Give me an example of a "Clear Key"......
And why is the difference critical? In what way? Will it make me a better putter....I doubt it.......
I use a swing key and my putting is good, if fact very good....and I don't ever get the yips and NEVER will.....why? because I have eliminated all the crap that causes them, and it will stay eliminated..
The critical difference is that swing keys engage the conscious mind, which of course is available to awareness, and to that extent very manageable. Conscious mental activity is found to be about 3% of the mental process that accompanies our actions. As such it is best suited to be the "manager." The other 97% is nonconscious and that's where the action patterns actually originate and are stored, assuming your habits are built.
You can think your way through any golf stroke, of course. That's mostly what we've done for generations. The problems, then are two: One, our minds and bodies do not work at the same speed, so one is vulnerable to mismatches in the timing and rhythm departments, which doesn't mean "something" might happen every time, but it will, often enough to cost strokes, since we have now left the 97% free to do whatever it takes a notion, and it will do just that, witness the number of shots that do not go where we wanted them to.
The second, we will have relegated ourselves to use nothing but skill in execution, which again, may work even most of the time, but we have found that habits work better, lose less strokes, and we can only release them if we think about something other than what we are doing while we do it. Very few people go through their daily activities on manual. (If they do, they are probably is pain most of the time). That means learning to use the conscious mind to manage the nonconscious habit storage for golf so that we can release what we want and not be victimized by systemic choices in default -(whatever the system decides to push our way, depending on the existing pressure).
To eliminate all that potential potpourri, we use clear keys. They give no command, since the command was given by a "swing" thought in pre-shot planning. You indicate one thought, which is excellent, though as you indicate you are subscribing to it, it will leave you at the skill level, which is one step below, and less effective than, the habit level. So put your swing thought to work in pre-shot, and then use a clear key, which will effectively release the habit (or habit set) you have called upon with your swing key. That takes you to the peak level of performance for you, only depending upon how well you have built your habits. And there is a way to use clear keys to help build habits that we may need, from the skills that we own.
So instead of a swing key, try saying something like "Legalized bingo'll keep grandma off the street," or "When the going gets tough the tough turn pro," or just try Ouimet's little caddie's words "Easy peezy lemon squezzy."
Tha's the difference in a nutshell, but you can find a bit more discussion at
http://clearkeygolf.com/Clearkeys.htm
It may not make
you a better putter, but it certainly has done so for a great number of players. When you say you have eliminated all the "crap," that may be true for the 3% conscious part of your mind, but it won't cut it for the 97%, and since you can't see that part (unless you are talkng with a mental patient who has delusions and hallucinations, which are visible products of the nonconscious realm that have got loose), it would not be possible to know if we were rid of the nonconscious elements of "crap."
Nobody is required to use a clear key. Golf will always be available at the conscious level; though I've always found players champing at the bit to get better, while the only thing they work on is the stroke (swing). That may help, but it won't go zenith. That takes another step into the mental realm. The "peak" game requires balance between the physical and mental capacities we own.
