Today during my lesson I hit an all time low in terms of confidence. I was trying to increase the crease on the backswing and really feel the obliques on the backswing. Basically, I was thinking way too much when I was hitting balls. I ended up shanking a few and hitting some others horrendously. Patrick asked me what was going on and I told him I was thinking way too much. He said that I should not think about anything we work on when actually hitting golf balls. This is so hard for me.
I have created a terrible habit of picking one small thing we are working on and then focusing on that when hitting balls. This has been a terrible thing to do. Instead, I should think and focus as hard as I want when Patrick is training with me with an alignment stick but then clear my mind or think about something else when the golf club meets the golf ball.
On my drive home I was legitimately thinking about cancelling my Hasentree membership. I took the long way home by Jordan Lake to clear my head. Something clicked that I did years ago when I was first learning the Patrick Kelley golf swing. Mikaila urged me to write something down to think about with every five swings. I would write down a topic, a book, a TV show or just a memory and think about that while hitting five balls or chipping five balls. Then, when I went to train, I could think about the swing as much as I wanted. When I started hitting my next five balls I had another topic written down to think about. This worked very well to get my mind off the small parts of the golf swing.
When I got home I immediately wrote down some of the books and audiobooks I have consumed to think about when hitting balls. I went to UNC Finley and had the absolute best mental range session of my life. I didn’t think about any parts of my swing when I was actually hitting the golf ball. I thought about books like Mistborn, Firestarter and Kill Creek. I am going to take this action with me to Patrick when I am going to lessons. When I am hitting the golf ball I should not think.
