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Book Review – GYRA Golf, A Neuroscience-based approach to Golf’s Mental Game

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I first learned about Dr. Izzy Justice and his book GYRA Golf watching a YouTube video of a podcast from Wicked Smart Golf. It was fascinating how they discussed how the brain works while you’re playing golf. It is all based on science which means Justice uses wireless EGG devices to measure brain activity while players golf. If you want to see another video, Justice has a YouTube Video called GYRA GOLF.

After watching the videos mentioned above you can get a good sense of the system but I wanted to get the book and learn more about the tools or “neuro-hacks.” FYI – I got the kindle version for under $3.00. I really enjoyed reading the book, doing the exercises and learning the 14 tools (neuro-hacks). Some of the on-course mental neuro-hacks are obvious; such as how you breath, slowing everything down but the main system on rating your emotional state and then moving yourself from red to yellow to green is what makes this different.

First, you really get an understanding of the brain. Here is my layman understanding – Justice explains that in a brain scan when the brain has a high level (amount) and intensity of brain waves the scan will be red (or hot), less brain waves yellow, and a calm brain green. If you are “red” then your neurons, which control muscle sequencing, can’t fire correctly (or there’s too much traffic on the highway); and the outcome will be things like you swing gets too fast or you can’t get the feel for a putt.

A real aha moment for me was regarding putting. Justice said in the podcast the most expensive shot to recover from is a make-able short putt. The brain scans showed that this is more “expensive” than a shank or shot that goes out-of-bounds. And if you don’t have a way to get over it quickly, the next tee shot will be very difficult because your neurons are not getting messages to your muscles because of the high intensity in the brain activity after the surprise of missing that putt.

Another insight for me was that saying things like “one shot at a time” or other cognitive statements won’t help because cognitive thoughts do not live in the emotional part of the brain; and the sensory cortex is impacted by your emotional state and impacts our senses (like touch). For example, with the GYRA system instead of saying one shot at a time, you would look at your yellow card to trigger a memory of a time you had an amazing shot (similar to the shot you need to hit next) or walking to the next tee box you would use a sense tool like 3Ps or 10-2 (from the book) to stop your mind from wondering.

Basically, GYRA stands for “green, yellow, red, and agnostic” and you use this system to understand what state you are in and how to get to agnostic and green. Justice explains he uses the color system because it reflects the heat colors in brain scans; plus everyone is used to the analogies like “red” on the weather channel for a storm or the analogy of a “stop light” where “green” is go!

The premise of the book is that just like you keep score of your golf game, you can learn how to “score” your emotional state and use his neuro-hacks to get yourself back to the preferred emotional state. In other words, you can become a master of your emotional state.

The book has exercises and you create yellow and red cards (to help trigger good memories) and learn about tools that are based on our five senses (vision, sound, sense, taste, touch). You use memories and engage your senses to get in to the best emotional state (which means over the ball you are calm, focused and are “agnostic” and “green” so your mind is not wondering).

Another interesting insight for me was when Justice said that if you ever see a Pro golfer that bogeys the same hole all four rounds; it is because they never took the time to process the first day they made the mistake so when they come to that hole again, the brain (subconscious) goes to what happened last time to process it. So for amateur golfers there is probably a hole that they see as their “nemesis” at their home course. He actually recommends that the last thought at night is to review that hole so the brain will process it while you sleep and you can move on from the past bad memories. In other words you need to process it first before you forget it. For competitive golf, he also advocates visualization playing a course (before you go to sleep) the night.

Another interesting concept is that you have to make decisions based on your brain temperature. If you are in red and can’t get out of that state then your next shot needs to be super conservative, if you are yellow you can be aggressive to a conservative target, and if you are green you can be aggressive to an aggressive target.

Justice has also created an app to use to keep track of your emotional score while playing golf and it looks really interesting; but I have not downloaded it yet. I think at this stage I am happy to use tips from the book. The GYRA website has a really great tutorial of the app!

