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Hearthstone Review: What do you make of the transformation we're seeing in golf utilizing therapies like better nutrition, Yoga, conscious breathing?
Dr. Patrick Cohn: I really think this multi-dimensional, multi-discipline approach is the future of instruction at all levels. If it's not here now, it's going to be here shortly. Making sure you're working both on the mind, the body, fitness, diet. Really, to play at your peak, you've got to include all facets.
HR: In your book you talk about Peter Vidmar, the Olympic gymnast. His preparation, everything down to his uniform, was meant to mimic the conditions that he would face when he had the opportunity to win a medal.
PC: Exactly. It's called specificity training. What he did was try to match the environment in practice to the environment that he's going to face in competition. That's what I try to encourage golfers to do because in golf, you play on a golf course yet you practice on a driving range. Hitting balls one after the next is nothing like what you do on the golf course. You've got a different shot, a different club in your hand every time, a different lie, a different visual look.
So I try and encourage golfers to use that practice of specificity and try and train more like what happens out on the golf course.
HR: Seve is probably is a bad example now, but the early Seve would just head out to the range and dump his bag over and hit clubs helter skelter, making sure he didn't get into the kind of rut you're talking about.
PC: He was great at creative practice. I remember a story about him taking three clubs out to the golf course and playing an entire round with just three clubs, which required him to be very creative, hitting different shots, unusual shots that he wouldn't normally hit with a full set.
HR: Arnold Palmer said something recently I'd like to have your reaction to. He said, "I think the mental attitude of these young players is far more mature than it was 20, 30, 40 years ago.
They're very seasoned, very poised and it does surprise me a little bit that they've reached that point at such an early age."
PC: I think he's right on. Young kids are entering tournaments earlier so they're getting that tournament experience and feeling what it's like to be competitive at an early age. In addition, you have a lot of golf instructors that know a lot about the mental game and they're talking a lot more about the mental game to their students. I've worked with students as young as nine years old, where their father wants them to come and talk to me about playing in competition and controlling their nerves and staying calm. I think it's both better education on the mental side at an earlier age in addition to the experience of earlier competition.
HR: I recognize the logic of a pre-shot routine. Does it have to slow play?
PC: You have players who take up to 50 seconds, the limit, and you have players who will take 20 seconds, like Lanny. Someone like Chip Beck will take a lot longer. But it's a good point. Players can still do a routine. If they're halfway through their routine by the time it's their turn to hit, it's only going to take them another 15 seconds to finish. They select their club, visualize their shot, pick a target, do all the preliminary work and then when they're ready to take their practice swing, they're ready to go right into the shot. It doesn't have to be a thing where you wait until the other person has played their shot, then you start your routine.
HR: Where does the average player go wrong? Is it too much information, standing too long over the ball? What?
PC: What we know about learning and performance is that if you have an hour you're going to spend practicing, your time would be better spent on maybe spending fifteen minutes on each part of the game rather than spending an hour on the long game or an hour on putting, for example. It leads to better retention and better performance.
HR: One of the drills you mention is the 'success drill' where a student tries to sink twenty putts in a row from two feet, then twenty from three feet. You write: "Focus on the image of the ball going into the hole. Watch the ball enter the hole and imprint that image in your mind. Hear that ball going into the hole. Feel the ball going into the hole. You should feel as if you can't miss."
PC: Right. So many golfers put balls down from ten and twenty feet and then they practice missing a lot. And that's not really very good for confidence. Also, I think golfers miss it in their minds. Before they step over it they have the doubt and they see it missing. What I want a player to do is to hit a lot of putts he's comfortable with, either from that two or three-foot area. You want to see it go in, hear it go in, feel it go in. That's a great drill - to hit about ten putts in a row from that range because you've got a fresh image of the ball going in the hole. That's really a powerful effect when you get on the first green.
HR: When kids are out on the green and pretending to hit the putt to win the open, or sinking the basket that beats the buzzer, these kinds of things can have a very positive effect, can they not?
PC: Absolutely. Everything we do in sports is set up with a thought or a feeling of some sort. By visualizing, by seeing the ball go in the cup, or in the hoop, or for a field goal kicker seeing it go through, it's really a way of mentally programming the physical end that's very, very important for all performance. Pitchers do it. Batters do it. Quarterbacks do it. Really, if you think about it, your performance is set up by some kind of image or feeling, what I call your style of mind.
HR: What is 'choking'?
PC: Choking is basically an inappropriate focus that's brought on by tension and thinking about the end result. It first starts in the mind, 'don't embarrass yourself, 'don't mess up,' 'don't blow a lead,' that leads to that fear and anxiety response. And, then, your attention - where your thoughts are - change totally. Now, you're thinking about the end result. You're also feeling very uncomfortable on the inside so your mind shifts to your rapid heartbeat, sweaty palms. So, it's really an inappropriate focus that started with thinking about the end result and the negative consequences of the end result.
HR: What do you think happened to Jean Van de Velde?
PC: I do think he made some real poor decisions under the pressure and his caddie, I don't think helped him in that situation. I really encourage players to set a game plan before they go out and play. If you get in that situation know what you're going to do. Set the decision up before you play, like, if I get into trouble, I'm going to chip out sideways and I'll try and play for an up and down bogey or an up and down par. That way, when you get in the heat of competition or a match, you've already made the decisions and you're not so pressed. When we get under pressure, what happens is we don't make as good decisions so it's very important to make as many of the decisions as you can before you go play. You're going to hit a three-wood or an iron off a par four to lay up for position. That way once you get in the match your game plan is already established. If he would've really stuck to a game plan on that last hole and made better decisions, he would've won, obviously.
Talking Points - Edition I
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