More on losing your game!

Stress, Geometry, Chaos Theory

I proposed last week that there is a scientific explanation for the mysterious disappearance that you experience when – for no apparent reason – you lose your game.

Golf Geometry

The disintegration process involves tiny micro-changes that at some point sum up to ruin your swing. This process centers around the original conditions that exist before each swing such as the aim of the clubface and alignment of your body. Based on the laws of motion when the clubface is perpendicular to the path of the club at impact [given center contact] the ball will leave the face with only backspin i.e. a straight shot. And of course if you are going to hit it straight you must aim it straight. But if there is a small difference between face and path the ball will curve off line, too often finding an unhappy resting place. It doesn’t feel any different but at 200 meters a ball with a titled axis of a mere 10 degrees ends up 14m [15.3 yards] off line.

Golf Chaos

Thus mistakes at impact arise from small mistakes at the top of the swing which in turn come from even smaller mistakes at address. As in chaos theory where a butterfly flapping its wings causes a hurricane, tiny flutters at address lead to a game that slowly slips away. Golf whatever else it is, is a game of precise geometry where the initial conditions although small in increment, are very large when you total up your score for the hole - the round – the year – and in the long run, over your golf career

Golf Stress

But there are other tiny flutters that can ruin your swing and strangely enough, they come from your stomach. Research by Professor Mark Lyte and associates at Texas Tech University support the notion that controlling your body’s response to stress is influenced by the correct mix of bacteria in your stomach and intestines – bugs in your stomach cause bugs in your swing. Of course it is no big news that many of the mistakes you make in golf are stress-related and it is these mistakes that throw your ‘first brain’ out of sync. But did you know that you have a ‘second brain’ composed of 100 million neurons embedded in the walls of the long digestion tube known as the gut? These two brains are connected by a direct pathway --a crowded highway crammed with messages. Thus what is happening in your digestive track affects your perception of your world and vice versa.

Byron Nelson threw up before every round and it drove him from the game at the early age of 34. NBA great Bill Russell threw up before games as did NHL goalie Glenn Hall. Stress rules us all and its not always throwing up -- Tiger Woods even when he was in top form often hit terrible shots of the first tee due to ‘nerves’ – and he was the best player in the world.

Conclusion

In golf, small can be very big. When you are playing poorly you may be only one tip away from getting it back again and when you’re playing well it can slip away due to micro changes that you are not even aware of. Stress, geometry, chaos theory – no wonder golf is a mysterious game of a lifetime.