MIND VERSUS MUSCLE IN GOLFBY MARSHALL WHITLATCHMR. WHITLATCHwas a national figure in golf two or three years ago. Now he plays only once or twice a week. But his recent scores in the Knickerbocker Cup contest at the Oakland course show the results of applying his newly developed theory of play to his own game. His gross scores for the four rounds, played a week apart, were 75, 72, 77, and 73, a triumph, he considers, for his new ideas. His 72, done with a ball out of bounds, establishes the new competitive record for the course.—THEEDITOR.GOLFand brains do not seem to assimilate. That the brains of the country are at work on this problem is amply proved by the membership-lists of the various country clubs. The handicap-lists and scores turned in by these brainy men are further evidence that golf and brains do not assimilate. The scores seem to indicate that there is a direct relation between the amount of brains used and the amount of strokes used in making a round of the course. The more brains, the more strokes.When I try to find the cause of this state of affairs, these intellectual giants with whom I talk modestly inform me that “Golf is mental,” and they admit that the subtle mystery has thus far eluded them; but I can tell from what they leave unsaid rather than from what they voice just how determined they are to master this wonderful mentality which permeates the game of golf, and I can almost imagine their speech of dedication as they consecrate themselves to this great end.In my own case, I have recently made a very curious discovery and have imparted the secret to a number of my friends, who have urged me to pass the word along.It is that good golf is played through the lower nerve-centers and motor channels, while poor golf is due to the direct interference of the brain, or consciousness.In other words, the more I succeed in eliminating the mental or thinking part of golf, and the more I depend upon the muscular sense, the better my golf has become.Shortly after the account of Maria Montessori’s work in the “children’s houses” in Rome was published, I obtained a copy of the book, and from it received a suggestion that led me to apply the idea to golf, with the result that my game has been revolutionized, and I have tried the idea upon others with considerable success.To explain my application of the principle, I must call attention to the Montessori method of teaching handwriting. The usual method of schools has been to place before a child a written letter, give the child a pen, and tell him to copy the letter. Unaccustomed to holding a pen, and totally unfamiliar with the outlines of the letter he is directed to copy, the child holds the pen in a vise-like grip, and with unnecessary muscular exertion moves slowly through a series of mechanical strokes until at last he has produced a crude representation of the original. The Montessori method, on the other hand, is to give to the child a fairly large model of the letter cut out of sandpaper and pasted on a smooth surface. Over these outlines the child is made to pass his finger, at first slowly, but gradually with more lightness and speed until he has become thoroughly familiar with the movements necessary to reproduce the letter. With a pencil-like stick he is then taught to touch the outlines in the same manner, until his sense of touch has become so thoroughly educated to the “feel” of the letter that spontaneously he discovers that he can reproduce it without the model.“Tracing the letter,” explains Dr. Montessori,“in the fashion of writing begins the muscular education which prepares for writing.... The child who looks, recognizes, and touches the letter in the manner of writing, prepares himself simultaneously for reading and writing. Touching the letters, and looking at them at the same time, fixes the image more quickly through the coöperation of the senses. Later, the two facts separate; looking becomes reading, and touching becomes writing.”This suggested to me that the method most used for playing golf followed the method of the old-fashioned system of writing, wherein the child, seeing the letter A, for instance, has a preconceived idea of the motions necessary to make it, and his mind forces his muscles step by step in a cramped and painstaking way to go through certain predetermined movements. This was exactly my scheme in playing golf, and I know from observation that it is the scheme of many other golfers. There is neither freedom nor spontaneity, because the mind controls and dominates each muscular movement necessary in making the swing.If I were to describe the reason why the majority of players do this, I should say that it is due to their placing more reliance in their sense of vision than on their sense of feeling. One cannot see the correct timing of a stroke, but he can feel it.My former method was to figure out how everything should “look” when I addressed the ball, and my present method is absolutely to ignore what it looks like, and depend entirely upon what it “feels” like.If I depend upon what things look like in the address, I “set” some of my muscles in such and such a way to accommodate this preconceived notion. If I depend upon how it feels, I have to relax more and more of my muscles, or I am aware of the resistance one set offers to another.In the light of my new method, the matter of true balance and poise will assume the importance it deserves because in the preliminary “waggle” of the club, which is generally done with the hands and arms alone, the body being held rigid, the muscles of the body will have to be relaxed in order that one may feel out the correct