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15:30:49 09/26/09
Dr Karl Morris – Episode #12 Part 2
[LESS INFO] 18 VIEWS | ADDED 15:30:49 09/26/09
In this episode I am joined by Dr Karl Morris one of Europe's top golf "mental game" coaches. Karl works with the following players: Darren Clarke, David Howell, Lee Westwood, Paul McGinley, Graeme McDowell, Richard Finch, Phil Archer, Alison Nicholas and Trish Johnson.
Here is the transcription of our 20 minute interview.
Andy: Hi and welcome to episode 12 of Home of Golf TV. Today I’m joined with Dr Karl Morris, one of Europe’s leading golf mind coaches. Welcome Karl to the show.
Karl: Hi there Andy, thanks.
Andy: Now Karl, you’ve worked with Lee Westwood, Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley, Graeme McDowell, all the top players in Europe over a fantastic career you’ve had so far, helping them with their coaching. What tips can you give the viewers, takeaways from their games?
Karl: I think the big thing that I’ve found over the years is that the individual is sacred and what works for Darren Clarke certainly wouldn’t work for David Howell or Paul McGinley. So it’s very much about finding your own way of playing the game. And one of the big things I’ve worked in the last couple of years and it’s such a simple understanding about the game, but I think its so relevant for everybody that there’s really only two things in golf that you’re trying to control. You’re trying to control the golf ball and you’re trying to control yourself.
So that obviously, everybody, they need to keep working on the technical side of the game. They need to find a golf swing and a method that they can trust, but also there’s gonna be an element of what do you need to do to control yourself? What are the things that you let yourself down with on the golf course because from Ben Hogan, Tiger Woods, downwards, everybody hits bad shots occasionally, so you’re always willing to work on the second part as well as the golf swing.
Andy: And the dialogue you would have with Darren Clarke obviously would be different to Lee Westwood I suppose.
Karl: It would be completely different. I mean, Darren is probably one of the most gifted players I’ve ever seen, if not the most gifted. He’s very much a feel orientated player; plays his best golf in a very non technical approach to the game. Darren gets bogged down by theory occasionally, whereas Lee’s far more, more of a structured way of approach. He needs to know why he’s gonna do something. If there’s a good reason for doing it, Lee will go and do it, but very, very different in the plays.
Andy: I think you were saying earlier that Paul McGinley he’s now looking at practicing so he can recreate the anxiety you would have on the course.
Karl: Yeah, Paul McGinley, Graeme McDowell in particular this last two years, last year was a particularly good year for Graeme. He played in the Ryder Cup for the first time. But one of the things that we did in the whole of last year was really try and make sure that there was an element of his practice that was trying to simulate golf. And one of the big mistakes I see golfers making is aimlessly hitting golf balls on the range, hitting it well and it doesn’t represent anything that’s gonna happen on the golf course.
Andy: Karl, how long have you been in the industry for, teaching golf psychology?
Karl: My background originally was as a player, but I’ve probably been involved in the psychology side of things for about ten years now and it’s been a really interesting journey. One of the things I’ve tried to develop over the last few years, I’ve done a lot of work with the PGAs around the world. I’ve been fortunate to speak to the Australian PGA, the Swedish PGA, South African PGA as well as the Europeans.
And my real passion has always been to try and pass on some of these things that have worked tour players to the golf coach, because I really believe that the coach of the future will be able to teach not only the technical side of the game, but he’ll also have an understanding of how the mind works, as well, so that we can bring the two things together. I think the problem with golf has been that there’s almost been two camps. There’s been technical coach to work on the range and so well, you’re swinging it a lot better than this mind coach who says “Well just go out there and don’t think about it” and it never really comes together.
And I really passionately believe that good coaching in the future will develop both of those sides probably as well being able to define mechanics, as well. I think a great coach in the future will be much more rounded, perhaps, than we’ve all been in the past.
Andy: Oh yeah, I mean, I can see that happening ‘cause as a kid, that never happened.
Karl: Yeah I think we’ve all had the experience of having a golf lesson. The pro stands there, we’re maybe working on something in the swing. We start getting it perfectly on the range, start flushing it. The pro say’s, “Right go away take that to the golf course.” He thinks that you’re gonna go and play well. You think you’re gonna go and play well and then you have to make a phone call to him and say, “That was dreadful. I hit it all over the place.” And that, to me, is where this necessity to understand the mental game is so important, because if you can repeat an action on the range over and over again, and then on the golf course it’s terrible, that’s not just your golf swing. There is an element of the mind side going on there.
Andy: Like you, I probably get bogged down with so many swing thoughts and so, how many swing thoughts should I have as I sort of prepare myself?
Karl : The interesting thing again, with all this is what really frustrates me is when I hear the phrase "golf’s 90 per cent mental".
Andy: Yeah, you hear that all the time.
Karl: Well it isn’t. You hear that golf’s 80 percent, 90 percent. Well it isn’t because when it’s doing well, golf is not a mental game. Golf is a physical game. It’s a physical club, a physical ball, a physical body and actually, you play your best golf with a reduction in thinking rather than thinking too much. I think that if there is one sport in the whole of the world that we’re not short of things to think about it, it's golf. I read somewhere once that we’re drowning in information but thirsting for knowledge.
And in answer to your question, to me it’s paramount that a golfer should never have more than one swing thought and rather than looking at it as a swing thought, I look at as a place where you’re occupying your mind. You’re placing your attention. One of the things that the human mind does and in the East they call it the ‘monkey mind’, it jumps from one thing to another. And that’s the classic the golfer’s mistake, that he stood over the ball and he’s thinking about this, thinking about that and thinking about something else, “Don’t go left, don’t go right don’t go in the water.”
Actually a really effective focus brings your attention to one point and to one place and that should be the goal for everybody, to actually keep your attention in one place throughout the motion of the golf swing. That then gets the best out of your swing thought, but also occupies your mind.
Andy: And when you’re teaching the pros, do you teach them pro routine where they would have a swing thought and then they, like Darren Clarke, for instance, then he can play his natural game?
Karl: Yeah. One of the most effective things that we’ve used over the years is something we’ve called the thinking zone and the playing zone whereby, if you can imagine that you’re playing golf now and if your golf ball is here, just behind the golf ball is a line. Now anything behind the line is what I call the thinking zone. So that’s where you would do your process, you would maybe visualize a shot.
