Non Judgemental Awareness

Non Judgemental Awareness is a concept of the excellent Dr Parent, psychology PhD and Zen Golfer extraordinaire. He suggests that when we have a behaviour we wish to change (e.g. result focus to process focus for me, negative self talk for some or even leaving putts short) we make a firm commitment to eradicate that behaviour. Then when we found ourselves doing it, we record that we've done it. We make no comment on it, don't berate ourselves for it, we just record it (those wishing to correct negative self talk who make a mark then berate themselves have to make another mark ;-) and move on. The act of recording it alone is enough to make us alter out behaviour.

A related technique of Dr Parent's is "labelling and return", This is what I do when I catch myself thinking too hard about past or future on the course. I simply state "Your thinking in the past/future. Come back to the present" and this is enough to get me to return to the present for some time.

These techniques are so effective that in the 2 rounds I've been keeping a p-score, it's risen from 67% to 80%. Labelling & return I've used off & on and I'm definitely in the present far more often as a result. The mystical connotations of Zen Golf may put some people off, but I really recommend it as there are some fantastic techniques in there. There's an audio book read by the author, as is it's sequel Zen Putting. I own both books in hard copy and audio book, as I can then listen to them on my commute, otherwise "dead" time with regard to golf.

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