We’ve all heard it more times than we can count: “practice makes perfect.” Well, in my opinion, that is absolutely false. I would agree that practice makes permanent, with a caveat. If you are practicing the wrong moves, or sequencing, or stance, or grip – the list goes on and on – then perfection is out of the question. In fact, improvement is out of the question.
I said above that practice makes permanent, but with a caveat. If practicing the “wrong” things were truly permanent, there would be no hope. The caveat is that you need to rewrite the “tapes” running in the subconscious mind. When we practice, we are essentially recording tapes in our subconscious mind in order to perform the shot automatically when we play. The golf swing takes approximately 1.5 to 2 seconds, start to finish; there is no way the conscious mind can think of everything that occurs during the swing in that short period of time. We need to trust that our subconscious tapes will take care of it all. Incorrect tapes equal not so good golf. Good tapes should result in good golf. The great news is, we all have the ability to record new, “good” tapes.
Here’s a simple example. Let’s say you buy a new car. The first few times you get behind the wheel, it takes some fiddling around to fasten the seatbelt. Why? Your subconscious is running the seatbelt tape for your previous car. Your conscious mind has to take over for a bit to record a new tape for your subconscious mind. After just a few attempts you fasten the new seatbelt without conscious thought; your new subconscious seatbelt tape has replaced the old one. This concept is what we are after when practicing the golf swing. Conscious thought and practice are tools to record proper technique, movement, timing, etc. in the subconscious. It takes time and effort, but the result is a vast improvement.
We’ve all heard golfers (indeed most athletes) comment about being “in the zone” when playing their best. What is this “zone?” Simply put, the “zone” is when you turn off the conscious mind and totally trust the subconscious tapes (programming) that proper practice has recorded.
When playing an actual round, turn off conscious thought and trust the subconscious to automatically execute the swing. Click, just like a seatbelt.