Given his recent admission to feeling a sense of emptiness in victory, where do golf and sport go after Scheffler’s Open win?
A few people got in touch with me during the weekend of The Open. They wondered if I had coached Scottie Scheffler or if he had read my books? The answers are “Sadly, no!” and “I don’t know but he might have!”
The reason they were asking me has to do with Scheffler’s overall demeanour at Port Rush, his calm and collected state, his detachment from outcomes, his ability to immediately regroup after wayward shots and of course, his beautiful swing rhythm.
They seemed to notice a similarity between his quiet withdrawal and alignment to something within, which allowed him to move effortlessly and with precision through the ball, and what many of my students attain through their daily Performance Practice.
Watching Scheffler, especially on Sunday, I noticed several things about his performance that were key in helping him stay ahead of the pack to win by a four shot lead; and they have nothing to do either with the mental game or swing technique. Yet they show what’s possible for golfers or athletes from any sport, from grass roots to elite level, when you get out of your own way and let movement emerge naturally, in the moment.
I also wondered, given that he’s recently shared his sense of emptiness in victory, is this as good as it gets and if not, where do golf – and sport – go from here?
Before I share my musings and give you some pointers to help you apply Scheffler-like qualities to your own game, let’s draw a quick thumbnail sketch of the 29 year old golfer from what’s been reported in the media and what’s been shared with me by someone who knows him.
Scheffler hails out of Ridgewood, New Jersey and on Sunday at the 153rd Open Championship at Port Rush he secured his fourth career major title with rounds of 68-64-67-68. Perhaps equally famous for being a devout Christian and a devoted family man, the world’s best golfer has shown that he values these things more highly than winning trophies and eye-watering sums of prize money, and his attitude to such achievements suggest (depending on your viewpoint) either a detachment from worldly success or a nonchalant disregard of sporting accolades.
In a recent press interview, which according to CBS Sports “showed a rare level of introspection…from an athlete at the top of their game” Scheffler expounded for five or so minutes on the fleeting nature of success, sharing that even though he has worked his whole life to compete and win on the biggest stages of all, he feels no lasting happiness in winning golf tournaments, he doesn’t wish to inspire anyone and the deeper yearnings of his heart are left unsatisfied in the sport he loves.
His comments got the whole industry talking, and as noted above, could be viewed either as the renunciation of worldly success by a profoundly religious man, or a negative “so what” attitude to the sort of success most people only dream about.
It’s not uncommon for athletes to feel deflated or ask, “what now?” after getting to the top of their sport, but this attitude supposes that they alone are responsible for their greatness; if they perceive nothing outside of their own ego, they can easily feel empty when their career is over or their status takes a tumble.
It also dismisses the claim of thousands, maybe millions of people who love sport and who have experienced the flow-state, a phenomenon described as being outside of time, something universal rather than individual, a state which has been called otherworldly or even spiritual and which influences the way the body moves.
When you feel involved but not entirely responsible for the perfect tee shot, underwater turn, or 100m sprint, then you can remain humble and in awe and can open to this state in all aspects of life; but if you feel you’re the greatest of all time you can easily fall into dejection when it’s over. Scheffler seems to be caught between these two opposites as he remains humble but seemingly not satisfied or fulfilled.
In religious life there is very often a contempt for the body and worldly accolades and at every turn we have been encouraged to reject the material world and await the soul’s return to the spiritual realms, be it heaven, nirvana or the void. Over 20 or more years of coaching I’ve worked with people from many different faiths but nowhere in the current paradigms is there a philosophy or creed which reconciles spirit and matter.
However, there is a teaching coming out of India which offers a reconciliation of these opposites and has some interesting implications for sport. I’m referring to the mystic, poet and Yogi, Sri Aurobindo (1872 – 1950) whose writings finally bridged this gap, suggesting that the two ends of existence are not only capable of unification but indeed that this is part of the evolutionary process. In fact, his devotees were encouraged to play football and do gymnastics, developing all aspects of physical culture alongside meditative practice.
“In the past the body has been regarded by spiritual seekers rather as an obstacle, as something to be overcome and discarded rather than as an instrument of spiritual perfection and a field of the spiritual change…Spiritual life does not mean contempt for Matter but its divinisation. We do not want to reject the body but to transform it”. – Sri Aurobindo, The Sadhana of the Body
So, we might ask, is this the way to be fulfilled in golf and sport, by seeing and experiencing oneself as an “instrument of spiritual perfection”, inhabiting a body which has the potential to reveal and express something higher than itself?
Yet isn’t this what athletes touch on when in the flow-state? And isn’t it the same experience that psychologists and mental game exponents unwittingly quash with their constricting mental framework, shying away from any mention of the divine?
I don’t have all the answers of course, but I do believe it’s an important conversation to have. I also believe that your Performance Practice can be seen as a preparation for this future realisation, even if it exists for now only in potential.
Let’s get back to sport as it currently plays out on Earth, with a look at what we can learn today from the world’s number one golfer, before exploring some additional gains to be enjoyed as a result of the Performance Practice.
