Which is better for developing control under pressure, and analytical thinking?
This is a depiction of what might go through the minds of two evenly matched, high level, experts in their field on a day of competition. The Karate fighter is a Black Belt, the Golfer is a Pro.
Editor’s Note: If I find out that you took your child out of my karate class and signed him/her up for Golf lessons after reading this, I’m going to be rather disappointed.
A little about each sport:
The goal of a golfer is to get the ball into the hole with the minimum amount of swings. The suggested amount of swing per a hole is called a “Par”. In other words, if the first “hole” that you approach has a designation of 389 yards and is a “Par” four you have four strikes on the ball to get it 389 yards and into the hole if you do that you have “Parred” (beat) the hole. Each club is designed to do three things: make the ball travel a certain distance, make the ball loft into the air at a different angular degree; and make the ball stop or role once it makes contact with the ground. While there is no time restriction on the play of a hole, everyone is encouraged to not swing more than once on a ball in order to keep the flow of the game moving. (Beginners are encouraged to pick their ball up and drop it where the more experienced player’s ball sits and play it from there if they are struggling to make contact with the ball.)
The goal of a karate fighter is to score more points than their opponent within a certain amount of time. The value of a technique changes based on the assigning of it by the promoter of the even. In other words promoter, A may assign kicking to the body a level of one point, while promoter B make assign a level of two points for the same technique. Most of the time a higher point designation is given to promote the usage of techniques that are looked upon more favorably by the promoter. In my school a punch is worth one point, a body kicks two points, a kick to the head three points, and an aerial kick five points. Calls are also made for: running out of the fighting area, excessive contact, drawing blood and hitting an opponent at the same time that they hit you. (For this fictional story we will not be getting into any of that.) Lastly, a sparring match is normally two minutes in duration with the combatants attempting to acquire up to five points.
For this event, the golfer will play one hole and the karate fighter will fight one round.
Preparation for the event:
Golfer- The day before the game the golfer tours the course looking at the layout of the land: how high the grass is; where any dips and slopes are that you have to be careful of; he drops a ball on a green or two and kicks it moderately hard to get a feel for how fast the ball will role once hit; lastly he checks the anticipated wind speed for the day of the game to get a feel for how the ball will travel once in the air.
Karate fighter – The karate fighter gets to the event early and takes a seat on the floor away from other participants and begins to stretch. Keeping a watchful eye on the room, he scans each participant slowly as they warm up. He is looking at their coordination, balance, speed, athleticism, and temperament. He knows that people with high athleticism matched with an assertive temperament are hard to beat. He spots someone who seems to have a mid to high level of athleticism and a temperament that seems to suggest that he will fight hard and well but won’t sacrifice when the going gets tough. He decides that he will fight this person in order to make it through the first round of fights. The command of the line up is given and he stands beside his chosen opponent. The referee goes down the line giving everyone the designation of an assigned opponent; the dye is cast, the game is on, let the challenge begin.
Time of play:
Golfer – Shot #1
The golfer approaches the tee (the distance between the tee and the hole is 420 yards, and is a “Par” four which means that he has four strikes on the ball to get it into the hole.). His plan of action is to hit the ball 250 yards with his driver, then take a number five “Hybrid” club to knock the ball 170 yards onto the green, then “Putt” the ball twice to “Par” the hole.
He leans down and pinches a little grass between his index finger and thumb. Standing upright, he tosses the grass into the air and takes note of the wind direction. The wind is blowing NW at nine miles-per-hours since he is facing Southeast he knows that the ball has to travel straight forward forcefully, with no turns left or right, in order to combat the wind speed and direction. He reaches into his pocket and takes out a two-inch tee. Placing the ball onto the top of the tee he leans down and drives the tee a half-inch into the ground leaving the ball sitting exposed one and a half inches off of the ground (his perfect striking high). Widening his stance he angles the drivers club head upward at 45 degrees to make sure that the ball spends the maximum time in the air to ensure it flies 250 yards. While preparing to strike ( lining his club and body up with the ball) he focuses all of his concentration on making contact with the ball directly in the center of the club because he knows that that is where the compression propulsion happens that gives the ball maximum flight distance. He brings the club up makes the swing, hits the heel of the clubface and shanks the ball 180 yards to the left slightly behind a large tree. Angered by the strike, he takes a deep breath and forces himself to remain calm. Walking towards the tree he notices that the tree has a branch protruding about six feet off of the tree in the path of the direction that his next ball should fly. This means that he cannot hit the ball into the air on his next shot (a major problem).
The Karate Fighter – Round # 1
After successfully choosing an opponent that he thinks that he can beat our fighter and his opponent are called into the ring. This is the first of two two minute fights with a maximum of five points (whoever reaches them first) winner take all event. He knows that he has this fight in the bag. Calmly he and his opponent face the head referee and bow, then they face each other and bow, after stepping back and assuming a fighting stance the command to fight is given. On the command of “fight!” his opponent rushes in and throws a punch before our fighter can get set. The fight is stopped to acknowledge the strike and a point is awarded to the challenger by the judges. Shaken our fighter begins to realize that the lack of aggressive temperament, during warm-up, was a ploy by his adversary to lull his opponents into a state of false confidence. Our fighter hardens his resolve and prepares himself to start again. On the command of “fight!” his opponent rushes in again in an attempt to score a second point. Moving quickly to his left positioning himself 45 degrees to the challenger our fighter blocks the attack and tries to score a point with a punch of his own which falls short of its mark.
