Tiger Woods

I love it when athletes talk about staying in the present, being in the moment and keeping their minds still. These concepts all came from spiritual disciplines, made their way into modern psychology and are now thrown about by jocks with no clue of their origins. Prior to their inclusion in sports vernacular, the closest anyone came to the concept of complete awareness was when they spoke of being in the zone or playing the game in a state of slow motion. The difference is that these last were things that happened to the player as if by accident. Many of today's players now understand these are states of being that can be achieved.

Tiger Woods may be the best example in sports of a competitor who grasps and employs the concept of complete focus on the task at hand. Golf afficianados will tell you he has the strongest mind on the tour. What they are saying is that he is best able to block out distractions that can cause errant shots; the most important and most prevalent of which are the golfer's own thoughts. Think a negative and you will achieve a negative result. Ask any golfer how many times he has hit his ball in the water after thinking don't hit the ball in the water. In team sports a player's mind can wander to the cheerleaders from time to time. His teammates will carry the ball. In golf if you lose your focus you've lost your mind and the game gets away from you in a hurry. Watching Tiger demolish the field at The P.G.A. over the last four days was in some ways like watching a person who has evolved to a higher plane. For the first two days many of the other players were able to match Tiger's intensity and, as a result, his scores, but as the tournament went into the weekend and the pressure to make good shot after good shot grew greater, they all fell away and Tiger was left with what seemed an easy victory. And maybe it was.

Spiritual teachers will tell you that the mind can be trained as well as the muscles. It takes the same discipline, practise and effort a player brings to the training of his body. Tiger, with his part Asian heritage, may have been privy to this wisdom at an earlier age and thus further along in his development. He credits both of his parents for instilling in him the strength of mind and character he brings to the game. But what could they have taught him that other player's parents didn't know and pass along? It would be interesting to find out and perhaps one day Tiger will tell us. He was the first interviewed player I ever heard talk of being present and staying in the moment and maybe that's the complete story. But now, with so many other players expressing, and maybe even grasping, the same concepts, will Tiger be able to maintain his dominance? Time will tell, of course, but I'm guessing there are more wins, more stories and more wisdom to be gleaned from this amazing young man.