The last part of the book has a chapter with a real life example of a player at Q-school using the GYRA system. It’s interesting because the professional golfer also explains how he uses the system before and after his rounds which is part of his Golf EQ (Emotional Intelligence) diet. There is another book by Izzy Justice, Golf EQ – the game between shots. This book has some of the same content as GYRA Golf (Golf EQ was written prior to GYRA Golf) but some of the content is more in-dept on science and has chapters geared to what to do the days before competitions. I enjoyed both books.

I have listen to a lot of mental game podcasts and read other mental game books by famous sports physiologists; and tips from those books have help me overcome being bothered by noise (chatting) during my swing, or letting slow play implode my game; but I never really knew how to deal with the feelings when my game started to fall apart. For me, I think the tools in this book will help with that issue. I noticed I am already aware of when I am in a “red” state and just the awareness is impactful and now I need to practice the neuro-hacks to see if it makes a difference. Time will tell if I really see an impact.

Obviously, I think I got my money’s worth from my $2.99 Kindle download.

Caddie Books – Two Good Reads

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This year I had the pleasure of playing a few private courses and had a caddie on my bag.  I was nervous at first but after a few holes it was fun.  Yes, it was nice to have someone else provide valuable information, like when to layup or go for the hole.  It was a treat to have someone rake the bunker and all the other small things they do to make your round enjoyable. What really added to the “fun” was the personalities and story telling of the caddies.  And that made me want to know more about caddies.

I have read two books and both are worth reading if you are an avid golf fan.  The books are very different. The first book is “An American Caddie in St. Andrews” by Oliver Horovitz. The second book is “Loppers: A Caddie’s Twenty-Year Golf Odyssey” by John Dunn.

If I had to recommend just one book, I would tell you to read “Loopers: A Caddie’s Twenty-Year Golf Odysey” because it takes you on a journey to so many famous courses: Augusta, Bandon Dunes, Shinnecock, and St. Andrews.  I really enjoyed the variety of courses and Dunn’s description of the caddie’s life at each place he worked.  Also, Dunn is living a nomads life and there is a underlying struggle he has with the idea that he should get a “real job” and the struggle with his father’s view of his job.  As a woman, I was also surprised by some of the behavior of the caddies. The term “frat boys” is what comes to mind with some of the stories Dunn shares about his life with other caddies.  The book is great at balancing the romantic view we all of have of the caddie life with the realities of being a caddie, and the personality you must have to live the life travailing from course to course.

The book by Oliver Horovitz is also a great read but as the front cover of the book reveals the story is about a young man “Growing Up, Girls, and Looping on the Old Course.”  The best part of the book is the “secrets” revealed about the caddies of St. Andrews. The book takes place in two places —  at Harvard (where Horovitz is a student) and St. Andrews. The chapters at St. Andrews are what I enjoyed most (no surprise, I’m sure). Horovitz also shares his personal story including the time he shares with his Uncle Ken, who lives in the town of St. Andrews. It was a very lovely back story, but I was reading the book to get a peek at the job of a St. Andrews caddie and the old course.  I must admit one of my favorite chapters was about Horovitz caddying for Lydia Hall in a qualifying round of the Ricoh Women’s British Open.

Both books reveal that there is a pecking order in the caddie shack and it takes a lot of hard work to gain the respect of fellow Loopers.  However, the big difference between the books is that Oliver Horovitz is a student at Harvard and not living the “vagabond” life John Dunn experienced as a caddie. In some ways, Horovitz appears to be living the life of a privilege student just caddying for his summer job.  However, Horovitz, like Dunn, earns the respect of the seasoned caddies (no small feat at St. Andrews) and takes the job seriously.  Horovitz also has a wonderful understanding of the “once in a lifetime experience” playing St. Andrews is for most golfers and wants to make the round the best it can be for the golfer.

Both men have a passion for the sport we all love and reveal that if you are lucky you get to combine your passion with your job. Read both books and you will be exposed to very different roads taken in a very unique career.