Matt Flenniken's popularity and success with students, from novices to touring professionals, spring from a set of core beliefs that have proven themselves over decades of teaching. The successful golfer must have:
1) balance
2) a fit body
3) fit equipment to reward the swing
4) a fit mind to learn the game
5) a fit heart to play the game
Of all the principles mentioned above, the most important of all is the fit heart. This is not just the physical heart, but also the feeling heart. After three decades of teaching, my students have told me that 75 percent of all of their golf shots are made with a large degree of internal interference. By internal interference I mean fear, anxiety and tension, random thoughts, lack of focus, lack of commitment to the shot, doubt, or destructive self-talk, or a combination of all of the above. To me this means there's 75-percent room for improvement. Most athletes know it's impossible to play or perform at their best with these negative emotions and internal noise present. Many golfers are learning that it's the ability to control the feelings and internal noise factor that often makes the difference between a great round and a mediocre or poor one.
Over the years I've introduced my students to forms of meditation and hypnosis with some moderate success. However, within the last few years I've been utilizing HeartMath techniques and their Freeze-Framer® Interactive Learning System with amazing success. With these techniques and software/hardware feedback system, golfers can manage their emotions, reduce their internal interference and see the results of their efforts on the course. I've been a professional golf instructor for almost 25 years because I get a great deal of fulfillment in seeing people grow, learn and improve. It's truly a heart-warming experience teaching people how to use the power of their hearts to achieve internal quiet and balance and improve both their enjoyment of the game as well as their scores.
Relaxation Alone Won't Cut It
To hit a great golf shot your brain can't be holding doubt. It needs to be focused, quiet, calm, alert and lucid -- this is the total commitment to the shot many tour pros refer to. Relaxation alone won't do the trick. HeartMath has proven scientifically that learning to generate a positive emotional state creates synchronicity between the heart, brain and nervous system -- a state scientists call coherence. It's well established scientifically that so-called negative emotions, such as fear, anxiety and others mentioned above, create chaos, or what scientists call incoherence, in the electrical rhythms of the heart. Since the heart produces an electrical signal much more powerful than that of the brain (about 50-60 times stronger!) -- the heart's rhythm has an instant effect on the brain and entire human system. Incoherent heart rhythms create muscle tremors, loss of reaction time speed, loss of hand/eye coordination and poor concentration. When the heart is producing a coherent rhythm, muscle tremors (the YIPS!) vanish, reaction speeds and reflexes improve, and mental clarity as well as the ability to focus and concentrate increase -- in short you enter a physiological self-generated Zone state. I use the Freeze-Framer to observe, measure, and train my students to create and enter the Zone on demand.
Golf and the Stressed-Out Executive
HeartMath has also developed a system of techniques that I use to help my students (and myself) bring the emotions under control and quiet the mental chatter. I've found these techniques extremely effective both on and off the course. I work with a number of stressed-out executives and managers from Silicon Valley companies who often come to the golf course tense and distracted, their minds and emotions still recovering from the pressure cooker of the office. It's almost impossible for them to learn and execute until they shift into a more receptive and balanced state. With the Freeze-Framer and HeartMath techniques they are able to see their incoherence right in front of their eyes in real time. I teach them the Quick Coherence® technique to quickly get them in the right frame for optimal learning and performance. Many have told me the technique has also helped them in the office and at home to reduce stress, think more clearly and make better choices. I'd like to share this technique with you.
The Quick Coherence® Technique
1. Shift your attention to the area around the heart -- Let your attention fall gently to the center of your chest. Don't "think about your heart," simply focus your attention there.
2. Breathe through your heart -- Imagine your breath moving in through the center of your chest as you inhale and out through the center of your chest as you exhale. Inhale and exhale a little more slowly and a little more deeply than usual. Don't hold your breath at the top of the inhale or bottom of the exhale. Just breathe smoothly, deeply, slowly.
Now the most important step for getting into coherence and staying there ...
3. Activate a positive feeling -- Make a sincere effort to recall people, places, activities that you love, appreciate or enjoy and make a sincere effort to remember how you feel when you're engaged in those activities, with those people, or in those special places. Especially recall the feeling of excellent golf shots; times you were in the zone playing your best, excellent golf rounds or golfing experiences. You may use one particular image or a series of images. Use these times to help you recall the positive feelings, then attempt to re-experience and sustain the feeling. Remember -- it's the feeling that counts.
Use The Quick Coherence Technique for 60 seconds at a time:
-- On the way to the course to neutralize any stress due to traffic, unresolved issues from the office, home, etc.
-- As part of your pre-shot routine
-- As part of your post-shot routine (You do have a post shot routine, don't you?)
-- While waiting for your playing partner to hit
-- On the way to your ball
-- Especially around the greens where delicate motor skills are required
-- Throughout your day, especially when you feel stressed, pressured, or tired
Practice with this technique will help you develop and access the Zone state quickly and sustain it for longer periods of time for greater personal best performance. With each of my students we make a plan to reduce the amount of interference more and more each week until the 75 percent internal interference becomes 15 percent. I find their enjoyment of the game increases dramatically as their scores improve accordingly.
The Zone State and the Freeze-Framer® Technology
The Freeze-Framer software/hardware system allows the user to see the Zone state in real time on a computer screen. Heart rhythms are a product of nervous system activity and are especially sensitive to fluctuations in emotion. When the heart rhythms are smooth and coherent, the nervous system activity becomes balanced. This is the Zone state at the physiological level and it can be seen directly with the Freeze-Framer. With practice using the Freeze-Framer's real time feedback, my students learn quickly to get into the Zone on demand. The software program is excellent for allowing people to see and learn "the shift" into the Zone state of peak performance. The swing becomes fluid and happens with ease and we begin to experience the promise of our potential as athletes. Playing in the Zone can be infectious!
As a golf instructor my reputation depends on my students being able to learn. It's critical to remove the internal interference so my students can optimize their learning and performance. Just like golf equipment, if the lie angle is wrong and shaft design was wrong it inhibits proper body motion. As a teacher I must first help the student get rid of the interference before I can be effective. As a golfer or instructor you'll need to do the same.
For more information on how to get in the Zone for optimal performance and enjoyment of the game please contact Matt at promatt@sbcglobal.net or call 408-361-0250, or John at jwhite@heartmath.com or call 831-338-8711.
Matt Flenniken is the Director of Instruction and operates his Learning & Performance Center at Los Lagos Golf Club in the heart of the Silicon Valley. Matt is one of the most sought-after instructors in California, having given more than 48,000 lessons and continues to give about 2,500 lessons a year. In addition he was one of the very first golf professionals to utilize Dynamic Club Fitting and pioneered the connection between club fitting and human performance. Matt is only person who has won the PGA's Club Fitter of the Year award three times over three decades.
John White is Director of Golf & Sports Programs at Quantum Intech, Inc. John develops and delivers training programs using the HeartMath system to professional golfers and high performance athletes, and HeartMath's Power to Change Performance programs to corporate executives and managers. For more information visit www.quantumintech.com and www.heartmath.com
Deborah Rozman is a high performance psychologist, author, President and co-CEO of Quantum Intech, Inc. (QI) a technology company that develops and licenses products and services that reduce stress, improve health, and increase performance based on the HeartMath System. For more information about on the HeartMath System, visit or .