You would program in the movement that you feel is essential for your golf swing. You would in effect be using the left side of the brain, the analytical part of the brain, doing all the thinking. Once you’ve done all of that though, you see this line and you literally step over that line and I call that ‘Nike golf’, then because you step over the line and you literally just do it.
Andy: Just do it, yeah.
Karl: You get into the golf ball and actually, what this does is the reverse of what most people do in a sense, that they spend very little time here, especially if they’re playing on their golf course all the time, “Oh, it’s the six iron ‘cause it’s the 12th”. They step over the line and then they start to think.
Andy: I know it's weird why they do that.
Karl: And then they freeze. So what this does is actually prepare you here in the thinking zone, but you get over the line and then just relax a little bit more, so the game becomes, actually striking out, much less of a mental process and much more of a physical one.
Andy: We all go to the range. We see everyone hitting the ball, hitting the ball and really they’re not concentrating on their mental game, are they? Is there takeaways that we can use?
Karl: I honestly think on that, I would never ever have had a role in golf the way that I have, if golf was practiced correctly. It’s the number one reason why there’s a huge frustration in between what people see that they can do on the range and then what actually comes out on the golf course. We’ve all gotta understand golf is incredibly unique because there are a very few games where you’re trying to score as low as possible.
Most games, football, cricket, whatever it is, you’re trying to get as many as possible, whereas golf you’re trying to get as little as possible, and yet, with practice, we equate a good session, I even hear it on the TV, as I hit 1,000 balls. Well the only thing that you can guarantee if you hit 1,000 balls, is that you trained yourself to hit a 1,000 shots. And as far as I am aware 1,000 wouldn’t be that good a return on a golf course, you need to split your practice into two segments.
One part of your practice, yes, you should be working on your technical side that you’re working on with your method or your coach or whatever it is, but a part of your practice should simulate a game. And the only way you can simulate a game is to add in consequence. There needs to be a consequence to each shot. I get all the players, they’ll hit a certain number of balls where it’s a particular game that they’re playing and what they’ve got to do is hit the shot and then they’ll note down the scores for that particular game.
Andy: So that reduces the anxiety out on the course.
Karl: The very act of being in practice is actually having to take a notebook out and writing the score down that you do in practice, simulates that sort of competitive element in the real game. And I would say less than one percent of golfers do this. So I think that for the viewers, really ask yourself, “Am I hitting a lot of shots? Or am I getting better at golf?”
Andy: Because one thing that you can commit to is a routine. That’s what Harrington has said in the past.
Karl: Yes. It’s a great point, that, because all golfers hear the phrase, “Well you need a routine” and I sit down with players and it’s “Oh, yeah, I’ve got a routine.” And I film them on the golf course and they haven’t got a routine. They think they’ve got a routine. The routine is as fundamental to the mental game as the grip is to the physical game. To develop a routine, you’re actually giving yourself something that you can genuinely rely on under pressure.
The mind needs a series of steps to follow under pressure. That’s the reason why in an aircraft they give you the drill, the safety procedure before you take off. I’ll never forget Harrington saying that, I heard him once say, “There’s no way I can swing it well every day, but there’s no excuse for not having a good routine every day.” And I think these great players reflect that.
Tiger Woods has been working on the mind side of things from the age of 11 and everybody assumes he’s just this born entity, but he’s not. It’s something his father was in the Special Forces. His father made him practice in a certain way and Earl Woods said to him, “When you get in competition, the training will take over.” And I take that as being that his practice was very geared to simulating the game.
Andy: It’s a really big takeaway, isn’t it?
Karl: I think the first question for the viewers would be to really ask yourself, are you getting better with the practice that you do? And it wasn’t a golfer but I think Einstein said the definition of insanity was to keep doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different result.
Andy: That’s brilliant Karl. So the next time I’m the range, I’m going to be spending at least 25 percent on the mental game. Karl, is there any way that I can conquer my first tee nerves? I mean, we all get it to some degree. What’s your take on that?
Karl: The take that we’ve had the last few years that seems to have worked well with all of the plays is the concept of what is nervousness? Well, nervousness is actually a feeling in your body. It’s a sensation running through your system. Now, as kids we were all told, “When you get to the first tee and you’re feeling these things in your body, it’s ‘first tee nerves’. And immediately, the perception is that these feelings are bad.
Well, just imagine as a kid if you were told that when you get to the first tee, these feelings that you get are actually first tee energy? All of a sudden, you’d actually look forward to those feelings. It’s actually resisting the feeling that’s the problem. You know, Tiger Woods, when he’s walking to the first tee in the Masters, I guarantee you he’ll be getting certain feelings through his body. But what he’s learned to do, he’s learned to channel those feelings and not see it as a bad thing.
I remember years ago reading that Jack Nicklaus talked about it. He said that he didn’t win majors. He waited for other people to lose them. But he said, “Just give me that feeling on the back nine of a major. That’s what I hit all the balls for.” He didn’t say, “Give me that feeling of nervousness.”
Andy: Just give a feeling.
Karl: So in his mind he created a label that this feeling was a good thing. So that would be one of the things to reframe the actual term ‘nervousness’ as an energy, but also then learn how to control it a little bit more. And one of the most effective ways is breathing. And centuries old advice has been around far longer than any of us have, a lot of the Eastern traditions talk about this.
It’s pretty much impossible to maintain a state of nervousness and breathe correctly. And nervousness, you actually have to be in the future thinking about what might happen to be nervous. Now, when you bring your attention to your breathing, not only are you physically starting to calm down, but mentally, you’re right back here in the now, in the moment. So, just that simple process of focusing on breathing. And we’ve all heard it, but very few people do it and in practice it’s really profound.
Andy: Right. Karl, a big problem I have is I tend to surround myself with people that in the clubhouse afterwards, talk about their bad shots. “I had a 70, I had an 80, but the triple bogey on #14, that sort of conversation. The conversations doesn’t sort of go on to, “Yes, but I did this part and you know, single putts on these five greens.” It’s a funny sort of conversation us golfers get into. I want to almost get away from it because I think that must be better for my golfing.
Karl: It’s a crazy thing, Andy, really because I think we’ve almost been conditioned that misery loves company. I do call it the ‘but syndrome’, I shot 68 but! And you know the number of times I’ve sat with very good players and they almost love to tell me how bad they’ve putted. You know, “I hit the ball so well, but I three putted four times” or whatever, almost as though that’s a badge of honor that they’re wearing.
