Talk To The WINDS

Do check the Winds before executing a Golf Shot.

ABILITY TO THINK RATIONALLY AND COMMUNICATE CLEARLY IS A SIGN OF SUPERIOR INTELLECT.

1.  Hello Everyone, let me start by saying that communication media has multiplied like never before. Networks have expended beyond borders & ideologies. Among this sudden and unregulated growth, no one want to think about their real effect on us. In this 24×7 audio-video age, where U Tube, Amazon Prime & Netflix are taking sizeable chunk of our meaningful time, the consumption of right information become even more important. Among this madness “ precision of communication” has taken a centre stage. I personally feel that this centre stage of precision is not only for others but also has a big impact when we communicate to ourselves.  I would like to narrate a real life story which I had witnessed myself and literally forced me to think more deeply about the importance of self communication.

2. So the real time story goes like this …, I happened to watch one of the European & Asian Tour Co-sanctioned Golf Championship at one of the prestigious golf and country club. It was the 3rd day of the championship and I was following this group which was leading after the 2nd day of the championship. It was a windy day and scoring for the players were not coming around great. Most of the tour players were struggling in the wind and were trying to put together a good 3rd round. For those who are not aware,3rd round in professional golf championship is extremely important and it is generally refered as an upwardly moving round on the leaderboard among professional circles. After walking couple of holes with this group, we have reached to a particular hole whose tee-box was elevated and exposed to the blowing wind. I do remember correctly, that this tour pro was a British guy ( Let us call him Professional Tour Player {PTP} ) who came on this elevated tee-box to play this notorious hole which was greatly exposed to the winds of the day. I was standing just on the right side of the tee-box and this PTP opened the communication with his caddie named  John Williams. Now this is where things got even  more interesting. I clearly recollect the conversation and this is how the conversation between the Professional Tour Player (PTP) and his Caddie John Williams had happened :-

PTP : —  Hey Willy, how is the wind?

Caddie : — it’s pretty much.

PTP : — Willy, is it strong enough ?

Caddie : — Yup,, it’s enough to make difference.

PTP : — Willy, is it ‘Hurting’ Or ‘ Helping’ ?

Caddie : — Willy broke few grass leaves threw up in the air to gauge the direction and to make the estimates of winds strength. After doing his ritual, he looked up into the sky and indicated through his hand the direction from where he perceived the winds were coming . Willy finally told PTP in his employer’s prefered language that , it is cross and partially headish, so it will hurt.

PTP : — Hmmmm, so it is hurting , got it Willy. Tks

3.   After this conversation the Professional tour player went on to follow his pre-shot routine and executed a good looking swing through the golf ball. Immediate after that a pin drop silence followed. Booom…Booom…the golf ball went to the right side and settled inside a thick rough ( tall grass) . PTP could not recover from the deep rough and made a Double Bogey on this hole. What had happened was unbelievable and is not expected from the PTPs because they play Golf for living and it’s not a recreational activity anymore for them. Standing next to John Williams, I was privy to their entire conversation which intrigued me to think whether their conversation had something to do with, what had happened to the PTP …….????

4.  Just to give you a quick refresher on how winds effect the play on the golf course ?. Playing a round of golf on a windy days is very tricky for few reasons. Firstly, measuring the direction and speed of the wind is prohibited by the Rule of Golf and you  have to rely on your experience and expertise. Secondly, if the wind is blowing with the direction of your play , then it is going to give an extra travel to your golf ball and if it’s blowing against the direction of play, then it’s going to rob your distances. This will make choosing your right club for the shot into a full time challenge. Thirdly, the ever changing cross-winds do play havoc with the guess work of a golfer and make their overall job of executing the correct shot even tougher.

5.  Let me quickly remind you guys that ‘Law of Aerodynamics’ is equally applicable on all those things which get airborne. So in the true sense of Aerodynamic Science, it’s fair to say that there is a very little difference between flying the Aircraft and making the golf ball to get airborne and fly on the golf course. I am quite certain that some of the folks out there might find doing the latter much tougher. Invariably, aviators and golfers find their common concern in the “CROSS-WINDS” to which they constantly adjust on the go.

