Golf, great escapes, and magic tricks

Golf is such a useless enterprise that I wonder about it's fascination. There have been many books written about the attraction and  it's lore. The game has it's own rituals and customs that can get you banned from many a private course and the from public course at least a reprimand. It's expensive and time consuming. It surely is a waste of scarce natural resources on expensive lawn care. It's very frustrating with one moment hitting a great escape shot from an impossible position and the next whiffing on a beautiful lie.

One thing it does provide me with is a fertile ground for playing with the differences in my left and right side, even if it has not improved my bogey filled game.  I can put my attention in my left hand and swing the club only thinking of it. In a way the right disappears as I actively concentrate on my left arm's position throughout the swing. My normal however is for my right hand and arm to dominate as I get caught up in the game and the left disappears. Much like a magic trick I actively suppress what I am not paying attention to.


Research suggests these enhancement and suppression processes are mediated by two different populations of neurons in the visual cortex – the area at the back of the brain that processes visual information.


 Even though that is suggests that it is only the visual cortex that operates this way in the article, I think that a similar process happens in my speech and communication. I only have perception of the right tongue/sublingual/ throat/ and facial muscles to respond to the speaking communicating task appropriately and the left suppressed disappears. I have spent a lifetime at it so now the left is very difficult to 'find' and initiate movement in these regions.