The Art and Zen of Learning Golf, Third Edition

From the author of five books and numerous articles on the subject of learning golf comes a comprehensive study of how people learn the necessary motor skills plus a wealth of information on keeping the mind centered on the task at hand.

Go with the flow. Do not work against it. Don't push or hit, go with the flow. You cannot expect to be successful if you cannot control yourself. To improve a motor skill, learn not to be intimidated. Fear is False Evidence Appearing Real. Stay in the present to avoid tension and over reacting. Learn to exclude all extraneous thoughts. Anything that is not concerned with achieving your immediate goal is put out of your mind. Do one thing at a time. To improve a motor skill, learn to let it happen. When you think of showing off, or defeating or winning, your self-consciousness will interfere with the performance and mistakes happen. There must be an absence of feeling that you are trying. It must be allowed to flow. The instant you become conscious of trying for harmony and make an effort to achieve it, that very thought blocks the mind and the flow. Learn to act unconsciously instead of intellectually. Keep your mind on finding the way, and not your destination. Stop trying to be good. Learn to make fear a friend. Fear is in the mind. Your mind is like a garden and it will grow anything you plant in it, flowers or weeds. See success and fear become a friend. Learning is a function of awareness. When we are not aware we do not learn. As awareness increases the quality of performance, enjoyment and learning also improves. Being aware is a right brain function, (i.e., images, feelings, and intuition). Awareness is often distracted by left brain actions (i.e. language, logic, and analytical thoughts). Awareness makes it possible to understand. Awareness happens when you allow it to occur, but when your attention leaves the present and the now, awareness is blocked and you no longer see the green, feel the wind, and sense the distance. You now see lakes or bunkers and are concerned with making a score. You are now in the future and distracted. Awareness is why we know what we know. It is the mental energy or light that makes our experiences known. It keeps our attention focused on what we are doing so we can learn and recall the feelings of the actions. The natural process of learning directly from experience has been undermined by "How To" instruction. The word "education'' comes from the Latin word meaning, "to lead out." This indicates that the intelligence already exists within us, and needs to be drawn out. The true and primary function of instruction is to draw out what is already there. The average golfer already recognizes the difference between a high handicap, and professional swing - but needs some help to interpret what he is seeing. Human beings have a tendency to interfere with their own ability to perform and learn. Self-interference is purely a human phenomenon, and because of it, we often do not reach our full potential. SEEING - KNOWING - LEARNING Studies have shown: A)

85% of all information stored in the brain was gathered by the eyes. B)

Patterns of motion are controlled and influenced by how the information our eyes gather is being interpreted. C) Our personal perception of physical activity is the first step in learning a motor skill. I could go on, but the importance of the eyes cannot be overlooked when it comes to learning a motor skill. The eyes are the window of the mind, and must do more than look, they must see! Creating appropriate motor skill actions is always based on how we see or perceive the activity. Reaching potential requires eyes that can gather all necessary information. Eyes that are aware and are not distracted by fear, self-talk or doubts. Distracted eyes no longer see, and they overlook information. Making putts and hitting greens and fairways all become easier when the eyes stop looking and start to see. Seeing only happens when the mind is focused on the here and now or the present. When the mind concerns itself with past failure, how difficult the shot is, or on results, our ability to perform and create physical activities is severely impaired. See fairways, greens, and the hole. There are no deep bunkers, big lakes, or hard putts. Just see the course and golf your ball without self-talk or looking for trouble. ZEN AND LEARNING GOLF

Zen is a productive way of life, which for some fifteen hundred years has been offering possibilities of learning and communicating which you may not have explored. Zen is an experience nonverbal in character. Words can only be used for communication between those who share similar experiences. Perceptions and experiences are the foundation of the "Zen" approach to learning; more specifically the students own personal perceptions and experiences. Because every student will learn in his or her own "best" way, it then follows that the most useful information for learning is gathered by the students own eyes and other senses and not based on the words and thoughts someone else may be sharing with them. Golf is both mental and physical, and the physical is always best controlled by information that is personally gathered by the student's brain. Ideas and perceptions from others, when used, can mislead. Others can guide the learning process, helping students define and understand what they are seeing and experiencing, but students cannot really be taught a motor skill. We are responsible for the information our eyes and experiences send to our brain. No one else in the world can see, feel or experience exactly what another person does. The word Zen literally implies being fully aware, fully in touch with your surroundings. 'Zen is very simple, straight forward stuff. The benefits of Zen are more enjoyment from the experience or actions you are involved with." The Zen idea is to tap into an inner ability that will allow you to perform up to your potential without trying, in the traditional sense of trying.12 The Zen approach has only two ingredients - Personal Awareness and Personal Experience. Under the principles of Zen, it is foolish to feel one can learn by reading a how to book. Successful golfers have learned to hit fairways and greens by personally experiencing hitting and missing them. To learn we must experience golf's physical actions in the present and in the state of awareness, where the mind can gather all necessary information about the shot at hand. Golfers concerned with the outcome of the shot, or what a good shot will mean to them, are not in the present or in the state of awareness. Their mind has gone into the future and cannot gather the necessary information about the shot. Golfers who are in the present, or state of awareness, do not hear noises or see others moving in their backswing. They are in a state that permits them to remember details that lead to a successful performance of motor skills. They can recall, for instance, what the body was feeling before, during, and after the shot.