FIVE THINGS WE CAN LEARN FROM SCHEFFLER
Gentleness: Scheffler’s setup seems to start with a relaxed grip, which works its way into a relaxed, easy stance devoid of trying to get into a certain position over the ball. He is fairly upright with just a slight flex of the knees. This allows the motion of the swing to flow through his whole body and be “expressed in the hands” (you’ll remember this Tai Chi instruction from Connected Golf) allowing the weight of the clubhead or putter to determine the path rather than deliberately steering it or trying to get into certain positions.
There’s no tension in his body: Many golfers setup well but as soon as they take the club away and especially from the top of the backswing the intention becomes too strong and they then try to muscle through the ball. Facial expressions change, shoulders and forearms get tight, as does the grip – all of which leads to inefficient use of the body’s levers and a deceleration through the ball. Scheffler avoids this by maintaining a relaxed athleticism from start to finish.
He’s never in his own way: You can usually tell from the body language of players where they are on the scoreboard, as they are animated or deflated accordingly, but Scheffler gives nothing away here. He is consistently calm and neither looks dejected when he’s hit a bad shot nor puffs himself up when he’s ahead, thus playing the usual psychological tricks on his opponents as the late Australian cricketer Shane Warne would do, walking back to the crease “like a King” to inspire fear in the opposing team’s batsman after delivering a poor bowl. Scheffler is very even tempered yet stays competitive which gives him both active and passive qualities in perfect equilibrium.
Consistency: Like my golfing hero Jack Nicklaus, Scheffler’s game is perfectly consistent with everything remaining the same for each shot, apart from a change in his grip for the putter. Scheffler controls what he can control – the attitude and posture he brings to the setup – and lets go of everything that falls outside these parameters, quickly getting back to business after a rare bogey or a duff shot from a poor club choice trying to get out of the bunker. Something great athletes from all sports have in common (I’m thinking particularly of tennis legend Rafael Nadal) is this ability to stay in the present moment, not thinking of what might have been.
His attention is within: In a similar way to Tiger Woods, Scheffler appears to be as internally focused as he is aware of where he wants the ball to land. It’s one thing to develop self-awareness but as many doing the Performance Practice will testify, this work goes to a whole other level when you become aware that you can be aware of yourself and the target simultaneously. It really is a game changer as you can visualise the shape of the shot, make your club selection and go through your pre-shot routine including your practice swings while following the breath and keeping a relaxed ready stance. Whether maintaining a prayerful attitude or an awareness of the t’an tien, both approaches stop the mental gymnastics from hijacking your game and turning golf into “search for a swing”.
You might also like to read my blog following Tiger’s epic return and triumph at The Masters in 2019 (Tiger’s Eyes – What Can We Learn?)
ADDITIONAL GAINS
As you know if you follow my work, a Performance Practice is a form of daily training in traditional mind-body practices known to awaken the very conditions that allow us to receive the experience of flow. I choose my words very carefully and I am not saying that we ‘meditate to develop a mental toughness so we can achieve flow’ as so many others claim. Believe me, it simply isn’t the way to look at this. I have written elsewhere about the fundamental states of inner quietude and relaxed readiness which are components of flow and which we can develop through a daily routine of 20-60 minutes.
Here I’d like to share some additional benefits of the training which can nullify any feelings of dejection, emptiness or ‘what’s the point?’ in your sport.
A lasting joy: The regular practice of meditation subtly alters the amygdala, helping to lessen anxiety when faced with stress-inducing stimuli. It also regulates activity in the pre-frontal cortex, overuse of which leads to the familiar paralysis-by-analysis in sport, playing havoc with rhythm, timing and execution of skills. Further it has been shown to not only regulate the emotions but drive an increase in happiness and well-being with one long-term study (by Neuroscientist Richard Davison) showing a French Tibetan Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard to be “The world’s happiest man”.
As it actually changes the brain, the inner calm resulting from regular practice (as opposed to using a mindfulness app) is tangible and long-lasting, in contrast to the fluctuating rise and fall of the emotions and mental states arising from the ego.
Transformation: Recently I have started to think of the Performance Practice as a sort of spiritual realism in that it actually produces a transformation in those who take up the challenge of starting each day with this particular form of training. For instance, standing practice which has its roots in Chinese Chi Kung literally changes how people stand, walk and swing a golf club or tennis racket, as they start to embody the quality of relaxed readiness including better balance, stronger legs, a relaxed upper body and soft hands – all the things you need for executing well in sport.
Preparation for the next level: On a recent podcast episode I shared a comment from Sri Aurobindo where he claimed that “man is a transitional being”, like a work in progress and that humans are not by any means the finished article. The flow-state gives us glimpses of what’s possible in our future evolution and we must take care not to explain it away by what we think we already know but stay open to the unknown.
Whether you have spiritual leanings or not (personally, it’s been my fascination since I was 11 years old and I read all the books on world religion at my local library) quietening your mind, training a body that combines relaxation with athleticism and doing the all-important moment-by-moment practice to stay connected to the breath and the body already requires going beyond the mental game and embracing a new, emerging paradigm. How far you go with this, is up to you.
“There are two conditions for this perfection, an awakening in as great an entirety as possible of the body consciousness and…an evocation of its potentialities”. Sri Aurobindo, The Sadhana of the Body
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