MODULE 1: WHY YOUR GAME IS ABOUT TO IMPROVE Technical Skills Do Not Equal Playing Skills... 10

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2 Table of Contents MODULE 1: WHY YOUR GAME IS ABOUT TO IMPROVE... 9 Technical Skills Do Not Equal Playing Skills Why Has It Taken So Long for Mental Coaching to be Recognized as a Key Part of Game Improvement? The Champion Golfer Profile How to Approach Learning the Mental Skills for Golf Transferable Skills Mental Game Assessment MODULE 2: FUNDAMENTAL MENTAL GAME CONCEPTS Where Do You Want to Go? The Mindset for Better Golf The Phases of Thinking in Golf The 3 Time Zones of Focus Process Thinking vs. Outcome Thinking Managing Variability Positive Thinking Habits MODULE 3: THE SHOT ROUTINE How to Maximize Your Chances of Hitting a Great Shot The Phases of the Shot Routine... 30

3 The thinking phase The creative phase The engagement phase The acceptance phase The Pre-shot routine: The goal of the pre-shot routine Switching on Your Golf Brain Examples of a switch on signal Thinking Phase: Course Strategy and Shot Selection Know your distances Know your shot pattern Ask good questions Lower expectations and make good misses Adjust your risk appetite How will the lie affect the shot? Where is my target? Creative Phase: Mental Rehearsal Why visualize? Case Study 1: The effects of visualization Case Study 2: What visualization does to body movement

4 Visualization can create a mood for success ways to visualize a shot The Creative Phase: Physical Rehearsal Alignment The Engagement Phase Breathe! Set up Ways to engage your athletic mind Target retention Visualization and breathing Focusing on feel Focusing on sound Quiet eye Using NLP Swing cues A waggle Engagement phase re-cap The Shot Access to your best swings Swing thoughts

5 The Post-shot Routine Lower your expectations Choosing a response instead of reacting Responding instead of reacting Try to take a positive from every shot Count to Using self talk Power breathing Other ways to respond to bad shots Reviewing a shot objectively Celebrate success! An important point on the shot routine MODULE 4: PLAYING YOUR BEST UNDER PRESSURE How to Become the Master of Your Emotions What s happening in the brain when we re under pressure? 76 How to limit the stress response and get access to our best skills under pressure Re-programming the subconscious mind Step 1: Meditation

6 Step 2: Become aware of your subconscious thoughts Step 3: Mental rehearsal NLP for golf Getting control of your physiology Breathing techniques for playing more relaxed golf Reducing muscle tension Slow down Get comfortable being uncomfortable Self talk in golf Self talk as part of the post-shot routine Self talk while on the green Self talk during the pre-shot routine Self talk in between shots Re-framing negative thoughts using self talk Positive affirmations Finding your optimal intensity Using visualization Using music Breathing Body language

7 Using words The Time In Between Where is your focus in between shots? Staying in the present Focus on your breathing Walking meditation Body language Engage with your playing partners Using your imagination Think of something unrelated to golf Have an attitude of gratitude Accept that you feel a certain way Don t fall into the trap of making the turn Focus and Concentration Meditation Cardio Nutrition and hydration Sleep MODULE 5: PRE-ROUND PREPARATION Mental Rehearsal

8 Preparation Increase confidence Quiet your mind before a round Goals for Your Round Process goals Have a great attitude Remember, it s just another golf shot Having an attitude of gratitude Positive mantras Your 10-Minute Mental Game Warm-up Have a Strategy Eat and Drink Well Get Your Equipment Prepared Physical Warm-up Putting warm-up (15 minutes) Short game warm-up (15 minutes) Driving range warm-up (15 minutes) MODULE 6: POST-ROUND EVALUATION Using a Performance Journal Reversing the Brain s Negative Bias

9 A Simple Post-Round Review Your Mental Score Further Post-Round Review Questions Stats to Record MODULE 7: PLANNING FOR SUCCESS What Goal Setting Does The Goals that We Need to Set Incremental Goals and Marginal Gains Setting Short-term Performance Goals Setting Practice Process Goals Accountability Daily Reminders of Your Goals Using Images in Goal Setting Golf and the Parallels with Life

10 MODULE 1: WHY YOUR GAME IS ABOUT TO IMPROVE First, I d like to congratulate you on making this purchase. You re among a small percentage of golfers - mostly elite players - who are open-minded enough to explore game improvement techniques which go beyond swing mechanics. In the 15 years that I ve been coaching the mental aspect of this game, I ve seen first-hand how a more holistic approach is without a doubt the most effective way to become the best you can be, and now you are officially on that path! I m going to assume that you believe that you are a better player than your scores would sometimes suggest. Are you a competitive player who struggles to play the way you do in practice rounds? Perhaps you ve recently been feeling the effects of pressure during your rounds but you don t know what to do about it? Conversations that I have with new students can often start like this: If you saw my swing, you d think I was a scratch handicap, but I can t break 80! or On the range, I can hit any shot I want, but on the course, it s a different story. I m sure that you re experiencing something similar, or at least that you re aware that performance in this game is not only 9

11 about how good your technique is. There s something deeper I was there myself. I worked very hard on the technical aspects of my game. My scores were decent in practice rounds, but in tournament rounds I could never reach that same level of play. I had no explanation other than, My swing was off today. But I began to ask myself, Was it really that my technical skills were deserting me in tournaments, or was something else happening? Was it simply that my swing was better on those days that I played well, or was it my mindset and my attitude that helped me swing better? Technical Skills Do Not Equal Playing Skills I began to ask other golfers the same question, and the more I asked, the more it became clear that their best scores came when they were in a good mental state. So was this a coincidence, or was it that their mental game was allowing them better access to their best skills? And if so, is the mental game something that can be controlled? Could we perhaps train our minds for better performance like we train our technical skills? I wanted to find out 10

12 Golf State of Mind began as a personal development project, for me to journal my findings as to whether golf scores could be improved by better mental performance. As I began to blog about my findings, it was clear that what I was discovering resonated with other golfers. During the next year or so, via a deep dive into sports psychology and interviews with hundreds of golfers of all levels, it became clear that we do have the power to improve our mental skills - and by doing so, we can play better and get more from the game. But why, in a game which has been taught for hundreds of years, has it taken so long to realize this? When I asked golfers what they loved about the game, the mental and physical challenge was the top answer I received. It was already clear to almost all the golfers I interviewed that success in the game is about so much more than technical skills. Mental challenges such as course strategy, dealing with the pressure to play well, staying calm, bouncing back, etc. were all things that golfers enjoyed about the game. But did any of the players I interviewed know how to get better at the mental game of golf? The answer was no. And they weren t going to get much help on this from their teaching pros either. 11

13 Why Has It Taken So Long for Mental Coaching to be Recognized as a Key Part of Game Improvement? There are a few reasons why mental coaching is still an undervalued area of game improvement: 1. The golf industry is positioned to make money from selling equipment, swing lessons and swing training aids, so this is what it focuses on promoting via TV, magazines and websites. 2. Technical instruction is more tangible - you can see the effects of a swing change or a new club immediately. 3. Golfers want quick fixes. Look at the cover of any golf magazine and that s what sells. The mental side is a longerterm investment. 4. Golf instructors don t know how to teach the mental side of the game, nor do many of them buy into how much this area improves performance. From the research that I ve done, I believe that this is the reason why the average handicap of 16 has not fallen over the past 40 years. But hopefully, that s about to change! 12

14 The Champion Golfer Profile To become the best we can be, we must improve these 4 key elements. Physical skills: Fitness, strength and conditioning, good nutrition. Technical skills: Swing and putting stroke fundamentals and mechanics. Equipment: Getting fitted for equipment. 13

15 Mental skills: How to use your mind to get access to the best skills you have via the optimal process, managing thoughts/emotions and having a good course strategy. Thankfully, the golf industry is beginning to pay more attention to the benefits of holistic coaching and focusing more on areas of the game beyond technical skills. But we ve still got a long way to go. In swing coaching, we ve seen huge advancement in recent years that increases our understanding of how the body needs to move during the swing and how to teach it. Systems such as BodiTrack, Kvest, Trackman and Flightscope are making this easier and easier. More and more golfers are seeing the benefits of golf-specific fitness via workout and nutrition programs such as TPI. How to Approach Learning the Mental Skills for Golf As I began to see improvement in my own game with the research and experimentation that I was doing, I quickly realized that other golfers (and coaches) would benefit from what I d learned. Hence, I started to compile these techniques into a logical 14

16 systematic order and The Golf State of Mind Training System was born. I wanted to create something that took a player (and now coaches) through the process of improving the mental game step by step, with some guidance via one-on-one coaching sessions, if needed. What you are reading (or listening to) is not the first version of this system. The more golfers that went through my program, the more feedback I received, and the more improvements I made. Although this is a system, it s a player-centric approach. There are many fundamental steps that we should all take, but some of the ideas and concepts in this system are for you to experiment with. We are all different in how we learn and see the world, so it s important to experiment and find out what works for you. Transferable Skills Golf is the closest game to the game we call life. You get bad breaks from good shots; you get good breaks from bad shots, but you have to play the ball where it lies. - Bobby Jones Since I began coaching my Mental Game Training System, I ve taken thousands of students through this process via one-on-one and group coaching sessions. It didn t take long to realize that all the skills that I m coaching are transferable to all areas of your 15

17 life. In this system, we re going to discover what it is that brings out the best in you on the course, but you ll also find tools for personal growth and development. If you can improve your ability to focus, quiet your mind, stay present, bounce back, see mistakes objectively, set goals and gain a more positive attitude, then you re improving valuable human skills which will help you in your life. OK, let s get started! The first step is to take my mental game assessment so that we can begin to see what brings out the best in you on the course and which areas we need to focus on. Mental Game Assessment Please click here to take the Mental Game Assessment. When you ve done so, please proceed to Module 2. If you would like me to look at your assessment and take you through this mental coaching process via one-on-one sessions, please click here for a free consultation. 16

18 MODULE 2: FUNDAMENTAL MENTAL GAME CONCEPTS In this module, we re going to lay some foundations for your future success. Probably the most important questions I can ask you at this point are: What do you want to get out of the game of golf? Why do you spend so much time trying to improve, and where do you want to go? Where Do You Want to Go? "In order to be successful you have to develop your inner vision. If you have no vision for the future, you are destined to fail in the long run." - Greg Norman When you have a destination in mind, it s easier to move forward. What does success look like to you and how motivated are you to achieve it? The clearer your ultimate goal and the reasons behind it, the more motivated you ll be and the more efficient you ll be with your time. I d like you to think about what golf means to you and what success in the game looks like. Let s start with a vision of this success. 17

