Some believe genius is measured in numbers.\u00a0\u00a0 I believe that is far too limiting.<\/p>\n
What about golf genius?\u00a0\u00a0 There is the innovative designing genius of course architect Pete Dye.\u00a0 If you watched the PGA professionals tackle Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin you likely wondered, ‘wow – how would I\u00a0score if I played there?’\u00a0\u00a0 Or maybe, ‘how in the world did he come up with a design like this?’\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Consider the shotmaking genius of Tiger Woods during his Tiger Slam\u00a0or the old school players like Nicklaus and Watson who had to shape and fashion creative shots throughout their careers.\u00a0\u00a0 And what about the late Moe Norman, an eccentric savant who was\u00a0thought to be the best and straightest ball striker ever?\u00a0\u00a0 Do you – or would you like to – share some of their best qualities?<\/p>\n
You can if you simply make yourself aware of what similarities exist.\u00a0\u00a0 In observing the persona of geniuses, successful and otherwise throughout the ages, you can take their best traits and apply them to many aspects of your golf game.<\/p>\n
Remember the Pirate\u2019s Code in Disney\u2019s Pirates of the Caribbean:\u00a0 \u2018The Curse of the Black Pearl\u2019?\u00a0\u00a0 That they were really only \u2018guidelines\u2019?\u00a0\u00a0 Pirates were geniuses at survival.\u00a0 With deference to the Rules of Golf, which you should follow, you should toss anything else you are traditionally bound to because someone says so.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There’s an argument\u00a0 for fresh and\u00a0novel thinking:\u00a0 when Michelle Wie was a 15-year-old golf phenom, what if she had thought that girls her age aren\u2019t supposed to hit the ball so far or play in PGA Tour events?\u00a0\u00a0 Or if Babe Zaharias considered competing on a Professional Women\u2019s Tour would not be popular?\u00a0\u00a0 And, in 1972, what if collegiate policy creators sloughed off the idea that girls without access to women\u2019s college sports teams came under the guise of \u2018too bad so sad\u2019 and never enacted Title IX?<\/p>\n
Visualization is a psychological technique.\u00a0 But geniuses often view concepts as moving pictures.\u00a0 They can see effects, possibilities, and net results.\u00a0 Dr. Bob Rotella is still regarded as one of the top mental game teachers and certainly uses genius qualities in instructing his pupils not to hit a shot until they have seen it in their mind\u2019s eye.\u00a0\u00a0 Inventors often see a finished product and a process before they ever know how they\u2019ll accomplish it.\u00a0 Don\u2019t be discouraged if you can \u2018see\u2019 things others can\u2019t.<\/p>\n
If we didn\u2019t believe this we would still be using gutta percha golf balls, hickory shafted clubs while finishing our swings in the old reverse-C position that destroyed many backs.\u00a0\u00a0 One can still play with outdated equipment and swing techniques, but why?\u00a0\u00a0 Can you imagine the industry\u2019s astonishment if Paula Creamer appeared on the first tee one day with equipment from 100 years ago?\u00a0 Envision the plight of the first inventors to come up with different materials for club shafts\u00a0or dimple patterns on the golf ball or \u2018metal\u2019 woods in place of the familiar persimmons.\u00a0\u00a0 They were likely ostracized.\u00a0 Fortunately, these folks pressed on and you should too.\u00a0 Try new equipment and swing techniques.\u00a0 Don’t be afraid to use technology for analysis purposes as well.<\/p>\n
Sometimes you know something but don\u2019t know why<\/em> you know it.\u00a0\u00a0 In the psychic world, that is termed \u2018clairsentience\u2019 and it\u2019s OK.\u00a0\u00a0 Everyday I turn on my computer, do not understand the mechanics, and all I know is it has something to do with zeroes and ones and it works (usually).\u00a0 No one knows everything about everything.\u00a0 You simply accept it.\u00a0 You use it.\u00a0 And if you’re smart, you’ll use the genius within to trust the mechanisms illustrating what you cannot see about your golf game.\u00a0\u00a0 When you are on the course, remember those images and pair them with all the other information you\u2019ve learned along the way to create a more confident you.\u00a0 Then, let Bill Gates worry about the zeroes and ones while you amass the 2\u2019s, 3\u2019s and 4\u2019s on your scorecard.<\/p>\n One of my favorite Albert Einstein stories has to do with a needle in a haystack.\u00a0\u00a0 Most people would quit when they found the proverbial needle.\u00a0 Einstein, on the other hand, would search the entire haystack until he was certain there were no more needles.