Why we carry on…. dihydroxyphenethylamine
As we all know golf is a difficult sport to learn. Small reductions in handicaps are often preceded by months of practice, often on particularly small aspect of our game. I, for example spent an inordinately long time practicing hitting putts up slopes in an effort to cut the ridiculous amount of three putts that have crept into my average round. But what motivates us to keep going, to keep practicing, to keep turning up to the course and keep playing?
Let us be honest for a moment, playing badly is not fun. I mean I don’t know what ‘it’ is, but recently I lost ‘it’. Two weeks ago I was absolutely delighted with how I was hitting my driver off the tee, now I have not only lost 30 yards, but I have developed a big old slice. Despite this I still find a spark of joy in every shot I do hit well, whether I hit 11 over my handicap or play like a young Seve Ballesteros, as long as I can reflect on a couple of redeeming shots from the 19th hole I’m happy.
You, dear reader, are probably wondering where I am going with Punch Shot Golf’s inaugural blog, and what does it have to do with dihydroxyphenethylamine? And for that matter, what is dihydroxyphenethylamine?
Put simply, dihydroxyphenethylamine (or 3,4-dihydroxyphenethylamine if we are being exact), is dopamine. Lovely, lovely dopamine. And dopamine, for the uninitiated is created in the basal ganglia, a group of structures located deep in the brain towards the top of the brain stem.
Now, dopamine has alway been associated with being the ‘pleasure chemical’, however, more recent studies have shown that it more confers with motivational saliance.
Motivational saliance, for those not in the know refers to our ability and motivation to selectively focus on a particular upcoming event or outcome. It regulates the amount of time and energy we will expend and the amount of risk we are willing to except in order to perform a specific action or attain a particular goal. Basically, too little dopamine and we give up the game, or make a beeline for the club house the first sign of rain. Too much and we can become obsessive, develop addictions or other mental health issues. In fact dopamine inbalances have been associated with ADHD, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, depression, bipolar disorders, binge eating, addiction, gambling, and schizophrenia.
To give the most basic example, on the 6th of April 2011 in what could be argued was Tottenham Hotspur's biggest game to date vs Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter final, Peter Crouch was sent off after making two bookable tackles in only 14 minutes. It could be argued that due to the stature of the game he found himself ‘over stimulated’ and overproduced dopamine which resulted in him taking risks that he might not of done in another game.
Motivational Saliance and the dopamine it is reliant on, explains why we endlessly scroll through social media in bed at night in anticipation of finding something that interests us, why we feel a nervous buzz of excitement before a big event, and why, after hitting 120 range balls, we can’t help but reach into our bags and pull out a couple premium balls and place them on the tee. Then slice them over the fence.