19 This vision is your long-term dream as a golfer. For an aspiring Tour player, this could be winning a major or playing on a Ryder Cup team. For a weekend player, it might be winning the club championship or getting to a scratch handicap. Now, think about why you want to dedicate so much time in this pursuit. What is it that you love about this endeavor and what will you learn about yourself? Why does this seem attractive to you instead of doing something else? Is it internal or external motivation? Internal motivation is achieving true mastery of a skill (irrespective of how you compare to others). External motivation is motivation you get from wanting to beat other players or win the club championship. From my experience, elite players have both types of motivation, but most of it will ideally come from the desire to master the game. Take some time to think about where you want to go and what your purpose is for doing so. Define your long-term goal and list 5 reasons why you want to do it. Return to the training system after you ve done that. 18

20 The Mindset for Better Golf Do you have the right mindset to achieve your goals and become the best you can be? Let s find out. In her book Mindset, Stanford Professor Carol Dweck introduced the idea that people view challenges in one of two ways -. either with a Fixed Mindset or with a Growth Mindset. People with a fixed mindset have a sense that their results define who they are. Getting poor results (and the fear of getting them) affects them deeply. They also believe that ability is fixed - you re born with it or you re not - and hence when they re playing well they think they re great, and when they re not, they quickly lose confidence. They can sometimes give up or not try, in order to protect their ego. If you ve heard of the term ego golfer, this is synonymous with having a fixed mindset. People with a growth mindset believe that there are no limits to how good they can become. They don t get knocked down by failure and mistakes but, instead, see failure as an opportunity to improve. They accept that failure is part of the process of improvement and they aren t afraid of it. They have a strong appetite to learn and master a task. A golfer with a growth mindset could also be called a mastery golfer. Mastery golfers 19

21 love a challenge, and for that reason, they work harder and become more successful than people who have a fixed mindset. Ego (or fixed mindset) golfers play with more pressure than mastery golfers, and they are affected more by adversity and the challenges faced during every round of golf. Mastery (or growth mindset) golfers see the challenges of a round of golf differently. They are less concerned with what the outcome of the challenge will mean for them in the future, but instead relish the challenge itself and what they will learn. Jordan Spieth is an example of a mastery golfer. When he first came to Cameron McCormick as a 12 year old, that was the first thing that struck his new coach: the harder the challenge, the more Speith enjoyed it. If you feel like the fixed mindset describes you better at this point, it doesn t mean that you can t develop more of a growth mindset. This is a big part of the mental coaching process, and something that we ll be working on throughout this program. Let s start with something simple. Perhaps the most important question I ask my students at the end of every round isn t what did you score?, or did you succeed or fail? but instead, what did you learn? 20

22 Continually reminding yourself of the importance of what you re learning, instead of focusing only on the results, will help you to look at your performances more objectively, with less emotional attachment. Something that I try to instill in the junior players I work with is this: You are not your scores, and no one is going to judge you as a person on the basis of how well you play. To develop more of a growth mindset, you need to reward your effort, resilience and commitment to the process, not the result. If you can look at rounds more in this way, you ll make lower scores more possible in the long-term. The bottom line is that your skills and ability are not limited, they are limit-less! Let s keep learning and improving with every round. When you apply the principles system, this is the mindset you ll develop. The Phases of Thinking in Golf In this system, I m going to show you that where you put your attention affects how you play. What you ll end up with is a plan for your rounds (including contingencies), so you ll know exactly where to put your focus in any situation in order to maximize your chances of success. 21

23 Here are the times that you ll need to be aware of where your focus is: Pre-round Pre-shot The shot Post-shot In between shots Post-round We ll take a look at each of these stages of your round, throughout the upcoming modules. The 3 Time Zones of Focus At any moment in time, your focus can be in 1 of 3 time zones - the past, the present or the future. When you re in the past or future, you re outcome focused. That is, you re focusing on the outcome of something that has already happened, or on the possible outcome of something that might or might not happen in the future. When we re on the golf course and we re thinking about the past, it s usually to rehash mistakes. (The brain tends to focus more on negatives, which we ll get to later.) And when you focus on something negative, you will automatically feel more anxious. 22

24 You can look at the mistakes you made objectively, at the end of your round. Trying to predict the future during a round is more common: I ve got the next putt for birdie! If I make it I will be on X score! If I par the next few holes I m going to win/shoot my best score I need to get this chip up and down When we think about what might or might not happen in the future: 1) We re focusing on uncertainty, or things that are not completely within our control. When we do this, the brain prepares for potential threats, causing what we know as performance anxiety (a combination of tension in the muscles and an inability to think clearly). 2) We re attaching emotion to these outcomes if I do this then I m going to feel like this One of the fundamentals to a better mental game and improving performance is learning how to stay more present. When you re in the present, there s no uncertainty and there s no emotion. The mind is quieter; the body is tension-free; and you can more 23

25 easily focus on what you need to do and access an athletic movement. When the players I work with play their best rounds, what they describe is being very present. They of course know that they are playing well at the time, but they are more concerned with playing one shot at a time. When you hear interviews with players that have shot 59, it s the same thing. They often don t even realize that a 59 is within reach until the very last hole. When Branden Grace scored the lowest ever round at a major championship (62) in 2017, he was so in the moment in hitting each shot that he had no idea why so many people were gathering around the 18 th green to witness history being made. Throughout this system, you ll hear me talk about the importance of being present. It s one of the ways that I measure the success of my students rounds. We ll look at techniques to stay more present in Module 4. Process Thinking vs. Outcome Thinking Following on from Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset, the concept of Process focus vs. Outcome focus is important to understand in order to be successful in anything that you do. 24

26 Simply put, it means that to get the success that you ultimately desire, your focus needs to be more on the process of it, rather than on the potential result of it. Many golfers fail to play to their potential because they are overly focused on the result (or outcome). When you make score (outcome) your target you: 1) Set expectations, which puts pressure on yourself to meet those expectations; and 2) Focus on the future (uncertainty), which causes performance anxiety. When you re process focused (and make process the goal), you re not thinking about what might or might not happen (uncontrollable). Instead, you re focusing on what you can do to hit the shot in front of you as best you can (controllable). Let s put it this way: If I were to say to you that for a prize of $1 million, (1) you had to shoot lower than a certain score, or (2) you had to stick to your routines for every shot, which would you choose? I m sure that you would go for the latter. The reason is that you have more control over it. A lot of this guide is about helping you build this process and set goals for your rounds that have nothing to do with score. 25

27 Simply having a process in place will give you more confidence right off the bat. As we go through these modules, you ll be able to understand more about the process goals you need to be setting for each shot. (We ll set them in Module 7.) These goals will become your primary measure of success, and a good outcome is more likely to follow. In summary, why process focus works: 1. Once you identify what it is that you need to focus on during your routines and you execute it, you will immediately start hitting better quality shots. 2. Process goals keep you focused on things that are within your control (Your score is not.), which lowers performance anxiety. 3. Process focus keeps you more in the present moment. Whenever you are in the present moment, your mind is calmer than when it s in the past or future. Managing Variability The technical skills that you possess don t change much from round to round. If you shoot 80 one day and 90 the next (assuming the weather was the same), the likely cause is how well you managed variability. 26

28 Things happen on the golf course and conditions change. Even though things are changing externally (your score, your playing partners, the importance placed on the round, etc.), the goal is to stay as consistent as possible internally. It s important to have a plan for responding to external variability, so that you can achieve internal consistency. If we let negative outcomes, course conditions and other players affect us, we re going to lose focus and increase tension, and our technical skills will change. In Module 4, we re going to get deep into the things that can cause performance anxiety and how you can maintain a positive and consistent internal environment. Understanding what is causing changes and getting control over it will help you access your A game more often. Positive Thinking Habits The human brain automatically has a negative bias, meaning it s drawn more toward negatives than toward positives - you remember negative experiences more than you remember positive ones. This is a survival mechanism that we ve developed over the course of human evolution to help us look out for situations that might endanger our lives. This is why you might end a round and immediately focus on all the mistakes that you made and the opportunities that you lost, instead of all the 27

29 things that you did well. It might also happen on the golf course after a bad shot or a bad hole. What this does is: 1. It reinforces the habit of negative thinking; and 2. It anchors negative emotion and increases performance anxiety. To play our best and stay positive (yet objective), we ve got to notice our reactions and create positive habits. We ll work on these skills throughout the upcoming modules. Let s move on to the most important area of being more process focused - the Shot Routine. 28

30 MODULE 3: THE SHOT ROUTINE How to Maximize Your Chances of Hitting a Great Shot To feel as prepared and as engaged as possible during every shot, you ll need a killer shot routine. I call this the Shot Routine, and not simply Pre-shot Routine, because the Shot Routine continues until you ve completely switched off your golf brain after playing a shot. Your technical skills are what they are on the course. What is essential to playing your best is following a process which is going to give you the best opportunity for accessing those skills. Do you know where your focus is when you re hitting your best shots? Let s find out. After this module, you ll have a recipe for great shots. What s important to realize first of all is that what works for one player might not necessarily work for you. But what you focus on and how you feel before, during and after every shot, will influence the outcome. Are you feeling as confident as possible, or do you have doubt? Do you know if you ve picked the best target for your strategy? How good is your alignment and vision for the shot? How committed are you? 29

31 With a good routine, we ll make sure that you re checking all the boxes to give you the best chance of a fluid, athletic swing and a good result. The quality of your routine will become the measure of success for every shot. Before we go through the specific steps and ideas for where to put your focus during a shot, let s discuss the different functions that the brain performs during your best shots. The Phases of the Shot Routine The thinking phase This is the phase of your routine where your analytical and logical thought is done. It s when you decide on your strategy, your target and what type of shot and club to play: What is my target? How far away is the target? How will the wind affect this shot? How will the lie affect this shot? This type of cognitive thinking is done by the part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex. This same part of the brain is NOT particularly good at athletic movement, which is why all the thinking has to be done during this phase. 30

32 The creative phase I pull up my sleeves, shrug my shoulders and try to get them relaxed and then I try to remember the best shot I ve hit in my life with whatever club I ve got in my hand. Fred Couples The next step in your routine is the creative or imagination phase. We need to mentally and physically rehearse the shot we are about to play. In this phase, I d like you to get a deeper connection with the shot that you are about to hit. How does it look? How does it feel and sound? The engagement phase The engagement phase is where you put your focus from when you start your walk into the ball, through to the end of the swing. Do you remain committed to the shot or do you start to have doubt? There are ways we can keep our minds quiet and focused to produce a good, athletic swing. The acceptance phase In this phase, we need to celebrate success and remain objective if we didn t hit the shot how we intended. 31

