I’m here with Dr. Debbie Crews; she is the founder of Opti International and she is also one of those interesting people to talk about brain research in golf with the yips, what kind of state we are trying to get in and all that good stuff. We are going to try out the Opti, the band and go to Brain and the Train and see what it’s all about. I’m looking forward to it.
Where do we start with this? We have the Muse headband which has the four sensors; correct?
Interviewee: Yes, two in the front and two behind the ears. They are good indicators of what is going on in the brain. We got our phone, we got our apps on our phone and that’s all you really need. What I like to do first is just get a resting measure of your brain and figure out where you tend to be more in life. That’s helpful information. The first thing the app is going to do is look for the headset, it is going to look to make sure that we are connected right and it’s good. That’s just the last two behind the ears; relax your jaw, you are ready to go and I’ll stop talking for this one. So we just took a 10-second baseline. You might have seen those little bars blinking on and off, those were your eye blinks. The signals might go in and out a little bit, but that’s okay because all that will be removed before the maps. I’m going to label this one –
Interviewer: So we just took a 10-second baseline; I was just chilling out here and so we are going to get a brain map of that to see the resting state of my brain without golf, without a club, without doing anything.
Interviewee: We just pull up the center icon, your file is right there and there’s your brain maps. What they are showing us is, Theta is pretty active in this one, Theta is a good state, the pleasure-displeasure, it’s a meditative state etc. I like to look at the values in terms of the left and the right side; you tend to be, usually, I think a little more right-sided.
Interviewer: What do we take away from this? It’s on the screen here; when people look at this, this is just a resting – do we learn anything from this?
Interviewee: We do. We tend to look for the pattern to see if one side is a little more active than the other, to see what the color pattern is. If all four of the maps that you see here tend to have the same pattern across them, that is pretty indicative of your own particular pattern. The real value is to compare it with other things down the road. The next we want to compare with is while you putt. Lots of times people are certainly in line, and as soon as you put a club in their hands, they tend to be in a little different place. Often, a very good state of performance.
Interviewer: Okay.
Interviewee: I’m going to go out of here and this time we are going to put a club in your hands if you don’t mind. I’ll move this aside, and –
Interviewer: Now we have a challenge.
Interviewee: Now we have a challenge; that looks like a good hole over there to go to Cordie.
Interviewer: Okay.
Interviewee: I’ll give you a ball to start with. What I’m going to do is, I’m just going to have you do what you normally do. Go through your routine, I’m going to press ‘Start’ and what I’m going to do is press ‘Stop’ as soon as you take the putter back. We are just going to go back and look at the one second right before you took the putter back. That is the one that’s predictive of performance.
Interviewer: Got it.
Interviewee: Okay, so in terms of looking at these, I’m looking at the patterns. You seem actually quiet around the ones that was really good, which to me is kind of telling me that you got done with all your processing. Then if we look at the balance, you are very right-sided there on the good one, but you are left on the not-so-good one. Over here, you are right on this one, you are right on – oh, this one is exactly even. It’s very synergistic, it’s excellent. Left on that side again, which is not so good; little more left on that last one, but so overall, we are seeing something that is a little bit quieter and probably a little more right-sided when you perform.
Interviewer: Yes. So, the people can see this; the numbers are closer, which means the synergy – it’s more aligned to the left and the right side. We see blue and green as well; are we taking away from that or –
Interviewee: The green is higher activity and you’ll notice in your good putts, it’s a little more blue. You see more blue than you do green.
Interviewer: Okay. That just means that there’s less thinking or what does it mean?
Interviewee: I like to think because we are looking at the last second that you got done; there’s another interesting one that I see. If you look just at Alpha activity in those two frontal areas, in the good putt, you tend to be – the left side is higher there and that’s an indication of an approach mindset rather than an avoid. It’s the opposite in the one that you did.
Interviewer: Okay.
Interviewee: You were in more an avoid mindset than an approach.
Interviewer: So, we just did the Opti Brain portion over here; measuring the different maps of a good and bad putt, very apparent the differences there. So, now we are going to look at training. We have a measurement, how do we get better at it, right?
Interviewee: You bet. The whole goal is to train people to be better than their best.
Interviewer: Yes.
