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Concentration Practice  Email this Article to a Friend
David F. Wright, Ph.D., PGA Thoughts on Concentration Practice The only limits in our minds are those imposed by our willingness to engage in systematic practice of a skill. You can practice skills that allow you to trigger a left to right hemisphere shift just prior to execution of a shot. You can’t create the flow, zone or trance state but you can learn to move to the threshold of the zone. Jack Nicklaus described his use of concentration when he was concerned about forcing or trying to "create" a shot rather than letting it happen: "Keeping all of your mind fixed on what's happening now, with no side trips to past happenings or possible future ones helps ward off forcing." Nicklaus describes going from a broad focus prior to shots to a narrow focus as he approaches a shot. Then, he returns to a broad focus after he hits a shot: "I still can't concentrate on nothing but golf shots for the time it takes to play 18 holes. Even if I could, I suspect the drain of mental energy would make me pretty fuzzy-headed long before the last putt went down. ...I've developed a regimen that allows me to move from peaks of concentration into valleys of relaxation and back again as necessary. "My focus begins to sharpen as I walk onto the tee, then steadily intensifies as I complete the process of analysis and evaluation that produces a clear cut strategy for every shot I play. It then peaks as I set up to the ball and execute the swing, when, ideally my mind picture of what I'm trying to do is both totally exclusionary and totally positive. "Unless the shot finds serious trouble, when I might seriously start processing possible recoveries, I descend into a valley as I leave the tee, either through casual conversation with a fellow competitor or by letting my mind dwell on whatever happens into it. The next build up of concentration begins as I reach the marker from which I'll pace the distance to my ball and start figuring yardage. [Note that this is where Nicklaus' routine begins on each shot.] My focus then gradually tightens as my caddie and I complete the math and I again finalize a clear cut play strategy, until it again peaks at address and during the swing." Nicklaus describes his third phase of concentration on approach shots to the green: "As I walk toward the green I return to the valley although rarely quite as deeply as after the tee shot. Then I gradually begin to emerge again at whatever point I can begin to assess my next shot, be it a putt, chip, pitch, sand shot or whatever. The peak occurs during the setup and swing or stroke after which my focus remains fixed and sharp until the ball is finally in the hole."
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