I was in Palm Springs over this last week enjoying the warmer weather, some golf and solidifying what we will be focusing on in our PDP Level 2 experience.
Concepts are easy to state, challenging to take on. This was challenging to take on. But immediate results were found. However before I get ahead with the project we have to just look at things as they are. Things show up in your golf game! Tee shot in the fairway, missed approach shot to the green ends up in a bunker. 3 putt on the last hole.. How do things just show up? Things show up in harmony with your vision you have. That sounds all nice and rosy but it is hard to believe if you find your ball in the greenside bunker. So how do things show up to begin with? Things show up in your reality you see on the course based on your current imagination, beliefs and emotions. We have worked alot on emotions and beliefs and not a great deal on imagination really. Things show up in reality in front of you because you imagine it, you can visualize it, you can feel it. The body moves, the world moves and others move and things show up. Basically you are animating the golf game you see in front of you like seeing it on a movie screen in front of you. You imagine things into the world you see. That is how they just 'show up'! Animation is You revealing what you are imagining. All golfers have the power necessary to imagine a better golf game, lower scores, record number of birdies per round, winning tournaments. Operating from 'Awareness' ( the 2-5 second exercise I gave you several weeks ago) is the easiest way to create things from or imagine them into existence. When your mind is quiet for 2-5 seconds you can access the subconscious mind and creating things is much easier. Most golfers do not use a good pre-shot routine, do not quiet their minds and things go wrong for them. Where do thing go wrong? Golfers attempt to change the circumstances they see in front of them from a physical world perspective. They see a string of physical events happening to them and they have no control or limited control if things are not going there way . They get Entangled in past poor thought patterns, habits and attitudes. But everything you see on the golf course started with your images you had of what are going to see. Your emotions and feelings add additional power to each situation. The reality you see on the course is a REFLECTION of your IMAGINATION. The center of your conscious creations are based on your Awareness state ( the simple 2-5 seconds) and what you are doing mentally from that empty space. It is easy to get mixed up in any round of golf you have with self-limiting beliefs you have, the self limiting habits you have accumulated. The self-limiting reaction of "things are going wrong and I am spiraling out of control". Golfers unknowingly create poor situations that show up in the form of 'Animated form' (the physical reality you see of the ball in the greenside bunker) out of default. They think things are happening to them or their swing is off too much. Golfers do not really know they have the power to change the reality they see. They choose to accept the physical reality as fact. As the victim, They do not realize it is their thoughts and more importantly for this blog; their images in their mind which are reflected as REALITY being ANIMATED in front of their eyes on the golf course. You as the golfer imagine things into existence for every shot you make! Your mind is projecting (animating) the reality you see on the course. We all have been Entangled in this past web and it can get really UGLY! Your Imagination is consciously creating the reality you see in front of you on the golf course. Things on the course are occurring because you have brought forward these situations into existence from your conscious mind. It does not matter what came before. It doesn't matter about the last hole you played. It does not matter about the poor green side chip you just made and that shot is affecting your next 10 foot putt you have left to save par. That next putt depends on what YOU see it doing! You must have tremendous powerful imagination when you play. You cannot let the past ( which is behind you) get you entangled in the present moment where you feel limited, scared, worried and pessimistic about the 10 ft putt. You cannot succumb to allowing the past poor chip to take control of your 10 ft putt. Golfers assume a string of events led them to the current situation they face. They get Entangled and use the words like fate, it is not my day, that was a bad break, the bunker was not raked. Golfers see their reality on the course as a series of events that are 'happening to them'. Here is where I encourage you to reflect on these words: "Changing the physical circumstances you see occurring can only begin when you understand something. To attempt to change circumstances before you change your imagined activity you are involved with is setting you up for struggle". The very nature of what you see is coming from you. This is because the animated situations you see unveiling in front of you was being imagined by you on the course or the range. Our goal going forward since the sun has returned is for you to learn how to operate on the course from the awareness state. That quiet space and time allows the imagination to flow, and it will stop the dogmatic habit you have of falling into past poor habits. You have been doing your pre-shot routine and from what I can see when playing with most of you at times you just go through the motion of it. You do not really understand the POWER that routine is attempting to give you from your imagination state. That is ok....for now. Operating from that awareness state allows you to more easily animate the reality you want to see. It frees up the imagination and allows you to more easily create on the golf course. When you imagine consciously the world you see reacts and moves to your demands, not the other way around. Golfers get entangled in waves and streams of circumstances that string together one after the other that make it seem like you have limited control. You have to see and understand that what you are seeing on the course is something that is playing out in front of you like a movie or animated experience. You are the cause of what you are seeing. You are projecting it. When I went to Palm Spring I said on our App space that I am working on the concept of Entanglement. This concept when taken to the course was then allowing me to become Disentangled when I play. While in Palm Springs I worked in as many situations as I could to observe my entangled states of past poor thought assumptions. At PGA West I hit my first tee shot on the Nicklaus course on the the 9th fairway! It was not a pleasant experience, and the 2nd shot I could not see the green. I have played that course only a few times so I did not remember how large the front greenside bunker was or how narrow the green was. My 2nd shot ended up in that bunker and the guy I was playing with stuck it to 3 ft. He was there preparing for the So Cal Sate Amateur Tournament this week in PS. From that bunker, I felt entangled and certainly not happy. I had hit no practice bunker shots at the course so I was shocked to see how crappy the bunker was. So that old Dogma Entangled thought popped up, "--itty bunker, wt-? Ah but I was there on a mission to overcome all that. So I just had to use past images and feels of bunker shots and imagine the ball near the pin. It came out and hit the bank of the green and skidded to 18 inches of the cup. Was not pretty but it was in tight and that was what I imagined. My entangled past things just showing up began to go away slowly hole by hole course by course. It took A LOT of mental effort to observe my past old patterns of thought and it was very challenging to see the past entangled thoughts I had. Going forward we will be working on Disentangling your situations you face with your new animated images. This will not be an easy project for anyone, and it does not need meditation. It needs practical time of play and practice and now that it is sunny we can get to work on it!