And I think it’s something that we should all look at in the way that we talk about the game because there’s no question, one of the things I’ve become fascinated with over the last few years is how memory plays such a big role in our performance. You know, the certain shots that you stand over that you just know that you’re gonna hit a good shot, because a memory has been triggered of a previous result that you’ve had in that situation.
And I always think back to the lovely story about how Harvey Penick that Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite were sat with him many, many years before they went out on tour. I think it was Tom Kite said to Mr. Penick, he said, “If there was one single piece of advice that you would give us out on tour, what would it be?” And Harvey Penick just said, “Make sure that you go to dinner with good putters.” And in effect what he was saying, he was being a great psychologist in that moment. He was saying, “Make sure you hang out with and be with people who hole putts, who talk about holing putts rather than ones who just drag us down into the sort of misery of what should’ve been.”
One practical thing that the viewers might want to think about is something that’s been really successful with players over the last few years is something that I call the three shot diary. And literally, what the three shot diary is that when you finish playing golf, what you do, maybe after you’ve got back, you’ve gone home, you actually sit down and think about the three best shots that you’ve hit that day and actually then, write them out. Write them out in detail what you were thinking, what you were feeling.
There are a couple things are happening with this simple process. One is by writing the shot out, you’re solidifying the memory of that, strengthening the memory, but the other thing is, you’re going to start to find a pattern of what you do when you play good golf. You know, people go for a golf lesson, the first thing they say, “Tell me what I’m doing wrong.” Which we’ve gotta look at our faults, or actually, what do you do when you do it right?
Andy: Yeah, and what you consistently do right.
Karl: What do you consistently do when you do it right? You know, I once said, “Success leaves behind a trail”, but you’ve gotta look for that trail. And I think that good plays do this. Tiger Woods, he said he felt that the secret to the game was to instantly recall past success and to let go of failure. Most people do the opposite.
Andy: Exactly, yeah. That’s human nature, I guess.
Karl: Probably the best example I’ve ever seen about this and mental toughness was Bernhard Langer when he missed that putt at Kiawah Island. A four foot putt to win the Ryder Cup, he missed it. You imagine that impact that could’ve had on him, but Langer went away. He said, “I went through a routine. I did everything I could. I shot the putt the right way. It didn’t go in. It just didn’t go in.”
And then the very next week he went over to Germany and he won the Mercedes Masters the next week. I just think that’s incredible. It just shows you, he had the ability to let go of what happened, get the best out of it and move on.
Andy: Yeah, incredible story and that’s one takeaway for all of us. Langer, back in ’91. Can you imagine that?
Karl: The world’s watching.
Andy: The world’s watching. Everyone doubting that he can hole a putt and then two weeks later he goes and wins the Mercedes Masters. Incredible story there. Something we can all learn from. That’s fantastic Karl. So much advice there. I really appreciate your time. If there’s anyone out there that wants to find out more about what you’re doing with the players or just to help their own game, where can they go to find out the information?
Karl: There’s a couple of websites and one of the websites is GolfTrainingProducts.co.uk and if people go to that site they can get some free videos, some downloads and some things that we’ve talked about here today. The other website is Golf-Brain.com and anybody signs up there they get a free monthly newsletter that keeps them informed of what’s going on with the players and some of the courses that I run, etcetera. The product that’s worked really well this last 12 months, a new product is a CD called 5 Shots Lower Without Changing Your Swing .
Andy: Oh, we all want that, yeah.
Karl: Something that you can play in the car, a series of tools that you can use, similar to what we’ve talked about today. This stuff needs reinforcing. We all fall back into our old patterns and our old habits. And you know, we’re so keen on being warmed up physically, but we need to be warmed up and tuned in mentally.
Andy: This is a CD you can put in the car?
Karl: A CD you can put in the car and you can listen to it at home, you know, the players that I’ve worked with say that they keep listening to it over and over and just to keep their mind, the mental stages in all of it, like I say five shots lower without changing their swing.
Andy: So, hope you thoroughly enjoyed the show with Karl. I have. Thanks very much for coming Karl.
Karl: My pleasure, Andy.
Andy: Hopefully we’ll talk in the near future.
Karl: Look forward to it.
Andy: Okay. Well that’s the end of the show. I hope you thoroughly enjoyed it.
More about Dr Karl Morris
Free Golf Mind Factor Video Training Course
5 Shots Lower Without Changing Your Swing
The Mind Factor
Finally, the Question of the Day:
What’s the biggest mental challenge in your game? Leave your comments below and we’ll have fun reading them!
3 Views
00:12:24 08/21/09
Dr Karl Morris – Episode #12 Part 1
[LESS INFO] 3 VIEWS | ADDED 00:12:24 08/21/09
In this episode I am joined by Dr Karl Morris one of Europe's top golf "mental game" coaches. Karl works with the following players: Darren Clarke, David Howell, Lee Westwood, Paul McGinley, Graeme McDowell, Richard Finch, Phil Archer, Alison Nicholas and Trish Johnson.
Here is the transcription of our 20 minute interview.
Andy: Hi and welcome to episode 12 of Home of Golf TV. Today I’m joined with Dr Karl Morris, one of Europe’s leading golf mind coaches. Welcome Karl to the show.
Karl: Hi there Andy, thanks.
Andy: Now Karl, you’ve worked with Lee Westwood, Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley, Graeme McDowell, all the top players in Europe over a fantastic career you’ve had so far, helping them with their coaching. What tips can you give the viewers, takeaways from their games?
Karl: I think the big thing that I’ve found over the years is that the individual is sacred and what works for Darren Clarke certainly wouldn’t work for David Howell or Paul McGinley. So it’s very much about finding your own way of playing the game. And one of the big things I’ve worked in the last couple of years and it’s such a simple understanding about the game, but I think its so relevant for everybody that there’s really only two things in golf that you’re trying to control. You’re trying to control the golf ball and you’re trying to control yourself.
So that obviously, everybody, they need to keep working on the technical side of the game. They need to find a golf swing and a method that they can trust, but also there’s gonna be an element of what do you need to do to control yourself? What are the things that you let yourself down with on the golf course because from Ben Hogan, Tiger Woods, downwards, everybody hits bad shots occasionally, so you’re always willing to work on the second part as well as the golf swing.
Andy: And the dialogue you would have with Darren Clarke obviously would be different to Lee Westwood I suppose.