33 The Pre-shot routine: 32

34 The goal of the pre-shot routine To switch on your focus and get you prepared for the shot as best you can. To ensure that you pay attention to all the available information to select the optimal shot. To make sure that you re emotionally balanced (neither anxious nor excited). To make sure that you re thinking clearly and confidently. To make sure that you re focused and committed to the shot without any negative distractions, so that you can swing freely. To make sure that you re in the present, not thinking about the past or the future. To make every shot feel the same, whether it s to win the club championship or you re playing a friendly game. Switching on Your Golf Brain Your golf brain only needs to be fully engaged for the time from when you arrive at your ball (or tee it up) to shortly after you ve finished your shot. The rest of the time, you ll be doing your best to relax and stay present. 33

35 The better your relaxation, the better your concentration will be during shots. For this reason, every shot should have a beginning and an end. When the shot begins, you switch on your golf brain and when it s over, you switch off your golf brain. One way to do this is using a signal to remind you to focus at the beginning of your routine. Examples of a switch on signal Some of the players I work with like these switch on triggers: A deep breath. A verbal cue like let s go! Putting on your glove. Looking at a pre-shot acronym on your glove. 34

36 A sound like snapping the Velcro on your glove. Taking a sip of a drink. The more you anchor the trigger (connect it with the beginning of the shot), the more powerful it will become in getting you into a highly focused state to prepare for the shot. Thinking Phase: Course Strategy and Shot Selection Course strategy makes up a key part of the shot process. A Tour player would gain several strokes on an average amateur with course strategy alone. A strong course strategy consists of knowing your own game, playing the percentages and making 35

37 good decisions based on the weather conditions and what s in front of you. This can also be thought of as GOLF IQ. Know your distances Hitting the right distances is just as important as how straight you hit it. If you re 10 yards short or long of a target, that can be the same as being 10 yards left or right. We ll talk about this more in the post-round review module but keep records of your approach shots into each green and take average distances. There are some good game tracking devices using GPS that can provide very insightful data about your round, including accuracy and distance. Alternatively, if you can get access to a launch monitor (Flight Scope, Trackman, etc.), you can easily determine accurately the average distances hit with each club. Know your shot pattern If I were to ask you to hit 100 balls to a target with your 7 iron, where would those balls cluster in relation to the target? Would more balls be left/right/short/long? If you know that 75% of the time you miss left of the target, this information can help you pick an optimal target on the course, especially when there s trouble to the left. To find out your shot dispersion, you can use 36

38 the GPS trackers (on course) or a launch monitor test (on the driving range). Ask good questions The questions that you ll be asking yourself during the thinking phase are: - Where is the good miss? - Where is the worst place to leave it? - How will this lie affect the shot? - What is the wind doing? - How will the temperature affect the distance the ball travels? - What is the distance to the pin or dog-leg and any trouble? - Where exactly is the pin cut on the green in relation to the edges of the green? - How hard/soft is the green or fairway? - How risky is the shot I ve chosen and how confident do I feel about pulling it off? - Which side of the fairway is best to get a good angle to the pin with my approach? - Will I have an uphill putt or a tricky downhill putt if I hit my target on the green? - Will the next shot be one of my strengths? (For example, if your favorite yardage is 100 yards, and you have the 37

39 option to have an approach from that distance, why try to get closer and leave a shot that you re less comfortable with?) Lower expectations and make good misses This is a game of misses. The guy who misses the best is going to win. - Ben Hogan Fact is, whether you are a Tour player or a weekend golfer, we all miss our target from time to time. It s a statistical certainty in golf. Ben Hogan once said that he hit only 3-4 shots per round exactly as he intended. The rest were good misses. The trouble - especially in the minds of younger players - is that the TV coverage of the PGA Tour shows mostly the good shots (focusing more on the leaders who are playing well), so there is a misperception that the best players in the world hit their target most of the time. The reality is different. It s not uncommon to see a Tour player s driving stats in the 50 s for percentage of fairways hit. The average number of greens hit per round is 13, meaning they are having to get up and down at least 5 times per round. How many times have you hit a shot, where if you were on the other side of the fairway or green, you would be in a much better position to score? You were probably short sided or had a bad 38

40 angle into the green. This is where course strategy comes in and making good misses can save strokes. Adjust your risk appetite For most shots, I d recommend that you adopt what s called a conservative-aggressive strategy, meaning that you ll be swinging aggressively at conservative targets. However, there will be times on the golf course when you feel more confident than others. When you re deciding on the shot to play, think about the riskiness of your options in terms of a red, amber, and green. If you re not feeling so confident, it might be a red shot, in which case, you ll make your target a little more conservative than you would on a green shot when your confidence is high. Your confidence level doesn t necessarily have to mean that you score any differently. Good players can still score even if they aren t hitting the ball very well. Jack Nicklaus said he could still win even if he didn t have his A game, by playing smart golf. Part of playing smart is being able to choose the right shot with regard to how confident you re feeling about your current ability to pull it off. If you ve practiced correctly, you should know your go-to shot, which you can comfortably pull off no matter what the situation. (For example, this could be a low fade. So, when 39

41 you re feeling under pressure or not playing well, go-to this shot.) How will the lie affect the shot? If you really want to develop a high Golf IQ, you ll not only know the distance the ball travels off the tee, but how far you hit each club (on average) from the fairway, semi-rough and deep-rough. Pick a quiet afternoon on the course and practice from different lies and see how that affects how far the ball flies (and rolls) and record the average. This is also important from around the green. Typically, from tighter lies the ball will check up and stop more quickly than when you re hitting from a lie where there s more grass behind the ball. It s important to factor the amount of roll you ll get into your shot selection. Where is my target? This sounds obvious, but I ve lost count of the playing lessons I ve given where I ask a student if they had a specific target in mind and they tell me they didn t. Be sure to pick a very small target like a tree branch, a point on the horizon or a spot on the green. 40

42 Creative Phase: Mental Rehearsal I never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp, in focus picture of it in my head. It s like a color movie. First, I see the ball where I want it to finish, nice and white and sitting up high on bright green grass. Then the scene quickly changes and I see the ball going there: its path, trajectory and shape, even its behavior on landing. Then there is a sort of fade out and the next scene shows me making the kind of swing that will turn the previous images into reality. - Jack Nicklaus 41

43 Why visualize? The world s best athletes use the practice of visualizing a great performance before the action for a very good reason it works! Some people can visualize better than others, but it s a good idea to try these techniques to see if you can benefit from it. Visualization can: Make you feel more confident and prepared. Tell your body what it needs to do during your swing. Create the mood for success. Trigger internal motivation. The reason is that it speaks to your subconscious mind, which: Controls athletic movement Is your belief system Your best swings are going to happen when your movement is mostly subconsciously controlled. You re doing it without thinking. That s the secret to fluid motion. We ll look into why this is a little later in the module, but simply put, visualization tells your subconscious what it needs to do. Visualization is the most powerful thing we have as golfers. Nick Faldo 42

44 Have you ever noticed that when you re faced with a tough shot out of trouble you re often able to pull it off, whereas an easy shot into the green from the fairway can sometimes be more challenging? The reason is visualization. When you are forced to really focus on what the ball needs to do to get to your target it s easier to produce the swing to get it there. Why is this? There s less interference. When you re focused more on the intention for the shot (target, visual, feel), you re less focused on the swing and other distractions, which means more fluid motion. But visualization can work both ways My life has been full of terrible misfortunes, most of which never happened - Michel De Montaigne If you re like most golfers, you have a habit of seeing what you don t want to happen instead of seeing a well-executed shot to the target. Do you fear the ball slicing into the water, and play to avoid that, or do you see a gentle fade down the left side of the fairway? 99% of the time, imagining a bad shot before hitting it will result in that shot you were picturing (or at least a poorly hit shot). Why is it that seeing a negative outcome before hitting a shot makes this more likely to happen? 43

45 1) The subconscious mind doesn t know the difference between what you don t want to do and what you do want to do. The input to the brain (either by words or by imagery) is the same. If I were to say to you, don t think of a blue elephant, what s the first image that would come into your mind? 2) Any unplanned mental chatter during the final moments before starting your swing is going to affect the fluidity of the movement. If you start putting negative imagery in your mind, you re telling your subconscious mind what to expect, and to prepare for the negative event happening. This will result in tension and nerves, and you re more likely to get what you don t want to happen. Just don t slice don t leave it short don t lift up don t get too quick - all of these commands give your subconscious mind cause for concern and start the body s stress response. We ll get more into the stress response and how to control it during Module 4. When I evaluate a student s mental game after a round, one of the things I give them credit for is holding on to the image or sensation of the shot and the target, from the time they start their walk into the ball to when they take the club away from the 44

46 ball. I m not saying that all the top players only have the target in mind. Indeed, many have something else that they are focusing on before and during the swing in order to keep the mind occupied, but engagement with the intention for the shot is key for keeping the mind quiet and the movement of the swing fluid and aggressive. Case Study 1: The effects of visualization In a study done at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado, the researchers tested the effect of visualization on putting by a group of 30 golfers. The group was divided randomly into 3 sub-groups. Each group was asked to do the exercises for the same amount of time. First, each group did a series of putting exercises using their normal putting technique. After this, the first group was asked to perform the same exercises as before, but this time, just thinking about only their stroke. The second group was asked to visualize each putt in its entirety before it was hit (seeing the exact line of the putt, the speed and where on the hole it would go in). The third group was asked to visualize the ball finishing short of the hole each time. After a week, the change in their results was as follows: 45

47 - The group that just practiced the stroke improved by 11%. - The group that visualized each putt following its line to the hole and going in improved by 30%. - The group that visualized the ball finishing short worsened by 21%!!! Case Study 2: What visualization does to body movement Functional equivalence is a theory that proves that imagined actions have internal representation that is similar to actual (real) experiences. An example of this is shown in the work done by Dr. Richard Suinn with Olympic skiers at the University of Colorado. As part of a research experiment, Dr. Suinn had a group of Olympic skiers close their eyes and imagine going down a specific downhill ski run. After performing the exercise several times, he attached electrodes to the bodies of the skiers and had them repeat the exercise. What he discovered was that the muscles that would be used during a real ski run were firing at the same time as the skiers imagined turning to go through gates on the ski slope. In other 46

