A simple way to use anchoring that really works!

Looking for that “zone” when golfing? Read on!

I have a friend who occasionally turns to me for coaching advice.  Well, sort of.  Sometimes he takes advice when I didn’t realize I was giving it, it turns out.  A long time ago, I’d told him a simple anchoring technique that a jogger/long distance runner used to improve his running.  He was able to take the state certain runners experience, where it just “clicks” and gets easy and move it from where it normally happens, after a long painful phase, to early on in his running.  This friend of mine, crafty fellow that he is, took it, extrapolated the principles involved in it, and used it to improve his golf game.

He wound up laughing while telling me the story a little while back.  He plays golf with his father and one or more of his brothers periodically, and this technique was SO effective for him, his eldest brother tried to ban him from using those “jedi mind tricks” (their term, not mine!) while actually playing!

So what is this technique?  How does it work?  It’s easy.  Pick something you already have some skill at, something that, when you’re doing it, you get the occasional flow state or times when things go smoothly and easily.  Take your thumb and pinky finger (same hand, not opposite hands, because that would just needlessly complicate things) and press them together tightly, only while things are going well.  Do this each time that activity is clicking for you.

After a while, when you need that state to kick in, press that thumb and pinky, activating your own private ring of power.  The paired association between that unusual act and the ideal state will make that state come up much easier for you, and much faster to boot, than it normally does.  The runner I mentioned used it to get that phase when running feels great, but which normally has to pass through the wall and discomfort first, and move it early into his run, BEFORE the unpleasant parts, which greatly smoothed out his run.

My friend used it to shave points off his game by setting up that ring only when he was in the zone, when he was playing well.  Then, when he’d be playing against his family members, he’d fire it up and drop quickly back into that ideal golfer zen that so many seem to strive towards.  And all that without having to act out the climax of Caddyshack!

So try it for yourself.  Find something that you have a really useful state in and set up your own personal activation trigger for it.  It

No, not this ring! Your own!

doesn’t have to be that pinky/thumb ring, but it should be easy to do and a relatively unusual action that you normally don’t do very often, if ever.  Uniqueness helps with anchoring quite a bit.  Play with it!

Are there other ways to improve your game?  Of course.  This one, though, is one you can practice on your own, so go for it!  What do you have to lose?  Other than points off your game, of course. . . .

Let us help you pull up those ideal states and use them in your life.  Contact Bright Mind and we’ll be glad to discuss it with you.

Related articles

• How to Grip a Golf Club (sliceofgolf.com)
• Playing Your Best Golf is Simple – The Personal Performance Plan (derekhoopergolf.com)
• Firing Anchors in Austin (brightmindblog.me)
• Intensity Makes it Click (brightmindblog.me)