Karl: It would be completely different. I mean, Darren is probably one of the most gifted players I’ve ever seen, if not the most gifted. He’s very much a feel orientated player; plays his best golf in a very non technical approach to the game. Darren gets bogged down by theory occasionally, whereas Lee’s far more, more of a structured way of approach. He needs to know why he’s gonna do something. If there’s a good reason for doing it, Lee will go and do it, but very, very different in the plays.
Andy: I think you were saying earlier that Paul McGinley he’s now looking at practicing so he can recreate the anxiety you would have on the course.
Karl: Yeah, Paul McGinley, Graeme McDowell in particular this last two years, last year was a particularly good year for Graeme. He played in the Ryder Cup for the first time. But one of the things that we did in the whole of last year was really try and make sure that there was an element of his practice that was trying to simulate golf. And one of the big mistakes I see golfers making is aimlessly hitting golf balls on the range, hitting it well and it doesn’t represent anything that’s gonna happen on the golf course.
Andy: Karl, how long have you been in the industry for, teaching golf psychology?
Karl: My background originally was as a player, but I’ve probably been involved in the psychology side of things for about ten years now and it’s been a really interesting journey. One of the things I’ve tried to develop over the last few years, I’ve done a lot of work with the PGAs around the world. I’ve been fortunate to speak to the Australian PGA, the Swedish PGA, South African PGA as well as the Europeans.
And my real passion has always been to try and pass on some of these things that have worked tour players to the golf coach, because I really believe that the coach of the future will be able to teach not only the technical side of the game, but he’ll also have an understanding of how the mind works, as well, so that we can bring the two things together. I think the problem with golf has been that there’s almost been two camps. There’s been technical coach to work on the range and so well, you’re swinging it a lot better than this mind coach who says “Well just go out there and don’t think about it” and it never really comes together.
And I really passionately believe that good coaching in the future will develop both of those sides probably as well being able to define mechanics, as well. I think a great coach in the future will be much more rounded, perhaps, than we’ve all been in the past.
Andy: Oh yeah, I mean, I can see that happening ‘cause as a kid, that never happened.
Karl: Yeah I think we’ve all had the experience of having a golf lesson. The pro stands there, we’re maybe working on something in the swing. We start getting it perfectly on the range, start flushing it. The pro say’s, “Right go away take that to the golf course.” He thinks that you’re gonna go and play well. You think you’re gonna go and play well and then you have to make a phone call to him and say, “That was dreadful. I hit it all over the place.” And that, to me, is where this necessity to understand the mental game is so important, because if you can repeat an action on the range over and over again, and then on the golf course it’s terrible, that’s not just your golf swing. There is an element of the mind side going on there.
Andy: Like you, I probably get bogged down with so many swing thoughts and so, how many swing thoughts should I have as I sort of prepare myself?
Karl : The interesting thing again, with all this is what really frustrates me is when I hear the phrase "golf’s 90 per cent mental".
Andy: Yeah, you hear that all the time.
Karl: Well it isn’t. You hear that golf’s 80 percent, 90 percent. Well it isn’t because when it’s doing well, golf is not a mental game. Golf is a physical game. It’s a physical club, a physical ball, a physical body and actually, you play your best golf with a reduction in thinking rather than thinking too much. I think that if there is one sport in the whole of the world that we’re not short of things to think about it, it's golf. I read somewhere once that we’re drowning in information but thirsting for knowledge.
And in answer to your question, to me it’s paramount that a golfer should never have more than one swing thought and rather than looking at it as a swing thought, I look at as a place where you’re occupying your mind. You’re placing your attention. One of the things that the human mind does and in the East they call it the ‘monkey mind’, it jumps from one thing to another. And that’s the classic the golfer’s mistake, that he stood over the ball and he’s thinking about this, thinking about that and thinking about something else, “Don’t go left, don’t go right don’t go in the water.”
Actually a really effective focus brings your attention to one point and to one place and that should be the goal for everybody, to actually keep your attention in one place throughout the motion of the golf swing. That then gets the best out of your swing thought, but also occupies your mind.
Andy: And when you’re teaching the pros, do you teach them pro routine where they would have a swing thought and then they, like Darren Clarke, for instance, then he can play his natural game?
Karl: Yeah. One of the most effective things that we’ve used over the years is something we’ve called the thinking zone and the playing zone whereby, if you can imagine that you’re playing golf now and if your golf ball is here, just behind the golf ball is a line. Now anything behind the line is what I call the thinking zone. So that’s where you would do your process, you would maybe visualize a shot.
You would program in the movement that you feel is essential for your golf swing. You would in effect be using the left side of the brain, the analytical part of the brain, doing all the thinking. Once you’ve done all of that though, you see this line and you literally step over that line and I call that ‘Nike golf’, then because you step over the line and you literally just do it.
Andy: Just do it, yeah.
Karl: You get into the golf ball and actually, what this does is the reverse of what most people do in a sense, that they spend very little time here, especially if they’re playing on their golf course all the time, “Oh, it’s the six iron ‘cause it’s the 12th”. They step over the line and then they start to think.
Andy: I know it's weird why they do that.
Karl: And then they freeze. So what this does is actually prepare you here in the thinking zone, but you get over the line and then just relax a little bit more, so the game becomes, actually striking out, much less of a mental process and much more of a physical one.
Andy: We all go to the range. We see everyone hitting the ball, hitting the ball and really they’re not concentrating on their mental game, are they? Is there takeaways that we can use?
Karl: I honestly think on that, I would never ever have had a role in golf the way that I have, if golf was practiced correctly. It’s the number one reason why there’s a huge frustration in between what people see that they can do on the range and then what actually comes out on the golf course. We’ve all gotta understand golf is incredibly unique because there are a very few games where you’re trying to score as low as possible.
Most games, football, cricket, whatever it is, you’re trying to get as many as possible, whereas golf you’re trying to get as little as possible, and yet, with practice, we equate a good session, I even hear it on the TV, as I hit 1,000 balls. Well the only thing that you can guarantee if you hit 1,000 balls, is that you trained yourself to hit a 1,000 shots. And as far as I am aware 1,000 wouldn’t be that good a return on a golf course, you need to split your practice into two segments.