positions. This has been my own experience, and I think that if consideration be given the fact that the actual stroke is delivered with all the muscles in action, the nearer the player reproduces the actual conditions in his preliminary waggle, the better chance he will have to bring off the shot. If the muscles are “set,” with the idea of “aiming,” so to speak, with everything in repose in the address, it can hardly be called a good preliminary of the actual effort.In order to focus the attention on this phase, I should like to describe the two different plans used by the professional golfer and the amateur.The professional represents good golf, and his scheme of play is tofeelout the correct positionin action, while the average amateur represents poor golf, and his scheme is to reason out, in a preconceived way, the correct position, with most of his muscles in repose, or set.To put it more plainly, I should say that the professional, through his sense of feeling, allows his muscles to talk to his mind; while the amateur, through his reason, makes his mind talk to his muscles, or control them. The sense of feeling being the medium the professional uses to arrive at the correct position to make the stroke, he develops free and spontaneous muscular reaction, while the amateur makes a mental plan or picture of what position he should assume for a correct address, and therefore is without freedom or spontaneity. It is death to any free and natural movement.In addressing his ball the amateur stands rigidly facing it with muscles set, and with careful attention and painstaking deliberation shown in his entire attitude, concentration written on every feature. Gradually he begins a carefully guarded movement of his club away from his ball. Up to the top of his swing he makes this careful, deliberate movement, consciously controlling every change in position, and then when he reaches the top of his swing, he makes a wild, vicious attempt to whack that ball to “kingdom come.” There has not been a single spontaneous muscular act performed. Every movement or muscular reaction has been under hisconsciouscontrol.Compare this elaborate, complex scheme with the professional method. He walks up to the ball, and never for an instant is in repose. He takes a glance at the point where he intends to send the ball; then back goes his glance to the ball, and away it goes. There is smooth, easy grace in every movement.Because the professional has succeeded better is no evidence that he has a superior mind. If it were mind, or golf were a mental game, the amateur should succeed better because he has given more thought to his work.There is really no mystery in the professional’s success: it is because he has hit his ball truer with no lost motion.Now, if those golfers who have trouble will stop and consider for a moment the number of things they are thinking of in preparing to strike the ball, they will realize that their effort is decidedly mental; that is, they run over in their minds the things they deem necessary and the positions to be assumed in order to make a successful stroke, while the making of a successful stroke depends upon something they cannot think out at all. It is something they mustfeelout, and that is the delicate balance and timing of the turn of the wrists, etc. It is in the feel of the correct poise of the body and the correct balance of the club while in motion that they should look for guidance.When a player has the feel of the balance, he makes the stroke with confidence. When he has lost the touch or feel, all the will power in the world will not give him confidence. His next shot is bound to be an experiment. He is then likely to shift his grip, change his stance, alter his club, or make some other kind of experiment. This is going to focus his attention upon the detail he is trying out, and while he may and generally does make a very intelligent effort to accomplish what he at that moment considers the thing of paramount importance, the ball nevertheless fails to go oft as he desires.Good golf comes from educating the muscles to the correct feel of the balance of the body and club while inmotion. This is essentially physical because it is developed while the muscles are in free and spontaneous action. The average amateur spends most of his time educating himself to a stance with the muscles inreposeand the mind inaction. His swing is then made without his getting the preliminary feel cultivated by the professional. This scheme is therefore decidedly mental.In devoting the attention first to this detail and then to that, it is evident that the mind is giving an amount of conscious attention to the details out of all proportion to their importance, and a player is thus very apt to neglect the most vital point of all—the feel of the correct balance in the preliminary waggle.The professional really generalizes, and leaves all the finer details of the swing to his subconsciousness to interpret correctly. The young lad just taking up the game does the same.It has come home to me that many of the things in golf that I have been in the habit of accepting as gospel are in reality pure nonsense. From careful analysis of my own game and by observing other players, I know that more shots are missed from “stiffening up” than from “looking up.” Also, those players cannot help looking up who stiffen up, as the saying is. The stiffening up is an inhibition or restraint by the sense of feeling. The reason that this inhibition occurs is due to the fact that the player becomes aware through the sense of feeling, without reasoning it out, that he is not going to hit his ball. If it