Golf – It’s All In The Mind
posted in Uncategorized |You may have top quality golf equipmentand the best coach money can buy , but it wont help you a damn if you do not have the proper mindset. There are lots of famous quotes about golf being a game that is 90% played between the ears . Your mind is the most powerful tool you have , use it in the right way and you can move mountains .
You need to be clear that if you have not got the correct mental attitude you will not achieve your goals . We all have days when our golf game is great and then the next time we go out our game can turn around and be dreadful . So why is golf such a mental game?
Your mind is such a complicated piece of equipment , we have only two ways of thinking:
- We get Inspiration and act on it
- We rely on the memories that are replaying in our mind of when we were in a similar site. This is the reason why you can sometimes hit the same poor shot on a certain hole.
The subconscious mind is an incredible piece of technology , it stores everything we do as memories. The only drawback with this is the subconscious mind cannot separate between good and bad memories. The vast majority of people go through their lives using these memories that are replaying in their mind. This is why people develop a lot of habits and are unable to break them .
So how can we re-program our mind in order to act more on inspiration and only rely on the good memories we have stored?
There are loads of ways you can use to try and reprogram your mind. The biggest problem is that the majority of people are just so cynical about doing things differently . I candidly believe that you should try these things with an open mind presuming they will make a difference.
Visualisation is a fun tool to use , anybody can do this – we all have dreams . When you are going to take a shot just picture in your mind you making the perfect golf swing and see the ball fly into the distance and land exactly where you aimed it. Feels great doesn’t it. Be sure to use this technique for all your shots , including putting.
Never be negative on the golf course. As soon as you say something negative you are putting this thought into your mind. You must realise how powerful the mind is – if I say to you “don’t think about a big blue flying pig ” I bet you have that image right now in your mind? You must be positive on the golf course, always imagine and state that you are going to make a great shot.
Reign in your emotions on the course. If you see players throwing clubs around you can practically guarantee that their next shot will probably be a poor one .
One other area that is being used more and more for mind training is NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming). NLP is the modern science of the mind it uses physiology and the unconscious mind to adapt thought processes which means that negative habits and behaviour can be changed into positive ones . These are recordings that will put you into a light trance and then make suggestions to your subconcious mind. Sounds strange but I have tested them and have never felt so relaxed. Keep an open mind and try it out .
So these are a few ideas for you to think about . To put it simply – in golf as it is in life – if you can’t imagine it you will never accomplish it!