6. Well, that’s why I gave a title “ Talk to the Winds” to this blog. I am going to give you a very  interesting perspective about our conscious self, which communicate with our unconscious self without making us aware. It’s a factual position that as a human, we come from the apes and it has taken a very long evolutionary process to make us what we are today. From evolutionary perspective, humans have always associated the word “ HURT” with either physical , economical or emotional harm and that’s how our mind is hard-wired from many centuries to process the hearing of word “ HURT” in an unilateral manner. Despite the new technologies and fancy living standards in  today’s progressive world,  the true fact is that our unconscious mind is still has a hard-wired memory. This memory is reinforced over the years  from time immemorial to process certain words like Hurt, loss, fear, pain, danger in an unilateral manner. To be honest inventions like machine learning, artificial intelligence, making of I – Phones, I – Pads & MacBook has not effected this basic parameters of our mind despite their latest and fastest processing Chip sets. Neurologically, our brain will always act in a very specific manner after hearing the sound of certain word like “HURT” etc etc. Further, it will gain more significance, when it is reinforced and fed by our own self. Therafter, brain will automatically take over the control of all our conscious and unconscious movements of the body by giving specific neurotic instructions to prevent the perceived hurt. After giving you this quick perspective, let me take you back to the conversation happened between Professional Tour Player (PTP ) & his Caddie Willy and request you to quickly read it again.

7.   You will realise that, the Professional Tour Player in question has considered the effect of wind as one of the factor which most likely ‘HURT’ the outcome of his shot and disturb his game plan. By repetitively calling out the word ‘ HURT’ in his conversation with his Caddie Willy, he is forcing his unconscious mind to take cognizance of the imminent possibility. This conscious communication with the unconscious mind will trigger the response and will automatically take  over the control of all bodily movement to prevent the possibility of Hurt. This innocuously spoken word has caused to lose all the fluidity and rhythm in the golf swing of the professional tour player (PTP) leading to a wayward shot . Under similar situations, the possible results could be that we might end up hitting pull hooks, push fades, blocks, Slices ,vicious draws and find the big trouble on the golf course.

8. Now, the next logical question which come to my mind is that how a golfer should communicate with his caddie on the golf course? And  what kind of communication PTP would have made with his caddie Willy to avoid reoccurrence of such disastrous shots  ??

Precise feed and Positive Conversation between the Golfer and his Caddie is  absolutely Vital before executing any shot.

Well , to make sure that PTP and my beloved Golfers certainly climb the Leaderboard on their moving days, I have envisaged the conversation which could have been of immense help to the Professional Tour Player ( PTP) on his 3rd day. Also the same can be  gainfully utilised by the amateur golfers in their day to day play. The suggested MODEL COMMUNICATION would-be 👇👇 :-

PTP : — Hey Willy, how is the wind?

Caddie : — it’s pretty much.

PTP : — Willy is it strong enough ?

Caddie : — Yup,, it’s enough to make difference but we can ride it well.

PTP : — Willy , from which side it’s easier to ride the wind .

Caddie : — Willy after going through his routine ritual would have said to PTP – “ It is  a partially Headish-Cross wind coming from the Right corner of the hole and riding it from Right to Left would be good for us.

PTP : — Hmm..  this sounds good Willy. Let us ride it then and stick it closer to the flag.

9. If you would have noticed, i have intentionally kept the certain parts of the above conversation in bold for you to identify the difference from the actual conversation as narrated at Para 3 above. You will realise that without using the word ‘hurt’ how the same  conversation can happen in a more precise manner and would have given a  postively reinforcement to the Professional Tour Player (PTP).  My personal experiences and indepth study have  confirmed to me again and  again that, it is absolutely vital to feed the Precise and Postive language to the human  brain to achive excellence in everything we do, especially in the demanding situations. My favourite quote to remind myself  that I am always a work in progress..👇👇

” TAKE RESPONSIBILITY TO FEED YOUR MIND, A PRECISE AND POSTIVE LANGUAGE FOR  EXCEPTIONAL RESULTS “

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Joe