT abandoning the target of the flagstick. We are just adding it into the present picture of contact by adjusting the shape of contact to agree with the intended outcome.
By doing this, we have satisfied the need of the subconscious to watch contact AND the psychological need of the conscious to watch the target.
It’s a win-win for both minds… in other words: The Zone”
Tracy,
as far fetched as some may think of this, what you are proposing is real.
2X in the past year I experienced something similar.
First time, I was on the first tee, relaxed and took what I figured would be a normal swing. I felt like I was in slow motion, the club went back “slowly”, and then forward “slowly”. The ball ended up about 290 yds away.
A month or so later, again relaxed, I felt the club go back and then as I swung the club forward, it felt like I was slowly accelerating through the swing and through the ball. (this time I had my golf gps with me, it was a 270 yd carry).
I do not remember if my eyes were closed either time, but what I do remember is I was not “focused” on looking at the ball, did not feel like I normally do when I use the driver. It was a totally different feeling.
Been trying to recreate those swings, but unsure how to. Will be trying your “new” method.
John
Tracy,
At the range this last weekend I tried hitting some balls with my eyes closed. Although I didn’t see the entire results visually, it seems like from what I did catch, I hit about 50% well (whiffed on a couple :).
Not sure that I “saw” what my subconscious was trying to see, but in my imagination (same thing I suppose) I did see the club making square contact with the ball on some of them.
What I did notice for sure is that any out-of-balance situation is so much more obvious than with eyes open. You know how sometimes you register your finish, feet position etc after the shot? well, it was very apparent to me during the swing if i was getting out of balance, possibly as I had no visual distractions to deal with.
I’ll keep at it and look for improved rsults.
Simon.
I’m going to get out on the range and try this, it sounds interesting, and hey maybe it sounds like it could improve my game in the bargain.