Golf-a-Sutra

A Madhavi and Vasuki collaboration on contemplative golf

Golf-a-Sutra• A sutra is a thread that holds things together. Sutras are aphoristic statements.

Concise.

• “Sutra is that measuring thread of centeredness and balance which gives discipline and also freedom” – KAPILA VATSYAYAN

• Our golf sutra hopes to be a journey, along which some of the mental, physical and spiritual aspects are addressed. Golf requires both the discipline acquired from balance and the freedom to be creative.

Sutra 1

• TRB!• Target Receive Ball!• This is an abbreviated instruction to the brain. YOUR duty is to SEND the ball and it is

the TARGET’s duty to RECEIVE it.• This sutra does two things –• You are forced to pick a target for each and every shot• AND• Your focus moves out of the result as all you have to do is send the ball.• You see the target is supposed to receive it! You are in a way no longer the “DOER”.• There is no anxiety. Your role is passive – You SEND and target RECEIVES!

• TRB allows you to PLAY! Few folks really PLAY when they are on the golf course.

• Only when one PLAYS can one truly perform on the golf course. Playing implies getting out of outcome .

• AND

Sutra 2

• Games!• Not HOLES but GAMES.

• We will call each hole a Game. An eighteen hole round of four plus hours can be broken down into small components – Games

• We focus on playing one GAME at a time. Each time one GAME is over. Refresh! A new game begins.

• It’s to trick the mind into believing that we are starting with a clean slate, no baggage from past shots and no expectations from future ones.

• GameGameGameGameGameGameGameGameGame• GameGameGameGameGameGameGameGameGame

• By the time you realize – ROUND OF 18 GAMES OVER• This not only breaks down a large puzzle into smaller parts, but with each game you

give yourself a fresh start.• No past, no future, just the moment! Golf has to be played in the present and that is

the biggest challenge.

Sutra 3

• Breath!• Inhale on backswing and exhale on downswing!• Most sports people know that you get the extra power on the exhale so why not

incorporate it into your routine.• Breathing right does a couple of things for the swing. It sets up tempo for the swing

so you swing in rhythm with the body – a sense of oneness and synchronicity!• AND• It prevents you from holding your breath and allowing the tension to build up in your

muscles.• Once you bring your eyes from the target to the ball. You start your backswing with

an IN breath and the downswing with an OUT breath.• Your swing is in sync with you!

Sutra 4

• SMILE!• Smile as you swing or roll the ball!• A smile relaxes the facial muscles, which in turn relax other muscles of our body.• Remember to put the smile back on your face even after a poor shot as after a good

one!• It is almost the hardest thing to do. Playing golf is also like acting in a play! You are

playing a part. You are convincing yourself that you have forgotten a poor shot and want to feel the joy in your current shot.

• “It’s show time folks!”

Sutra 5

• Downtime• What is downtime?• In the computer world it’s the time the computer is idle, not doing useful work.• In the golf world it is the time between shots, which is the majority of the time spent

on the golf course.• How does one conserve energy during this downtime? Enjoy the breeze, the flora

and fauna, the beautiful flowers in bloom, the grass beneath your feet, the birds and animals.

• Hum your favourite happy tune while you walk.• Be aware of the course yet shift focus away from the previous shot and the next shot

till you move closer to the ball.• If you have a mantra, or something rhythmic you can repeat it as you walk along.• It will prevent unwanted thoughts and emotions from clouding your mind space and

draining your reserves of energy.

Sutra 6

• Roll the ball! RTB• Others would call rolling the ball – a putt! Rolling the ball removes the connotations

that a putt conjures up!• It’s a way of de-conditioning the mind! A way of making the task on hand a playful

one.• We have been taught that a putt must go into the cup – that is the desire each time

we putt yet we have no control over the outcome! This only adds to the tension and helps us in no way.

• The only thing we can control is rolling the ball. • Roll the ball and hold the finish!• Control the controllable and leave the outcome to the universe.• Although, before you start to roll the ball, you have a strategy:• -- if the hole is downhill then let the ball die into the cup.• -- if the hole is uphill aim for the back of the cup.• -- you must “feel” the line and speed and not think it!• Once all that is factored in your task is to just roll the ball and hold the finish!

Sutra 7

• FLOW• When things go smoothly it’s called flow.• “Go with the flow” towards a desired target. When flow is ON then your energy and

the universe’s energy are flowing in the same direction. • Flow can be disturbed by:• -- Tension• -- Anxiety over result• -- Doubt• -- Trying too hard• -- Lack of routines and focus on mechanics• When you are going with the flow, you are having fun and enjoying the moment.• One way to go with the flow is to build routines – physical, mental and emotional;

both pre and post shot routines. Executing routines insulates you and helps flow!• Pre-shot routines maybe physical like – waggle, stance, setup, grip, posture and

mental like – visualization and single thought focus aka HOLD THE FINISH or POSE.• Post shot routine may just be an emotional one of ACCEPTANCE of the result. That is

the hardest part and has to be practiced all the time so that no unwanted baggage is carried over to the next shot.

Sutra 8

• SBIC• Send Ball into Cup!• From 100 yards in one must stop defining the shot – a pitch, a chip, bunker shot a

putt. Your task is to send the ball into into the cup and it does not in anyway help to tell yourself you must pitch, chip or putt. Your goal each time is to send the ball into the cup in the easiest way and most comfortable way you can.

