You know this mantra from almost every sport: “keep your eye on the ball” but for the mind-body golfer it’s pure gold. Fact is, if you are not being fully present – visually and mentally – with the ball, your chances of hitting a great shot are slim to none.
When you look at the ball, really look just at the ball and keep your eyes on that one spot. Don’t look at your club to see if it’s squared to the ball. Don’t let your eye follow the club as you draw it away. Just focus, focus, focus on the ball – nothing else.
There are a couple of reasons for this wisdom. First, it makes an ideal way to practice the focus I talked about in a previous article to build the mindful concentration that will make a huge difference to your mental, and hence, physical game.
The other reason is to simply improve your play. So, when you look at the ball, try to get a bird’s eye view of it. Your eyes are about a foot above your body’s pivotal center, so raising your shoulders isn’t going to help you see the ball better. Don’t gaze at the ball along the line of the shaft of your club. Look down on the ball rather than get your angles along the shaft. This will give you much better results and you won’t have a tendency to look up too soon.
There’s a natural tendency in everyone to look away when they start to draw the club back. Ignore that tendency and just keep looking down on top of that ball. When you’re looking down you’ll notice that (if you’re leaning over properly) the only way you can keep the club head in the line of flight is to keep your hands moving along parallel with that line. Sweep your hands along with the club head while the ball and head are in contact.
Mastering the skill of seeing the ball clearly until you hit it is true of every kind of shot. Whether the ball is in long grass, on an up or down slope, no matter what’s around you – the main thing is to see the ball clearly to hit it accurately.
Very few golfers stand still when looking at the ball and concentrate their attention on seeing the ball clearly. A lot of the times people will give a glance in the direction they want the ball to go, then they look back at the ball, and then back again. Yes, you need to know where you are hitting the ball, but once you have that locked in, go back to the ball and stay there. Many golfers think they already do this, but would be shocked to find out that they don’t stand still and keep their eye on the ball. The truth is, the second your gaze shifts from the ball during any part of the swing, problems occur. You can hit the ball well when you can clearly see the ball at every point in your swing from start to finish.
If you want to wipe out one of the worst golf faults, learn how to focus – especially on the ball. Determine that from the top of your swing until you hit it you will keep your eye clearly on the ball. You’ll find your golf game improving so significantly and quickly that your friends may start asking you for lessons!
