During the height of my practice and preparing for tournaments, I would spend hours listening to tapes and doing the prescribed exercises to get myself in the ultimate mind and body state. Everyday when I went to golf, I would put on a tape and then use those same mental strategies when practicing and competing.
I would do simple things such as linking pleasure in my mind to practicing and pain to not practicing. I would also use body language such as the way I walked and talked so that I could try and always link golf in my mind as ultimate pleasure and power.
More specifically when I went to the course to play a few holes the day before my competition round I would purposefully practice the way I walked on the course and also the right mental approach. I practiced walking confidently with my shoulders back with deep breathing as well getting up to the ball and seeing the target and pulling the trigger straight away. This got me in a very confident state leading in to the next day's competition and proved invaluable as not only did my golf improve, but so did my enjoyment and confidence levels.
I would also use strategies when preparing for a tournament such as not being fearful of the result when playing a golf shot in particular on certain precarious tee shots. For example I would actually associate pain in my mind if I thought about the result of my ball going in the water or trees and pleasure to just getting up and hitting the ball. Put simply I wanted to be in a state of mind where I didn't care where the ball was going to go. When I put all this together along with my body language, I felt very powerful on the course and led to some fantastic moments.
Mental strategies are great when dealing with pressure and if the round is not going the way you'd like. I would use pattern interrupts where I would force my mind on focusing on humorous things while I kept asking important questions to myself such as 'what is the simplest way to turn this game around' or even better 'what enjoyable steps can I take that will turn my game around instantly'. These powerful questions can give you a renewed confidence when dearly needed.
If you'd like any further help in discovering what mental strategies work for you, book in a lesson to find out exactly how.
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