48 words, they were stimulating the same muscles they would use on a real run, by simply imagining it! The same applies to visualization in golf. If you don t have a clear picture of the shot you re about to play, you re quite simply wasting a valuable opportunity to prepare the brain to activate the exact muscles required to execute it. The brain uses specific neural pathways to send impulses to those specific muscles. When you re visualizing, you re telling the brain which pathways it needs to use. Visualization can create a mood for success Studies have shown that simply imagining a great performance (mental rehearsal) can get you into the state of mind and mood to achieve it. Seeing yourself being successful (either recalling events that have already happened successfully or visualizing future success) can create feelings of confidence. I m going to talk more about this in the pre-round warm-up module. 2 ways to visualize a shot There are 2 ways to visualize a golf shot: first person (or associated perspective) and third person (or disassociated perspective). First person is where you visualize what you will actually see when playing (the ball coming off the clubface and flying to the target). This is also called Outcome Visualization. 47

49 Third person is where you see yourself as if you were on TV. You see your swing or stroke as well as the ball flying to the target. It s important to experiment with both and see which works better for you. To visualize a shot, you need to paint a picture in your mind of the path the ball will travel to reach the target. Is it a fade or a draw? Low or high? How will it bounce when it lands? Make the picture as vivid as you can. If you ve seen the Shot Tracker technology that they use to show the shape of a shot on the PGA Tour TV coverage, that s what you're looking for. When your focus is on an image of your desired outcome and you can keep that focus on that image (even when you re over the ball), your focus is on something external. One of the reasons golf is a harder game than most other sports is that you are not looking at the target when you hit the ball. When you shoot a basketball, for example, you can see the target at the same time as you shoot the ball. Your focus is on your target, not on your body, which makes it a lot easier. In golf, visualization is important because it imprints that image of where the target is and how the ball will get there in your mind, so it s as close as possible to facing the target while you re swinging. 48

50 Tiger Woods used to say that he could still see the target in his mind s eye when he was looking at the ball. Nick Price said he felt like he had a camera looking out of his left ear (at the target) as he looked at the ball. This is a concept called external focus. When your focus in on what your body has to do to hit the target, it s called internal focus. When your focus is internal, it s proven that there are more contractions in your muscles, meaning the movement is not as fluid and free-flowing. That leads to inconsistencies. Place your focus on the target and the shot shape (the intention). Let your swing be a reaction to that and you ll see much better results. If you want to find out more about the science of attentional focus and motor learning, check out this study by Gabrielle Wulf and Rebecca Lewthwaite. The Creative Phase: Physical Rehearsal Once you ve decided upon your shot, you can increase commitment further by physically rehearsing the shot, with your rehearsal swings. I prefer to call them rehearsal swings and not practice swings, because you are not really practicing anything. Many 49

51 golfers use this time to work on technique, instead of rehearsing the movement they need to produce the shot they ve visualized. This time in your routine is about physically rehearsing the shot that you are about to play. During your rehearsal swings, you re asking the creative side of your brain (the right brain ) to produce a feeling to make that shot real. You re ingraining the sensation of that shot in your subconscious mind, ready for recall a few seconds later. With each rehearsal swing, you re using the information that you ve already received from the visualization and the thinking phase. With your visualization, there should already be an automatic response from your muscles, so now you re getting familiar with that feeling, so that you can just trust it during your shot. Imagine the ball coming off the club face and flying to the target. See and hear it in your mind. Make 1-3 rehearsal swings to really get the feel for the shot you are about to hit. When the mind knows what to expect with greater certainty, there is less doubt and greater chance of better movement and a positive outcome. The combination of visualization and feel will 50

52 make you feel a lot more relaxed and confident ahead of pulling the trigger. Just as your course management gets better with experience, so does your feel for shots. With awareness practice (i.e., being aware of the feel of shots while you practice), you ll be able to feel each type of shot and get it deeper into the part of the brain that controls the things that you do without thinking. Alignment This is the final part of the creative phase before starting your walking into the ball and entering the engagement phase. I like to use the same alignment technique as Justin Rose. It s a lot easier to align to something that s close to you than it is to align to something far in the distance. For this reason, we need to find an intermediary target to align to, that s closer to the ball. To find this target, we have to be looking down the ball to the target line - not from over the ball. With your final target selected, close your non-dominant eye. If you don t know which of your eyes is dominant use this exercise: 1. Hold your hands out at arm s length and, with both eyes open, make a circle with your fingers and thumbs around a ball like in the photo below: 51

53 2. Now close one eye, while keeping the other open. Then, do the opposite open/close combination. One of your eyes will keep the ball in the middle of the circle. This is your dominant eye. What s happening is that both eyes cannot see the ball directly, so your hands will move to allow your dominant eye to focus directly on it. With your non-dominant eye closed and your dominant open, hold up the shaft of the club as in the photo below: 52

54 1. Use the club to form a line between the ball and the target. 2. Find a spot that s 6 inches in front of the ball along the shaft of the club. By aligning to that spot, you ll be square to your target. The Engagement Phase This phase of the routine is often overlooked but is key to your success. 53

55 Breathe! At this stage of my routine, just before I m about to walk into the ball, I take a deep breath to get rid of any tension and clear my mind completely. This represents me entering the engagement phase with a quiet mind. Set up As I take my deep breath, I m seeing the shot again and focusing on my alignment spot, so that I can get properly aligned and set up. This is the only thinking that you need to do during this phase. Tour players will make a check to make sure everything looks good with their ball position and alignment. Your target and shot selection have already been done and committed to. 1. Step into the shot and align the club-face to your spot. 2. Make sure that the ball position matches the trajectory of the shot that you have visualized. 3. Align your body parallel-left (or right for the left-hander) to that line between the ball and spot. Reminder: If any negative thoughts creep in at any time, START YOUR ROUTINE OVER. 54

56 Ways to engage your athletic mind As I mentioned earlier, the engagement phase of the shot routine is about engaging your athletic mind, so that you can produce the best swing possible. Although consistency of the time taken to complete your routine is important, I think that the consistency of engagement is more important. When you re over the ball is not the time to have doubt and create tension. What you focus on to fully engage your athletic mind is something you ll need to experiment with. Let s look a little more closely into what we mean by the athletic mind. Despite what some people say about golf, it is an athletic sport. In the same way that a tennis player hits a volley or a soccer player kicks to score a goal during open play, the golf swing is an athletic movement. What is an athletic movement? An athletic movement is one which is fluid and uninhibited. In sports such as tennis and soccer, this is easier to produce as there s very little time to think about it. The tennis player is simply looking at where on the court they are going to hit the ball and they just hit the shot. The soccer player who is closing in on 55

57 the goal will look at where the goalkeeper is, and simply kick the ball at a target in the goal. Golfers think too much! The issue with creating an athletic movement in golf is that the ball is stationary and there s plenty of time to think. Most golfers don t know when (or how) to stop thinking, and this really affects how they swing. During the engagement phase, the thinking mind must be turned off and the athletic mind turned on. Later in this module we ll talk about how to do this (It s different for different people.), but let s get some science out of the way. Research shows that your best, most coordinated movement comes from not-thinking. In the studies that have been done using an EEG (equipment to measure brain activity), the results show that the better the player, the less overall brain activity there is during the golf swing. Why does it work this way? When an athlete is performing their best, there s direct communication between the senses and the movement centers of the brain. You will also have heard of this state of mind referred to as the zone, or flow state. In martial arts, it s called mushin, which means no mind. 56

58 Also, when an athlete is performing their best, they are not preoccupied by thought, judgement or emotion. There s no sense of self or self-consciousness. The mind is 100% focused on the present -there is no past or future. What s happening in the brain during fluid motion? The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain which is responsible for managing complex processes like reason, logic, problem solving, planning, and memory. In golf it s great during the thinking phase of your routine, but it can easily become that little voice in your head when you are over the ball. To produce a better golf swing, and get into the flow state or the zone, that little voice needs to be turned off and the athletic mind turned on. When the athletic mind is active, the brain is more open to sensory input. In other words, you can take in more of your environment. In martial arts, a fighter in mushin is just sensing and is totally aware of their surroundings. This gives them a greater ability to anticipate their opponent s moves. Think about how focused you felt when you hit certain shots. You had a really clear vision of what you intended, the shape of it, the feel of it, where it was going to land, etc., and then you pulled it off, perfectly. This is what happens when your athletic 57

59 mind is turned on and your critical mind is switched off. Your body is able to react to the intention (and target) that you have set for the shot. This is precisely where we need to be in the engagement phase of the shot routine, from when you start your walk into the ball to the end of the shot. By focusing on your senses, you can be more present and get better access to your best swings. But which of your senses should you focus on to produce the best results? Let s find out. Target retention Now that you re over the ball, keep reminding yourself of that picture of the shot and have it in your mind s eye, even when you re looking at the ball. During your practice sessions, work on holding on to the image for as long as possible, before pulling the trigger. Visualization and breathing While I m taking my looks at the target, I m also aware of my breathing. Try this for a trigger to start your backswing. During your last look at the target (while visualizing the shot), take a deep inhale through your nose. Then, as you move your eyes back to the ball, exhale through your nose. At the end of the exhale, start your backswing. The idea here is that by focusing on 58

60 your breathing, your mind is quiet and present, and by taking a nice deep inhale, you get sufficient oxygen to the muscles to make a nice fluid swing. Focusing on feel Experiment with focusing on what the shot feels like. This could be the feel of the whole swing or the impact position you want to get to. What s the feeling in your hands for different shots? Jordan Spieth says that when he s over the ball and doing his waggles, he s feeling the shot in his hands. Jason Dufner does the same thing. Focusing on sound If sound is the sense that keeps your athletic mind engaged, you ll benefit from imagining the tempo and rhythm of the shot. More on tempo later. Experiment with hearing the sound of the shot before you hit it. Is it a hard thwack of a drive, or is it a softer sound for a shot around the green. Another way to use sound is to wait until you hear 2 different sounds before you start your swing. These could be birds chirping or the wind in the trees. This will enable you to keep your focus external and not get caught up with your thoughts. 59

61 Quiet eye The term quiet eye was coined by Professor Joan Vickers, a specialist in Kinesiology (the study of body movement). In a study, she found that elite golfers have a common pattern of fixation of their eyes before and during a shot. The same cannot be said of higher handicappers, who have a more erratic, distracted focus for their eyes. The quieter your eyes, the quieter (and more focused) your mind. Next time you re over a shot, make sure that your gaze is very focused on the target and the ball (and not much else). When you re focusing on the ball, right before you swing, pick out a single dimple to look at. So, it would go like this: - ball and target. - ball and target. - ball and target. - ball for 2-3 seconds. - swing, focusing on a single dimple. Using NLP Neuro Linguistic Programming - NLP - is about anchoring positive experiences in order to trigger the same emotional state 60

