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Show SPORT LIGHT Instinct Is Guide of the Great I By GRANTLAND RICE l WHICH IS THE MAIN factor in sport competition direct 1 thought or the subconscious mind? i How much success belongs to quick Kr!n nifr an4 Hiii nuin sunn how much to intuition? intui-tion? To help settle this issue, we called In the patriarch patri-arch of brain waves, the same being John Kieran, who in his day was a high - class com- tone rusty so ha punches for the opening; too late or he doesn't quite duck In time. Joe Louis, for example, bad as good a brain in 1948 as he had in 1938, but though he kept catching Walcott in 1948, his subconscious reactions were too slow to land a knock-out punch. Applied to Golf "Now golf is a game," J. Kieran continued, "that should be played with a subconscious mind entirely. But it isn't. The ball isn't moving so there is the deadly temptation to start thinking what club to use, etc. This is when the trouble begins. be-gins. "Remember that round Watts Gunn had in the amateur at Oak-mont Oak-mont in 1925? I think Watts lost the first five holes, I know he was being murdered. Then suddenly tie seemed to settle into a trance and he won the next 15 holes 15 holes in a row. "I talked to him later and Watts admitted he didn't remember a thing that had happened in those 15 holes. " 'I never thought of anything,' he said. 'I Just kept swinging the club head. I was in a sort of mental groove.' "There was certainly no conscious con-scious effort in anything Gunn did. He went sailing through until he met Bobby Jones in the final round where neither conscious nor subconscious sub-conscious effort was of any use. "Direct thought or brain action has certainly wrecked many a round of golf," Kieran continued. "If a fellow could just step up to a ball and think about nothing at all as he swung the club head, scores would take a terrific dive. "Here's another thought along these lines," Kieran reported. "I've known a lot of baseball and football players. Many of these not all of them I wouldn't call too smart. I wouldn't say their brains were too" agile, although they had their share of good sense. I've seen these fellows make few mistakes. They were generally where they should have been. Some instinct seemed to guide them. I know it wasn't sharp thinking. Trying to Think "On the other hand, I've known extremely intelligent players (I mean intelligent off the field) who always seemed to be pulling some boner or doing something wrong. Grantland Rice pernor at jtoranam and who needs no further comment when it comes to a matter of brain action. "The subconscious mind," according ac-cording to Kieran, "does most of the work. The brain can't work with the speed needed to handle too many situations. For example a jockey has less than a fifth of a second on many occasions to decide de-cide whether he must go inside or stay outside. A Ted Williams will often wait until the ball is within 15 feet of the plate before he decides de-cides to swing or not to swing. That is another fifth-of-a-second decision. "Some brains, of course, work faster than others. But there are few that can work with split-second speed In making mak-ing a derision. Subconscious action takes over or Intuition or whatever you want to call It." Both Eddie Arcaro and Ted At-rinson At-rinson bear out this angle in regard ;o racing. "I'll be moving up," Arcaro said, "and suddenly there's an opening to the left. I haven't time to size things up. Your intuition acts for you and sometimes your intuition can be wrong. You can use your brain in mapping out a race in advance. ad-vance. But once you get into fast action, you've got to depend a lot on your reflexes or your intuition, which are the products of experience. experi-ence. In fact, I think this is where experience counts most. I mean in givirrg you the right intuition." Boxing follows the same line. A younger fighter, In his prime, sees an opening and punches at practically the same instant. Or he sees a punch coming and ducks. Later on, he Is just as smart. His brain is jest as good as it was years before. But his subconscious action has slowed do .11. his intuitive action has |