One part of your practice, yes, you should be working on your technical side that you’re working on with your method or your coach or whatever it is, but a part of your practice should simulate a game. And the only way you can simulate a game is to add in consequence. There needs to be a consequence to each shot. I get all the players, they’ll hit a certain number of balls where it’s a particular game that they’re playing and what they’ve got to do is hit the shot and then they’ll note down the scores for that particular game.
Andy: So that reduces the anxiety out on the course.
Karl: The very act of being in practice is actually having to take a notebook out and writing the score down that you do in practice, simulates that sort of competitive element in the real game. And I would say less than one percent of golfers do this. So I think that for the viewers, really ask yourself, “Am I hitting a lot of shots? Or am I getting better at golf?”
Andy: Because one thing that you can commit to is a routine. That’s what Harrington has said in the past.
Karl: Yes. It’s a great point, that, because all golfers hear the phrase, “Well you need a routine” and I sit down with players and it’s “Oh, yeah, I’ve got a routine.” And I film them on the golf course and they haven’t got a routine. They think they’ve got a routine. The routine is as fundamental to the mental game as the grip is to the physical game. To develop a routine, you’re actually giving yourself something that you can genuinely rely on under pressure.
The mind needs a series of steps to follow under pressure. That’s the reason why in an aircraft they give you the drill, the safety procedure before you take off. I’ll never forget Harrington saying that, I heard him once say, “There’s no way I can swing it well every day, but there’s no excuse for not having a good routine every day.” And I think these great players reflect that.
Tiger Woods has been working on the mind side of things from the age of 11 and everybody assumes he’s just this born entity, but he’s not. It’s something his father was in the Special Forces. His father made him practice in a certain way and Earl Woods said to him, “When you get in competition, the training will take over.” And I take that as being that his practice was very geared to simulating the game.
Andy: It’s a really big takeaway, isn’t it?
Karl: I think the first question for the viewers would be to really ask yourself, are you getting better with the practice that you do? And it wasn’t a golfer but I think Einstein said the definition of insanity was to keep doing the same things over and over again and expecting a different result.
Andy: That’s brilliant Karl. So the next time I’m the range, I’m going to be spending at least 25 percent on the mental game. Karl, is there any way that I can conquer my first tee nerves? I mean, we all get it to some degree. What’s your take on that?
Karl: The take that we’ve had the last few years that seems to have worked well with all of the plays is the concept of what is nervousness? Well, nervousness is actually a feeling in your body. It’s a sensation running through your system. Now, as kids we were all told, “When you get to the first tee and you’re feeling these things in your body, it’s ‘first tee nerves’. And immediately, the perception is that these feelings are bad.
Well, just imagine as a kid if you were told that when you get to the first tee, these feelings that you get are actually first tee energy? All of a sudden, you’d actually look forward to those feelings. It’s actually resisting the feeling that’s the problem. You know, Tiger Woods, when he’s walking to the first tee in the Masters, I guarantee you he’ll be getting certain feelings through his body. But what he’s learned to do, he’s learned to channel those feelings and not see it as a bad thing.
I remember years ago reading that Jack Nicklaus talked about it. He said that he didn’t win majors. He waited for other people to lose them. But he said, “Just give me that feeling on the back nine of a major. That’s what I hit all the balls for.” He didn’t say, “Give me that feeling of nervousness.”
Andy: Just give a feeling.
Karl: So in his mind he created a label that this feeling was a good thing. So that would be one of the things to reframe the actual term ‘nervousness’ as an energy, but also then learn how to control it a little bit more. And one of the most effective ways is breathing. And centuries old advice has been around far longer than any of us have, a lot of the Eastern traditions talk about this.
It’s pretty much impossible to maintain a state of nervousness and breathe correctly. And nervousness, you actually have to be in the future thinking about what might happen to be nervous. Now, when you bring your attention to your breathing, not only are you physically starting to calm down, but mentally, you’re right back here in the now, in the moment. So, just that simple process of focusing on breathing. And we’ve all heard it, but very few people do it and in practice it’s really profound.
Andy: Right. Karl, a big problem I have is I tend to surround myself with people that in the clubhouse afterwards, talk about their bad shots. “I had a 70, I had an 80, but the triple bogey on #14, that sort of conversation. The conversations doesn’t sort of go on to, “Yes, but I did this part and you know, single putts on these five greens.” It’s a funny sort of conversation us golfers get into. I want to almost get away from it because I think that must be better for my golfing.
Karl: It’s a crazy thing, Andy, really because I think we’ve almost been conditioned that misery loves company. I do call it the ‘but syndrome’, I shot 68 but! And you know the number of times I’ve sat with very good players and they almost love to tell me how bad they’ve putted. You know, “I hit the ball so well, but I three putted four times” or whatever, almost as though that’s a badge of honor that they’re wearing.
And I think it’s something that we should all look at in the way that we talk about the game because there’s no question, one of the things I’ve become fascinated with over the last few years is how memory plays such a big role in our performance. You know, the certain shots that you stand over that you just know that you’re gonna hit a good shot, because a memory has been triggered of a previous result that you’ve had in that situation.
And I always think back to the lovely story about how Harvey Penick that Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite were sat with him many, many years before they went out on tour. I think it was Tom Kite said to Mr. Penick, he said, “If there was one single piece of advice that you would give us out on tour, what would it be?” And Harvey Penick just said, “Make sure that you go to dinner with good putters.” And in effect what he was saying, he was being a great psychologist in that moment. He was saying, “Make sure you hang out with and be with people who hole putts, who talk about holing putts rather than ones who just drag us down into the sort of misery of what should’ve been.”
One practical thing that the viewers might want to think about is something that’s been really successful with players over the last few years is something that I call the three shot diary. And literally, what the three shot diary is that when you finish playing golf, what you do, maybe after you’ve got back, you’ve gone home, you actually sit down and think about the three best shots that you’ve hit that day and actually then, write them out. Write them out in detail what you were thinking, what you were feeling.
There are a couple things are happening with this simple process. One is by writing the shot out, you’re solidifying the memory of that, strengthening the memory, but the other thing is, you’re going to start to find a pattern of what you do when you play good golf. You know, people go for a golf lesson, the first thing they say, “Tell me what I’m doing wrong.” Which we’ve gotta look at our faults, or actually, what do you do when you do it right?
Andy: Yeah, and what you consistently do right.
Karl: What do you consistently do when you do it right? You know, I once said, “Success leaves behind a trail”, but you’ve gotta look for that trail. And I think that good plays do this. Tiger Woods, he said he felt that the secret to the game was to instantly recall past success and to let go of failure. Most people do the opposite.