were not so, there would never be any slicing, because players would not pull in their hands in order to connect with the ball. This is a sense reaction pure and simple, and although I may not be able to show this clearly to all at the start, one may be sure that players can plan and calculate all they desire and stand rigidly facing the ball in their own way, yet when they get in action and are in the act of delivering the blow, the sense of feeling, hitherto neglected, is going to reign supreme and govern the accuracy of the effort.William James says: “Habit diminishes the conscious attention with which our acts are performed.... Habit simplifies the movements required to achieve a given result, makes them more accurate, and diminishes fatigue.” In another work he says, “The more we exercise ourselves at anything, the fewer muscles we employ.”The habits which are formed in golf, as in everything else in life in which either the mind or muscles are exercised, tend to become fixed, and therefore are difficult to change. Dr. Carpenter very aptly says, “We find ourselves automatically prompted to think, feel, or do what we have been accustomed to think, feel, or do under like circumstances without any consciously formed purpose or anticipation of results.” The rigid, fixed address of the average amateur is the hardest thing to change but it is no benefit, indeed is a decided hindrance, because it results in the player setting his muscles to accommodate his position in the address to a preconceived attitude.In working out this idea on a number of my friends, I have found that waggling the club and twisting the body in the address are of great help, because they accomplish one thing of vital importance, and that is the relaxing of the various muscles of the body, which all golfers admit is wise. This is one thing, then, which we can readily see is progress. This, as a habit, is a very desirable one to acquire. The next thing it accomplishes is to educate a greater number of the muscles to the feel of the balance and poise of the body while inmotion, instead of inrepose. This is one step in sense education. The next is that, as the player is bringing more and more of his muscles into play, he learns to use some of these muscles which have never before entered properly into the delivery of the blow. The point where I find those players upon whom I have tried out the idea drift away from the benefit derived from an address in motion instead of an address in repose is that they will drift back to setting themselves when they put the club down behind the ball. It looks to them like a careless way of playing. It would be a careless way if it were done without an object. The object is to get the feel. The feel is no mysterious force or formula which will put a great strain upon the intellect, and, as a matter of fact, the attention need not be focused upon it at all. It takes care of itself, without one’s giving thought to it. It is a simple thing to learn to keep one’s balance while in motion, with the club making any sort of pendulum motion. The only thing about it is to do it, and the only thing to think about is to keep the head still while doing it. The ability to keep the head still at such times will gradually improve, because the player is acquiring the habit while in motion. The hardest part of it all is to eradicate from one’s mind all preconceived ideas of what he has been in the habit of believing is necessary to bring off the stroke. In my own case, I think of nothing. I ignore all my former idea of angles, etc., and how everything should look, and just waggle my club to get things loosened up. I do not think of the line, I do not think of the distance, but just look at the ball in an easy, superficial way, and as soon as I feel all my muscles are free and working, I make the stroke. If I feel any muscles setting, I make another waggle to “loosen,” and then swing at the ball.I have noticed in trying out this idea upon my friends that they learn to waggle fairly well, but do not seem to grasp the importance of getting the gentle play of the body into the preliminary waggle. Through habit they feel they must do the waggling with the club while the secret of the greatest benefit is to get the preliminary feel as well distributed over all the muscles of the body as possible. If this is done successfully, the player will use those muscles which he has just exercised, and will not have to make so great a conscious effort with one set of muscles which he has been keeping in action to overcome another set which he has been keeping in repose.The point to remember is that skill is acquired gradually by any method, and the player can confidently hope to make progress every month through sense education. The majority of players fail to become as skilful as it is well within their ability to become because they kill off any chance of learning or make it extremely difficult to learn by making a mental process of golf instead of a physical exercise. The brains should be in the finger-tips and muscles.Tailpiece Page 609
MIND VERSUS MUSCLE IN GOLFBY MARSHALL WHITLATCH
BY MARSHALL WHITLATCH
MR. WHITLATCHwas a national figure in golf two or three years ago. Now he plays only once or twice a week. But his recent scores in the Knickerbocker Cup contest at the Oakland course show the results of applying his newly developed theory of play to his own game. His gross scores for the four rounds, played a week apart, were 75, 72, 77, and 73, a triumph, he considers, for his new ideas. His 72, done with a ball out of bounds, establishes the new competitive record for the course.—THEEDITOR.
