Captain's Chair

The Man in the Captain’s Chair

By: Bruce Munch

Imagine this situation: There is a little guy sitting in a Captain’s chair in our mind, barking orders that we cannot hear. This is what a golf swing might sound like.

“OK body, listen up! We are about to produce a golf swing. Hands relax, heart slow down, lungs take a breath. OK, we are ready, now arms, shoulders and hands, start to move back from the ball. OK, left knee, start to move toward the ball. OK, the club is at waist height so hips, stop turning, wrists, start to cock, shoulders, keep going, hey you left heel, stay on the ground! Right knee, don’t you move!! OK, we are at the top of the backswing, hands, shoulders, and arms, STOP! Left knee, start to move left, hands start to drop, hips get ready to turn, ok move! Right knee start moving toward the ball, left hip, keep moving and get out of the way before the hands get there. Eyes, keep watching that ball!! Wrists, don’t release yet, hold it, hold it, OK go, release the club through the ball. Arms keep moving, body shift to the left, right foot, roll to the toe. Arms, extend to the target, wrists get ready to fold on the follow through, hips finish your turn. OK GREAT SHOT!! Eyes, follow that great shot, Mouth, start that smile, that’s it. Ok now, Right hand, make a fist. OK, fist pump, fist pump!!”

Unfortunately, while the Captain thinks he is making all the right calls the Admiral in the balance department has sensed that all this movement is causing a loss of balance and yells “ABORT, ABORT, forget all that stuff and stand up so we don’t fall over.” So instead of a great shot the eyes see a terrible shot and the Captain is forced to say, ”OK hands, throw that club”.

We all have the man in the Captain’s Chair and we all have some Admirals lurking around to countermand the Captain’s most well-meaning orders for no apparent reason. The Admirals range from something as common as “Balance” to Admirals as intangible as “Anxiety”, “Doubt” and even “Fear”.

Ironically enough, if you want to silence the Admirals who cause unexplained disaster in the golf swing, you have to get the guy in the Captain’s Chair to shut up. The more you listen to the mechanical instructions of the Captain and his urging of “Yes you can” the more the Admirals will, at the last minute say “No you can’t”. This is known as “Negative Self Talk” and it can ruin a shot, a round or a career.

This constant contradiction of “Yes I Can” VS “No I Can’t” is a very common characteristic of the human species. As a kid, deciding is we should climb that tree part of you says “Yes you can” while the other side says “No way”. We go through this process as adults. Should we take this job, should we marry our sweetheart, should we have kids, should we try to hit this three wood over the ravine on number 2? They sound drastically different but they are all forks in the road and they all require decisions. As Yogi Berra was once quoted “If you come to a fork in the road, take it”!

When faced with major life decisions we must fall back on past experiences and anticipated results and try to take the correct fork in the road. There is no going back because that fork in life’s road will never occur again. Well every day growing up we have been “practicing life” and if we practiced well, we have a good chance of making good life decisions. The same is true of the much less consequential decisions we make on the golf course. The practice we perform will tell us if we should attempt the shot we are contemplating. If you don’t hit a particular shot well on the range, don’t attempt it on the golf course, this is why, when you practice you should try shots that might come up on the golf course. If you only practice shots you already hit well, you will not learn other shots. Most players go to the range and hit the clubs they hit well, when in fact you should be trying the clubs you don’t hit well.

Proper practice and the confidence it builds will help to quiet “negative self talk”. All the positive attitudes in the world will never replace hours of positive practice. In addition, successful practice will quiet the mechanical orders of the guy in the Captain’s Chair.

So when you are faced with a choice on the golf course, draw on your practice experience, make a decision, put a gag on the guy in the Captain’s Chair and let it fly. If it doesn’t work out, don’t look back. The other option might not have worked anyway.

So the next time, when you stand over a shot, have fun and remember there are a few billion people in China who could care less how this shot turns out. You shouldn’t either.