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Phil the thrill has given the golf world something to chat about, other than the past. Now golfers can chat about the present, like the back nine on Sunday when Phil Mickelson went on a small run to get himself in as the clubhouse leader in the 2023 Masters.
With the main leaders still having 8 holes to complete as Phil was signing his card there was a small hope in his mind he might end up in a playoff. That did not happen as John Rahm kept the focus needed to maintain his lead on the back nine. But Phil's performance should be applauded. Phil's play was the focus of my podcast this week where I went into detail how he stayed present in the moment during his round. He did not allow the scores around him bother him nor did he allow his missed putts for more birdies hamper his performance on the front nine. As I mentioned in the podcast Phil had worked extremely diligently at the end of 2020 and beginning of 2021 to get into the present moment in all parts of life. He rededicated himself to meditation, completely overhauled his diet and changed his fitness focus to be top priority so he would not lose distance as he was 50d years of age. Phil had found many items to focus on for his golf game. The rainy weather is over (finally) and now it is easier to get some on course time in to play better golf. If during the 3 months of deluge you worked on your game less because of rain, then that is on you the golfer. The skill of the golf shot is always at the forefront of your game. After all, your job is to train the motor pattern to one of consistent efficiency so you can take that to the course and then open the gateway for you subconscious mind to take over and let your skill shine. The sun is back so now what are you going to do? Prioritize what you need to do so you can accomplish your goals. What does prioritize mean to you? Prioritize means Get Focused. Your focus could be sharpen your driver. It could be improve your short game. It could be you get down and deep and look at the metrics of your game; GIR, Fwy hit, total putts per round, 3 putts per round or percentage of getting up and down from 20 yards off the green to save par or bogey. From the above paragraph you would be focused on the skill set of golf. Once on the course how is your performance coming along? Is your pre-shot routine as Sharp ( like a knife) like you had it at the end of Level One of the PDP? Perhaps you are just giving it lip service as you stand behind each shot? Can you clearly visualize each shot in that pre-shot routine? Is this a consistent habit where you are dialed in AND connected to that vision of the shot you are attempting to create? As I mentioned in my podcast on my front 9 yesterday I only did that on 2 shots on the front nine. I was helping a player learn Balboa Park 18 for the first time playing it. Lots of things I was doing in order to assist that player understand distances to a bunker off the tee, should you carry it? What distance to lay up and what distance to carry the bunker? What is the risk reward. How the course tends to slope back to front and tends to take the break of the hills it sits on. Lots of things going on. However what is going on with you when you play and when you practice? If you do not use your journal I have suggested you use since level one you are spinning your wheels. I journal every idea I have for podcasts and when I do that I can clearly see what mental things I should improve. To become focused on your golf game this spring you are going to have to become accountable for you actions. Lip service is really easy to give, like I did for 9 holes yesterday. I am aware of my areas I need to work on. Since working strength with a conditioning coach over the winter each iron goes 5-8 yards farther and because my base is stronger my shots go straighter. My hybrids are 15 yards farther and 3 wood and driver each 15 yards farther. That was my winter focus. My short game of pitch and chipping is always in need of help. I really need to improve that. My lag putting is pretty good but reading greens is still iffy to me. Next week I am off to Palm Springs for a week to play in a Callaway event so I will have to work on some things before that. Thankfully grass driving ranges and good short game areas are easily found so I can work on set up of each shot, short game and a very solid pre - shot routine that I can take to the tournament next Tuesday and Wednesday. Every golfer in the world knows the start of the golf season is Masters weekend. People host parties for it, blow off work on Friday to watch it. But by Sunday the nation has the golf bug deeply rooted in each golfers body. Those golfers are generally gung-ho to get out and practice some and play. They may have some focus of what to do. But the true golfer is VERY DETAILED things to work on mentally and physically. The chart analytics of performance and the constantly monitor those statistics. If the woods are filled with slicers off the tee then the poorly focused golfers would be seen as those that under achieve in their golf game. The woods are filled with slicers. Golfers who look at Youtube to improve their games are non-committed players giving golf lip service. They are the golfers lost in the woods. My challenge to you is determine are you just a lip service golfer or are you really focused to improve? It is April, it is sunny. Are you prepared to play good golf? If not, find the focus points that you need to improve and go after them. The time for lip service is OVER! |
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October 2023
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