CLEAR THE MECHANISM

"Clear the mechanism," says Billy Chapel, a professional baseball player played by Kevin Costner in his new movie, For Love of the Game. Costner's character is a professional pitcher, with 19 years on the mound, looking at what might be his last major league ballgame.
The setting of the movie hits close to home for Arizona baseball fans, as the action takes place during a supposed final game of a divisional championship playoff series between the New York Yankees and Costners' team, the Detroit Tigers.
The Tigers meet the Yankees at Yankee Stadium and the New York fans are portrayed as relentless, loud and obnoxious in their banter toward the Tiger players, especially Chapel, who stands on the mound determined to take the game away from the home team.
Amid the deafening roar of the crowd Chapel is shown taking a deep breath and then saying to himself, "Clear the mechanism." Immediately the world around him retreats, becoming a blurred and eerily quiet field, giving the viewer the impression of a tunnel running from Chapel to home plate and the catcher. With those three simple words everything else has been relegated to the background.
The quiet, the blurred background, and the clarity of focus are the result of the simple intention to shift his awareness, his attention, to the space between himself, the batter and the catcher. Chapel is using what golfer's call a "swing key" to focus his attention where he wants it, thus creating a desired foreground and moving everything else into the background of his awareness.
Please notice two very important characteristics about the process; the key itself does not involve the mechanics of pitching a ball, and no effort is made to try and block out distractions. His effort and intention is placed squarely on a process that uses a mental trigger to alert his mind to his target.
The mental key is the way he reminds himself, prior to pitching, to place his attention where he wants it to be. It's a form of quick induction for self-hypnosis. Hypnosis, a natural skill we all possess, is simply a change in your state of consciousness.
Recall times of being deeply engrossed in the simple pleasures of watching clouds meander across the sky; skipping dinner because so deep was your involvement in a book that you were transported elsewhere, or having arrived home you suddenly realize you can't remember exactly how you got there (and you're clean and sober). In these situations, and the countless others you can describe, you were in a trance state. Everyone can, and does, enter trance states on a daily basis, just not on purpose.
Being "in the zone" is a trance experience you hear described by athletes, including golfers, when they talk about a performance seeming effortless and easy, almost like they weren't even there, or they report being enveloped in a cocoon of concentration where time was distorted and things of importance were vividly clear.
In golf the 'trance" may last only from the beginning of your pre-shot routine to the moment the clubhead strikes the ball, or it may extend over several holes of play. Only rarely do you hear a golfer say they played an entire round "in the zone."
I bet Justin Leonard entered the zone during this year's Ryder Cup, certainly for the winning putt on number 17, but likely at a time prior to that. And maybe it was his friend, Davis Love III, saying encouraging words that became his "swing key," the needed trigger to shift his awareness and consciousness to a vividly clear target.
Have you had the experience in which you are putting lights-out and the hole actually seems larger than at other times, and you know that a given putt will fall even before you stroke the ball? You've been in trance.
You can also put yourself into a negative trance state and I'm sure you've played with people who do this to themselves. They're the ones who talk to themselves constantly, silently and out loud, saying how bad they are, how rotten is their swing, how they've lost it now, the wheels have come off and the car is up on jacks. They narrow their focus and put their attention in one direction and they too are in trance. Which trance experience do you want?
And I wonder if Kevin Costner, who plays in celebrity pro-ams across the country, learned, from his baseball role, how to use a solid pre-shot routine, a non-mechanical swing key, and positive self-talk to put himself in the best frame of mind for the golf course. Listen carefully next time you watch him play at a pro-am and see if you can catch the whispered, "clear the mechanism" just before he "lets the big dog eat."

Dr. Paula King, Golf's "Head" Coach®, is a licensed sports psychologist in private practice in Phoenix. Specializing in work with golfers her clients include tour pros, juniors and amateurs. Comments or Questions?