62 associated with those experiences in the future. This can be very helpful in the pre-shot routine. The Global NLP Institute defines anchoring in the following way: Anchoring is a process where a specific stimulus (cue, trigger) is connected to a memory recall, state or state change, or another response. Anchoring occurs naturally all the time. You likely have several powerful anchors in place; a certain smell may remind you of a specific person (perfume, etc). Each time you see something, it can bring you back to the state or a past memory (a photograph, a living room etc.). The same occurs when you hear a certain sound or piece of music. Memory/Emotional State < > Anchor/Trigger <-> Stimulus Instead of this process happening naturally, we can intentionally use (or program ) anchors to connect ourselves with these experiences and use those same anchors to trigger a certain emotion. Your memories of specific events and how they made you feel are stored deep in your subconscious mind. What s happening with anchoring is that it connects you directly with (and triggers) that memory more easily. So if it s a positive memory and emotional state that you ve anchored, it will be very helpful to be 61

63 able to trigger that when you need to on the golf course. I ll explain more about NLP and the anchoring process in Module 4. If you d like to skip ahead, you can click here. Swing cues A lot of players prefer to give themselves a moving/dynamic start instead of a static one. This can help you to make an athletic movement during your swing and it prevents freezing over the ball. Here are a few examples to try. A waggle A waggle can ease tension and set the tempo for your swing. It has you moving before starting your swing. Watch Tour players at the weekend and many of them will waggle the club before starting their backswing. A lot of players have a unique swing cue which initiates the backswing. - Sam Snead cocked his head to the left to start his swing, which was later copied by Jack Nicklaus. - Tom Kite and Nick Faldo bend their knees slightly before taking the club back. - Gary Player kicks in his right knee. - Mark Calcavecchia shuffles his feet. 62

64 - Greg Norman sets the toe of the club at the ball and then slides it forward so the sweet spot s behind the ball. - Harvey Penick told us in his Little Red Book that the backswing should be started with a gentle forward press of the hands. Engagement phase re-cap I speak to many players who let negative thoughts and doubt creep in during the engagement phase. If you re over the ball and a thought such as Don t hit it in the water or Don t hit it OB enters your mind, you ll need to back away and start over. Quieting the mind during the engagement phase takes practice and experimentation for what holds your focus and produces the best shots, but at the very least, make sure that you have a place for your focus before you start your swing. The Shot You turn off your mind. You feel your golf swing without really thinking about it. It s almost like you don t think at all. Maybe you have one little thought, and everything else becomes automatic. US Open Champion, Graeme McDowell. 63

65 In the studies that have been done to measure brain activity during the golf swing, the conclusion is that the better the golfer, the less brain activity there is before and during the swing. So many golfers ask me about swing thoughts and what are the best. I will usually tell them that the best swing thought is what they were thinking about when they played their best round. Usually, there s an aha moment. The simple equation for a good swing Conscious Learning of Skills => Subconscious Access to Skills => Better Golf Shots Because most golfers have been conditioned to always be thinking technically about their swings, they never really get away from it. The time to improve your technical skills To improve any skill in sport, business or life, there s going to be time spent thinking consciously about what you are learning. However, during your swing on the course is not the time to do that. You can work on the technical aspects of the game by getting lessons from your local PGA pro and doing technical drills, so that over time you change your swing for the better. You develop new patterns in your movement by consciously thinking about 64

66 the movement you desire, until you ve laid the neural pathways which make that movement part of your muscle memory. This is also called block practice, where you repeat the same action repeatedly in blocks, until it becomes automatic. However, in play, to get the best possible access to these skills, you need to let it happen automatically, or subconsciously. The problem is that most golfers only practice their technical skills and don t practicing trusting their swing. This is what random and competitive skills practice is all about, which you can find in the practice drills book. Access to your best swings There are several factors which influence how well you can access your best swing, subconsciously: Your shot routine (before, during and after a shot). How well you manage your mental and emotional state in between shots (in the next module). Your confidence (or self-belief). How you practice. (See the practice book.) Swing thoughts I m not going to say that all technical swing thoughts are a bad idea. There are plenty of Tour players who have some awareness of their movement during their swing. But usually, this is 65

67 something simple like make a good turn, or stay centered, or end with a high finish. Players get into problems when the swing thought changes from shot to shot, depending on the outcome of the previous shot. What happens is they end up becoming focused on every moving part of their swing. This a) destroys fluidity and b) causes the golfer to lose connection with the target and intention for the shot. When we feel pressure on the golf course (We ll get into this in Module 4.), or when we re playing badly, one of the first things to be affected is tempo. When tempo changes, so does the direction of your golf shots. A good way to keep your tempo and displace swing thoughts is to count or say something during your swing. Humming is another idea. You could try: One, Two, Three (backswing), One (downswing) or find a song which matches your optimal tempo. If you do this with your rehearsal swings, and then during the actual shot, you ll get closer to your slower rehearsal speed. This helps to take focus away from anything mechanical and keep the swing fluid. 66

68 The Post-shot Routine Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. - Victor Frankl, Nazi death camp survivor and psychotherapist Golf is not supposed to be easy. If it were easy, you probably wouldn t enjoy it as much. It s the challenge and having to overcome adversity that makes it such a great game. Dealing with set-backs is part of the game, so preparing for them will help to keep you strong and confident. Accepting bad shots The fact is, you will hit some bad shots. No one who has ever played the game has been able to avoid it. Of course, the intention is to hit good shots, but accepting - before you go out to play - that you will probably hit some bad shots is important in controlling your responses to them when they happen. Lower your expectations For some reason, most amateurs are more critical of themselves than Tour players. They think that to score well, they have to hit every shot perfectly. They have such high expectations to hit fairways and greens and make putts that they will always fall short 67

69 Here s a reminder of the stats for the world s best players: PGA Tour average (as of August, 2017): Fairways hit: 61%. Greens hit: 65%. Scrambling (making par after missing the green with approach): 58%. If the best players in the world are missing 6 or 7 fairways and greens per round, why would you beat yourself up when you do the same? Let s lower those high expectations so that there s less pressure on each shot. Allow yourself a certain number of bad shots each round. Choosing a response instead of reacting If you let poor shots affect you, you re setting yourself up for a poor performance. Champions respond to what happens, losers react The brain s negative bias is a mechanism we ve developed throughout our evolution to keep us safe or look out for danger. If we let it, our brains will focus on what has gone wrong, or what could go wrong. Therefore, we need a planned response after bad shots, instead of a negative reaction. For example: If you miss an easy putt or hit your drive OB, you can expect a negative thought to enter your head. This is 68

70 perfectly normal. The key is to notice if you are having a negative thought, and if you do, choose to ignore it and not let yourself react. Fred Shoemaker, the author of Extraordinary Golf, says that the few seconds after a shot is when you need to be the most aware of your emotions. The more you allow yourself to react to bad shots, the more you reinforce the negative emotion and the more you will change your mood and negatively affect the next shot. Responding instead of reacting We need to make responding - not reacting - to bad shots a habit. Instead of your normal reaction of swearing, or beating yourself up, try to train yourself to stay emotionally neutral. We need to put some distance between the shot you re unhappy with and your response, so there s no negative emotion being generated. Try the following techniques to bounce back quickly from a bad shot: Try to take a positive from every shot This is a tough challenge but it will help you to keep a positive mindset. What did you do well and what was good about the shot? 69

71 Count to 10 Putting 10 seconds of time between the negative outcome and your next move will help you respond, not react. Looking up to the sky can also help to take you away from that situation. Using self talk We re going to get more into the power of self talk in the next module, but during the post-shot routine is a great time to use it. Come up with a few phrases that you can say to yourself to keep you positive after hitting a shot that you re unhappy with. Power breathing Sport psychologist Dr. Leah Lagos trained a college team on breathing techniques for a 10-week period, requiring the players to perform two 20-minute breathing sessions per day. (This exercise is from Golf Digest, January, 2013.) "This isn't a relaxation exercise," says Lagos, who works with PGA Tour pros as well as other top athletes. "It's a scientific and evidence-based method for controlling your body's braking system. It allows golfers to put a stop to their stress response and reduce distractions in their mind." Here s how the exercise goes: 1. Clear your mind after a bad hole with a "Power 10." Inhale, slowly counting to four, then breathe out for six seconds. 70

72 Repeat this nine times. This helps deliver oxygen to the brain to improve your focus. Counting uses the same part of the brain that we use to worry. It's difficult to do both at the same time. 2. Whenever you feel tense, recall two of the best moments of your life. Focus on the joy you felt as you inhale, and feel as if any negative thoughts are being forced out as you exhale. Other ways to respond to bad shots - Try laughing! A good way to have less than perfect shots roll off is to just laugh about it. Zach Johnson says: Realizing bad shots happen is the best way to deal with them. Take the drama out of the shank or top. Use humor or laughter to make it go away, and then move on. - In your pre-shot routine, tell yourself: Although I have a very positive intention for this shot, I will accept the result - good or bad - and not have a negative reaction. - Tiger Woods has a 10 pace rule, where after he hits a shot that he did not intend, he gives himself 10 paces while he s walking in which to get over it. - Have the shot be forgotten by a physical action that signals it, like putting the club back in the bag or taking off your glove. 71

73 Reviewing a shot objectively The first thing to ask yourself when reviewing your shot is: Did I achieve my process goals? If the answer is no, then highlighting which of them you missed and making it a priority for the next shot is important. Were you committed? Was your tempo good? Did you pick a good target? Noticing these things will only help. Replay the shot in the way you would have liked and quickly move on. Hit the reset button. Good players are able to make slight adjustments to their swings during a round, so thinking about what needs to change can be done here or during your rehearsal swings before a shot - not during your actual swing. Celebrate success! By celebrating success, we reinforce the positive emotions we feel when we hit good shots. If it doesn t get you over-excited and thinking of future glory, it s a good idea to hold onto the image and feeling of good shots that you ve hit. How can you do this? This could be an action, like a fist pump or a word you say to yourself. You can also anchor these positive emotions with NLP, as we discussed in Module 3. 72