• You will be forced to pick a landing spot, forced to visualize the trajectory and roll needed to send the ball into the cup.

• You execute your shot knowing what you want to do and why. The how happens!

Sutra 9

• Ho-Hum Golf

• This is comfortable golf. You play shots within your capabilities. Shots you can execute 7 out of 10 times. Sometimes even a little more conservative.

• Make it a point to put the ball in the fairways even at the cost of distance and fire to the centre of the greens even at the cost of a stroke. If the ball lands in trouble, aim to get back onto the fairway for comfortable golf. Once this become a habit, you may go for the odd heroic shot if all depends on it.

• You will soon find that you are not only hitting more greens in regulations but the large mistakes become scarcer.

• You should just develop the confidence to roll the ball into the cup. If you are fortunate it may just require one stroke or at most two. You should feel that even if you are short, you have all capabilities of putting the ball into the cup.

• This kind of Ho-Hum golf leaves you feeling mentally fresh as there won’t be undue strain in trying to do heroic shots, which routinely raise anxiety levels, depleting your energy.

Sutra 10

• Lakshman Rekha!• In Ramayana before Rama goes away into the forest to chase down a golden deer for

Sita, he draws a line, which Sita is not to cross at all costs. This is an all powerful line of protection.

• Unfortunately, cunning Ravana, dressed as a mendicant convinces Sita to cross the line as he won’t accept alms from across the line. Sita, in all her innocence, crosses the line and is kidnapped by him and taken to Lanka.

• What significance does this have for the game of golf?• Imagine such a line two paces behind the ball.• Assume that any thinking about the shot has to be done prior to crossing the line and

once you cross the “Rekha”, you must just execute. This prevents doubt from creeping in and also does not allow time for mechanical thoughts to surface.

• If you catch yourself thinking after crossing the line it is your duty to cross back, finish the thinking, then cross over to execute. Your line of protection ceases to protect you if you are caught thinking after you cross the line.

• Power of the “Rekha”

Sutra 11

• How you practise is as important if not more important than what you practise

• One has to have an objective for the session and practise with intensity

• Aimless practise leads only leads to the illusion of improvement but is a sheer waste of time

• In most cases, sloppy practise leads to ingraining of faulty technique

• While practising it is equally important to focus and fine tune mental routines. It is only then that one can take the practise to the playing on the course

Sutra 13

• Swing 7• Instead of “Swing Easy”, which is such an abstract concept, hard to internalize, you

can grade your swing on ten. Ten being the fastest swing speed/exerting maximum effort

• Our brain tends to respond to such precise instruction more accurately than to an abstraction as “Swing Easy”.

• It is the same while picking targets – if you were to tell yourself to land somewhere on the fairway, as opposed to a particular spot, there is a good chance the brain does not respond as well to the abstract instruction as to the precise one of the spot.

Sutra 12

WMT/HTF5/WW

How do I actually PLAY on the course? That is the challenge for most folks …

WMT- where is my targetHTF5- hold the finish for 5 counts on all shots WW- after the shot SAY “will work “ irrespective of the

outcome

Can you play with just the above and not get into mechanics and other thoughts can do not let you ‘PLAY’

Sounds simple but needs a lot of sadhana to implement

Sutra 14

SIMIDI

Say it, Mean It and DO IT

The very act of verbalizing what one intends to do and then committing to it can change one’s game

Golf is about committing to the shot on hand ( the ease or difficulty does not matter). When this clarity exists one has dramatically increased the probability of success.

Sutra 15

IM-Internal Monitoring

Monitoring what is going inside is as important if not more important than what is going on outside of the golfer. Golf is a game of managing a roller-coaster of emotions.

Intensity is critical but what is needed to produce a good round is a medium steady intensity right through the round. Too much intensity leads to burnout and too little means there is no engagement with the target / task.

In the right state, picking targets, routines all fall into place with ease and the ball reaches the target with ease.

Sutra 16

ACCEPTANCE

An integral part of golf is acceptance of the outcome irrespective of whether it was good or bad.

Will Work helps in this key aspect and has to be trained over time.

Golf is all about being in the moment and hence acceptance becomes so important. Building a great post shot routine is as important as the pre-shot routine.

Acceptance helps us play one shot at a time and most amateurs find it hard to shrug off the memory of bad shots.

Sutra 17

GIR- green in regulation

Play GIR not golf! Your job is to hit as many greens in regulation and that should

be the focus at the start of each game. Focus on GIR and it has a huge impact on being present.

Your plan for GIR should factor in hitting the lowest risk shots to reach the green. Then you become a true strategist. Many folks make a game harder than it should be and end up gifting strokes to the course.

Playing GIR and not golf – sounds funny but TRY IT!Also helps one play ho-hum golf which really needs a lot of

discipline.

Sutra 18

LIE

In golf the LIE reveals the TRUTH!

The better one gets at reading the lie, the better one gets at the game.

Is a combination of experience, being aware and an element of instinct.

While lies are important for shots from the fairway, they become particularly important for shots around the green. A player’s ability to predict and picture what happens to the ball after hitting the green has a huge impact on the quality of short game. Of course very golfer must strive to become an artist around the greens.

Sutra 19

GOLF

GO ON LEARNING FOREVER!

There never is a moment when one can’t learn from a shot. The question is related to how aware is the golfer and the hunger to improve.

Knowing that at any point the game especially the golf swing is work in progress and then scoring with that level of game is critical to a golfer’s success.