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About KyleH
- Birthday April 22
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Eastern PA
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12 seconds, you say? Surely you can’t be serious. I am serious; and don’t call me Shirley. Studies show that “being present in the moment” lasts for approximately 12 seconds. 12 seconds. Sit and do nothing for 12 seconds right now. I’ll wait. That felt like an eternity. But you also know that 12 seconds is no time at all. Especially when a golf shot takes up about 2 seconds of that. What can you even do with the other 10 seconds? Breathe. No really. Take a couple deep breaths and feel your shoulders relax and tension melt away. Therein lies the beauty to being in the moment of your game. It’s actually kind of a perfect fit. Instead of using those 12-15 seconds over the ball to go through your swing thought checklist, just take a few deep breaths instead. Focusing on the breath is a form of mediation and it brings our awareness to the moment. Stepping up to your ball and bringing your awareness to this breath and to this shot can be all the difference in your game. Not so simple You know this. Your mind loves to run away when given any chance. Think about the last time you stepped up to a shot over water. You couldn’t get the water out of your head. The tape in your head playing back the clear future where you either dunk it into the drink or chunk it short. Your chest tightened up and you couldn’t feel your hands. We tend to play scared when we don’t trust our abilities. The only opponent you have in golf is you. And you beat yourself all the time. You’re so good at playing defense against you. “Mastery over the game is really mastery over yourself” - Jayne Storey You’ve been conditioning yourself for years to overthink and overanalyze every shot. You search your memory trying to pull at every thread for advice and tips of the past. This is especially true when you feel like your game is off - when something feels like it needs to change. We don’t allow ourselves to sit in the hard feelings. Master those 12 seconds It starts before you get on the course. Meditate. You don’t need to be a monk or spiritual guru and meditate for extended periods of time. Try 3-5 minutes a day where you do nothing but focus on your breath. When your mind strays (I promise it will), practice bringing it back to the breath. Nothing wrong with that, it’s just you learning what it will be like when your mind strays on the course. Next time you leave yourself with a less than ideal shot, instead of panicking and inducing the fight or flight response, stop, take a couple breaths and immerse yourself in the moment. You keep practicing that, there’s no telling how good your game can get. What would your game look like if you hacked those 12 seconds of being present every shot?
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KyleH started following Greeting From Eastern PA! , KyleH's Mental Game Posts , Driver Slice While Shallowing the Club and 1 other
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Tiger Woods. A name that carries weight. In this house he is the undisputed greatest to ever do it. There are countless examples of his superior mental game, but I want to expand on just one at the moment. When I say Augusta 2019, I can tell you two things that stick out to you - 1. Tiger winning his 15th major and 2. Francesco Molinari blowing up his final round with multiple water balls. Molinari was looking strong through 3.5 solid rounds at the Master’s on that Sunday of play. It looked like he was going to hold onto it through the back nine. That is until hole 12, when the wheels feel off. He found the water in front of the green and he carded a double bogey while Tiger ended up with a routine par - leading to a shared top spot between the two. I can’t say with certainty what caused the water ball at the 12th for Molinari but I can venture a guess that after that hole, the pressure had gotten to him. Instead of playing the field, he was now in a race with himself, and his mind was in the lead. Doubt crept into his mind and after another ball in the water on the 15th you knew Molinari was all but out of the tournament. He went from contender to pretender in the span of a few holes. It didn’t matter how well he played for 3 days prior , it didn’t matter about how good his swings and shots looked for the week, he will always be remembered that year for the mental collapse he had on the back 9. One the other side of the coin, we have Tiger, who by all stretches of the imagination should not have been in this position after everything he had been through over the past 10 years. There was a point when he believed he’d never play again. But this guy has the strongest mental game in golf. He could’ve have easily talked himself into retirement more than once and no one would’ve blamed him. He’s had one of the most successful careers you could have. But he believed he could still win. And belief is all he needed. He played that Sunday without doubts and carried himself to a win. And that’s not to say he played perfectly, he also had bad shots. The only difference is that he did not carry them with him to the next shot. He would step up, not question his swing or why that last shot ended up where it did; he gave it another rip, knowing he was capable of the shot he wanted or needed to pull off. He is a masterclass in patience, resilience, and will. He was always known for not showing a ton of emotion while playing, only to have a huge release at the end. It’s not because he didn’t feel emotions; it’s because he knew that allowing elation or frustration or any other emotion would cause overthinking and tension to creep into his swing. Even with the years of example of a strong mental game, a majority of golfers still focus on the swing. So why don't we put more focus into to improving our mental game? Take the best golfer you know and put them in a fried egg in a pot bunker and ask them how they’re feeling. All the technique and YouTube lessons in the world can’t help them outperform their mind.
