![\"\"](\"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2011\/04\/rory-mcilroy1.jpg\")
<\/a>Rory -- Before the Lizard Bit<\/p><\/div>McIlroy showed his grit in the stand-up interview he did with Peter Kostis just moments after missing a very short putt for birdie on 18\u2014the putt that would have, as Jim Nantz noted, let him break 80.\u00a0 \u201cCan Rory McIlroy break 80?\u201d is a question no one ever expected to hear posed. \u00a0Rory didn\u2019t duck Kostis\u2019s questions about what happened\u2014which was to acknowledge\u00a0that he had lost control of his emotions after the pulled tee shot on ten, got out of his routines, and forgot what had enabled him to walk to the first tee on Sunday with a four shot lead.\u00a0 He broke under the pressure–first slowly, and then all at once.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There was little McIlroy could do to recover after the anxiety kicked in.\u00a0 That\u2019s not a question of his character, but reflects\u00a0a basic biological truth, according to a fine new book by a Portland Oregon, writer named Taylor Clark.\u00a0 Nerve<\/span> explains why Rory\u2019s fine-motor skills skedaddled when anxiety stepped in and confidence fled.<\/p>\n A lizard lurks in your brain, Clark explains, concealed and quiescent until something startles it awake.\u00a0 Then the reptile takes charge, obliterating your deliberate self as it poses its three timeless options: fight, flee, or freeze. \u00a0\u00a0McIlroy walked onto the tenth tee a confident and composed man, but after that pull\u00a0hook into the\u00a0woods, the lizard took over.<\/p>\n Golfers have long been acquainted with the lizard\u2019s tyranny, even if they have called it by other names.\u00a0 \u00a0Great golfers learn to live with the lizard, signing a peace treaty that will let them control their swings even when the wind is swirling on Sunday at the Masters.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0But what gives rise to the performance anxiety so many of us feel on the golf course, even when playing with no more at stake than a five dollar Nassau and the chance to feel smug in the bar?\u00a0\u00a0 And what role might the lizard have played in McIlroy\u2019s collapse, or in Greg Norman\u2019s meltdown at Augusta in 1996\u2014the afternoon Rick Reilly called \u201cthe equivalent of a four-hour air ball.\u201d<\/p>\n Nerve<\/em> is an account of how this residual kernel of our reptilian ancestry known as the amygdala, <\/em>which I am calling the lizard,\u00a0operates\u2014and how it might be influencing the performance of even a world-class athlete like McIlroy or Norman.<\/p>\n Nerve Will Help Any Golfer Understand How Easy It Is to Lose Control<\/p><\/div>Clark\u2019s examination of how fear works begins with a survey of the latest science on the existence and functions of each of our two brains: the one we\u2019re proud of, that writes love songs and puts men on the moon, and invents a game where you hit a ball across a vast landscape of turf grass and heather in hopes of sinking it in a tiny hole off in the distance; and that skulking lizard, able to make us strike out, freeze, or melt in terror.\u00a0 \u00a0Once the amygdala is engaged, Clark makes clear, it\u2019s the part of our brain that\u2019s in charge.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n From an evolutionary point of view, the persistence of this lizard soul provides us with an early warning system that is faster and more reliable than the more recently-evolved rational parts of our brain.\u00a0 \u201cOur brains are actually designed,\u201d Clark writes, \u201cto thwart<\/em> our efforts to consciously override the fear response.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s why when the lizard appears, it is so hard to persuade him to return to his cave.\u00a0 How many more times is McIlroy likely to four-putt from twenty feet in his career<\/em>?\u00a0 The answer would be none<\/em>, so long as the lizard stays home.<\/p>\n Why should that be so?\u00a0 Charles Darwin, puzzled over this question\u2014that is, why can\u2019t we control our reflexive responses\u2014 performed an experiment.\u00a0 Determined not to flinch, Darwin would stick his face against the glass of a puff adder\u2019s cage at the London zoo, waiting for the snake to strike.<\/p>\n \u201cTime after time, no matter how strong his determination,\u201d Clark writes, Darwin \u201cgot the same result.\u00a0 \u2018As soon as the blow was struck\u2026.my resolution went for nothing and I jumped a yard or two backward with astonishing rapidity.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n This automatic reaction protects us by stimulating our bodies to perform amazing physical feats–actions that our conscious selves are incapable of accomplishing.\u00a0 \u00a0Our adrenalin arsenal is commandeered by General Lizard, and not by the deliberate, cautious staff officers patrolling our frontal lobes.<\/p>\n Fear is the primal emotion.\u00a0 Fear can get us out of danger.\u00a0 If I see terror on your<\/em> face, I know to run (or perhaps freeze).\u00a0\u00a0 The problem for modern humans, who are unlikely ever to encounter a predator face to face (other than our fellow man), is that our fear system learns to engage over seemingly trivial or irrational triggers, such as whether or not to get on an airplane\u2014or the challenge of hitting a shot over that lake fronting the green on the 18th<\/sup> hole at Pumpkin Ridge\u2019s Ghost Creek.<\/p>\n Once he\u2019s laid out the basic understanding of how fear works in the brain, Clark segues into a long discussion of how we can learn to deal with our fears\u2014 how we can tame the lizard, converting it from an incapacitating ogre to a passive observer.<\/p>\n As Nerve<\/em> shifts from popular science to self-help, it stops short of providing \u00a0a practical guide to fear management.