EFT and Golf

Charles Barkley

"Your book helped me with the yips … now, with your new book, could you please help Charles Barkley!!!"   Dave Ryan

Have you been watching the Charles Barkley saga? It’s on the Golf Channel and called “The Haney Project.” Hank Haney, Tiger Woods’s coach, has taken on the task of correcting Barkley’s infamous swing hitch. Barkley has full-swing yips. It shows up as a hesitation in the downswing accompanied by a severe dip of the upper body. One part of his mind wants to hit the shot while another part wants to run from the scene to avoid making a fool of himself again in front of others. He is literally a victim of “brain battles.” See Chapter 2 of Energy Psychology and the Yips Cure and Prevention for a detailed discussion of this problem.

It is painful for me to watch Barkley struggle each week. Haney has been working with him since last September although they have only shown the episodes this Spring. The last 2 weeks have supposedly been current time showing the last two weeks of Haney’s treatment. There has been some progress, but Barkley still has a major hitch when he is on the course with others watching. This is a key characteristic of a social phobia and easily treated with EFT.

Haney has repeatedly said that Barkley’s problem is not in his head, it is in his swing! He has said that a psychologist cannot correct the problem (because it is not in his head). A wise man once said, “If the only tool you have is a hammer, all problems look like nails!” Clearly, Haney has not read either of my books. He will get a chance –- I just sent him a copy of EFT and Golf: The New Mental Game Manual. It remains to be seen if he reads it and applies it.

Before I knew there was a Haney Project, I wrote on page 214 in the Yips chapter of EFT and Golf, “Charles Barkley’s infamous ugly full swing is undoubtedly the yips. Trying to correct his swing mechanics will likely fail in the long run unless the underlying psychological cause is corrected.” One of the best golf coaches in the world has failed to correct Barkley’s yips because he has tried to correct swing mechanics only.

If you, or anyone you know, have the slightest bit of yips, get either (or both) of my books. Read and actually practice the exercises and see what happens. You can take my putting yips test at yips test to see if you have putting yips and/or to see how susceptible you are to developing the yips. This test is designed to test for putting yips, although I am working on other versions. Even if you have another type of yips, the yips susceptibility score will be pretty accurate; just not the yips score if putting is not your problem.

Focus

Here is your mental game tip for the course. When you are taking a shot anywhere on the course, focus on the specific target where you want the ball to go. The ball tends to go where you focus! If you have a shot over water and your focus is on the water, the ball is more likely to go in the water (or sometimes in the opposite direction as a reaction to the water focus). I’ve had golfers tell me that they were not focused on hitting in the water, they were focused on not hitting in the water. That’s the tricky part. Focusing on not hitting in the water is still a focus on the water! The way the brain works, you have to focus on something to think about not something. It’s the old “don’t think of a pink elephant” problem.

Instead, focus on the exact target where you want your ball to go; not “the green” or “the fairway,” a specific spot on the green or fairway.

Annika Sorenstam said it best, “If there’s water, we don’t think about it. We know there’s water over there, but when I make up my mind where to aim or what club to hit, I don’t think about what’s over there.”

I’ve got a whole chapter on focus in EFT and Golf. So if you want to master controlling your focus, see Chapter 15, Focus Control, EFT and Golf.

Questions and Comments

I welcome questions and comments from readers and will try to answer as many as I can. You can send me a question or comment at questions and comments.

Here is a rather pointed question (actually I like this kind). What is “new” about your book?

This reader wants to know how my book is different from a number of excellent mental game books for golfers. (See mental game books for my reviews of mental game books.)

My book is based on sound research-based sport psychology principles. So are many others. (But not all. Some are the author's ideas that haven't been put to the test).

The main difference about my book compared to all the others is that I teach you how to use the new developments in psychology (from clinical psychology) to gain control of your mental game. Traditional sport psychology uses techniques from cognitive-behavioral therapy applied to mental game issues. I’ve had sound training in those techniques and still use some of them.

But there are new developments that are not yet widely known. I don’t know any other sport psychologist who is using these new procedures. They are based on the principles of acupuncture (without needles). My research, the research of others, and tens of thousands of cases show that these procedures are quicker and more powerful than the best cognitive-behavioral techniques. See EFT Research if you are scientifically minded.

There are several versions of these new techniques. The version I teach is called EFT. It is the simplest to learn, can be applied as a self-help tool for a lot of problems, and is powerful enough to tackle the toughest problems in the hands of a skilled professional. The 80 – 20 rule applies here. About 20% of the simplest EFT techniques will handle about 80% of a person’s problems. The remaining problems will require more in-depth EFT procedures and some require the objective perspective of a trained professional EFT practitioner.

If you have a question or comment, go to questions and comments.

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Until next time, keep on tapping.

Jack