Interviewee: Okay, because we are outside, I’m going to use the music. It can be a simple action; it’s just pushing ‘Start’ and you are going to listen to the music. The music is going to be changing; going up and down, maybe every second, because it updates that often. You only have one goal; and that is to get the music low before you take the putter back.
Interviewer: Okay.
Interviewee: So, I’m going to start you on beginner level; and we’ll just from there.
Interviewer: Okay so the music needs to be quiet because that means that our brain is in a synchronous state. So, it’s looking at the four sensors and want them to be aligned or similar.
Interviewee: Yes, they’ll be synchronized. They don’t have to be the exact same values, they probably aren’t going to be, but the pattern will be synchronized.
Interviewer: Got it.
Interviewee: And you will have your own unique pattern, which just fine. We allow for that.
Interviewer: Okay. Let me ask you this; when is it important? Does it only matter right here, like about to putt or is it even start back here when I’m thinking about it?
Interviewee: Right there.
Interviewer: Right here.
Interviewee: Yes. All the research has suggested this as the most important point. People get ready all different and that’s fine, but what’s needed is, as you train, you are going to find that the music will fall into your own pattern as well. It’s consistent as can be when people perform.
Interviewer: Perfect, okay.
Interviewee: So, we already have you connected in, so we are ready to go. I’m going to push ‘Start’.
Interviewer: Okay.
Interviewee: Loud and soft. That’s it. Okay, and again.
Interviewer: So is loud – it’s loud right there. It’s loud when I’m thinking about the target even sometimes?
Interviewee: You can be if you are planning your processing when it’s loud, and that’s okay. It’s not that it’s incorrect. The only thing you do your thing to get ready, but we want it soft right before you start the motion.
Interviewer: I’m thinking about it; there we go.
Interviewee: Very good.
Interviewer: So, what does that mean?
Interviewee: It means that –
Interviewer: So I was about to hit it and then it came on really loud.
Interviewee: Yes, you went back to processing. You can either wait through that until it goes back down because it’s a pattern I see really often. People might look at the hole and it goes up and then it comes down and then it might go up one more time right before they stop going, but they got to wait for it to get back down and go.
Interviewer: So should I just stand there and wait until I get
Interviewee: Yes, figure out how to get it low. Look at the hole again if you want, but you’ll figure it out.
Interviewer: Just curious, when you are talking and listening, does this mean something? Sometimes when I talk, it comes on, sometimes like now, it’s not on. What does that – is there anything about that?
Interviewee: Well, I don’t know about you, but I’ve had people who, if they would just talk all the time, they would be in a better place to perform.
Interviewer: Okay.
Interviewee: This is just measuring the amount of activity in the brain and it might be changing sometimes like you are listening to me now and you are taking in information, which is receiving, which is a good place to be. You are also processing, as we go along through this information as well. It’s just going to change accordingly, there’s no good and bad to it.
Interviewer: Okay. Let’s try it again and see what we can –
Interviewee: That one was better.
Interviewer: Yes.
Interviewee: You went up again, which I said – I see that pattern all the time. I’m not sure what it’s saying, maybe it’s just that we are ready to go and when it comes back down, it’s good.
Interviewer: Talk to us about this; should we be backing off of the ball more often would you say, or do we stand here – let’s say in a performance environment, we are performing, we are trying to hit the best shot, should we back off? Do we just stand here like this until we feel like we are in the quieter place?
Interviewee: When you are training, stay here and you’ll figure it out. Your brain will figure it out.
Interviewer: Okay.
Interviewee: It’s fine. If you are out on the course though, you don’t have this with you, but something comes in there, a question mark, you can’t hit a ball with a question mark in your head. Anything, it doesn’t matter anymore if you are or not, you need to start over because there is a question in your head. So, if this has a question, it’s now giving clear directions to this, which is your subconscious.
Interviewer: That’s good. Let’s see if we can do that again.
Interviewee: That was good.
Interviewer: It’s easy.
Interviewee: It’s easy.
Interviewer: It’s simple.
Interviewee: What’s fun to me is, I get to listen to what’s going on in your brain. Usually I have no clue what’s going on in somebody’s brain. At least I have some idea now.
