THE AUTOMATIC PRINCIPLE

In order to use Clear Keys to their greatest potential in shot-making, it is vital to understand the principles that form the automatic foundation from which they work.

Without careful comprehension, an unwitting players may try to alter the process and miss the full value of the keys' natural benefits. While alteration of the Clear Key process may not result in disaster, by definition, it will leave the highest levels of an individual's potential for achievement unfulfilled, unknown, unattended and - with no more advantage than that possessed by one who never even heard of Clear Keys and the automatic principle.

If you are wondering why the process can't be altered, the answer is simple. It works from principles that represent the lowest common denominators in their categories of natural law, cut from the same irrevocability as the laws of gravity, motion, light and sound. No one can change the law of gravity. It can be superceded by appealing to other laws, but that will not change gravity. The laws of motion and lift, for instance, can be imposed in ways to counter gravity and produce flight, but the gravity remains, and, in fact, becomes part of the process that stabilizes flight. Flight is a perfect balance between thrust, lift, drag and gravity. Planes go up, down and turn by altering the relationship between those four basics without disturbing the balance. Mess up the balance, and the plane will crash.

In the same way, Clear Keys can be superceded, but that will not remove the automatic principle. The laws of manual function can be induced to override automatic [habitual] action. The habits [which only work on automatic] aren't lost. They are merely shoved aside for the duration of manual attention. "Clear Key" is no more or less than our nickname for a systematic application of the very same thought process that all of us have used, forever, without realizing we were using it. A systematic approach is needed for something like golf because the swing itself is systematic. A system might not be so important for things like brushing teeth or tying shoes, which are orderly, but, not being so complex, do not require the kind of systematic attention as does the golf swing. The Clear Key "system" adheres to the principles necessary to initiate and sustain automatic action. Called by any other name, the principles would remain the same. You could call it "the blue light special" if you wanted to. Still wouldn't alter the accompanying principles.

There are common symptoms in evidence when anyone possesses an incomplete understanding of the automatic principle in golf. Those include being stuck in mechanics (staying on "manual") by failing to use a thought process (neutral, passive, repetitive, sufficient in length) that clears a path for habits to emerge and do their thing, blaming the process itself when something "goes wrong," missing the significance of using practice to build an effective automatic path, or simply regarding a Clear Key as too elementary for this "complicated game."

Clear Keys are to the automatic process what a screwdriver is to a screw or a lightswitch is to a light. They "turn" the automatic process "on," and keep it "burning." As long as the key is "going," the automatic process is "on." Notice that you could get away with using a butter knife for a screwdriver or hot wiring two wires together to substitute for a switch, but you might ruin the knife or set the house on fire, too.

Golf, as any other activity, involves a full range and combination of manual and automatic elements. The problem is that we have not treated (or thought of) golf as being like other things. In any other "trip," we "read the map" manually, but "drive the car" automatically to arrive at a predetermined place.

In golf, however, we tend to approach it the other way around. We tend to set our sights automatically (thoughtlessly) and try to drive the ball manually (with great attention to the swing and target). That "works" often enough to tease our perception and lull us into believing that we're on the right track - until we hit a bump. At the slightest murmur, we rush to manual control, and, by definition, totally eliminate automatic action.

While manual activity is required to build habits, once they are built, continued manual attention will interrupt the release of those habits (on automatic), the natural increase of strength of their function, and the growth of confidence that always comes from having both the knowledge and skill of anything. Furthermore, the irregular beat of manual (mental or physical) attention, prevents automatic development, except building the habit of being on manual, which amounts to creating a habit that destroys other habits. That's a little like having cancer.

First of all, there are no short-cuts to the automatic principle. Either you are on it or you aren't. There is no such thing as "partly on automatic," "sometimes automatic," or "semi-automatic" in golf. When you are on manual, you are not on automatic, and vice versa.

While it is an adjacent subject which deserves its own space, suffice it to say that every golfer wishes to function on automatic. Mother Nature's way goes in that direction, but if you've not had a clear blueprint for your habit development and haven't finished the habits you need, you may get scrambled eggs when the chips are down. Reason: 99% of golfers, who do not work with clear keys, are exercising the right things at the wrong times, in the wrong sequences, or at the wrong points in their games. Or they are facing the difficult task of trying to synchronize two conflicting time frames, since the mind and the body do not work at the same speed. The name of the game is to turn that around. Learn to build habits and then put those habits on a well developed automatic path, which will give you the best result for which you are capable. That's "one up" on anyone who may have more talent, but doesn't understand automatic or how it works. Clear the mechanism. Use your Clear Key.

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