78. “Over trying” prompts the breakdown of your game. It dismantles the co-ordination of your swing in proportion to the degree that you over try

According to a well known phrase “Words can be cheap” but the majority of players, do not realise is that in golf, words can prove to be expensive, not in the monetary sense but rather at the expense of  your present performance and your ability to improve in the future.

Now, before we get to the point, who knows what N.L.P. stands for? New Long Putter did someone say! Wrong, N.L.P. stands for Neuro Linguistic Programming which is a title for a science that while simple to understand, it's effects should never be underestimated. Studies have revealed that our use of words shapes our thought processes, which in turn shapes our values, beliefs and ultimately our lives. N.L.P is a science that enables you to make changes and take control of the way you live from kicking bad habits to achieving improved performance in business sport or whatever by substituting disempowering words with empowering alternatives.  
                        
Now, what of words and golf! The main fundamental problem we have, and I am speaking on behalf of all golf coaches, is that we are set the task of verbally describing or communicating a golf swing that is ultimately a set of feelings which you can only really know through experiencing them. It is very much like trying to explain the colour red to a person who was born blind.

Sure, we can demonstrate the swing visually but it will still require dialogue to accompany it and it is our choice of words that usually make the biggest impact on a pupil; especially the mature student. A wrong descriptive word can set a player back drastically in their quest for improvement. For instance, I avoid at all cost using the words HIT and TRY. Even though they are just 3 letters spoken in one syllable, their influence is enormous and usually with a destructive tendency.

If the word HIT, is present in your mental dialogue, or someone casually tells you to "Hit the ball", it will have a tendency to invoke an aggressive attack at the ball. Instead of "Hit", it would be better to use a word or words that imply a swing through the ball as it vital that your swing is completed to a finish.

"Try", is a word that we are all encouraged to act on as the well known phrase, "If at first you don't succeed, Try, Try again" illustrates wonderfully. "Try Again" if we are honest really reads "Try Harder" because that is what we do in response to bad shots. We are now creating tension which in turn tightens up the body and we lose mobility and flexibility. Over trying prompts the breakdown of your game. It dismantles the co-ordination of your swing in proportion to the degree that you over try.

Good Golf happens when we stop Trying. A friend of mine said that it would perhaps be better if we tried Softer, not harder. There are many more examples of words that even though used in the best intention leave the hapless player with the wrong impression. This is a big subject which we cannot do full justice to in one go and I would like to tackle it further at a later stage.