74 An important point on the shot routine One question that I m asked frequently = especially by weekend golfers - is about the time of the shot routine. Some players are concerned about pace of play and the length of time it takes to go through the process of the shot routine. They get self-conscious about it and abandon their process. My answer is that the thinking phase of the routine should be done while you are waiting for other players in your group to play, so by the time it s your turn, you should be ready to start the creative phase, meaning the rest should easily fit into the 2 minutes allowed to play a shot. 73

75 MODULE 4: PLAYING YOUR BEST UNDER PRESSURE Golf is a game in which there are plenty of ups and downs but also plenty of time to ruminate about them. Thoughts, feelings and emotions are at work all the time, and how we manage them will influence how well we perform. The goal of this module is to make you aware of the mental and physical changes that can occur when you play under pressure, and to give you the tools to access your best skills when it matters most. How to Become the Master of Your Emotions Let s start by looking at how emotions can affect performance. 74

76 Let s look at this model: Key Performance/results: Your scores and results in tournaments. Behavior: Your actions (in golf, the swing or stroke). 75

77 Thoughts: What you are consciously thinking about and choose to focus on (self talk, decision making, etc.). Thoughts work in a loop with feelings. Feelings: Your individual interpretation of an emotion. Feelings are the emotions we feel. Physiology: What that energy is doing to your body - for example, doubt and anger will cause an increase in heart rate and muscle tension. Emotions: Energy starts moving through your body in a certain way (energy in motion or e-motion ), as directed by the subconscious mind s interpretation of the situation. Interpretation: Whether you see that event as being safe or a threat (as determined by the subconscious mind). A stimulus: An external event - e.g., a golf shot, a bad hole, being in contention in a tournament, on track for best score, etc. What s happening in the brain when we re under pressure? "The conscious mind determines the actions; the subconscious mind determines the reactions; and the reactions are just as important as the actions." - E. Stanley Jones 76

78 Our surroundings and the situations we face are continuously being noticed by our conscious minds. Emotional responses to our environment come from the interpretation of the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind will work quickly to try and reconcile our external environment with past experiences, memories and beliefs, to determine whether the situation is safe or harmful. Because the subconscious mind s primary role is to keep us safe, up to 95% of our internal processes are subconscious and happen without us having to think about it. Depending on how the subconscious interprets the situation, it will produce emotions which can change the way we feel and the way we think. This can change our behavior and the way we play. If it perceives a situation to be potentially harmful to you, it starts producing negative emotions (fear, anxiety, dread, panic, etc.). These emotions cause your body to start what s called the stress response, also known as nerves. If we don t know how to control the stress response, it can ruin a round of golf. Let s say you re in contention in an important tournament, with a few holes to play. Your subconscious will be at work scanning its huge database of memories to predict whether there s 77

79 anything to fear about the situation. If you ve been there before and failed, it will know this via the associated memories of mental pain (frustration, disappointment, failure, etc.), and therefore it will produce negative emotions in the attempt to protect you (or steer you away) from the same thing happening again. But it doesn t have to be a situation that you ve been in before. In any round of golf, fear of what might or might not happen can trigger the subconscious mind to try to protect you. This is why it usually takes more than one experience in a big situation to learn how to deal with it and succeed. Why does our performance suffer when we feel fear? You ve probably heard of the fight or flight response, a term used to describe what happens - mentally and physically - when we are faced with danger. When the brain senses a possible threat to our well-being, it automatically prepares for either fighting or fleeing. Even though this developed in our early human ancestors, we still have the same mental and physical response to possible danger. Obviously, there s no threat of any real danger to us on the golf course, but fear of mental pain triggers the stress response also. 78

80 The size of the stress response is dependent on how big the subconscious deems the threat to be, ranging from butterflies and a little excitement (good for playing golf) to choking (bad for playing golf). So, what are the symptoms of the stress response? The stress response starts with an increase in heart rate, butterflies, increased focus and sensory awareness. This is typically where a player is when they are playing their best. However, if you become overwhelmed by a situation and lose control of it, this can lead to: A faster heart rate (to get more blood to your muscles). Increased muscle tension. Limited cognitive function. (Your brain starts shutting down, to deliberately reduce your options.) How to limit the stress response and get access to our best skills under pressure There are 3 ways to do this: - Reprogramming our subconscious beliefs. - Learning how to control our physiology. - Choosing where we focus our conscious minds to distract us from what s happening in our current reality. 79

81 Re-programming the subconscious mind Confidence is the most important single factor in this game. Jack Nicklaus Which comes first - the results or the confidence to achieve the results? Sure, you increase confidence by achieving results, but you can also build confidence and belief from within. Your beliefs get ingrained over time and become subconscious habits based on your past experiences and memories. Your belief system is installed in your subconscious mind. Fortunately for us, the subconscious mind doesn t know the difference between real and imagined events, which gives us the power to shape it, with our imagination. With practice, we can align our subconscious with our conscious goals. Here s how: Step 1: Meditation Meditation is becoming more and more popular. Despite being practiced for thousands of years, quieting the mind is proving very helpful to us in today s world of constant distractions from our various devices and all the information that we have at our finger tips. But this also has huge value in sports. For me there are 2 purposes for meditation: 1. To get control over your mental chatter, so that you can choose which thoughts to pay attention to. 80

82 2. Allowing you to access your subconscious, so that you can change your inner beliefs. Getting your mind into the meditative state takes practice, but after a few weeks, you ll notice that you are able to quiet your mind easily. Once you re in the meditative state, you can connect with your subconscious mind. Here s how to do it: 1. Sit in a chair and get into a comfortable position, but with a straight back. 2. Close your eyes and become aware of your breath as it goes in through your nostrils and out through your mouth. Focus on the sensation in your nose as the breath goes in, and the slow release as the breath leaves your lungs through your mouth. You can also focus on counting your inhale time, hold time and exhale time - e.g., 6 seconds inhale, 2 seconds hold and 12 seconds exhale. (Find something that you feel comfortable with.) 3. When your attention wanders away from your breath, don t worry - just gently bring your focus back to it. This will happen a lot at first, but with practice it will get easier. 4. Start with a 5 minute session and increase it by one minute each day until you can do 15 minutes per day. Make a 15- minute session part of your daily ritual. 81

83 Step 2: Become aware of your subconscious thoughts Unless we become aware of our subconscious thoughts and beliefs, we cannot change them. You can do this with a good post-round analysis, but it s more effective if you can listen to your subconscious mind. Here s how to do it: Once you re in the meditative state, watch the streams of data from your subconscious mind fall in front of you. Some thoughts may be negative and limiting; some may be positive. Don t activate your conscious mind to focus in on any thoughts - just watch them from a distance. From this exercise, we can learn a lot about who we are, and what holds us back. Step 3: Mental rehearsal Mental rehearsal (or visualization ) is a great way to alter your subconscious and change your belief system. This will tie in with your goals, which we ll set in Module 7. Once in the meditative state, after minutes of focusing on your breathing, think of your goals, or behaviors that you want to change, such as: Being confident and playing the first few holes well instead of being tense and anxious. 82

84 Playing your best when coming down the stretch of a big tournament with huge crowds watching. Holing a putt to win a PGA or LPGA Tour event. (See the crowd cheering and yourself celebrating.) Swing changes that you are trying to make. Seeing yourself in your next event playing great shots under pressure. Imagining yourself as a top ten player in the world. If you have the yips, imagining playing a great round yip-free. Because your subconscious mind doesn t know whether these events are real or imagined, you are preparing it to see them as situations to embrace and work toward, not be fearful of. We ll talk more about the power of visualization later. NLP for golf As we discussed in Module 3, NLP can be very helpful for boosting confidence and changing behavior. In this section, I d like to show you how to anchor your past or recent success and use it to trigger success in the future. We ll be speaking to your subconscious, so you first need to get into a meditative state. 83

85 1. Find a quiet place where you will be undisturbed for minutes. Sit comfortably with a straight back and close your eyes. 2. Start getting into your alpha brainwave state by meditating for minutes until your mind is clear of thought. 3. Now you re going to visualize. Recall some of your past success. It could be a recent round or one of you best, but try to connect with times when you felt especially confident or successful. Get a vivid picture of those experiences. See some of the shots you hit. See the colors, feel the weather, hear the birds really try to recreate the experience as if it is happening now. 4. Replay shots or those magic moments in your mind and see everything about them. See yourself making great swings, feel the connection with the ball, see the flight of the ball as it takes off and lands near the target. Watch the ball go in the hole after a well struck putt. 5. Remember exactly how you felt in those moments. As you feel that positive emotion, you need to fire the anchor. I ve got several suggestions to take you through, but this could be saying a special word, or making a sound by snapping the Velcro on your glove. 84

86 6. The trick is to experiment with different sensory anchors and see which is most effective at being able to trigger that same feeling. Use and reinforce the anchor after every great shot in the future, even during practice. Types of anchors and triggers We are all different in how we see the world. Some of us respond better to visuals (sights/colors, etc.), some more to touch and movement, some to words, and some to sound and music. Here are a few ideas for you to try to see what works best for you. The idea here is that you anchor the feeling of good shots and good experiences with the sensory anchor which is best for you. The more you anchor it, the stronger your connection to the feeling becomes. By using that anchor as a trigger during your pre-shot routine or at any time during a round, you ll find that you re now equipped with a valuable tool to increase confidence, especially in pressure situations. Verbal triggers: You might want to anchor positive experiences with a word, and then use that word as a verbal trigger during your pre-shot routine. Some ideas are: 85

87 Commit Solid S-M-O-O-T-H Gorgeous Smooth and powerful Pick your own special word and anchor great shots with it. Visual triggers: Vision is our primary sense, so this one is often most effective. Advertisers use this with colors to evoke mood. Louis Oosthuizen s red dot Louis Oosthuizen s red dot became a talking point after he won the 2010 Open Championship. Louis had marked a red dot on the glove on his left hand and used it as a trigger to get himself in a highly focused state. Before The Open, Louis was becoming frustrated by the inconsistency of his scores and he ascribed it to his inability to focus consistently. Some days he was really switched on, and on others he couldn t achieve that same level of focus. His mind coach would have him visualize some of his best rounds. The coach asked Louis, if he were to describe these 86

88 performances with a single word, what would it be? Louis said, Concentration. His mind coach took it a step further and asked him, If the word concentration had a color, what color would it be? And he said, without hesitation, red. So, he began the process of anchoring those times that he felt most focused with the color red. So, with the red dot on his glove during The Open Championship in 2010, with all the distractions that a Major throws at the players, he was able to look at the red dot and get into that same focused state of concentration. And as you probably know, Louis took home the Claret Jug that year. You could do the same by writing a word or putting a colored dot on your glove and looking at it before you walk into the ball. Make sure that you take a look at it after a good shot, to reinforce the anchor. Auditory (sound) triggers: - Use music: Hum a tune after hitting a great shot. - Snap the Velcro on your glove. Kinesthetic (touch/movement) triggers - Tapping yourself somewhere. - Rickie Fowler tips his cap before every full shot. - Tiger Woods blinks methodically. 87

