Zen Putting: Mastering the Mental Game on the Greens

"I’ve been doing this since the early 1970s; I was the first person in the world to earn an undergraduate degree in sports psychology and I’ve had my practice ever since then. Back in the 1970s, my prior tennis coach, Bob Mack, and I started something called the Zen Tennis Clinic. So we were into Zen all the way back in the 1970s. But to answer your question, I’ve never had anybody come to me in my life and say: ‘I want you to teach me about Zen sports.’ I don’t really expect them to, either. But here in Northern California, which is a hotbed of mind-body disciplines and alternative ways of looking at the world, I’ve had plenty of Buddhists come to me seeking help in their sport, and I have plenty—probably a few times a month, expert meditators, in whatever discipline—come to me for the same reason. They’re unable to use their Buddhism (or meditation, or mindfulness, or whatever they’re calling it) to assist them in their sport. And I’ve discovered that’s because as good as those disciplines are, they’re just over there as a generic form of mental control. What’s missing is the application directly to their specific sport, which we call ‘attentional-control cues.’ Like: what do you look at when you’re on the tennis court? What do you think about when you’re on the golf course? What should you look at when you’re on the balance beam, as a gymnast? All those are missing in generic meditation and Buddhism. I think the unique quality of the Zen approach is its wisdom about life itself, applied to sports, and this is the reason I put this in there. I guess you could argue that The Inner Game is Zen, but in all of Gallwey’s books I don’t believe he’s ever used the word ‘zen.’ Even though that was the thing that triggered him to write the books. In his early- to mid-twenties, having graduated from Harvard and played on the team—he was a really good junior tennis player—he was searching for philosophical answers in his life. He moved over to India and lived in an ashram for a period of time, which he did, and then he wrote his book. So basically, Gallwey’s base material came out of the Indian ethic from that ashram, even though he never referenced that language. And he never referenced Zen. On the other hand, Joseph Parent is very into Zen. So if you want to compare Gallwey and the Zen approach, the Zen approach has more wisdom about life. Here’s an example. Parent talks about people have trouble dealing with pressure on the golf course. His advice is: don’t try to escape the anxiety of pressure shots, because that escape urge can damage your focus. Instead, and here’s the money quote, “Stand still in the middle of the anxiety and enjoy it.” To me, that’s a beautiful quote, and it’s harkening back to mindfulness. Don’t fight what’s in your mind. The mind is like a monkey, it likes to jump all over the place. So, when you’re up in the middle of the pressure, enjoy it. When they tell me that the pressure is getting to them—let’s say they were in a tournament, in the final, and there was so much pressure—I say, ‘It’s over now, but look at it like this: when you were in the final and you were feeling that pressure, wasn’t that a privilege?’ This is the Billie Jean King angle, to come back to her. She wrote a book called Pressure is a Privilege , and the thesis of it is, when you’re in a ‘pressure moment’ it’s really a privilege. Before the match even begins, you were good enough to get to that final. It’s really quite an honor that you were good enough to get there. Now, let’s see what you do with it, but enjoy it. That’s also the Dr Parent idea: Enjoy the pressure, don’t fight it. My angle is this: if you’re in the finals of a tournament and you’re feeling pressured, you’re doing well compared to the other people in the tournament who are out, at home with their feet up on the couch, stress-free, feeling no pressure. Where would you rather be? Now, for a lot of people, that’s a revelation. ‘Hey, I’ll take the pressure any day because that means I’m doing something really cool.’ That’s the way I look at it. This particular book, Zen Putting , is a follow-up to his earlier Zen Golf. They’re about equal, but the reason I chose Zen Putting is that I think it has even more techniques than the prior book."