[ed. note: We apologize for the change in our publishing frequency, and for not letting you know in a more forthright way. In case our mailing did not reach everyone, we have found it necessary to go to a schedule that will produce six issues a year instead of 12. Occasionally, we may issue "extras," which are not on the regular schedule. Thank you for your continued interest in the mental game].

We are, and we know you are, troubled by the gross atrocities of September. We acknowledge that, but we also feel that everything that can be and needs to be said about the matter has already been said and repeated enough that it needs nothing more from us. We only want to acknowledge that we did not, and know that others did not, go untouched. We join all who have demonstrated their concern.

Is the "Mental" in Mental Game Fact or Fiction?

Golf is 10% mechanical and 90% mental!" Is it fact, or fiction? If you go by what most players actually DO, it's fiction. More than one player of universal acquaintance has paused between a couple of the 500 balls being "hit" on the range to remark, "it's all up here between the ears." That remark is typically followed by going right back to whacking more balls. Nothing changes. Right? Is it still correct to admit that what we DO is more eloquent than WHAT we SAY?

Very little, except the labels that we apply to our games and equipment, has changed over the years. Grantland Rice gave us at least one keynote in 1920. He said:

"Golf is twenty percent mechanics and technique. The other eighty percent is philosophy, humor, tragedy, romance, melodrama, companionship, camaraderie, cussedness, and conversation."

The way most players approach the mental game seems to remain within the caricature he gave it over 80 years ago. But let's get serious. If the game REALLY IS mostly mental, why not practice in a way that keeps that in balance?

About as mental as most ever get is letting their minds follow them around. That means that most folks will either be reacting to what's ahead or to what just happened. What we need is a mind that leads. That seems to happen occasionally, but more by accident than by design. Unfortunately that does not turn out to be very reliable. It is occasionally productive (as when "good fortune" drops in for a visit). Just ask Davis Love, and anyone else who's had a 61 recently. Generally, most of those low scores elicit some kind of comment that lets you know the player is not really expecting to duplicate it any time soon. "It felt really good," but after that, there's no clue that a sharp awareness of what just took place is a clear, resolute program that can be repeated, or even managed.

A mind that leads is a quiet mind, with a well planned thinking path that stays steady. The fewer thoughts, the better. If you are hacking in your head, it's a dead level cinch that you will be hacking in your hands, as well.

Thinking - that is, conscious thought - is the substance on which the mental game needs to focus its attention. The reason for that is that conscious thinking is the only resource we have through which we can mange our unconscious thinking. If our conscious thoughts are faulty, the unconscious doesn't have a chance. At least no chance to function in a way that will consistently benefit what we want to do. You can't see the unconscious till after the fact (by it's result). That means that the only real opportunity lies in dealing firmly with what you can see - the conscious thought pattern you activate.

I know a player (well) who invariably prefaces a marginal shot with something like "Boy I hope I don't leave this short." Or he might say "I always hit it to the right here." Or "Last time, I popped it up." And guess what? Invariably he does exactly what he just put into words, minus the "don't." (The human system doesn't pay any attention to "don't." It just sees a picture of what you put in your mind and tries to make that happen. There is no picture of "don't."). In his case, the "system" - that is, the internal, unconscious, non-discriminatory realm of function - sees only the "image" of "pop-up," "short" or "right side." That's the way the system works. You and I didn't invent or create it, and we can't do anything to change it. But we can manage it, by doing the right things in the right sequences and time-frames.

Add to that senario the fact that most players tend to confuse thinking with emotion. That produces an anomaly by which most golfers appear to be referring to the need to control emotion when they mention the mental game.

Emotion arises in anticipation of what's coming. Or it writhes in despair (sometimes delight) at what just happened (the joys of victory and the agony of defeat). Neither of those are much help at the actual moment of shot-making. Besides, emotion is another of those human responses that can only be managed. If you try to control it, no matter what the emotion, it only grows stronger. If it happens to be negative, it just becomes "worse."

What supports our swing skills is a conscious thinking path that has all of the following components: as simple as possible, with the fewest number of things to remember: non-mechanical, so that it does not give the body any commands or interrupt the habits we've built into our swing; focused on the present, so as not to arouse the emotions from anticipation of the future or fretting over what's past; and highly repetitive, just like we want our swing to be.

That's the structure of thinking that will accompany consistent, trouble-free shot-making. That requires only about 960 seconds of our time while we are on the course, if we shoot 80 (16 minutes). The rest of the time, it doesn't matter what we think about. We only need the conditioning to use a specific, consistent mental process with every shot.

We take nothing away from mechanical thinking. We are, however, making a case for the right thinking at the right time. The right thoughts at the wrong times won't work very well, if at all. Timing our thoughts in a way that is consistent with what we are doing is critical.

There are four parts to this game: building it, adjusting it, planning the shot and execution. Execution requires an entirely different kind of thinking from the other three. It is, in fact, a different game.

You can think mechanics all you want while building, adjusting or planning. But when it's shot time, mechanical thinking can wreck your train.

If you think for one minute that any of that will happen of its own accord, you are allowing your conscious mind to be a follower. The mind that leads is one that gets a lot of organized practice, which isn't likely to happen while beating balls.

Watch the best players you know. It's like they expect their games to go through a lost and found department. On again, off again. Considering the number of times they've put a swing on a club, at some point, they're bound to form a swing habit.

We all have swing habits, for good or bad. What seems to cause most of the trouble is getting them into the action consistently. For that, we have to have good mental habits to activate our good swing habits. But it's hard to trust something we never practice.

It shapes up like this: to learn a skill, it's 90% mechanical and 10% mental; for memorizing that skill, it's 50/50; for practicing, once you develop your swing skills, it's 90% mental and 10% mechanical. On the course, once you are over the ball, it's 3% conscious, passive thinking, 97% automatic swinging and zero mechanical thinking. Between shots, it's anything you want it to be.