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Driver Slice While Shallowing the Club
KyleH replied to BCC5266's topic in Instruction and Playing Tips
It's definitely something I have also struggle with on and off. Based on what you're saying here, it looks like you shouldn't slice on paper, but you still are plagued by a slice. Which means the clubface is open compared to your swing path. Now, because a swing is 1.5-2 seconds long we can't really diagnose and fix a swing in that time, but we can be aware of it if we pay attention to our bodies during the swing. When you swing your driver, what jumps out to you that you feel in your body the most? Try taking a practice swing with your eyes closed to get a better sense of feel. Are your shoulders tight, do you feel off balance through the swing, is your tempo jumping out to you, does the swing feel mechanical, etc. -
Nice! You play there often? I think I've felt the same way about the mechanics for a long time. Focus through every movement in every millisecond of the shot. Only problem is our mind can't successfully think about a swing and then translate it to the body time and time again in the 2 secs of the full swing. That's why it feels like sometimes the swing we trust does us wrong cause of the little movements that occur that we aren't aware of I would venture to bet that if someone helped you work through some more of the human game into play (aka the mental game) then you'd feel more natural
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I don't think you're raining on my parade at all - and I think you bring up a valid point that so many people have come to accept. I think I over-generalized to some degree about finding the right swing - but have you ever played with someone who has never played golf and they come in not knowing what "good" or "bad" looks like and they play out of their minds or at least way better than someone would expect a newbie to play? Or seen a 2 or 3 yr old with a pure swing? It's mind blowing. I believe it's the natural mechanics of the body that they haven't put any doubt into. Like learning to walk. Thanks! That's so cool that you were able to recognize the doubt that crept in as the wind blew which sounds like it made your body tense up and pull it. I bet when you pulled the 5 wood, it was more based on a feeling rather than trying to play a certain shot
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I stood on the 18th tee not aware of my score - it is recorded automatically through Arccos. I knew I was playing well (to my standards) but it didn’t feel lights out. There were some mishits, but they were saved. Some short putts that were missed. I didn’t even card a single birdie - which I have done in the past multiple time and still card in the high 80's, low 90's I put a drive about 245 into the fairway - I am not a long hitter. I had 135 left to the front of the green, pin set 10 paces on. I stood over my bag and without thinking or making judgments, I let myself pull my 8i. On the range my 8 is my 150 club - but I took the ego out of the situation and trusted my feeling. I put a smooth swing on it and the ball just cleared the sand trap guarding the right of the green - pin high, 10 yards to the right of my target. So, when stepped up the 18th green at Architects to take my 35ft birdie putt, I was surprised to see that I had shot a 75 through 17 holes and that if I carded a par here, I’d break 80 and my lowest round ever. I immediately got nervous and though there was no one to care about my score and no crowds watching me, I felt this perceived pressure mounting. Something I had avoided for 17 holes. I let my thoughts get the best of me and I left myself with a nerve-wracking 5ft left. I became acutely aware of my tense upper body so I took a deep breath and allowed my shoulders to relax. “This truly doesn’t matter one way or the other”, I told myself. I stepped up the ball after getting my read and I imagined the feeling of picking the ball out of the cup and took my shot. It landed true and I finished the hole with a par. 79. While I celebrate that accomplishment, I know that some days will be better or worse than others and that I should not feel defeated if the next time I go out I shoot an 89. Expectation is the enemy of enjoyment. Up until that round I hadn’t played 18 in 3 or 4 weeks. I had been to the range a bunch because I am one of those nuts that loves to practice. But practice has been different lately. Instead of trying to “perfect” a certain swing, or come more from the inside, or hitting the ball first, I am working to practice what I preach - learning how to feel and getting my mind in the right space to play. I am learning to trust that my body can make the swing that it needs to make to get the ball where it needs to be. I was going out with little expectation on myself. The only thing I told myself as I played was trust your “learning self” and accept the uncertainty - because uncertainty is part of the fun. If I could control every shot, I’d be great but at the cost of not enjoying the game. I was great at my job and could control most aspects of the work I did, but I still quit because it didn’t bring me joy in doing it anymore. I don’t want golf to be a job. I’m here to have fun, release stress, and enjoy nature. Accepting the uncertainty in turn allowed me to unconsciously loosen up as a played. And being loose allowed me to have a smoother, more athletic swing than normally wanting to control how I swing and tightening up. I don’t know how often I’ll shoot that low, but I’m inclined to continue accepting the uncertainty and enjoying the game a little more. I know working on my mental game will make a larger impact for me than trying to engineer a better swing.
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Wow, I can see that you really take in the moments at the courses you play. What a proper analysis of those holes! #7 is one of my favorite holes because it tests your ability to not think about the narrow chute you have to get through. If you're in the area at any point, let's get a round in!
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Oh cool! What was the most memorable hole for you?
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It is a great course! How often do you play there?
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Thanks! Oh, let me know who, I'd love to connect with them!
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Hi all! Honored to be here with TST. You all seem like a good group of people. As the title suggests I live in Eastern PA (close to NJ off i78), if you're nearby lets get a round in together! I've been playing nearly 20 years off and on but over the past 6 or 7 years, golf became a lifestyle to me - though my scoring doesn't reflect that necessarily (generally ~11 HDCP). I used to live on a little 9 hole course in NJ and saw my lowest HDCP (~7) cause I was able to get out and play everyday. Now, its about a 15 min trek to my course (Architects in Phillipsburg, NJ) and having a young daughter makes it even tougher to make playing golf a top priority. I just moved to the area about a year ago so I don't have any regular playing partners and generally like to play solo when I can.