 While Norm Shaw May Be Able To Convince Someone To Cluck Like A Chicken It's Not His Preferred Method For Helping Golfers With The Mental Improvement Side Of Their Game - Image Courtesy NormShaw.com
While that sells tickets, it doesn’t do much for the psyche of the person under the so-called spell of the hypnotist.
On the other hand, what professional hypnotherapists, such as Norm Shaw of Spruce Grove, Alberta, offer, is a unique way of making athletic performances peak at crucial times, thus making the ‘volunteer’ smile in amazement at the results such mental training can produce.
Shaw, who studied the art at the Hypnotism Institute of Alberta, took some time out of a busy schedule that has seen him work with a variety of athletes including golfers, to speak with Inside Golf about this unique method of improving one’s game without ever lifting a club.
iG: Please don’t take this the wrong way, but why should I trust that when you have me under your spell you won’t implant in my mind that when I miss a four-foot putt that I'll start clucking like a chicken and flapping my arms like wings?
N.S.: It’s not really possible because it’s not a spell to start with. It’s a state of relaxation and a more relaxed state of your inner mind so your focus and concentration is better. You see the term ‘guided mental imagery’ used.
We’re really trying to help people focus on the positive side of things, so if you have a bad swing during a round of golf and the resulting poor outcome, you don’t walk away from that swing, and shot, with that as the last thing in your mind. We want you to take one more swing that feels good before you walk away so as you approach your next shot you have a good feeling.
iG: How does this work? How do you get into somebody’s psyche that deeply to be able to undo patterns that have been established over a long period of time?
N.S.: You hear the term ‘mind block’. In other sports, like hockey, when somebody’s had a scoring drought for 20 games they start seeing the goalie instead of the net.
So we have to go back to their last good opportunity when they scored and remind them what they saw then – they saw the net they could hit even if the goalie moved. The last image they saw before they shot was the net and they knew where they wanted the puck to go.
With golf, if you look down the fairway and see a water hazard, focus on the fairway. If you’re going ‘Oh, there’s water on the left! There’s water on the left!’ that’s all that’s going to be on your mind and you’re going to end up there. Whatever the last thought on your mind is before you swing is going to be what transpires.
So we want to focus on ‘OK. I’ve got 20 yards of fairway. I’m going to hit a straight shot and hit that fairway.’
The easiest way to describe it is whatever’s on your mind when you take that swing is where you’re going to end up. If you’re worried about the hazards you’re going to end up there.
Even when you’re putting a lot of times you feel you’re in tune with the green. When you’re walking up and take a deep breath and slow everything down it’s almost like slow motion. When people have a traumatic situation sometimes they say it felt like an hour when it may have only been 20 seconds.
If you can capture that on the front end of something and say ‘Man, it felt like I had an hour to read that green,’ instead of only a minute to do it, you’ve slowed it down and taken a good look.
With hypnosis we use anchors, counting to three, taking a deep breath and everything slows down for you.
iG: If this works in that way, and it works well, how come you don’t hear more about this type of ‘training’? Is it something that athletes do and not talk about?
N.S.: My first exposure with this was in the WHL (Western Hockey League) and referee camp. Once we were done our stretches we lay on mats and they talked us into relaxation. They gave us a bunch of suggestions for muscle recovery and instant recall on your rules.
You can apply those principles to any sport in any situation. You just slow everything down. You hear some people call it ‘mental imagery’ or ‘sport psychology’. It’s all the same principles, whether or not you use the word hypnosis.
Some people hear ‘hypnosis’ and they think right away of stage performers, the quacks that go into bars where you get clucking chickens and people making jackasses out of themselves. It’s unfortunate because it gives hypnosis a bad name. This is used in childbirth and a lot of medical stuff and it can be used in sport just as effectively.
iG: Briefly, how do you set somebody’s mind into performing a routine that becomes successful for them?
N.S.: One thing we use is very simple, the self-hypnosis route, which is keeping yourself, calm, heart rate relaxed. Over the long term you educate them, and we can do visualizations if they have a certain style they’re trying to model. But often it’s better to use your own tools and develop yourself to your best abilities.
iG: Is this used by itself or is this something that needs to be used in tandem with professional golf instruction?
N.S.: Well, it depends on what your goals are. Recreational golfers can save 10 or 12 strokes just by using hypnosis, staying calm…sober. Even at a young age, if you work with kids just going into juniors to not worry about bad shots because they are going to happen.
But instead of a bad shot turning into a bad round, one shot can be a bogey and you recover to come back with a birdie or par on the next hole. That’s the key. There’s not a lot of room for mistakes once you get into competitive golf.
iG: Everyone is different but is this a long-term process? People may spend thousands of dollars on game improvement through lessons, but are hesitant to get involved in something like this, where there is nothing tangible right away, and they think it’s going to take a long time to show results?
N.S.: Anything will work if you believe it’s going to work. If people come in and challenge us and say ‘Make me better’, I can’t do that. If they want to incorporate this into a complete learning process it will be very effective.
It will make their lessons from an instructor easier because they’ll stay calmer, and catch the concepts quicker. I’ve seen success with this with one visit. Some people will come in two or three times a year, the start of the season, once in the middle and once when they’re in a playoff or tournament. Refreshers are always good.
We also teach self-hypnosis. Once you’ve been through a full session, we show you how to get into that state quickly. We leave you with an anchor so if a person has no problems with down the fairways but struggle with a putter, I’ll tell them as soon as they have the putter in hand they’re calm and give them something to instantly trigger that suggestion.
It’s not a cookie-cutter. We take a history, what your goals are and help you work toward them.
iG: Are there people that can’t be hypnotized, people you can’t help?
N.S.: The people that can’t be hypnotized are the ones that challenge it. You have to be able to relax and part of this is developing a trust right off the bat with your hypnotherapist. When you call around you’ll get a good feeling on the phone when making your appointments.
iG: How do you measure success?
N.S.: If you take this and use it, it’s going to help. How do you measure that? It’s an internal thing. If you find yourself staying calm and relaxed…if they come back and say they couldn’t find that relaxation we can help them with that. This is a very successful tool and you see it everywhere. Because of the stigma with stage hypnotism a lot of people don’t buy into this but I believe in it.
Gord Montgomery is a sports reporter/photographer in Spruce Grove, Ab. He can be reached at
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
|