89 Getting control of your physiology As you become more aware of how you feel on the course, you ll be able to notice if the pressure of competition is changing your physiology such as your heart beating faster, your muscles tightening or your hands shaking. When, and if, you experience this, it s important to know how to regain control of your physiology to lower the stress response. Breathing techniques for playing more relaxed golf To reduce the effects of the stress response, the best place to start is with your breathing. When we feel fear and pressure, our breathing becomes short and erratic. We need to steady the ship and tell our brains that everything is OK. We do this with deep, rhythmic breathing. The ratio of time taken to inhale vs. exhale isn t as important as the rhythm. So, if it takes 6 seconds to inhale (through your nose until your belly goes out), then a hold for 2 seconds, and an exhale (slowly through your mouth) for 12 seconds, then that same pattern needs to be repeated until you feel your heart rate lower and you become less stressed. Try this before your round and in between shots. Repetition of this will enable you to stay calmer, think more clearly and maintain your optimal level of intensity. 88

90 Reducing muscle tension Tightness in the muscles usually starts with a tighter grip, but it can spread throughout your body. This will inhibit fluid motion and change your swing sequence/mechanics. To reduce tension, we first need to notice where it is, with a body scan. Getting into a regular habit of doing this (even when you re not on the course) will help. Is it in your shoulders, legs, chest? When you know where it is, you can work on relaxing that area. Use stretching and your breathing techniques while focusing on that specific area and use it to dissolve the tension. There should only be enough tension for you to hold your posture and grip the club. Tempo changes from muscle tension When we experience tension in the grip and muscles, the tempo and rhythm of the swing gets faster, which has a big effect on the outcome of our shots. After you ve worked to relax your muscles, notice the tempo of your rehearsal swings. Deliberately slow it down if you feel nervous. Slow down Under pressure, everything moves more quickly. You rush your pre-shot routine and walk faster in between shots. This is another symptom of the stress response, as you subconsciously 89

91 want to move more quickly to get you out of the uncomfortable situation. When you re feeling nervous, deliberately try to slow everything down. Slow your walk, your routine and your swing. Justin Rose said that before the final round of the 2013 US Open (which he ended up winning), he slowed everything down as soon as he woke up even brushing his teeth and eating his breakfast more slowly. By using your breathing techniques, noticing tension and slowing everything down, you ll be able to regain control of your physiology and play better under pressure. Get comfortable being uncomfortable Pressure is what you want. If you re not feeling pressure, you re not where you want to be as a golfer. One of the best parts of this game is overcoming adversity, rising to the challenge and doing well in competition. If your goal is to break through into higher levels of the game, then you re going to have to play a lot of golf outside of your comfort zone. Being nervous means you are there. It s important to recognize that the nerves that you re experiencing before and during a tournament are helping you and not hindering you if you can control them. Welcome those 90

92 butterflies and signs of nerves. What comes with it is heightened senses, increased focus, more power and more fight! Next time you feel nerves, tell yourself this is great! The goal is for you to become a stress-seeker - one who relishes the feelings you get in competition - not a stress-avoider. Get comfortable being uncomfortable! In this case, fear is a good thing. Self talk in golf Are you aware of how you talk to yourself on the golf course and the effect it has on your play? Most of us aren t. We just react our way around the course, talking to ourselves without ever thinking about it. Most golfers are quite negative about themselves during their rounds, which alters their mood, their confidence and their ability to access an athletic swing. Self talk is Sport Psychology 101 and, like most mental game coaching, it s about creating positive habits, which you get better at over time. So let s start during your next round! Words are not simply letters of the alphabet put together. They are emotionally charged. The choice of words and tones used during communication can elicit different emotional reactions and behavioral responses. In fact, top salespeople use specific 91

93 trigger words during their sales pitches (without you knowing it), to make you feel more inclined to buy their product. So why is this important in golf? Every word you say to yourself during a round can potentially make you feel a certain way and get a different emotional response. The effect could be a big difference in your scores. Let s take a look at how this works at different times during a round. Self talk as part of the post-shot routine The most common time that golfers can improve the way they talk to themselves is during the post shot routine, especially after a bad shot. I saw an interesting video recently where a sport psychologist was watching golfers hit balls and commenting on their shots. The players didn t know that he was going to do it, but after each shot that missed the target or was hit badly he would say, That was awful or You re playing horribly today! The golfers looked at him with surprise, not expecting that a sport psychologist would say such things. But after he explained why he was doing it, they quickly understood the purpose of the exercise. That was exactly how they talked to themselves after hitting a bad shot, and it felt terrible! 92

94 Choosing to respond - instead of reacting with negative emotionally charged language - is a key fundamental of a good post-shot routine. Next time you re on the course, make a conscious effort to notice how you talk to yourself after bad shots. Make a list of words you can use to replace the ones you currently use after you hit a shot that you re not happy with, so that you don t start telling yourself how badly you re playing instead of simply accepting that you hit one shot poorly. Self talk while on the green Let s say that you ve just hit the ball to 15 feet and you ve got a putt for a birdie. Most golfers will start telling themselves I ve got this for birdie. If I can make this one I ll be on [score]. What this does is attach emotion to the putt and give it a higher value. By doing so, they ve lowered their chances of making it. During your next round, notice how you talk to yourself about different shots and what the consequences might be. Try to stay neutral and treat every shot as if it s just one stroke, regardless of whether it s for birdie, par or bogey! Self talk during the pre-shot routine What s happening in a Tour player s head during a shot can be quite different from player to player. Some like to use language, such as describing the shot to themselves the shape, trajectory, 93

95 starting point and landing point. Some like to use what s called a performance statement before swinging such as slow and powerful. Some might focus on words during their swing. If you don t already do this, experiment during your practice sessions with certain words that you can use during your routine, which might help you to hold your focus and help to produce an athletic swing. The mental game of golf is an individual thing. One of the reasons that it s a good idea to do one-on-one mental coaching is that we re all different in the approach that s needed. Every player I work with has a slightly different routine some are more verbal, some more visual, some more technical we all need something slightly different to focus our minds on to help us stay athletic in the swing. Self talk in between shots Many players I work with have a list of trigger words they can use in between shots to help them feel positive, confident and calm. Develop a list of key words that you can use in different situations on the course. Re-framing negative thoughts using self talk When you notice yourself talking to yourself in a negative way, choose to re-frame those sentences to something positive. 94

96 Examples are: Negative thought: I can t putt today! Positive re-frame: I am a great putter. Negative thought: Why can t I play well when it counts? Positive re-frame: You are a tough competitor when the pressure s on. Negative thought: How did I hit that shot? Positive re-frame: You are mentally tough enough to bounce back from any situation. Negative thought: What s wrong with me today? Positive re-frame: Believe in yourself. At the end of each round, write down some of the negative thoughts that you might have had and how you can re-frame them in the future. Some of my players have a card that they keep in their pocket, with their most inspiring quotes and positive affirmations. Positive affirmations Always make total effort, even when the odds are against you Arnold Palmer Strength comes from the struggle. 95

97 Forget Failure. Forget Mistakes. Forget Everything Except What You Are Going To Do NOW. Pressure makes me play better. Stay present and be strong. Attitude and character will help me prevail. Never give up! Forget your opponents; play against the golf course. Play the next shot as if it s the last shot you ll ever hit. Look around and be grateful for this experience. 96

98 Finding your optimal intensity See the graph below: You can see from the graph above that if you re too relaxed, you re on the left side of your optimal level (under aroused). In this state, you re too complacent and not pumped up enough. You re in what 2006 US Open winner Geoff Ogilvy calls a lazy head space. On the other hand, if you become too nervous (and move toward the right side of the curve), panic will set in and your ability to perform goes down quickly. (You re over aroused.) 97

99 Your optimal level of intensity - that which produces your best performances - is somewhere in between. The key is to find that optimal level of intensity and maintain it throughout your round. Through the work that I ve done with many competitive players, I ve learned that some players play their best when they are pumped up and some when they are more relaxed. To find this out, you need a consistently good post-round evaluation, which we ll get to later. We ve already covered a lot of what to do if you re over-aroused and too nervous, but what do you do if you re not pumped up enough? Are you a player like Ian Poulter and Patrick Reed who seem to perform better when they re at the more intense end of the spectrum? I was speaking to a Tour player client of mine recently, who says that he plays his best golf when he feels more intense, like it s a final round on a Sunday. He finds it hard to get going on a Thursday. Through experimentation, we had success increasing his intensity with the following techniques: Using visualization Spending a few minutes visualizing the intensity he wanted to feel - and succeeding - was one way to get himself pumped up. Use past - real - experiences or future imagined - ones. 98

100 Using music Music is commonly used by athletes to get themselves pumped up before a round. Jon Rahm listens to Eminem recordings during his pre-round warm-up, to get him in the mood to play. They re very motivational, he says. Most of them are about not giving up and fighting your way through. And in my case it gets me to the mental state that I need to be to play golf. (Source - PGA.com.) Breathing Using more intense, faster breathing can increase heart rate and intensity level. Body language With a slightly quicker walk and more powerful posture, you can increase intensity. Using words One of my clients described how he felt during his best rounds (when he was more pumped up) and this helped us put together some trigger phrases: The heat is on! ; Let s do this! ; and Bring on the pressure! were the ones that worked best. Use this same technique to find your higher intensity verbal triggers. 99

101 The Time In Between 99% of golf instruction is focused on the shot itself, but about 90% of your time playing is in between shots. How we manage that 90% has a huge effect on our scores. For me, the average golfer loses more shots during the time in between shots than when swinging the club. Where is your focus in between shots? I d like you to think about this and become more aware of it. If you re letting your mind wander, it can be dangerous. In between shots, most golfers allow their minds to drift into the past ( Why did I do that? ) or the future ( If I can do this, then this could happen ) When focus is on past mistakes, anxiety and frustration will increase. When we are attempting to predict the future, the focus is something that is uncertain. The human mind doesn t like uncertainty, it could be something to fear, and with that comes the stress response that we talked about earlier in this module. Remember Module 2, where we talked about switching off your golf brain in between shots? 100

