Your Two Brains and How to Use Them for Golf

by Josh Nichols

The Struggle
Let’s lay out two scenarios:

Scenario A: You’re on the course, and you know exactly what to do. You’ve practiced this shot a thousand times, executed it successfully a hundred times, and have total clarity on what to do.

Scenario B: You’re on the course where you have no clue what to do. You’re between clubs with an awkward yardage. Or you have a chip that isn’t the 60º, but it’s also not the bump and run. Or you’re in the final group in contention to win with 3 holes left to play.

In Scenario A, your brain is in what Daniel Kahneman in his book Thinking Fast and Slow calls “System 1”.¹ You’re thinking fast, you’re reactive, trusting your skills without any second guessing.

In Scenario B, your brain is in “System 2”. You’re thinking slow, laboriously churning through the different options for what would be best here.

System 1 and 2 can go by a bunch of other names too. You may have heard them called Right Brain/Left Brain, Feeling Brain/Thinking Brain, Limbic System/Neocortex, Old Brain/Young Brain, and many others. Not all of these are perfectly accurate descriptions of what the actual brain is comprised of, but they get the image across: we have two phases our brain can be in- fast and reactive, or slow and thoughtful.

Why is this important to know in the context of golf? Because golf has a particularly keen ability of challenging us to switch back and forth between each of these phases. Every single shot you hit has some form of these two phases. Even the routine shot that you know without second-guessing has some form of decision-making. You have to get the yardage and determine what you want to do (System 2 slow brain), then your instincts take over to hit the shot (System 1 fast brain).

But the thing about System 2 is that it takes a lot of effort, both physical and mental. It drains you every time it needs to take over. That’s why rounds where you’re in contention to win, or you have more difficult shots than normal are more exhausting.

So what?
Armed with this info, you can be better prepared for a round of golf in two ways:

Change how you practice
Change how you behave during a round
You can structure your practice to be more difficult; to put you into that laborious System 2 phase more often. You can train your brain in discomfort as a way to strengthen that mental muscle. This is called deliberate practice.

And you can proceed through a round of golf paying attention to your mental energy level. Notice your internal decision-making meter dropping lower throughout the round. You can counteract this with better nutrition, hydration, and mental relaxation. Letting yourself be distracted and unfocused between shots, and grounding, attentional breathing are great ways of doing this.

One thing for you to work on this week:
Increase the difficulty and discomfort of your practice. And counteract your depleting mental energy during the round.

To-do: Plan your practice and your rounds ahead of time with this in mind.