Andy: Exactly, yeah. That’s human nature, I guess.
Karl: Probably the best example I’ve ever seen about this and mental toughness was Bernhard Langer when he missed that putt at Kiawah Island. A four foot putt to win the Ryder Cup, he missed it. You imagine that impact that could’ve had on him, but Langer went away. He said, “I went through a routine. I did everything I could. I shot the putt the right way. It didn’t go in. It just didn’t go in.”
And then the very next week he went over to Germany and he won the Mercedes Masters the next week. I just think that’s incredible. It just shows you, he had the ability to let go of what happened, get the best out of it and move on.
Andy: Yeah, incredible story and that’s one takeaway for all of us. Langer, back in ’91. Can you imagine that?
Karl: The world’s watching.
Andy: The world’s watching. Everyone doubting that he can hole a putt and then two weeks later he goes and wins the Mercedes Masters. Incredible story there. Something we can all learn from. That’s fantastic Karl. So much advice there. I really appreciate your time. If there’s anyone out there that wants to find out more about what you’re doing with the players or just to help their own game, where can they go to find out the information?
Karl: There’s a couple of websites and one of the websites is GolfTrainingProducts.co.uk and if people go to that site they can get some free videos, some downloads and some things that we’ve talked about here today. The other website is Golf-Brain.com and anybody signs up there they get a free monthly newsletter that keeps them informed of what’s going on with the players and some of the courses that I run, etcetera. The product that’s worked really well this last 12 months, a new product is a CD called 5 Shots Lower Without Changing Your Swing .
Andy: Oh, we all want that, yeah.
Karl: Something that you can play in the car, a series of tools that you can use, similar to what we’ve talked about today. This stuff needs reinforcing. We all fall back into our old patterns and our old habits. And you know, we’re so keen on being warmed up physically, but we need to be warmed up and tuned in mentally.
Andy: This is a CD you can put in the car?
Karl: A CD you can put in the car and you can listen to it at home, you know, the players that I’ve worked with say that they keep listening to it over and over and just to keep their mind, the mental stages in all of it, like I say five shots lower without changing their swing.
Andy: So, hope you thoroughly enjoyed the show with Karl. I have. Thanks very much for coming Karl.
Karl: My pleasure, Andy.
Andy: Hopefully we’ll talk in the near future.
Karl: Look forward to it.
Andy: Okay. Well that’s the end of the show. I hope you thoroughly enjoyed it.
More about Dr Karl Morris
Free Golf Mind Factor Video Training Course
5 Shots Lower Without Changing Your Swing
The Mind Factor
Finally, the Question of the Day:
What’s the biggest mental challenge in your game? Leave your comments below and we’ll have fun reading them!
3 Views
01:16:15 05/13/09
Aero Tv Composite Construction The Cirrus Factory Approach (Part 2)
[LESS INFO] 3 VIEWS | ADDED 01:16:15 05/13/09
This Is How They Build 'Em We've had a ball showing you various aspects of how and why the Cirrus Aircraft SR20s and SR22s became some of the most popular aircraft in recent GA history. But the build process is nearly as fascinating as the airplanes themselves... especially in light of the changes the G3 version of the SR series has undergone in the last two years. Not only did they redesign the airplane to be better in the air, but to be assembled in a more economical and sturdier fashion. The G3 update was extensive... The Cirrus team went through the bird from stem to stern in this upgrade, with some big changes proving to be more than skin-deep. An aggressive update of the primary wing structure resulted in a stronger and stiffer wing that allowed CD to carve well over 50 pounds out of that assembly -- and then they used that leeway to increase the bird's effective range. The gear was heavily modified to be a somewhat narrower and taller construct and added some prop clearance, to boot. The gear used to be nearly 11 feet wide... and has been narrowed to just over 8.5 feet. They did this with the same gear legs they've used in the past, but mounted in a significantly more acute angle. This change allowed the interior of the wing to be adapted to a number of other modifications, most notably a larger TKS deicing fluid tank, and produced a more efficient internal structure. Internal fuel tankage jumped from 81 gallons to 92 gallons, as well. A number of aerodynamic refinements have been incorporated... quite a number, in fact, and many of them quite subtle. Several fairings have been redesigned to offer less drag and improve other aerodynamic efficiencies. A new wing root fairing, for instance, has minimized spurious flow separation at the trailing edge of the wing and enhanced both cruise and climb abilities. Gear fairings have received exceptional attention to drag reduction and simplification. The result is a far tighter and cleaner installation that reduces the part count and slicks things up a bit. The wing's dihedral was hiked a full degree, thus creating greater ground clearance, better yaw/roll harmonies and eliminating the need for the rudder/aileron control interconnect that has been a part of the Cirrus line since its inception. The enhanced dihedral has definitely produced a more perceptible dihedral effect without adversely affecting any aspect of the aircraft's already laudable stability profile. One of the other most noticeable changes was seen along the lengthy expanse of the wing's leading edge. The whole leading edge, tip to root, is now fully encased in a TKS metallic anti-icing fluid diffusion system that produces icing protection across a much wider span (nearly four feet more) than the wings of old. It was a massive series of changes... and the people who build them are justifiably proud of the birds that resulted. Come along and see what we mean as we watch Cirrus build the current generation of GA composite airplanes. ANN E-I-C Note: We've been able to present a fair amount of Cirrus material via Aero-TV this year for a few simple reasons... Cirrus is getting a handle on NewMedia and understands how important it is, they welcomed us with open arms and made our job so very much easier than it might have been, they are absolutely delightful to deal with, and they have always believed that the best way to sell airplanes is to tell all... and we've been only too happy to take them up on it. We welcome and urge all other manufacturers and companies throughout aviation to send us an invite and work with us as effectively as we have with Cirrus so that YOUR products can get equal exposure. Feel free to email me at jim@aero-news.net if you want to help ANN to cover YOUR STORY via Aero-TV and utilizing the MOST talented and professionally accomplished Aero-Video production team in the business. Aero-TV Watches Cirrus Aircraft Build Airplanes The 'New-Fashioned' G3 Way (Part 2) FMI: www.cirrusaircraft.com, www.aero-tv.net, www.youtube.com/aerotvnetwork, http://twitter.com/AeroNews Copyright 2009, Aero-News Network, Inc., ALL Rights Reserved.
