Sometimes my golf game is inspired by the performance of athletes in other sports. From last night’s miraculous (yes, I Believe!) underdog victory for our Golden State Warriors, my inspiration was Stephen Jackson. Jackson “let it go” so well that he hit something like seven three-point shots and was the top scorer for the Warriors (within another great team effort).
One of the TNT commentators said that “he doesn’t care… and I mean that in the best way.” In other words, he’s fearless. This is the same quality I aspire to with my golf swing. Freedom is just another word for letting it go. Swinging with ease and freedom. Ironically, there is real power in this approach. There’s nothing wimpy about it.
This is also connected to the experience that I have shared below regarding the fluid feeling that I call “the ease of a layup.” I’m still working with this feeling (remembering it, forgetting it and reminding myself again).
I remember also Dr. Joseph Parent, author of Zen Golf: Mastering the Mental Game talking about hitting drives as if they are lay ups. Unlike basketball players who have relatively small targets on their long shots, we have big ones. Fairways. Somehow for me, this makes it easier to focus on a target in the middle of the fairway (or wherever) and then just let my swing go with the intention of delivering the ball to that target.
These will be my swing thoughts when I play tomorrow: The Freedom of Letting Go, The Ease of a Lay Up and The Hula of Rhythm and Ease (see below). I’ll let you know how it goes.
Enjoy.
2 users commented in " The Freedom of Letting Go "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI was watching the same game and picked up on that very comment! “He doesn’t care, and I mean that in a good way”. I seemed to know just what the announcer was meaning to convey. Sometimes (ok, frequently) I try to control each shot, believing before I hit the ball that I know what’s SUPPOSED to happen. Big expectations! But I’ve hit too many bad shots that are followed up by magnificent shots to know that there’s no telling what the next shot will bring. I try to give in to the rhyme and reason of the universe, if you will, and let go of expectations for each shot. Sure, I have a plan, a goal, a shape and outcome for each shot, but I can’t control the outcome can I? Have you ever done this? Play the course in your mind the night before teeing off? I do, and I think to a certain extent it helps me play smart golf through course management. But all the shots I visualize are positive, and so when I hit a bad shot the next day I have to scramble for an alternate shot that I didn’t prepare for in my previous night’s visualization. Here’s where my mental battle wages – do I feel frustration at not achieving the shot I imagined, or do I accept the result of each shot and resituate myself mentally for the next one? Most of my memorable shots have come from scrambling to repair a poor shot! I’ve pitched in, made 90 foot putts, had birdies, eagles, and pars come out of seemingly hopeless circumstances. What a metaphor for life! You never know what the next shot will bring! The unavoidable mystery of life played out on green fairways, concrete bunkers, and dizzying greens. So to return to the premise of your posting, I too try to prepare each shot, but then let go of the outcome, trying to avoid a negative attitude if I shank a shot or misclub or find trouble on what I thought the night before would be a sure G.I.R. “Bad shots” are actually opportunities, with the proper mindset, no? So a toast to golfers everywhere, who are one stroke away from greatness and don’t know it yet!
Great to get this kind of feedback, Jeremy. Thanks!
My quick comments are that you sound like there’s a slight attachment to the visualizations you’re doing. Why not just have fun with those and then let them go? No round of golf is ever going to completely “fit your pictures.” (Again, just like life.)
In answer to your question, no, I haven’t ever visualized a whole round shot-by-shot. My approach is more to “visualize” or connect myself to the kind of feeling I want to have. For example, “focused ease.” I also make the intention to stay connected as much as possible to the “Big Ease” within. Howver, occasionally, I’ll visualize the opening drive or even the first hole before I get there.
Given the changeable nature of the game and the opportunities you describe so well, (perhaps its obvious that) the more you can stay open, free and responsive, the better.
My goal is to make the same free, easy, natural, “authentic” swing every time. Just let it go and let it flow… as Stephen Jackson illustrated so well last night. ๐
Thanks again for your comment.
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