Organizing Your Body - Graeme McDowell and Process
To My Students and Friends in the Game:
I spend a lot of time with my students working on Process. I use the terms Think Box (the decision on what shot to hit), Play Box (the player’s movements and thoughts at address), and Memory Box (what a player does following the shot and between shots).
Graeme McDowell, the 2010 U.S. Open champion, shared his thoughts about Process in a podcast interview with his mental skills coach, Karl Morris. This is a great roadmap to improving your Process. https://brainbooster.libsyn.com/the-road-to-becoming-a-major-winner-graeme-McDowell-149
McDowell began with a story. In the 2008 Scottish Open at Loch Lomond, he had a one-shot lead after 14. As he walked to the 15th tee, inexplicably fear hit him. He visualized himself topping the ball off the tee. Yes, topping the ball.
Many players would have turned to a mechanical thought, like “more lead wrist flexion”, to drive the ball in the fairway. Great players, on the other hand, focus on their process and react athletically to their target to keep the fear at bay. They use their Process to “organize their body.” That is what McDowell did. He regrouped, bombed it down the middle, made birdie and won the tournament.
McDowell offers the following guidance about pre-shot routines. First, understand how you react under pressure. McDowell finds that his thinking narrows and that he becomes too analytical. He tends to focus on what caused the last poor swing or the precise movement he needs to make on the next swing. Sometimes, he takes an extra practice swing in his pre-shot routine or takes too long to read the putt.
Does this sound familiar? Awareness of how you react to stress helps you develop processes to deal with stress when it pops.
McDowell then described his process when the cloud of fear appears. First, he “tosses the bad thought into the waste bin.” He visualizes throwing the thought away, like a piece of trash. It is like the Zen master watching the cloud move across the sky. Let the thought go.
McDowell then “creates the shot. He “knows what the bad shot looks like” – he threw that one away. He goes about finding the shot he will play. He determines the club he is going to hit, the shot he is going to hit with that club, the final target for the shot, and the start line. He creates a clear, in-color visual of the shot he will hit. He then makes a mini swing to mirror the feeling of the shot he has created in his visualization.
Next, McDowell takes a deep breath. The deep breath is essential. It is the transition from analysis to athletics. It is the point where he shuts down the left-brain – the part of the brain that does critical thinking – and turns over the execution of the shot to his right-brain – the creative side of his brain.
His pre-shot breath has two distinct parts – in and out. (What else could they be – but hang with me). It is the out-breath that is the cue. The body has organized itself to hit a great shot based on his Think Box process. It now knows what to do. The out-breath is the trigger for him to execute. In the words of the Captain of the Enterprise (forgive me young folks), “Engage.”
After he completes his deep breath, McDowell steps into the Play Box. In the Play Box, his process is precise and consistent. More important, it is athletic. He keeps his body in motion. It is “waggle and look” repeated three times. Each look is designed to recapture the visual he had in the Think Box. Then, he FIRES. Here is McDowell in action. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6oACBm2yb8
A consistent pre-shot routine is the trigger for quality golf shots. It allows you to let the shot happen as opposed to trying to control your swing, which always is a mistake. McDowell said that “If you get a good visual and execute your pre-shot process, your body will do what it knows how to do.”
Great wisdom here from a great player. Be an athlete, not a technician, to shoot lower scores!
Play Well.