Interesting Insights from Rory Mcllroy's Psych Doc

[Mensabum]

It goes deeper than that, but I think you know that. Muscle memory (all in the brain) is all subconscious and is a very hard thing to forget. Just stroking a cue or swinging a golf club involves dozens of muscles in your body, each one needing a signal from your brain to "fire" (both when to fire and how much). Through repetition, that sequence and its timing become subconscious, resulting in what we call "coordination". All the brain knows is to send signals to specific neurons at the right time. The more precise the brain gets at doing that, the more coordinated we become. If something happens to just one of the neurons involved in that sequence (killed by alcohol or by age or by a stroke, etc.), the brain doesn't know that. So it keeps trying to fire that neuron and others (there are multiple neural pathways to each muscle in the body, each taking a different amount of time to arrive at the right muscle, like roads on a map) until it gets some kind of signal that the muscle fired, but by the time it has the timing and coordination of the entire sequence is off. It takes the brain a long time to realize that neuron is dead and to start with another, and even more time to coordinate the different sequencing that has to occur, because in the time it takes to "forget" that one neuron different muscle memory develops, which may or may not be right and may or may not have unintended side effects. Maybe someday there will be a way besides repetition to "rewire" the subconscious brain - that's something to hope for.

That's probably more than anyone here wants to know, but it's become fascinating to me since a series of minor strokes destroyed my pool stroke, my golf swing, and pretty much anything that required "coordination" overnight. Literally, it's like I physically aged 25 years overnight, but retained all of my cognitive abilities. It's tough to overcome, both physically and mentally.

I don't think it's unreasonable to get help understanding the relationship between conscious and subconscious thinking. Maybe Nicklaus would have won 30 majors with the help of a psychological coach. Like the answer to the age-old question "How many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of a Tootsie Pop?", the world may never know.

Feel for ya. That's just awful bro.

 

[RacerX750]

Post Masters win, Bob Rotella, Rory's psych counselor had this to say -- just transpose pool where the word golf is...

"A former professor of sports psychology at the University of Virginia who has counseled golfers for more than four decades, Rotella said Tuesday that part of his strategy for improving their mental approach is to instill some helpful perspective.
“We begin with the idea that golf — by design — is a game of mistakes, and if you love the game of golf, you have to love that it’s a game of mistakes,” he said. “You remind them that other players are playing the same game, so they’re all going to make a lot of mistakes. The second part is because you are a human being, you’re going to make mistakes that you can’t believe you made, and you have to accept that.”

Lou Figueroa

"The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance" has some good insights that apply to all sports.

Amazon.com

 

[Tobermory]

I haven’t hit a golf ball in about thirty years. Probably longer. Recently I was in a Goodwill store and there was a collection of used golf clubs from the ‘70’s and ‘80’s. I picked out a driver and looked at the size of the head. I burst into laughter when I saw the size of it. Could I actually at one time make a semi-solid hit on a teed up golf ball with that tiny thing?

Here’s a suggestion for not having to lengthen the existing golf courses to keep the pro’s from embarrassing Augusta or Saint Andrews, or any other course. Take the sand out of all the traps. Replace it with grass. Let that grass grow to about six inches. Sit back and watch the fun. You might want to have ear plugs for the ladies and small children in the gallery.

By the way, I kinda think Sam Snead, if he were somehow reconstituted, could probably keep up.

As for “The Inner Game of Tennis,” how in the world are you supposed to shut up Self I?

I’ve enjoyed following this conversation.

 

[markjames]

pleasures of small motions

is a good read, and i must say the original edition, somewhat shorter, is better

bob fancher