MR. WHITLATCHwas a national figure in golf two or three years ago. Now he plays only once or twice a week. But his recent scores in the Knickerbocker Cup contest at the Oakland course show the results of applying his newly developed theory of play to his own game. His gross scores for the four rounds, played a week apart, were 75, 72, 77, and 73, a triumph, he considers, for his new ideas. His 72, done with a ball out of bounds, establishes the new competitive record for the course.—THEEDITOR.
GOLFand brains do not seem to assimilate. That the brains of the country are at work on this problem is amply proved by the membership-lists of the various country clubs. The handicap-lists and scores turned in by these brainy men are further evidence that golf and brains do not assimilate. The scores seem to indicate that there is a direct relation between the amount of brains used and the amount of strokes used in making a round of the course. The more brains, the more strokes.
When I try to find the cause of this state of affairs, these intellectual giants with whom I talk modestly inform me that “Golf is mental,” and they admit that the subtle mystery has thus far eluded them; but I can tell from what they leave unsaid rather than from what they voice just how determined they are to master this wonderful mentality which permeates the game of golf, and I can almost imagine their speech of dedication as they consecrate themselves to this great end.
In my own case, I have recently made a very curious discovery and have imparted the secret to a number of my friends, who have urged me to pass the word along.
It is that good golf is played through the lower nerve-centers and motor channels, while poor golf is due to the direct interference of the brain, or consciousness.
In other words, the more I succeed in eliminating the mental or thinking part of golf, and the more I depend upon the muscular sense, the better my golf has become.
Shortly after the account of Maria Montessori’s work in the “children’s houses” in Rome was published, I obtained a copy of the book, and from it received a suggestion that led me to apply the idea to golf, with the result that my game has been revolutionized, and I have tried the idea upon others with considerable success.
To explain my application of the principle, I must call attention to the Montessori method of teaching handwriting. The usual method of schools has been to place before a child a written letter, give the child a pen, and tell him to copy the letter. Unaccustomed to holding a pen, and totally unfamiliar with the outlines of the letter he is directed to copy, the child holds the pen in a vise-like grip, and with unnecessary muscular exertion moves slowly through a series of mechanical strokes until at last he has produced a crude representation of the original. The Montessori method, on the other hand, is to give to the child a fairly large model of the letter cut out of sandpaper and pasted on a smooth surface. Over these outlines the child is made to pass his finger, at first slowly, but gradually with more lightness and speed until he has become thoroughly familiar with the movements necessary to reproduce the letter. With a pencil-like stick he is then taught to touch the outlines in the same manner, until his sense of touch has become so thoroughly educated to the “feel” of the letter that spontaneously he discovers that he can reproduce it without the model.
“Tracing the letter,” explains Dr. Montessori,“in the fashion of writing begins the muscular education which prepares for writing.... The child who looks, recognizes, and touches the letter in the manner of writing, prepares himself simultaneously for reading and writing. Touching the letters, and looking at them at the same time, fixes the image more quickly through the coöperation of the senses. Later, the two facts separate; looking becomes reading, and touching becomes writing.”
This suggested to me that the method most used for playing golf followed the method of the old-fashioned system of writing, wherein the child, seeing the letter A, for instance, has a preconceived idea of the motions necessary to make it, and his mind forces his muscles step by step in a cramped and painstaking way to go through certain predetermined movements. This was exactly my scheme in playing golf, and I know from observation that it is the scheme of many other golfers. There is neither freedom nor spontaneity, because the mind controls and dominates each muscular movement necessary in making the swing.
If I were to describe the reason why the majority of players do this, I should say that it is due to their placing more reliance in their sense of vision than on their sense of feeling. One cannot see the correct timing of a stroke, but he can feel it.
My former method was to figure out how everything should “look” when I addressed the ball, and my present method is absolutely to ignore what it looks like, and depend entirely upon what it “feels” like.