With his confidence regained and his composure intact, our fighter creates distance in an effort to survey his opponent's skills and come up with a plan. While he is doing this his opponent, with lightning speed, rushes him again with a hand strike and scores another point. The round is halted when a brief break is called by the judges to discuss an issue; the score is two to nothing (challenger). Desperate, our fighter moves to his side of the ring and forces himself to state calm so that he can come up with a plan. There is a little over a minute left in the round; he must think fast.
Golfer – Shot #2
While walking towards the tree he does some quick mental calculations. He estimates that his ball went, approximately 180 yards (not the250 that he was hoping for) which means that his next shot has to go 240 yards to land on the green; he has to keep the ball low to avoid the exposed tree branch; because the ball went to the left and the wind is blowing NW he also has to keep low so that the wind does not carry it in a direction away from the green. With all of this new information, he prepares to make his next shot. Normally, the club he would have chosen would have been a number three wood because the club would have given him the best chance of covering the 240 yards distance, but because of the problem that the protruding branch provides (he must keep the ball low) he opts for a number one hybrid club to make his second strike. He approaches the ball, does a couple of practice swings to stimulate muscle memory, sets up for the strike, and strikes the ball. Solid contact is made, the ball stays low and on path, it seems that the ball is going to go about 200 yards (the distance that the club is designed to carry it) when the ball begins to gyrate and veer to the right, it travels 185 yards and tumbles to the ground with about five yards of lateral role. Knowing that the shot could have been worse (because he missed a sand trap), our golfer blows out a sigh of relief and prepares to move forward.
Resumption of the fight – While waiting for the fight to resume our fighter looks across the ring at his opponent's patch and realizes that his opponent is in a Japanese karate system that is predominantly hand oriented. Additionally, he learned from the initial contact with his foe that his opponent likes to mount punching attacks immediately once the command of “fight!” is given. He comes up with a plan, runs over it in his mind twice to make sure that it has no flaws, then prepares to fight. When bowing in for the fight to begin, unbeknownst to his opponent and the judge, he steps back an additional 1 ½ inches, the distance that he will need to unleash he “Hail Mary” technique and keep himself in the fight. When the command of fight is given our fighter shifts his weight unto his back leg while at the same time aiming the heel of the standing foot towards his on-coming opponent for maximum support on impact, as his opponent mounts his attack he brings his knee towards his belly button with his leg parallel to the floor, by the time all of this is done his opponent has traveled exactly one-and-a-half inches towards him, he lashes out with a brutal sidekick that stops his opponent in his tracks and earns himself two much needed points. The score is tied
Golfer – shot #3
When he gets to his ball he extrapolates that the ball is about 12 yards from the front of the green, and an additional 13 yards from the front of the green to the hole for a total of 25 yards. There is an additional problem of the green being elevated roughly about two feet off of the ground. Knowing that he will want his ball to pop over the two feet and land not more than three yards onto the green, and the role the rest of the way landing in the hole or stopping not more than a club length away from it, he chooses a nine iron. He takes the club out of his bag, cokes down on the grip so that his hands are a quarter of the way down the length of the shaft, that when done he brushes the club head across the grass multiple times to get a feel for how hard he must swing to get the right club speed that will make the ball arch just right and land with enough momentum to role 10 yards. He sets up, takes the swing, makes contact and bang! A perfect swing. The ball arches up, travels the fairway distance in the air and lands two yards deep into the green; the ball hits the green spinning forward and roles ten yards stopping a yard away from the hole. Our golfer breathes another sigh of relief because he knows that he can make this putt, and if he does he would have “Parred” this hole.
Karate Fighter – After the judges award him his points, he feels confident that he has developed the right plan and proceeds with carrying the rest of it out. Moving with confidence he slams another sidekick out which is caught on his opponent's elbow as he drops it to block ( a vital part of his plan). Moving with grace, he slams out another, then another with the same results of the elbow being dropped to block the strike. After the third blocked strike he thrusts out with a kick that initially looks like a sidekick, but midway to the target flips up towards his opponent's face and catches him flush on the side of the face with the flat of his foot, a perfect hook kick. The match is stopped he is awarded 3 points for a kick to the head and wins the match with a total of five points.
Golfer – Shot #4
Though our golfer is exhilarated with his prior shot he knows that he must keep his nerves in check to pull off the critical last shot. He walks onto the green putter in hand. He approaches the ball, dips down picks the ball up and replaces it with a coin so that he can remember the exact location of where the ball was before he picked it up; after cleaning the ball he puts it back in the exact spot he picked it up; he dips down again, but this time he takes a hard look at the green between the hole and the ball looking for any dips, indentations, slants or depressions that he has to account for. Satisfied that there are none he reaches back into his memory and tried to recall the exact speed the ball rolled at once it landed on the green (this will give him an idea of how hard he will have to hit the ball to give it the right speed to the hole). Satisfied with his calculations and still confident from his last strike, he approaches the ball, sets up, take two practice swings and strikes the ball. The ball bounces off the clubhead and in a gentle role that mimics a summer breeze makes its way to the hole and softly falls in for “Par”.
As for the question of which sport teaches analytical thinking and control under pressure, I’ll leave that for you to decide.
In my next article, we will see how the golfer would do with a club against a Nunchaku — just joking!
May you have everything that you want, and want everything that you have.
- Master Batiste