Final Essay

Nick Davis

5/10/11

Per.1

Mind over Matter

                When it comes to golf, the human brain is more powerful than expected. Many people over estimate what their brain is capable of when they are swinging a golf club at a ball. Most golfers approach a shot with their minds full of thoughts, whether its swing thoughts or telling themselves to avoid a hazard on the course. Believe it or not, this is the exact opposite of what a golfer should do. This happens to amateur's, such as high school golfers and even the professional golfers. In addition to having a positive mind set on the golf course, this is true for everything else that goes on in your life.

                When a golfer approaches a shot with a mind full of thoughts, many things happen. These things could be getting tense, distracted or lack of confidence. A golf swing is all about rhythm and timing, when a golfer gets tense it ruins there rhythm and throws there timing off. This will cause the golfer to miss hit the golf ball and be very inconsistent. In addition to that, it decreases the confidence the golfer has, he/she will not believe in themselves which will lead to the inability to strike the golf ball well. When a golfer loses confidence they will start to analyze every little thing about their swing and what they're doing wrong. This turns into an endless circle of terror for any golfer. Take Rory McIlroy for example, he was in the lead during the Masters for the first three days, he was playing the best golf of his life. Commentators kept repeating how relaxed and in sync he was, then on the fourth day disaster struck. Rory blew up, shanking the ball and miss hitting a lot of shots; this caused him to over think, tense up and lose confidence. People could tell this by his score and how he looked on the course. Rory ended up losing the Masters because of his poor round on the fourth day.

                The ideal goal for golfing is to remain loose, be free minded, and have confidence in every shot you make. This will be the best way for someone to succeed on the golf course. By doing all of these things a golfer will shoot lower scores and have a lot more fun on the course. Take Charl Schwartzel for example, he won the Masters. Many people didn't even know who Charl was until he did win, he came into the tournament not very well known and not expected to win. Watching Charl play was unreal; he was making incredible shots and making lots of putts from many distances. He looked very relaxed the whole time, even when the pressure was on. He remained positive and kept a smile on his face; in result his score showed exactly what he earned at the end of the week. What Charl did at the masters is a perfect example of how any golfer should play during a round.

                Good ways to stay loose on the course is maintaining a positive attitude; this means that if you hit a bad shot you won't let it affect the rest of your game. If you hit a bad shot a golfer needs to shake it off and go up to their next shot with confidence. Another way for golfers to stay loose is to listen to music while they warm up, this allows a golfer to get into their "zone" making them focus more and putting them in the right mindset. This doesn't work for everyone, people have different ways of getting into their zone, so its recommended to do whatever works best for you. Another way to stay loose and relaxed is by observing the scenery at the golf course, just take it all in, this helps keep the mind off of the golf swing. The only thing that should go through a golfers mind when they are standing over the ball is the visualization of exactly how they want their shot to look like. A golfer needs to pick a target to aim at and focus on nothing but putting the ball as close to that target as possible. The less a golfer thinks about swing mechanics, the better off they will be.

                During this project I have noticed similarities to golf and the everyday world. In a classroom grades are very diverse from one another. This tends to be because someone kids are more motivated than others and are willing to work harder. I posted an essay for both classes to fill out in order to help me with my research. Surprisingly I was a little disappointed when I saw that only seven other classmates filled this out. But it also helped me with my data and helped me with getting my point across through this project. I gave everyone the chance to take this survey and reminded them multiple times that that should, the seven that did show me that they are the self motivators and they are the ones who want to get stuff done and succeed. Im not sure about why the others didn't but they knew they were able to, they just chose not to fill out the survey. This goes for a lot of class work that is assigned throughout the year, if something is assigned and a kid does not want to do it then the likeliness of them doing it is very slim. The only reason most students do the work is because they are motivated by grades, but I believe if the grades go away then so does the work of students. Then schools offer electives, in my opinion the grades are more impressive because the students in these classrooms want to be there, they want to learn and they want to succeed in what they are doing.

                After doing all of my research through golf and just in the classrooms I think it is very clear that the mind is much more powerful than anyone believes. If a student is given a simple boring task but they don't want to do it, then they probably won't or the performance level will be low. On the other hand, if a student is given a challenging task, they will want to achieve it and perform to their best. They see a challenge that they want to overcome and they will do whatever it takes because they are motivating themselves. So the next time you are given a task, think about it, are you self motivated and interested by it or are you bored and careless about it? Whichever way you think will determine the result of any task you seek.