A strange thing happened me on Friday, 2nd of September: I was playing golf on the fabulous Paltamo golf course (designed by Ronald Fream) next to lake Oulujärvi. I was on my way to the first tee when a helicopter with a film crew flew over me. Quite low, I thought. After few minutes I heard sounds of ambulances and fire vehicles. And guess what…the helicopter was upside down in a pond next to green 4! Fortunately, the crew was saved, only one man was slightly injured. (In news, sorry, only in Finnish)
In such an occasion, it is very difficult to concentrate on your game. Therefore, I started to think about flow and how I see it connected to a mind game, like golf.
Below are Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1996) 9 elements of an enjoyable experience aka flow + my comments:
1. There are clear goals ever step on the way: In golf there are visible goals (get a par or a birdie or an eagle) and clear targets (the green and the flag). However, not all targets are easily recognizable; the skill to read terrain needs a lot of practice!
2. There is immediate feedback to one’s action: Indeed, after you hit the ball, it will be on a fairway (in play) or in rough or out-of-bounds. When you hit the ball well, you can feel it in your club and in your body. The amateur is often so keen to watch the ball flying that ‘turning-head-too-early’ is one of the most typical errors in golf. I guess this is also some sort of feedback :-\
3. There is a balance between challenges and skills: The handicap (HCP) is a great system, even an amateur can participate and do great results in competitions. However, when I started playing golf I found the game very frustrating and too challenging, only now, after 4 years, I feel like playing on a confident level to be able to enjoy it ;-)
4. Action and awareness are merged: In a golf competition you need to keep your mind focused on the game for 5 hours. This requires good condition, proper kind of nutrinition (Wee, Is flow a drink?) and good concentration skills. I feel that techniques like meditation help you achieve awareness.
5. Distractions are excluded from consciousness: It is an important in golf to concentrate on essential things and maintain your rhythm. I always marvel golf professionals who can play in front of thousands of people. (Still, you can not easily exclude helicopters, at least those falling ones;-)
6. There is no worry of failure: I find this the most important element in Hole-In-Ones. However, it is terrible when the Holie happens when you are playing by yourself (this happened to me a year ago!).
7. Self-conscious disappears. We are often worried, how we appear to other people. As Csikszentmihalyi points out, this awareness of self is a burden. Normally, it is easier to achieve flow in a company of your trusted and relaxed friends. The most irritating thing in golf is when there is an odd person in a group who is hurrying up others all the time or whose mobile phone is ringing continuously …
8. The sense of time becomes distorted: This is v-e-r-y typical in golf. Actually, you always hear that you spend too much time playing golf. Therefore, how about playing just 9 holes instead of 18 holes?
9. The activity becomes autotelic. Yes, golf could be something that has an end in itself. You start enjoying it so much that you want to spend all your time on a golf course. (Strangely, outdoor winter swimming makes me feel the same way;-). My tip: get your family and friends and colleagues involved, otherwise there may be quarrel ;-) There is also a related, international work productivity question : how many work hours are wasted in a year because workers escape to golf courses and give all kind of false explanations to their behaviour. We golfers really need to behave ourselves and make our actions more explicit :-)
By the way, what does creativity mean in golf? I have no answer. Maybe it’s a problem solving strategy: when you are in the bushes in a hopeless situation and you still manage to get the ball to the green , against all expectations?!
Hey, you Pros and non-golfers alike, please, comment this flow theme!
I am a first line production supervisor.Tell me the possible use of flow in my work area
Posted by: Ajay | August 28, 2009 at 05:48 PM