"A
tournament is an anticlimax to preparation, the way I see it." Ben Hogan.
What an
exciting US Open tournament despite the distractions. Congrats to Dustin
Johnson. As Dustin said he had “knocked on the door several times” and now he’s overcome the “crushing defeats” of the recent past to become
a major champion. Meaning he had gained the necessary experience forged in the
crucible of combat to finally prevail.
That being
said can you believe the meltdowns of his fellow competitors? Talk about
crushing defeats! But look at the bright side, each one has gained valuable experience.
They have felt the stress that internalized pressure can produce. They now know
the feeling, but to a lesser degree, of what combat does to the ability to
think, respond, act and to function.
But wait,
some of my favorite veteran players, who have melted down in the past just did
it again. How many times has Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia and Adam Scott been in
the hunt and thrown away a tournament? I’m not going to be super critical of
the new guys because they did gain some valuable experience and no one expected them to do
anything anyway.
Now with
that being said, a “Meltdown” is the third, and most extreme form of “Choking.”
A meltdown is the inability to do what you think you do, or to do the things
you have done. It occurs when the blood chemistry alters your physical reality.
Adrenaline, Cortisol and Norepinephrine are introduced into the blood stream
when we are stressed. They have the effect of speeding up some things,
suppressing others and in general they change our ability to react, respond and
to perform. For example, Paul Azinger said he could feel his pulse in his
finger tips and he couldn’t eat because his taste buds were effected. Azinger recounted,
during the telecast, that Tom Watson had said that he couldn’t win until he
learned to slow down his heart rate by controlling his breathing.
So what’s
the take away from this? Preparation. which is more than practice and playing
before a tournament, must take into account the kind of pressure that stresses
us. Preparation then becomes training. The military learned a long time ago
that soldiers that train in simulated stressful activities can perform as well as
those who have actually experienced those activities!
I submit
that for a tournament to be anticlimactic, preparation must be intense,
effective and stressful.
Next time I
will address the differences between practice and training. (And I am a combat
veteran.)
I wrote a book called “Hogan’s Ghost” which is available thru Amazon.com that will help identify the problems and suggest solutions.
I wrote a book called “Hogan’s Ghost” which is available thru Amazon.com that will help identify the problems and suggest solutions.