If I depend upon what things look like in the address, I “set” some of my muscles in such and such a way to accommodate this preconceived notion. If I depend upon how it feels, I have to relax more and more of my muscles, or I am aware of the resistance one set offers to another.
In the light of my new method, the matter of true balance and poise will assume the importance it deserves because in the preliminary “waggle” of the club, which is generally done with the hands and arms alone, the body being held rigid, the muscles of the body will have to be relaxed in order that one may feel out the correct positions. This has been my own experience, and I think that if consideration be given the fact that the actual stroke is delivered with all the muscles in action, the nearer the player reproduces the actual conditions in his preliminary waggle, the better chance he will have to bring off the shot. If the muscles are “set,” with the idea of “aiming,” so to speak, with everything in repose in the address, it can hardly be called a good preliminary of the actual effort.
In order to focus the attention on this phase, I should like to describe the two different plans used by the professional golfer and the amateur.
The professional represents good golf, and his scheme of play is tofeelout the correct positionin action, while the average amateur represents poor golf, and his scheme is to reason out, in a preconceived way, the correct position, with most of his muscles in repose, or set.
To put it more plainly, I should say that the professional, through his sense of feeling, allows his muscles to talk to his mind; while the amateur, through his reason, makes his mind talk to his muscles, or control them. The sense of feeling being the medium the professional uses to arrive at the correct position to make the stroke, he develops free and spontaneous muscular reaction, while the amateur makes a mental plan or picture of what position he should assume for a correct address, and therefore is without freedom or spontaneity. It is death to any free and natural movement.
In addressing his ball the amateur stands rigidly facing it with muscles set, and with careful attention and painstaking deliberation shown in his entire attitude, concentration written on every feature. Gradually he begins a carefully guarded movement of his club away from his ball. Up to the top of his swing he makes this careful, deliberate movement, consciously controlling every change in position, and then when he reaches the top of his swing, he makes a wild, vicious attempt to whack that ball to “kingdom come.” There has not been a single spontaneous muscular act performed. Every movement or muscular reaction has been under hisconsciouscontrol.
Compare this elaborate, complex scheme with the professional method. He walks up to the ball, and never for an instant is in repose. He takes a glance at the point where he intends to send the ball; then back goes his glance to the ball, and away it goes. There is smooth, easy grace in every movement.
Because the professional has succeeded better is no evidence that he has a superior mind. If it were mind, or golf were a mental game, the amateur should succeed better because he has given more thought to his work.
There is really no mystery in the professional’s success: it is because he has hit his ball truer with no lost motion.
Now, if those golfers who have trouble will stop and consider for a moment the number of things they are thinking of in preparing to strike the ball, they will realize that their effort is decidedly mental; that is, they run over in their minds the things they deem necessary and the positions to be assumed in order to make a successful stroke, while the making of a successful stroke depends upon something they cannot think out at all. It is something they mustfeelout, and that is the delicate balance and timing of the turn of the wrists, etc. It is in the feel of the correct poise of the body and the correct balance of the club while in motion that they should look for guidance.
When a player has the feel of the balance, he makes the stroke with confidence. When he has lost the touch or feel, all the will power in the world will not give him confidence. His next shot is bound to be an experiment. He is then likely to shift his grip, change his stance, alter his club, or make some other kind of experiment. This is going to focus his attention upon the detail he is trying out, and while he may and generally does make a very intelligent effort to accomplish what he at that moment considers the thing of paramount importance, the ball nevertheless fails to go oft as he desires.
Good golf comes from educating the muscles to the correct feel of the balance of the body and club while inmotion. This is essentially physical because it is developed while the muscles are in free and spontaneous action. The average amateur spends most of his time educating himself to a stance with the muscles inreposeand the mind inaction. His swing is then made without his getting the preliminary feel cultivated by the professional. This scheme is therefore decidedly mental.
In devoting the attention first to this detail and then to that, it is evident that the mind is giving an amount of conscious attention to the details out of all proportion to their importance, and a player is thus very apt to neglect the most vital point of all—the feel of the correct balance in the preliminary waggle.
The professional really generalizes, and leaves all the finer details of the swing to his subconsciousness to interpret correctly. The young lad just taking up the game does the same.
