On from last week’s post I want to elaborate more on my time spent at The World Blind Golf Championships some years ago.
The overriding memory I have is the amount of camaraderie and laughter I heard over the days spent there. So much fun and happiness, whether that be at breakfast, in the hotel bar, on the coach to the course, before, during and after the rounds.
I met an eclectic mix of people from all over the world and thoroughly enjoyed every minute spent in their company. I would also like to add that the hospitality we received at the Park Plaza Hotel and Massareene Golf Club Northern Ireland was first class.
I certainly hope to go back some day.
I was the guide for one of the players in the Open and have been working with him on and off since the Greater Glasgow Classic in Hamilton Scotland earlier in the year. We worked on his mental approach to the game as one of his problems was controlling his temperament if things were not going well for him. Some simple state management exercises and trance work were all that was needed to help him to have more control of his emotions on the course.
For three years I studied at the Royal National College for the Blind in Hereford (as a sighted student) and having worked closely, observed and socialised with many of the students there, I began to gain a tiny bit of an understanding of what it is like for those with a visual impairment.
Now, with regards to golf one of the things that I’m intrigued by most is the subject of visualisation. I believe it is one of the crucial ‘must haves’ for a golfer if he or she is to become proficient at the game. Spending a lot of time with many people with various levels of visual impairments I have noticed that visualisation plays a large part in their lives, relying more on their ‘inner eyes’ in the mind. Obviously sighted people visualise all the time too, though I believe that most are less aware of the process.
On my first night at the hotel I spoke with one of the players and asked him some questions about his approach to the game. I was particularly interested in his sensory awareness of his golf swing, if he was able to feel where the club head was during the swing, etc. His reply did surprise me a little. He said he had no awareness at all. His handicap was 27 so I guess I should have been less surprised by his reply.
I’d long had the supposition that visually impaired golfers may be more aware from a kinaesthetic standpoint then a sighted golfer (though not in this case).
Having been on the course with several of the players and their guides over the three days of golf it re-emphasised to me how important language is in helping golfers to be in the right frame of mind to hit shots to the best of their ability more often.
I certainly take my hat off to the guides who give up their time for free so the golfers are able to play this great game, though I lost count of the times I heard a guide use the word ‘don’t’ to their player.
More on this later (I ‘don’t’ want you to be too curious about that now)
When I say language, I do not just mean the words used, I also mean the tone, tempo, pitch, rate, timbre and more. All of these convey so much and when one becomes aware of how to best use language, then it will help the golfer to be in a better place before playing their shot.
A word can paint a thousand pictures and that is certainly true in the land of the visually impaired golfer. Allow me to elaborate more. If a guide has a shrill tone, is sounding anxious, not being very clear or decisive, do you think this will be conveyed to their player? You can be sure it will. Whether consciously or unconsciously is irrelevant. The effect is often negative.
OK, a little bit more about that meddlesome word ‘don’t.
If I were to say to you, don’t think of a pink elephant, what happens……? Exactly!
When the word don’t is used the person hearing the word will make an internal representation of the thing being done first.
You see you cannot, not think about what it is you don’t want to think about without thinking about it first. Think about that. Becoming clearer now? If not then please read the last statement again. (I have mentioned this before, though it is good to reiterate the point)
I believe that when guides (coaches, teachers, or instructors) are more aware of the states they are in and of their verbal and non-verbal communication, then they will be more able to convey a congruent message to the golfer they are working with. This will only help the golfer. Likewise when the golfer becomes more aware of his or her internal states and learns to be in a confident focused state more of the time or at will, then they will play more consistent golf. Nothing I am saying is new, we all know that a confident golfer feeling good is more likely to play well as opposed to one with lots of thoughts in their head, lacking the confidence to execute the shot at hand.
Hitting a golf ball is easy. Hitting it effectively so it goes where you want is the hard part. Golf is not an easy game to play well and many sighted people struggle to master effective play. I have witnessed many visually impaired golfers effectively play the game and admire their abilities to do so as much as I do any pro golfer.
Now if people with little or no sight can play proficiently and you can not but you have been trying to get better, ask yourself what would have to happen for you to improve your game?