4 Views
05:08:16 05/12/09
Aero Tv Composite Construction The Cirrus Factory Approach (Part 1)
[LESS INFO] 4 VIEWS | ADDED 05:08:16 05/12/09
This Is How They Build 'Em We've had a ball showing you various aspects of how and why the Cirrus Aircraft SR20s and SR22s became some of the most popular aircraft in recent GA history. But the build process is nearly as fascinating as the airplanes themselves... especially in light of the changes the G3 version of the SR series has undergone in the last two years. Not only did they redesign the airplane to be better in the air, but to be assembled in a more economical and sturdier fashion. The G3 update was extensive... The Cirrus team went through the bird from stem to stern in this upgrade, with some big changes proving to be more than skin-deep. An aggressive update of the primary wing structure resulted in a stronger and stiffer wing that allowed CD to carve well over 50 pounds out of that assembly -- and then they used that leeway to increase the bird's effective range. The gear was heavily modified to be a somewhat narrower and taller construct and added some prop clearance, to boot. The gear used to be nearly 11 feet wide... and has been narrowed to just over 8.5 feet. They did this with the same gear legs they've used in the past, but mounted in a significantly more acute angle. This change allowed the interior of the wing to be adapted to a number of other modifications, most notably a larger TKS deicing fluid tank, and produced a more efficient internal structure. Internal fuel tankage jumped from 81 gallons to 92 gallons, as well. A number of aerodynamic refinements have been incorporated... quite a number, in fact, and many of them quite subtle. Several fairings have been redesigned to offer less drag and improve other aerodynamic efficiencies. A new wing root fairing, for instance, has minimized spurious flow separation at the trailing edge of the wing and enhanced both cruise and climb abilities. Gear fairings have received exceptional attention to drag reduction and simplification. The result is a far tighter and cleaner installation that reduces the part count and slicks things up a bit. The wing's dihedral was hiked a full degree, thus creating greater ground clearance, better yaw/roll harmonies and eliminating the need for the rudder/aileron control interconnect that has been a part of the Cirrus line since its inception. The enhanced dihedral has definitely produced a more perceptible dihedral effect without adversely affecting any aspect of the aircraft's already laudable stability profile. One of the other most noticeable changes was seen along the lengthy expanse of the wing's leading edge. The whole leading edge, tip to root, is now fully encased in a TKS metallic anti-icing fluid diffusion system that produces icing protection across a much wider span (nearly four feet more) than the wings of old. It was a massive series of changes... and the people who build them are justifiably proud of the birds that resulted. Come along and see what we mean as we watch Cirrus build the current generation of GA composite airplanes. ANN E-I-C Note: We've been able to present a fair amount of Cirrus material via Aero-TV this year for a few simple reasons... Cirrus is getting a handle on NewMedia and understands how important it is, they welcomed us with open arms and made our job so very much easier than it might have been, they are absolutely delightful to deal with, and they have always believed that the best way to sell airplanes is to tell all... and we've been only too happy to take them up on it. We welcome and urge all other manufacturers and companies throughout aviation to send us an invite and work with us as effectively as we have with Cirrus so that YOUR products can get equal exposure. Feel free to email me at jim@aero-news.net if you want to help ANN to cover YOUR STORY via Aero-TV and utilizing the MOST talented and professionally accomplished Aero-Video production team in the business. Aero-TV Watches Cirrus Aircraft Build Airplanes The 'New-Fashioned' G3 Way (part 1) FMI: www.cirrusaircraft.com, www.aero-tv.net, www.youtube.com/aerotvnetwork, http://twitter.com/AeroNews Copyright 2009, Aero-News Network, Inc., ALL Rights Reserved.
6 Views
04:52:31 02/19/06
Video: Government Bypasses Press
[LESS INFO] 6 VIEWS | ADDED 04:52:31 02/19/06
Video essay in response to Jay Rosen's "Dick Cheney Did Not Make a Mistake By Not Telling the Press He Shot a Guy" bog post -- featuring Chris Nolan, Mindy Finn, Hugh Hewitt, John H. Brown, Don Beck, Steve Rubel, Merrill Brown, Tom Rosenstiel, Congressman Rob Simmons, and a virtual Jay Rosen.
You can listen to the full entire audio for some of the interviews -- and read the full transcript for the others.
Subscribe to this feed for future videos .
Subscribe to this feed to download all audio interviews posted so far.
Music: On The Moon (Trip Hop mix) by disharmonic
Here's a Windows Media version.
Full Transcript and Further thoughts are down below...
>
KENT BYE: The fact that Dick Cheney decided to inform the local newspaper instead of going through the national press when he accidentally shot a man -- this indicates that there's a fundamental shift in the power dynamic between the press and the government.
Now NYU Journalism Professor Jay Rosen says that, "Cheney took the opportunity to show the White House press corps that it is not the natural conduit to the nation-at-large; and it has no special place in the information chain."
This is a trend that Chris Nolan first observed during the 2004 election
CHRIS NOLAN (Spot-on.com): The idea that you can talk directly to voters past big media was a big, big part of the Republican campaign this past year. I think that that's a very little noticed and a very little appreciated fact. They treated the media as another constituent group like the tobacco lobby or whatever.
MINDY FINN (Republican National Committee, Deputy eCampaign Director): Where our opportunities are -- are through talk radio and through the Internet. And we found that was our best means for communicating our message -- to kind of cut through the mainstream media filter. And also, that there are so many cable channels now that those stations don't have the reach that they used to. And certainly the major networks don't have the reach that they used to.
CHRIS NOLAN (Spot-on.com): To a large extent, people bought it. And the people that were the most upset -- the people who complained the loudest were the big media people, and nobody really took up their cause. So I'd say that's a sign that something's changed in a big way.
KENT BYE: Something has changed -- The mainstream media is seen as less relevant, and politicians are more powerful.
HUGH HEWITT (Talk Radio Host & Blogger): What the blogosphere and the Internet have done to the Mainstream Media is just what Luther did to Rome, which was to -- not only to go around the gates, but to shatter them. There are no more gates. Now it's just a question of "What's true?" and "What's objective?" -- not what is an elite's understanding of the former.
KENT BYE: What's True and What's Objective is still a really big open question in our society. And I think it's going to come from some combination of traditional journalism, but also blogging -- and even collaborative media which is what I'm working on.
So let's take a look at this issue from the perspective of a politician.
