The Conscious Mind Your conscious mind or as some like to say the "thinking mind" has a duty to analyse, construct, "work things out" for want of a more complex explanation.
The conscious mind says that you have 150 yards to the target, there is no wind and the elevation is flat.
The conscious mind works out that you will need to hit your 7 iron with a normal swing.
(Or whatever club you personally carry 150 yards.
) Your "Thinking Mind" mind works out how many shots your opponents have taken and how many you have taken on the hole and informs you that if you do not hole this little 3 ft putt for par then you will lose the hole.
(Gee, thanks a lot! Need to control that thinking.
) The Analysing mind is used to train your unconscious how to perform a task which it has not done before.
Your analysing mind helped you to learn to tie your shoe laces, now you do it without thinking as your unconscious mind performs the task automatically.
Your conscious mind was used to learn to ride a bike, drive a car and make food.
When you first started to learn these with conscious control the motions were awkward and stiff with no flow.
It was difficult and frustrating trying to perfect the skill so that you could eventually do it automatically.
You go to the range and hit a bunch of new drivers trying to find a better tool to get you off the tee and your conscious mind analyses the results as best it can and you choose the one you think you hit the furthest and straightest.
Your Analysis, Thinking Mind mind says that the new driver costs 300 hard earned and works out if you can really afford another experiment with yet another driver.
It will think about your bank account and may even try to work out your wife's reaction when she finds out.
Your conscious mind tries to work out a way to hide the new club from her.
Your conscious mind says you hit a bad shot and you need to worry about it because it may cost you the match if you hit more bad shots.
You try to use your conscious mind to analyse the swing fault on the course and fix it in your next swing.
After a few more swings your conscious mind has identified several possible problems and you try to correct them with your conscious thinking too.
Soon you are buried in conscious swing thoughts and can't hit a barn door.
Your golf coach informs you of a change that you could make which will improve the consistency of your swing and explains to you what you need to do, why you need to do it and what the results will be for you on the golf course when you have trained it as an automatic move to the unconscious.
You use your conscious mind to listen and decide if this makes sense to you and if it is something you want to do.
Your golf coach tells you to copy a certain body position which will improve your swing.
He gives you a picture that you can use to make sure you are making the move to this new position correctly.
You use your conscious mind to analyse the picture and compare it with your own positions, making any necessary corrections.
Knowing when and when not to apply your conscious mind is an art and science.
The art of it you get better with and the science is through learning and applying Tactics used in The Mental Game of Golf.