Interviewer: Every time, before I hit the ball, it goes up as loud as it can; what does it mean?
Interviewee: Very common pattern. I don’t know. I think it must be a piece of readiness. The idea that we always have to be quiet or relaxed or in this one place, to me, I’ve not heard that. I hear people’s pattern change. We can start back there and it might be in a certain pattern and sometimes, as soon as people set their club behind the ball, it gets low and stays. Sometimes, you hit it low before the putt and it’ll go back up again as soon as you start to putt. That’s okay. I often find, if they train for a little bit, it starts to stay low longer. They find that place to go to, they get really good at giving that.
Interviewer: That’s amazing. I can feel the difference. I can almost feel when it’s loud and then when it goes quiet right before you hit it, you kind of feel something kind of shift, right?
Interviewee: That’s exactly right.
Interviewer: That’s crazy.
Interviewee: That’s synchrony. That’s synergy.
Interviewer: That is so cool. Well, I’m never going to hit a putt any more without this on.
Interviewee: Well, we can turn it off and do you want to putt some now and I’ll collect an Opti Brain?
Interviewer: Okay.
Interviewee: Lots of times we will train and then if you want to see, we’ll turn it off and in fact, sometimes we get the best results after we move away from it and come back.
Interviewer: Okay. I’ve hit a handful of putts here using the Train and figuring out what state. Now no music, we are just going to collect the data and we are going to see what’s better or see what’s improved since the last map that we did.
Interviewee: Correct.
Interviewer: Okay, let’s see what happens.
Interviewee: Okay; rating on that?
Interviewer: Five.
Interviewee: Can we hit another one?
Interviewer: Yes. I felt –
Interviewee: You were lost without your music.
Interviewer: I knew I was going to miss; let’s just say that.
Interviewee: I’ve seen what that looks like in the brain, but we are going to say, let’s go to one more.
Interviewer: That one was good. Number?
Interviewee: This was a nine.
Interviewer: All right, do you do ten?
Interviewee: I don’t know. I guess I don’t do ten.
Interviewer: We got to get you to the ten because we are going better than your best.
Interviewee: Okay, better than your best, take you to ten.
Interviewer: Let’s compare that one.
Interviewee: This is really interesting; Dr. Debbie is going through some of the brain maps here and in my resting state, I am pretty right-sided.
Interviewer: Yes.
Interviewee: It’s pulling me, so there’s more left side of the brain which gets me in synchrony which is really interesting.
Interviewer: What I did is, I compared your good putt from before training to your good putt after training. You rated it a nine both times, and they both went in the hole.
Interviewee: Okay.
Interviewer: So what I’m kind of seeing in the maps is, you tend to be a little more right-sided and the activity appears to have gone up a little, which to me represents a little more focus. So perhaps there was a little more focus after the training. So, the Theta was stronger right before and it came over a little left. It got balanced out a little bit. Alpha was a little bit higher right and stayed right. Beta was a little higher- actually it was even on both sides before training and it came over a little more left, and so did Beta two. That’s in indication to me saying a little more focus might be better for you and a little more balance might be –
Interviewee: So that’s the whole point; so you say better than your best is kind of the take on – because we all have different things, right?
Interviewer: Right.
Interviewee: For me, it’s more right-sided, and I need to get a little more focused and bring it back in the middle with a little more of the left side. So that’s for me, but for everyone else, that is completely different, which is crazy.
Interviewer: Correct. It is going to be whatever their brain needs in order to get this to work and the thing is, the program was built from performance backwards. So, we just looked at what put putts in the hole over and over again, and from that, we determined the brain states and it showed us that pattern of synergy or synchrony all the time. So that’s what we created in terms of the algorithm.
Interviewee: That’s awesome. I can feel it absolutely when I’m over the ball the difference, like 100%. Now that I actually feel and I have this awareness, even if I don’t train any more, I have something that I know that I’m looking for, that state that I know that I’m going for.
Interviewer: Correct.
Interviewee: Eye-opening. This has been amazing. Thank you so much.
Interviewer: Thank you so much.
If you have enjoyed this video, make sure to check out the entire series at golfsciencelab.com/Opti and get our complete guide to using the Muse headbands and the Opti apps to improve your performance and your mental game on the golf course.