\u00a0\u00a0 There are always other ways to do things.\u00a0 The mediocre player quits when he or she finds an answer.\u00a0 The champion player doesn’t stop until he or she finds the <\/em><\/strong>answer………and then keeps looking for something which may have been overlooked.<\/p>\n Ben Hogan was a golf swing genius.\u00a0 He would try technique after technique and practice until his hands bled.\u00a0\u00a0 No. 1 ranked Vijay Singh is also a swing genius and is renowned to be one of the most prolific players on the practice tee, even this late in his PGA Tour career.\u00a0\u00a0 Beethoven consistently wrote tons of music even though he could not hear.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As a starving author, Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling kept writing Harry-type material until the large\u00a0 box it was in began to overflow.\u00a0 Even though she had no market for the Harry Potter series then, she just kept doing it, adventure after adventure.\u00a0\u00a0 Imagine what a scant amount of practice could do for your game?\u00a0 Practice doesn’t train your muscles as much as it trains your mind to think confidently.<\/p>\n In today\u2019s busy world, people think if you aren\u2019t constantly producing, you aren\u2019t cutting it.\u00a0\u00a0 This is ill-advised methodology.\u00a0\u00a0 A genius knows that a good amount of thinking and imaging, properly placed, can alleviate many hours of useless toiling.\u00a0\u00a0 The next time you are tempted to hit the practice dome and pay by the hour, don\u2019t.\u00a0\u00a0 Instead, choose to hit by the bucket and take the time to think things through, analyze what you did, visualize the shot and determine what you will do to the next shot.\u00a0\u00a0 Genius of any kind cannot be rushed.\u00a0 The kid lying prone under a tree on a beautiful summer\u2019s day with eyes closed may not be as lazy as you think.\u00a0\u00a0 Every day I walk four to six miles and use that time to think about a lot of things, with golf and golf stories high on the list.<\/p>\n It is very easy to remember the bad experiences you have had in life and in golf.\u00a0\u00a0 File those along with the good experiences but pay a bit more attention to the positive.\u00a0 It is important to remember what has worked \u2013 and not worked \u2013 in the past.\u00a0 Good swing thoughts should be written down in a notebook.\u00a0 Instructional genius Harvey Penick did exactly that with his dog-eared spiral notebooks, literally falling apart with anecdotes, comparisons, and words of wisdom.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A friend suggested he compile them all into a book.\u00a0 Thus was born \u2018The Little Red Book\u2019 series.<\/p>\n Remember when you were a kid and all you did was play?\u00a0\u00a0 Did you know that many forms of play and recreation are vital elements in the development of motor skills and other brain functions as we are growing up?\u00a0\u00a0 So, why do we assume anything changes as we age?\u00a0\u00a0 Are we ever too old to stop playing?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Geniuses know better.<\/p>\n Sometimes in the quest for the perfect swing, you may be given many swing thoughts to achieve a certain move.\u00a0 None of them may work.\u00a0\u00a0 If you are having a swing boo-boo and the first or second or third swing guru you visit does not help you solve the problem, keep going until you find the one who does.\u00a0 It took me over 30 years (and many bad shots) to finally learn the proper relationship between the lower body and the upper body in order to produce a more powerful, sound swing.\u00a0\u00a0 One good visualization tip from professional swing genius Brad Dean at Crystal Mountain Resort in pastoral\u00a0Thompsonville, Michigan, and the swing picture was Crystal clear.\u00a0 The dots were finally connected.\u00a0\u00a0 And if you want to know what that tip was, you\u2019ll have to sign my Blog and ask\u2026\u2026\u2026..<\/p>\n Now, don\u2019t you feel a little bit smarter already?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ‘I got a thinkin’ problem……’ lamented the singer in a hit country song. Golfers suffer from it too. There IS a way out of the brain fog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[64],"class_list":["post-194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-instruction","category-golf","tag-golf-genius-is-lurking-everywhere-are-you-smart-enough-to-recognize-it"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":264,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions\/264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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