What You Emotionalize, You Immortalize
What You Emotionalize, You Immortalize
by Dr. T. J. Tomasi, Keiser University College of Golf Senior Faculty and Director of Research
What can you do to make yourself a better golf learner?
The answer is: reward yourself when you do something well.
Sounds easy enough, but, as we shall see, that’s not what most golfers do.
Research published in the July 2009 issue of the journal Neuron documents a neural mechanism that allows reward signals to accumulate over time, thereby cementing learning – a process I describe in my book The 30 Second Swing as “laying down Tracks of Excellence.”
Dr. Mark H. Histed, from the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, says “In order to learn, you need to remember what you did before and whether that action was beneficial or not.”
The researchers also found that many of the neurons they studied were wired together by the delivery of a reward when the subject did something well.
They also found that withholding reward on failure thinned out the neural trace so that it wasn’t remembered.
The rewards in the experiment were like a pat on the back or a peppermint patty, but the internal self-reward of a spurt of your own pleasure chemicals is also is a very strong re-enforcer – and the vehicle that triggers this spurt is human emotion.
The Brain’s Own Peppermint Patty
Emotions are often thought to be outside of our control, but this is not the case.
In fact, through training, humans can learn to manage their emotions – top flight actors, Special Forces like the Navy Seals, and elite athletes are examples of people who have learned to intervene in order to excel at what they do.
Emotion is a prime time marker of behavior, and when you’re happy about doing something well, pleasure chemicals called endorphins are released – they are your brain’s “peppermint patty” reward system.
In his book Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman outlines the effects of emotions on memories: “…the brain has two memory systems, one for ordinary facts (System-I) and one for emotionally-charged experiences (System-II).”
System II experiences are permanently stored and more easily recalled because they are emotionally tagged.
Just Reverse It
Most golfers emotionalize the bad and neuter the good, so their System-I bin is full of good shots, whereas their System-II bin overflows with all the bad shots they are sure to remember.
As a golfer, you need to reverse this – emotionalize the good and neuter the bad, making it a fact that needs to be addressed on the practice tee.
As soon as you see the ball in the air, you should begin evaluating its flight.
If the outcome is good, emotionalize it so it’s deposited in your long term memory System-II bin.
The anchor could be a smile, which has been shown to release endorphins or a more demonstrable fist pump— there are many kinds of anchors, but have a go-to response ready for each shot type that is designed to vet the contents of your golf memory system.
The tough shot to deal with is the bad shot but you can learn to mark it correctly by using discipline.
When there is a bad outcome, acknowledge it as a un-emotionalized fact [it just is] that will guide your practice – you’re not in denial, you’re simply using a tactic that files bad shots in the fact-orientated S-I bin.
Is this hard to do – yes! But that is the good news because most of your competitors won’t do it so you’ll have a big edge when you do.
Keep a notepad where you jot down things to work on as you play.
Science has shown that just the act of keeping a list defangs the failure.
Do this for a month, and you’ll lay some groundwork…. do it for the rest of your life, and you build the scaffolding necessary to shape a pro-type golf game.
If you enjoyed this golf tip, here’s how you can get even more. Contact Keiser University College of Golf about a golf management degree.
