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One Under Par
Volume 8, number 5.

A Newsletter from KeyGolf...... October, 2007

Building An Effective Personal Mental Environment

Recently, thanks to several players who have brought forward similar issues and questions about their game management, we have noticed a rather new trend in levels of comprehension among players. That needs a new and corresponding level of response. What is presented here in this instance grows out of raised insight coming from golfers within our acquaintance whose attention to process has increased and expanded as a result of this trend. The anxiety issue is once again in focus and needing expanded clarification.

We formerly were able, for instance, to simply point to the effects of anxiety in a sort of 1-2 manner. That now needs more in-depth attention. It appears that many, if not most, players assume that what has been said about anxiety and "nervousness" indicate they are the same thing. They are not. Many see anxiety and tension as the same. They are not, either. (Nervousness registers in the emotional spectrum and tension in the physiological domain). And since no one else has been willing to mention or debrief this phenomenology, we will try to clarify it.

Anxiety is a foundation, a platform, a bit like the Operating System in a computer. We don't "see" the OS in the computer, but we know it's there because the computer in "on and working." Typing a word that appears on the PC screen is a bit like nervousness. We see it on the screen, which in turn lets us know the OS is really working. Or you could liken the platform to the engine (a laboring force),  that provides power and drives a vehicle (in this instance, the autonomic nervous system of which the immune system is the defense program).

Nervousness is a consciously experienced manifestation (symptom that occurs when the system is under stress or attack) that lets a person know anxiety is at work, lurking someplace within the non conscious reservoir. Players get "butterflies" on the first tee more often than not (the imagination says that there may be "danger" and "doubt" ahead). After a few shots or holes, that conscious recognition tends to diminish so that it's gnawing effect is less noticeable and may become invisible altogether. That happens since nervousness is experienced at the conscious level, and can be "seen." It is "visible" in that sense, and as we become involved in our game (or anything else for that matter), we typically notice a lessening of the nervous feelings or the butterflies because our attention is distracted by the game and takes us away from concern for the nervousness. (The same thing happens regularly to public speakers, as well).

In turn, we tend to assume that means we have "bested" the demon. What most may have failed to notice in past available information can create a vacuum in perception, allowing assumptions to mutate into a notion that the anxiety has been "stopped." Indeed, the nervousness may have been subdued, but that does not remove the anxiety. Nothing will remove the anxiety, though its warning functions can be postponed long enough to make golf shots that are unhindered by physiological glitches arising from such things as tension. (Remember, the warnings produced by anxiety trigger the immune system which then sets up a blocking action. That is not optional, and some of that blocking emerges in the form of physiological symptoms).

The issue here is critical. It calls for fully recognizing that anxiety is at the non conscious level, is non-discriminatory, and cannot be seen or experienced immediately. It is also the mainframe of our human defense system like the OS is the mainframe in your computer. Anxiety is not going away. With nervousness, we feel it consciously. The deeper experience of anxiety waits to be seen till some kind of evaluation after the fact provides patterns that become visible so that we can relate them to the anxiety that precipitated the behavior. Then we have the opportunity to understand and anticipate anxiety by the patterns it exacts from us. Only in its most heightened states will we have immediate sense of what it feels like (when the stress level is high enough to approach panic). Meanwhile, anxiety has remained on duty and goes to work with every opportunity that emerges where there is any kind of perceived danger, as in worry about targets in the future or fretting about swing mechanics worked on in the past. If the player is unguarded (not using a barrier to postpone the anxiety signals that trigger the blocking), the opportunity for physiological changes (such as tension in one's hands, arms or swing) and intrusions, (such as mis-hit golf shots), will be somewhere between mild and flagrant, depending on the circumstances. And yes, we are saying that no matter the level of a player's skill, if what is done on the range and on the course do not match, it means that the anxiety issue has not been resolved and/or one's habits have not been mastered. If you can perform satisfactorily on the range, then you can do likewise on the course, provided you are able to manage the anxiety issue and bring along appropriate habits to your task.

Historically and collectively, we have had a situation (dealing with interference and unfinished business in playing) that plays into ever larger assumptions. In both, it has floated from "the nervousness is gone" to a belief that the anxiety is being well "handled," or perhaps doesn't matter, or even that it has nothing to do with playing. In reality that only took account of the surface product (the symptom) - "nervousness." That was experienced only at a conscious level, which we now know is no more than a visible manifestation of the real thing - the anxiety. The anxiety is still turned on full, unseen, and on duty underneath. We do not dispute that this is rather difficult to embrace and understand, but it needs the kind of attention that motivates players to stay with an "armor-plate" approach (clear key) that blocks the signals bound to be present with every shot a player faces. Notice the words "bound to be." There is no alternative or compromise here. The system will work whether we want it to or not. Nowhere is the epithet, "You can't fool with Mother Nature," more eloquent. If you miss this one, you lose.

In order to appreciate that, players must be able to see what, under most other circumstances, would normally not even need visibility. One needs to be fully aware that the anxiety is always present, always doing its appointed job, and never does a disappearing act. Nervousness may be diminished, but anxiety is alive and well and on active duty.

That understanding and comprehension forms the essence of an "Effective Personal Mental Environment" for playing the game whether it is on automatic or not. It is a lead-pipe cinch that one cannot play either at a personal best or on automatic without that kind of mental environment, however. The substance of golf is unique. Of all sports we play, it is the most demanding, isolated, singular, solitary, do-it-yourself, play-it-with-no-in-progress-support activity that can be imagined. One cannot escape responsibility for his/her actions (even if occasionally an irate player blames his caddie or the gallery for an errant shot, or a blade of grass or spike mark for a missed putt). The demands of the game point to the fortitude and resilience of the player holding the club. And that means both what is held in the hands and what is held in the head. It is time to see clearly that no player is bound or obliged to mis-hit more shots than are hit "purely" in a round and that it is not necessary to be restricted by ideas like Hogan's observation that, "If I hit 5 or six pure shots in a round, that is a lot." We can manage this part of the game far better than it has been done by one and all.

To be at one's best, the automatic principle must be mastered, and that means understanding and managing anxiety. There is no other discernable way to get to "a far better" result.

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