Chumping on the range again this past Labor Day weekend. Twice, actually, but one time was with the boys and, as I’ve mentioned before, I just get freaked out that they’re going to clock each other with their little clubs that I end up hitting maybe four balls in the bucket.
“Back up. Back up! Your brother’s gonna hit you! Wait, don’t swing yet. Wait. Wait!” Couple this with the fact that they’d rather use their little nine irons as bowstaffs rather than their intended purpose and we have paranoia non-conducive to the range mantra. Speaking of such, new theories abound in my golflogic mind, but the best is the “da da.” I will attempt to explain.
Several years ago, I began collecting books about golf. Betting wars on Ebay. All that crap. I stayed away from instructional tomes, because generally they’re all the same and I have enough running through my pre-shot mind as it is. I purposefully avoid “swing tips” - the insidious little brain worms. (Remember that scene in one of the Star Trek movies where Chekov gets the brain worm. Cool. I digress…)
While the physical manifestations of golf have always seemed plain, the same can not be said for its mental side. But past experiences with breathing exercises, visualization, etc. have led me on that late-70s path of golfmind consciousness. You can’t think you’re way to a better golf swing, but you can get out of your mind’s way. Plain.
In a nutshell that’s the thesis behind “The Inner Game of Golf,” by Timothy Gallwey, which, I guess, in certain circles is regarded as the breakthrough book on golf psychology. I started reading – all about how Self One, that bullying, regulating taskmaster part of you seems to be helping but is actually hindering your golf – all the way from the swing to how you think about the game in general.
Block out that inner chatter and you’ve won half the battle. You’ve allowed Self Two, the unhindered, to take over your swing. Well, in theory. But in practice, too! OK, I haven’t read the whole book but took the first tip (sorry, suggestion) to the range. Don’t think about your swing, no tips or inner thoughts - just say the phrase “da” when you reach the back of your back swing and then say it again when you make contact – “da… da.” The idea is a simple one – take all thought out of your swing. It’s ideal if you don’t care about where the ball is going because the idea is to free your mind of the chatter. It’s just da, da. It’s hard to stop the chatter. You do the da, da and hit some shots and then you hit a bad one and the inner mind motor starts revving again, “What did I do wrong there? Must have came over the top somehow….” STOP! Free your mind, grasshopper! Just da, da….
I found when I did this chipping I was making the smoothest contact imaginable. The woods and long irons were a bit more of a challenge, but when I stuck to the da, da, they were was measurably smoother. Although the range was pretty vacant, I kept my vocalizations relatively mild. I noticed one guy looking at me kinda strange, but I’m not sure if he heard me or was just checking my powerful six irons out to the 170 flag. Perhaps we can add the Monica Seles grunts later. Or one day see the entire range echo with a chorus of “da…Da!”
Comments