It has come home to me that many of the things in golf that I have been in the habit of accepting as gospel are in reality pure nonsense. From careful analysis of my own game and by observing other players, I know that more shots are missed from “stiffening up” than from “looking up.” Also, those players cannot help looking up who stiffen up, as the saying is. The stiffening up is an inhibition or restraint by the sense of feeling. The reason that this inhibition occurs is due to the fact that the player becomes aware through the sense of feeling, without reasoning it out, that he is not going to hit his ball. If it were not so, there would never be any slicing, because players would not pull in their hands in order to connect with the ball. This is a sense reaction pure and simple, and although I may not be able to show this clearly to all at the start, one may be sure that players can plan and calculate all they desire and stand rigidly facing the ball in their own way, yet when they get in action and are in the act of delivering the blow, the sense of feeling, hitherto neglected, is going to reign supreme and govern the accuracy of the effort.
William James says: “Habit diminishes the conscious attention with which our acts are performed.... Habit simplifies the movements required to achieve a given result, makes them more accurate, and diminishes fatigue.” In another work he says, “The more we exercise ourselves at anything, the fewer muscles we employ.”
The habits which are formed in golf, as in everything else in life in which either the mind or muscles are exercised, tend to become fixed, and therefore are difficult to change. Dr. Carpenter very aptly says, “We find ourselves automatically prompted to think, feel, or do what we have been accustomed to think, feel, or do under like circumstances without any consciously formed purpose or anticipation of results.” The rigid, fixed address of the average amateur is the hardest thing to change but it is no benefit, indeed is a decided hindrance, because it results in the player setting his muscles to accommodate his position in the address to a preconceived attitude.
In working out this idea on a number of my friends, I have found that waggling the club and twisting the body in the address are of great help, because they accomplish one thing of vital importance, and that is the relaxing of the various muscles of the body, which all golfers admit is wise. This is one thing, then, which we can readily see is progress. This, as a habit, is a very desirable one to acquire. The next thing it accomplishes is to educate a greater number of the muscles to the feel of the balance and poise of the body while inmotion, instead of inrepose. This is one step in sense education. The next is that, as the player is bringing more and more of his muscles into play, he learns to use some of these muscles which have never before entered properly into the delivery of the blow. The point where I find those players upon whom I have tried out the idea drift away from the benefit derived from an address in motion instead of an address in repose is that they will drift back to setting themselves when they put the club down behind the ball. It looks to them like a careless way of playing. It would be a careless way if it were done without an object. The object is to get the feel. The feel is no mysterious force or formula which will put a great strain upon the intellect, and, as a matter of fact, the attention need not be focused upon it at all. It takes care of itself, without one’s giving thought to it. It is a simple thing to learn to keep one’s balance while in motion, with the club making any sort of pendulum motion. The only thing about it is to do it, and the only thing to think about is to keep the head still while doing it. The ability to keep the head still at such times will gradually improve, because the player is acquiring the habit while in motion. The hardest part of it all is to eradicate from one’s mind all preconceived ideas of what he has been in the habit of believing is necessary to bring off the stroke. In my own case, I think of nothing. I ignore all my former idea of angles, etc., and how everything should look, and just waggle my club to get things loosened up. I do not think of the line, I do not think of the distance, but just look at the ball in an easy, superficial way, and as soon as I feel all my muscles are free and working, I make the stroke. If I feel any muscles setting, I make another waggle to “loosen,” and then swing at the ball.
I have noticed in trying out this idea upon my friends that they learn to waggle fairly well, but do not seem to grasp the importance of getting the gentle play of the body into the preliminary waggle. Through habit they feel they must do the waggling with the club while the secret of the greatest benefit is to get the preliminary feel as well distributed over all the muscles of the body as possible. If this is done successfully, the player will use those muscles which he has just exercised, and will not have to make so great a conscious effort with one set of muscles which he has been keeping in action to overcome another set which he has been keeping in repose.
The point to remember is that skill is acquired gradually by any method, and the player can confidently hope to make progress every month through sense education. The majority of players fail to become as skilful as it is well within their ability to become because they kill off any chance of learning or make it extremely difficult to learn by making a mental process of golf instead of a physical exercise. The brains should be in the finger-tips and muscles.
Tailpiece Page 609