Golf Tips

Learning How to Learn

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post time

5. June 2008 member

Dr Karl Morris

LEARNING HOW to LEARN

We all know the importance of training the body in terms of physical fitness and technique, yet ,how many have ever considered the need to actively train the golf brain?

It is now a fairly well documented scientific fact that the human brain CAN be changed.

If you had asked a bunch of neuro-scientists 15 years ago if the structures of an adult brain could be altered, you would have received an unequivocal NO.

However, in the last 10 years or so, some amazing discoveries have been made about the brain. The once held beliefs that you pretty much had what you were given past a certain teenage year, have been blown away by a concept called Brain Plasticity.

Brain Plasticity in effect is the scientific world saying that the brain can be changed in its structure and new pathways can be created.

‘Fine’ you might be saying but what on earth has this got to do with my golf?

Possibly everything in the sense that knowing how to change your brain can and will result in new patterns and habits in your game which could produce vastly improved play.

The trick is to know HOW to train your brain for changes in your game that will produce the kind of results you have long been waiting for.

So, to begin with, let’s look at the very heart of the normal way in which golfers practice.

We must be very careful with the concept of ‘muscle memory’ in terms of learning a new move in the golf swing.

In simple terms, what we are trying to do when we change our swing, is to make new neural connections in the brain. So, it is imperative to understand a little of what the brain ‘likes’ and dislikes in terms of learning.

ATTENTION !!!

‘Hit ball till your hands bleed’, ‘Dig it out of the dirt’, ‘The more I practice, the luckier I get’ are just some of the phrases and stories we have been brought up with.

However, we need to critically understand it is NOT the amount of time spent on the range that is the key but the QUALITY of your ATTENTION.

Michael Mersanich PhD the world’s leading researcher on brain plasticity: “All types of stimulation should grow new brain circuits, but if we don’t pay attention or attend to the stimulation, the neurons will NEVER form STRONG, LASTING connections”.

45 minutes of quality focus and being absorbed on what you are doing is far better than trying to stay out there on misery hill until you have hit a certain number of balls or completed an allotted time.

CONSEQUENCE

For the brain to be able to handle a certain situation, we need to practice in an environment which is similar to the place we are going to be put to the test.

Earl Woods constantly dreamed up ways of getting Tiger mentally ready for the kind of situations he knew he would find on Tour. Having to hit tee shots with his father juggling coins in his pocket so as to simulate the kind of distraction which would later be all too common.

It is clear that we are playing a game that is possibly the utmost in sport in terms of CONSEQUENCE.

Every single time you make contact with the ball, there is a direct and verifiable consequence because that contact with the ball goes down on the scorecard.

Few other sports come even close to this.

So, it is really important if we play a game of ultimate consequence that part of our practice should involve some consequence as opposed to just hitting shot after shot.

The obvious way to do this that so few people understand it, is to set yourself specific practice drills which involve a score. Any time a human being knows he is being tested, the consequence stakes are ramped up.

The short game Par 18 is a brilliant way to create consequence in practice.

EMOTION

In an experiment, two unrelated groups of people were asked to view several movies. The control group were allowed to view the shows without restriction. The second group were instructed to observe the shows without any emotional response whatsoever. At the end of the experiment, both groups were asked to answer questions to test their recall.

EVERY SINGLE member of the control group who experienced emotional responses from the movie remembered the details of each movie to a MUCH greater degree.

What has this got to do with our golf and training? An awful lot in the sensed that if we want to remember and be able to recall skills in the future, it makes sense to put some emotion into the things we do well.

When you hit a great shot, hole a good putt, play an impossible recovery instead of the usual ho-hum response, allow yourself either internally or externally to get ‘high on the good shot’. Allow yourself the privilege of some emotion because believe me it could well be your brain will remind you of what you are capable of at some point in the future, as you recall your ability to play a certain shot in a certain situation.