\u00a0 It does, however, offer a series of useful suggestions and strategies for how someone trapped in a cycle of anxiety and worry can learn to cope.\u00a0 Clark prepares for this primer through an examination of a series of case studies that show how people confronting real crises\u2014landing a crippled plane, fighting an overwhelming enemy, throwing a major league fastball over the plate\u2014have managed to harness their adrenalin and get on with the business at hand.\u00a0\u00a0 We are all capable of learning how to manage our fears, Clark contends.<\/p>\n \u201cFear springs from the subconscious amygdala,\u201d Clark writes, \u201cnot the thinking cortex, so trying to think your way out of feeling afraid is like using a hammer to twist in a screw.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0Still, he recommends a series of steps for making peace with the lizard.\u00a0\u00a0 This is the kind of planning and learning that our big brains specialize in.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The socially constructed fears Clark describes\u2014fear of flying or worrying about losing a job or the terror of slicing a tee shot out of bounds\u2014don\u2019t have exactly the same neurological basis as avoiding a striking puff adder.<\/p>\n \u201cFear,\u201d Clark explains, \u201cis primarily physiological and anxiety is mainly cognitive, but stress can come from the body, the mind, or both at once.\u00a0 Stress is the body\u2019s response to circumstances we perceive as trying, strenuous, or just plain irritating.\u201d<\/p>\n Now we\u2019re back on the 10th<\/sup> tee with Rory at Augusta, as he watches his drive hook into the trees and disappear from view.\u00a0 \u201cWhen the brain\u2019s fear system revs up,\u201d Clark explains, \u201cadrenalin directs oxygen and glucose into the large muscle groups that enable us to fight or flee, disrupting our more intricate motor skills.\u201d\u00a0 Is this starting to sound familiar?\u00a0 \u201cHands become shaky and clammy with lack of blood flow.\u00a0 Heart rate and breathing quicken, providing the body with more oxygen but dealing another blow to fine motor control.\u00a0 Digestion and saliva production shut down, bringing on butterflies and cotton mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n Greg Norman\u2019s collapse at the 1996 Masters was a text-book case of \u201cexplicit monitoring theory\u201d\u2014a fancy way of saying \u201ctoo much thinking.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWhen anxiety turns our attention inward and we try to consciously control a highly rehearsed skill,\u201d Clark writes, \u201cwe essentially ditch our hard-won subconscious expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n Greg Norman Feeling the Lizard's Bite in 1996<\/p><\/div>\n Brain scans of anxious athletes, Clark reports, look like \u201ctraffic jams.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0Players who perform well under pressure activate fewer neural regions.\u00a0 As one expert told Clark, \u201csimple mind, consistent performance. Complex mind, greater variability in the performance<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n Which brings us back to Norman.\u00a0 A sports psychologist named Shane Murphy \u201csurveyed the video of Norman\u2019s shots from all four days\u201d of the 1996 Masters.\u00a0 \u201cHis pre-shot routine on the last day was eight or nine seconds longer than his pre-shot routine on the first day,\u201d Murphy told Clark.\u00a0 \u201cSomething was clearly unsettling him, and it looked like overthinking.\u201d<\/p>\n So maybe all the commentators who counsel golfers starting to lose their concentration to \u201cslow down\u201d aren\u2019t giving them sensible advice.\u00a0 Not too quick, but not too slow, either\u2014getting into the \u201cnormal\u201d groove is the key to success.\u00a0 But how do you do that when you already feel as if you\u2019ve fallen off the roof?<\/p>\n Experts who have studied how people react to crises\u2014who have tried to discover what separates the helpless from the heroes\u2014have learned a great deal about what goes on in the mind and body when the amygdala engages.<\/p>\n \u201cFear is good,<\/em>\u201d Clark insists.\u00a0 \u201cIt protects us, gives body and character to existence, points us in the direction of what we value.\u00a0 We couldn\u2019t make decisions or perform our best or even survive without it.\u201d<\/p>\n But if we haven\u2019t learned how to respond when the lizard takes command, we experience what Rory McIlroy endured on Sunday.\u00a0\u00a0 When, at the end of the round, Mcllroy put a positive spin on his collapse, saying he hoped to learn from it and expected to be competing for a major championship again before too long, he was reacting sensibly to his what had happened\u2014the lizard was back in its cave, and McIlroy\u2019s rational mode reasserted itself.<\/p>\n \u201cWe may not be able to reason like champions when disaster strikes,\u201d Clark writes, \u201cand we might find our experience of reality unhelpfully distorted, but we do have one means of stacking the odds in our favor.\u00a0 Through training, we can preload our instincts.\u201d<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the path forward for McIlroy.\u00a0 We know when he\u2019s relaxed and confident he can play golf as well as anyone alive.\u00a0 Now that he has experienced the lizard\u2019s frontal assault, he can learn how to prepare for it next time\u2014not to hold the lizard at bay, which is impossible, but to be prepared for the next emergency.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t need more time on the range\u2014he just needs to learn how, as Clark writes, \u201cto work with fear.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>