Applying the Intelligence of Play
An Invitational Symposium
The Magical Athlete - Applying The Intelligence of Play
Chuck Hogan
Summary
In any given sport; basketball, baseball, football, golf, whatever it might be, there are a few individuals who are really on top. They are spectacular and everyone comes to watch them because these magical athletes are in this wonderful state of ease. What is that little difference that makes such a huge difference? I discovered that the difference is that these players were truly safe to play. There was nothing holding them back. Some people played with this pressure and thrived - others collapsed. The key isnight is that some people felt the pressure but they weren't trying to prove themselves, they were safe to enter the experience freely and totally. If you're not safe to play the game freely, then your self-worth depends on things like winning, money and trophies. It is based on stuff. The players that seem impervious to this really, really love to play the game. They're going to play anyway. It's great that they get stuff along the way, but they don't play for the money or their name in the paper. They play the game because they love to play. Go across the board and you'll find that the best players are the ones that simply love to play the game. And this is what we have lost - the ability to play for the love of play itself. Most play to get the stuff and I've never seen that person play at the level of those who are playing for the sake of the game. When I was thirteen years old I became incredibly nervous during a round of golf. It was shocking. What was overtaking me and dictating by state of mind and body? I couldn't perform anywhere close to my "normal" level. I was left shaking. I reiterated that experience over and over again. I learned it well.
Some years later I entered a vocation which forced me to explore the devil possessing the body and mind of every golfer and athlete who failed to live up to their known performance baseline. I was led to believe that the root of the problem was in the biomechanical techniques utilized in any given athletics. Surely, enough hard work and repetition of the perfect mechanical model would bypass any chinks in the psychological or emotional armor. Yet, the mechanical models were temporal and faddish. Technique was useful only to the extent that debilitating "pressure" was held at bay.
But, what was the pressure? What was it's source? Surely, sports and games cannot be an environment which is scary or intimidating. Games and recreation was supposed to be a place to be free and a way to relieve stress. Yet the most successful, intellectual, well-trained and advantaged individuals succumbed to fears and anxieties actually unrelated to the game itself.
Fear of Failure? Fear of success? It turned out to be neither. It was just fear - free-floating anxiety. A certain knowing that something must go wrong. And, even if it doesn't and I succeed today, can I prove myself tomorrow? Can I defend my success or was it just a lucky day? For the great majority of my clients and general population of would-be players, there is a little voice in "the back of my mind" which short circuits the freedom of flow. Mistakes are perceived as monumental events and brilliance chalked off to a stroke of "good luck."
Chuck Hogan Page 2
It turned out that the source of "pressure" is in the haunting of "what will they think of me." It is little wonder that the fear of public speaking is people's greatest phobia; greater than even the fear of death. What is of wonder can be summed up as insecurity. If we can't be secure enough to swing as a golf ball then where and when could we be secure? If a golf course, tennis court, or a soccer field isn't a safe place then where is? Where is a safe play-ground? Where is the ground solid?
The safe ground should be ourselves. We are not designed to be afraid of our own shadow and defensive of our every word and action. Joseph Chilton Pearce has succinctly defined the biological benchmarks which each of us could safely pass given the nurturing of unconditional acceptance and rules without ambiguity. We are designed to evolve bonded and safe at birth, two years, four years, seven, nine to eleven and finally at about fifteen. It was mom, then dad, then family, then society, then earth, and then to ourselves to which our security should be unquestioned. We should be our own play-ground.
Today, play is an obscure abstraction for all adults. We say we are playing but we have one eye on the ball and one on what might go wrong. Joe Pearce has clearly defined both the obstacles and answers which provide us with a play ground. The solution is clear while the actions are enormously challenging in today's environment dependent on technology (e.g. technique). Yet, security is the essence and foundation to play and the potentials waiting in the brain of every person. - Why am I nervous at playing?
Why does a 55 year old CEO of a billion dollar company become a quivering bundle of ragged nerves on the golf course? - Do adults play the game?
- What is the core state? How did we loose it? What is its relationship to the zone?
- What are we after? Why do we pay so much money to witness performance?
- How do we become safe and secure?
Chuck Hogan is the founder of Sports Learning & Performance Inc. and currently the Director of Instruction at the Raven Golf Club Learning & Performance Center. He is considered by many to be the most successful coach on the pro golf tours and is recognized throughout the world as one of golf's renowned instructors, authors and developers of instruction tools. He considers himself a "learning specialists" who studies how learning relates to sports performance and beyond. His client list reads lie a who's who of top money winners including, Peter jacobsen, Raymond Floyd, D.A. Weibring, Duffy Waldorf, Mark Wiebe, Grant Waite, John Cook, Colleen Walker, Cindy Rarick , Tracy Hansen and the list goes on and on. Thought by his peers as the "teachers teacher", Chuck created the LPGA's revolutionary teaching handbook and program. He is a contribution editor to GOLFWEEK and frequently authors a wide variety of articles for Senior Golf, Golf Tips,. Golf illustrated, Golf For Women, and other industry publications. Chuck is also an advisor to and member of the board of directors of Touch the Future, a non-profit learning design center. |  |