If, like me, you’ve ever thought the subconscious or unconscious mind is a bit mysterious, think again. We’ve got a conscious mind and unconscious mind for good reasons. There are no real mental golf tips here other than to ignore popular golf psychology and stop trying to “get out of your way”. Instead, learn how you work!

What is the Conscious Mind?

• Like a torch in a huge warehouse, it lights up everything you are aware of right now.
• It is rational and logical, so it is perfect for thinking, analysing, calculating, making decisions and leading, rather like the captain of a ship. It likes practice and good mental golf tips to gain more control.
• Unfortunately the conscious mind has limited capacity. Try and move each of your 656 muscles consciously to swing and you’ll find out just how limited!

What is the Unconscious Mind?

• It’s the rest of the warehouse, everything you’re not aware of right now!
• It stores memories – from your poor shots to your great shots, from your criticisms to your compliments.
• It holds your beliefs and motivations which either limit you or help you
• It controls your emotions – whether it’s fear or confidence, frustration or calm presence, stress or “the zone” – ever tried thinking your way out of nerves under pressure? – it won’t work!
• It is your gut instincts – for example, logically you might choose a club or read a green, yet know that it’s not right.
• It controls your behaviours – your swing, your putting stroke, your rhythm, your energy, your habitual responses, your good shots, your bad shots.
• It gives you the ability to visualise and feel shots into the hole.
• It doesn’t speak English! – it uses pictures, sounds, feelings, smells and tastes. This is why it doesn’t do negatives well – saying to yourself “Don’t hit it in the trees” creates what kind of picture? You’re much better off picturing and feeling the shot.
• And just as a crew running their ship, the unconscious mind runs our bodies – if you want a good swing, you’d better ask nicely if you don’t want a mutiny!

To give you an idea of how vast the potential is of our unconscious minds, each of our eyes have 6 million direct contacts to the brain, only the central 40 of which, the fovea, relate to the conscious mind. The rest in the periphery are for the unconscious. Learning to use peripheral vision (the Playing State) is a key tool I coach to develop access to the rest of that 6 million!

The best golfers have the best golf psychology – they have the best relationship between their conscious and unconscious minds – between the captain and the crew. When this inner relationship works, the captain gives the co-ordinates, the crew control the ship to get there – simple! When the captain doesn’t trust the crew and interferes with their job, for example by trying to take control of the swing, the crew eventually mutiny and ship could go anywhere! Or when the crew are given mixed instructions, again the results speak for themselves.

So your aim as a golfer is to learn how to talk and listen to your crew – how to use your head and your heart in tandem. I’ve written on how to trust your swing, how to trust your gut and how to develop your peripheral awareness for swinging and putting. In fact all of my mental golf tips are designed to give you less to think about on the golf course so you can give yourself single minded leadership.

If you would like help in using golf psychology to lead yourself to lower scores, I’m giving away more mental golf tips through a series of six free audio tipcasts for the toughest parts of the game. I’m committed to helping you develop your inner game of golf psychology, so sign up for my newsletter now if you would like to receive these.

Love every shot!

Adam Sprackling

Mental Golf Coach