CONGRESSMAN ROB SIMMONS (R-CT): If you look at the American media, and how it covers politics -- you basically interview a politician, take -- if it's TV -- take one or two sound bites, and build a story around that sound bite. If you look at radio, you allow that same political figure 15 or 20 minutes perhaps on a radio show -- a call-in to explain their position on a certain issue. If you look at the print media, depending on the nature of the interview, the journalist will take some quotes and build a story around it. But it's all based pretty much on what that one individual is saying, and then on how those words are interpreted by the journalist.
KENT BYE: So talk radio and new media provide politicians an opportunity to talk at length without having to be
filtered through the lens of an objective news story.
Well, that's great for them, but what about the public interest?
Who's going to be holding the politicians accountable when the only organizations they're going to be talking to are going to be those who are sympathetic to their message.
Steve Rubel talks about the dynamic between public relations and journalism.
STEVE RUBEL (MicroPersuasion.com): The public interest is important, but I think that that's more important to a journalist than it is to the PR professional. PR professional is less concerned with public interest, and more concerned with doing results that are going to get paid for. And where the journalists and the folks in this room where I stand here, they're definitely worrying about the public interest. And ultimately, they're going to decide what's best for the public, not us.
KENT BYE: But now that the politicians can completely bypass the journalists, they're free to focus on their own self-interest, which is mainly to preserve their political power. This has created a very polarized political culture, which is then amplified by the mainstream media.
DON BECK (National Values Center): The Mainstream Media is simple a reflection of the mainstream value structures in a society, particularly in our political class, which is obviously is the "Win at any costs" and be reelected, using often "Us versus Them" polarity -- "From the Left / From the Right," "Conservative/ Liberal" to divide people in like Blue States and Red States, and so forth. So when one looks at the problems in a society, obviously the dominant media will convey those codes, and when it looks like many of those behaviors tend to make things worse.
MERRILL BROWN (Media Consultant): What this country needs, from my point of view, in addition to a skeptical, hard-working news media, is a political system in which members of party in power feel free and have the political courage to stand up and speak up when things aren't going well in their parties. And this applies to both Democrats and Republicans. Democrats who were unwilling to speak up about the failures of the Clintons -- the Clintons in particular, and the administration more generally. Same thing is true now. There's a lot of Republican -- members of the Republican leadership who realize how inept this administration has handled some number of issues, and yet the political dissent and the dialogue from those people in places of power in the Republican party doesn't happen.
KENT BYE: Without this internal dissent, our political system has turned into an all-out cultural war where short-term political gains for either the Democrats or the Republicans is more important than anything else.
JOHN H. BROWN (State Department Employee who Resigned to Protest Iraq War): These are people who think in narrow, political, day-to-day terms -- who are absolutely parochial in their thinking. What’s important is "Winning The Game", and the game is American Politics.
KENT BYE: We have a political culture where winning trumps compromise, where debate trumps dialogue, where polarization trumps consensus.
STEVE RUBEL (Micropersusasion.com) The political environment for PR is much more about spin & influence, and the message of the day, and "How do you get it out?" It's very reactive. It's trying to take what's already coming at you -- and issues -- and then making sure that you shape your position on it.
ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE: On the Federal Level, the war between government and press is one of unequal firepower. The government spends nearly half a billion dollars a year, and employs thousands of people in Public Relations, Public Information, Public Image Making, and Public Obfuscation. In the Executive Branch, all of them -- all of those people, all of that torrent of information, all of those Xerox machines -- can be controlled by the White House. A President's personal power to dominate the news is beyond measure.
TOM ROSENSTIEL (Committee for Concerned Journalists): They understand our tendencies better than we understand them ourselves. They understand our weaknesses better than we understand them ourselves.
KENT BYE: So the media is being manipulated by politicians who understand how the media work better than they do themselves.
Jay Rosen agrees by saying that the White House "correctly guessed that if it changed the game on you, you wouldn’t develop a new game of your own, or be able to react... They sensed that the old press system was weakened." And that essentially, "they knew you wouldn’t react because to do so would look 'too political.”"
So politicians currently have an upper hand over the media as far as setting the terms of the discourse for the country.
So where do we go from here?
I think collaborative media actually has a lot of potential in this area, and that's what I'm working on here at The Echo Chamber Project.
But the question is, "Can new media put the power back into the hands of citizens?"
MERRILL BROWN : So I don't think there's going to be fundamental political change any time soon. But I do think -- as in all things -- we go through cycles. And we're in a cycle today where the political discourse is of a certain kind. And I think we're moving -- and will move very quickly between now and the next Presidential election to have a much broader discussion about our national sensibility, our national priorities, the nature of political discourse, dissent and dialogue. And I think media, the blogosphere, and the democratization of thought in this country has a lot to offer in that regard.
THEORY OF THE COLLABORATIVE MEDIA SOLUTION
I believe that collaborative media that is able to mediate the relative truths and falsehoods within the many different perspectives has the potential to overcome the anomalies within the existing journalistic paradigm.
What I've done is to interview as broad and diverse range of experts talking about a particular issue (i.e. pre-war performance of the media), and then my intention is to have an even broader and more diverse range of participants participate in adding context and meaning to this gathered knowledge
Facts and information do not become knowledge for individual citizens until they have put within a personalized context. The intention behind the use of the information will determine how it is processed and applied, and there have been many innovations over the last couple of years that are able to make these contexts more explicit on an individual level while also yielding significant network effects of social behavior.
This is specifically achieved through mechanisms of folksonomy tags, comment threads, allowing users to dynamically remix audio and video into playlists, allowing people to listen to the entire interviews as podcasts, as well as allowing the reuse of the material through liberal Creative Commons-licensing.
So the three practical steps for journalism would be: >
* Collect interviews from experts on issues that are of importance
* Parse the information into granular sound bites.
* Publish these sound bites online in a way that they can be easily sequenced and recontextualized into larger meanings.
This is what I've been building with this collaborative filmmaking infrastructure , and all of the puzzle pieces now exist -- but they still need to be put together.
So I've gathered 86 interviews up to this point , and I have quite a body of sound bites from knowledgeable experts -- You can download the 40+ interviews that I've posted already with this feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/EchoChamberProjectInterviewAudio
I hope that this video comment can demonstrate the capacity for creating a system that allows other people to easily juxtapose streams of facts and sound bites together to achieve a larger meaning.
