Have you ever wondered why amateurs and professional golfers have so much trouble duplicating a perfect swing? The answer: It’s in your head. That’s what Stanford University’s David Orenstein said in the January 17, 2007, issue of Stanford Report. Researchers concluded that the main reason you can’t move the same way every time is because your brain can’t plan the swing the same way each time. It’s as if the brain tries to solve the problem of planning how to move but does it anew. Practice and intense training can help the brain solve the problem, but people simply aren’t wired for consistency like computers or machines. Instead people improvise by default.
The Stanford study concluded that movement variability is not primarily a mechanical phenomenon as once thought. Researchers found that less than half of our inconsistent movement lies in the muscles. Therefore our brains connect the rest of the dots. Our nervous system was not designed to do the same thing repeatedly. It was designed to be flexible. Heck, we never even brush our teeth the exact same way, but we are effective at doing a good job with practice. Kind of puts a new perspective on “practice makes perfect.” Nobody will ever be perfect, but that’s okay!
Golfers like Tiger Woods started playing at a very early age. Even though he had a head start on many of us, it was thanks to countless hours of practice perfecting his talent that he actually created more gray matter, a vital component in our brains directly affecting memory, thought, coordination, language and consciousness. Those who have more gray matter are much more capable of executing a consistent swing under pressure. Selecting the right club, accurately managing the elements, and coordinating all the body’s moving parts with the right timing require a brain that has learned from trial-and-error repetitions.
Past studies have shown that the number of hours spent practicing is directly related to a golfer’s handicap, the number representing a player’s recent playing ability. K. Anders Ericsson, a Florida State professor and the “expert on experts,” has spent over 25 years studying what it takes to become an elite athlete in any sport. The number of practice hours required that keeps coming up is 10,000 hours! Ericsson contends that if you’re willing to dedicate that amount of structured time in any skill, you have the potential to rise to the top.
Some experts argue that practice alone won’t make you a million dollar baby, that we all start with different levels of innate abilities. We can all recall those kids who just seemed to be great athletes. They could run faster, jump higher and catch on quicker to seemingly any sport. While that may be true, Ericsson says the rest of us shouldn’t use that as an excuse. He believes there are no characteristics of the brain or body constraining an individual from reaching an expert level.
Michael J. Lavery, a pioneer in the field of applied neuroscience and brain function with 25 years experience in research in the plasticity of the human brain and how best to harness ones full potential, has a theory that the hands actually grow the brain and that this growth is due in major part to the myelination process. Look it up! This in turn changes the brain and body chemistry, resulting in increased muscle mass and muscle density. Some people believe the repetitive exercise of hitting a golf ball up in the air over and over again with the small end of a hammer, switching from left hand to right hand, is one way to grow our brains. They contend this drill actually builds “whole brain power.” Seems like it might have some merit. Remember when we first saw Tiger and others bounce a golf ball off a nine iron with both hands and then with perfect timing hit it square to its intended target?
The long and short of it is that practice is never going to be overrated, no matter how good you get. However, given how our brains and body work, no one will ever truly master this “head” game. This is what makes it so elusive yet exciting when you do hit a perfect shot or putt! And I wouldn’t want it any other way.
See ya on the links.
