Do you know who the “Little Professor” is? That’s what I call the voice in your head yapping away while you’re trying to make a golf swing. He/she is trying to help by saying things like, “Keep your left arm straight, head down, take it back inside the line (or was it outside the line?), don’t sway off the ball, you’re raising up, stay down, stay down! etc.” If the Little Professor is talking and you’re listening, who’s left to make a nice smooth golf swing? The two of you are going to try, but it’s not likely to happen with all this conversation going on. The Little Professor means well. The problem is he/she is working with the conscious mind and the conscious mind can’t work fast enough to be trusted with executing a golf swing. You need a Zombie Agent.
Zombie Agent is a term used by researchers who study how the subconscious controls most physical actions required to complete physical tasks. We’ve all heard the term “muscle memory.” That is a misnomer for the Zombie Agent executing the tasks required. Think of it this way, when we were young we learned to ride a bike. Through trial and error, our subconscious learned all the necessary skills to ride and you rode like crazy until the magic day you got your driver’s license. Goodbye bike, hello car! Several years pass and one day a friend says, “Let’s take a bike ride.” It sounds like fun, so you hop on a bike and away you go. Do you really think you’re able to ride because the muscles in your legs, back, arms, you name it, “remember” how to ride? Nope. It’s because your subconscious remembers how to ride and hands that chore off to – you got it – a Zombie Agent. No talking, no chatter, no second-guessing about should I lean one way or another. The Zombie Agent has got it, you can have a nice conversation with your friend as you peddle away happily. It’s the same with your golf swing. You’ve hit great shots before. Your subconscious knows how to do it. The task is to get out of the way and let your subconscious zombie do it.
One thing you must know about these zombies, they are completely non-judgmental. They are not good at telling right from wrong. They will do what you’re thinking about and disregard HOW you are thinking about it. For example, if you stand on the tee of a par 3 and need to carry 110 yards over a pond, you’re likely to say to yourself, “I have to get over the water.” Or “I sure hope I get over the water.” You might even repeat it to yourself. Your main thought is the water. When you hand your swing over to your zombie, all it really knows is “water,” so, bloop into the water you go. You must always picture what you want to occur. Never what you hope to avoid. Back to your bike ride. If you get on the bike and say, “I haven’t ridden a bike in years, I’ll probably just run it into a ditch.” You most likely will. It’s the same with golf. Picture or say to yourself what you want then allow your subconscious zombie to get it done! At the risk of repeating myself, never picture or say what you hope to avoid on the golf course.
Which brings us back to the Little Professor. During practice, it’s fine to engage the conscious mind. Let the Little Professor talk away. Working on specific parts of your swing with your conscious mind programs the subconscious. So, you know it’s in there. It builds trust. When you trust that your subconscious zombie knows what to do you can switch off the Little Professor and play your best golf!