102 Think about your last round and what you thought about in between shots. If you thought about any of the things below, you were not fully switched off: - A poor shot or a bad hole that you just played. - How you were playing relative to your playing partners. - Why you play so much better in practice than you do on the course. - How bad your luck is with bad bounces, lies in the rough and not being able to find a ball. - Bad weather. - Slow play. - What score you are on and what you might shoot. Elite performers can do a great job of switching off in order to stay relaxed and keep them free from anxiety. What are the best ways to switch off? Staying in the present Staying in the present is the key to any golfer s game. Once you start thinking about a shot you just messed up or what you have to do on the next nine to catch somebody, you re lost. Paul Azinger The best place to be in between shots, is in the present. The present is when you are just being - you re not thinking. 101

103 This means that you re just aware of your senses - what you see, hear, feel, smell = without any internal dialogue. There s no cognitive thought or judgement. The present is a calm, emotionless place. When you notice your focus drifting into the past or future, it s important that you gently bring yourself back to the present, the same way that you do with your meditation. Being more present is a skill - it s something that you get better at with practice. With your meditation practice, and just being more aware of where your focus is in between shots, you ll get better at keeping your mind free of thoughts for a longer time. Focus on your breathing "When I learned how to breathe, I learned how to win" Tom Watson Just as you do when you meditate, focusing on your breaths (a sort of on-course walking meditation) helps you to stay present and keep your mind quiet. When you focus on your breathing, your attention (thinking) isn t on what s happened or what will happen (consequences), only on what s happening now. 102

104 Walking meditation You're only here for a short visit. Don't hurry, don't worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way. Walter Hagan A great way to access the now is through your senses. Use them to take in your surroundings. Pay attention to the smells, sights, sounds, feeling of the wind and the grass beneath your feet. There s no need to think about what you are sensing, just notice it. Essentially, you re meditating as you walk. Body language Actors use their body language and facial expressions to trigger a mood from within. We can do the same in golf to make us feel more confident and powerful in between shots. When you re feeling confident, you have more of the hormone testosterone. When you are feeling stressed and anxious, you have less testosterone and more cortisol. (Thanks to James Clear of for this one.) A study was done between Harvard and Columbia Universities which had 42 subjects adopt different body postures. Afterward, their hormone levels were tested. The results showed that those with the more high-power postures (standing up, back straight, shoulders back) had much 103

105 higher levels of testosterone and lower levels of cortisol. Those subjects felt more confident and powerful and less stressed. Conversely, those subjects that adopted low-power postures (slumped posture, low shoulders, looking down, etc.) had more cortisol and felt less confident. The same thing works for facial expressions. Actors use facial expressions to create feelings within and make a performance more authentic. Frowning can make you feel concerned and worried by itself. Smiling makes you feel more content. Use body language to your advantage. Walk with swagger with your shoulders back and eyes looking up. Smile as much as you can! Engage with your playing partners When you re talking to someone, it s hard not to be in the present moment. Meeting people and sharing in the experience of a round is one of the joys of golf. If the opportunity presents itself, engage in conversation. Not only will it help you build relationships, it ll keep your mind away from your scores. Using your imagination Going to a happy place in your mind is another good technique for staying calm and not getting distracted by analyzing your performance in between shots. What you decide to visualize is a 104

106 personal preference, but it could be a favorite vacation spot or spending time with friends, anything that is going to make you feel relaxed. If you think about what is stressful to you, it s likely that your heart rate will increase beyond your optimal intensity level and you ll feel more anxious. Conversely, if you imagine walking down a sandy beach or being in a place where you feel comfortable, you ll probably see a drop in your heart rate and feel more relaxed. Jordan Spieth will sometimes boost his confidence in between shots by imagining some of his best ever performances, via his personal highlight reel. Think of something unrelated to golf Another idea is to have a go-to subject where you can take your mind if you re feeling anxious. This could be anything such as the number of trees you can name, the different types of birds you can hear, or another hobby outside of golf., I ve heard many things that players have focused on in between shots, from humming tunes to solving puzzles. Whatever it is, take your mind away from the game for a little while. 105

107 Have an attitude of gratitude One of my students has put a couple of colored dots on his glove with a sharpie. One of them is his "gratitude dot" and it s to remind him of all the people that are going through hardships and suffering at this time, and how fortunate he is to be playing the game he loves. No matter how you re scoring, be grateful and it will be easy to put that 3 putt in perspective and make you feel more at peace. Accept that you feel a certain way It s possible to acknowledge emotions, yet not be disturbed by them. Acknowledging how you feel is wise. Zen masters Thich Nhat Hahn says that you should say to yourself I feel, such as I feel nervous, or I feel angry. This is an act of selfcompassion. Don t punish yourself for having a feeling. If you can acknowledge an emotion, you keep some space around it, instead of becoming lost in it. Suppressing emotions can cause a build-up Let your emotions be there without listening to them. Don t fall into the trap of making the turn Have you ever noticed that when golfers talk about their rounds, they break it down into the front nine and the back nine? It usually goes, I had a good front nine but a bad back nine (or vice versa). But why do we feel the need to group the holes 106

108 together into 2 nines? What this does is make us continue playing in the same way that we have on either the front or the back nine. For whatever reason, the golfer feels like they can make a fresh start on the 10 th tee, which can be a good thing if it hasn t been going well. But if a golfer is capable of resetting on the 10 th tee, why can t they do it at any point during a round? There is no logical reason for a golfer to look at a round in terms of 2 sets of 9 holes, other than the way it s laid out on a scorecard. Playing each shot as if it s the only shot you are ever going to hit - there are no consequences to it - is the best way to be able to swing and putt freely. In other words, you re hitting the mental re-set button after each shot. This is not easy to do, but to work toward it, try thinking of the round as 6 sets of 3 holes. Then at the end of each set of 3 holes, re-set your score. Focus and Concentration The ability to focus on what is going to help you to achieve success is a skill that transcends golf - we need it to do any activity to the best of our ability. Today s world of social media and constant notifications from our devices makes focus harder and harder. Our minds are constantly being distracted, and it s weakening our ability to focus. 107

109 During a round of golf, you can spend up to 4.5 hours on the golf course. But if you re an average golfer shooting 88, you re really only playing for about 44 minutes. To play your best, you re going to have to get really good at switching on your focus in short bursts, and then relaxing your brain/staying present for the rest of the time. Right before each shot, you ll be entering a zone of high concentration which doesn t finish until after your post-shot routine. You ll be in a bubble, with all distractions blocked out. We ve covered several ways that you can keep your mind switched off in between shots and trigger it on when you need to, but here are a few other ways that you can work on your ability to stay focused during a big competition: Meditation As we discussed previously, meditation has great benefits for golf. Improving your ability to really quiet your mind and ignore thoughts that are going to cause performance anxiety is going to help. What s important to remember about meditation is that it s not something that happens quickly - it should become a daily practice. But over the course of weeks and months, you ll see huge progress. 108

110 Cardio Do more cardio. Daily physical activity increases blood flow to your brain and provides it with more focus-fueling oxygen. Being more fit will also keep you fresh during long rounds or tournaments. Nutrition and hydration You burn approximately 1200 calories if you walk a course carrying your bag, so if you re not putting at least 800 back into your body, you will start to lose mental energy and focus. Sip water and eat healthy snacks throughout your round. Even mild dehydration can cause loss of focus and memory. If you re not drinking at least 80 ounces a day, your focus will be affected. I use a system of nutritional products also used by John Rahm and Anna Nordqvist. If you d like to discuss with me how this works, please arrange a free 15 minute consultation by clicking here. Sleep Sleep well. If you re sleeping less than 7-8 hours a night, your concentration and decision-making will be affected. 109

111 MODULE 5: PRE-ROUND PREPARATION Mental Rehearsal Mental rehearsal is every bit as important as physical rehearsal. Phil Mickelson A question for you: What do you intend to happen in your next round? Do you have positive intentions in mind, or are you thinking about what you don t want to happen? Unless it s constructive, it s not worth thinking about at all. The images you put into your mind can have a big influence on the actual outcome in anything you do. One technique that all the top players I ve worked with or interviewed have used is mental rehearsal, or positive visualization. What I mean here is visualizing (or imagining) your future success. Jack Nicklaus said that he believes that 50% of his success resulted from having imagined it before it happened. Muhammad Ali said he would mentally rehearse all his fights and see himself victorious, before the real event. 110

112 Why does mental rehearsal work? The research that has been done on this area of cognitive psychology and neuroscience shows that there are many similarities between how the brain processes things that are real and imagined. Imagining saying a word stimulates the same area of the brain as actually saying that word out loud. The same goes for movement. If the brain has already practiced what you want to do, it will be more ready to do it for real in your actual round. Preparation In any activity that you do, whether it s a presentation at work or a tournament round of golf, you will usually perform better if you feel prepared. For a presentation, you would probably rehearse it several times before the real thing. In the same way, you can get even more prepared for a round of golf by rehearsing it in your mind. This will give you a much needed sense of familiarity and comfort when you re actually playing. Increase confidence As we discussed in Module 4, your subconscious doesn t know the difference between something real and something imagined. By using mental rehearsal, you can communicate with your 111

113 subconscious and tell it that there s nothing to fear, and that this is a situation that you can feel comfortable in. If you have already seen yourself being successful with the pressure of playing in a big event, you ll feel more confident when you re actually there, for real. Quiet your mind before a round If you focus on what you don t want to happen before a round or shot, it s going to cause stress and tension and fill your head with negative mental chatter. However, if you focus on a positive intention - images of you executing your plan exactly as you intend - this will lower stress and quiet your mind. This exercise can be done daily, or at least the evening or morning before you play: 1. Find a quiet place where you won t be interrupted. 2. Get into the meditative state in the way we discussed in Module When you re relaxed, focus on your upcoming round. 4. Try to visualize as many shots as you can, starting with a great shot on the first hole. 5. See exactly what you are going to see when you are there for real. Bring other senses into it too feel the wind, the ground beneath your feet, the smell of the freshly mowed 112

114 grass, etc. The more vivid you can make it, the more powerful it will be. 6. Imagine yourself going through your shot routine and preparing for the shot. 7. Imagine your body language as you walk into the ball. 8. Imagine yourself over the ball, looking down at the target with that image of the shot in your mind, and then pull the trigger on the shot. 9. Feel the swing in your mind that you need to produce that shot and feel the solid contact. 10. Look up to see the ball flying down the fairway with the shot shape you intend. Pick up your tee and imagine your playing partners saying nice shot! 11. Go through this process with approaches and putts, until you ve birdied every hole! 12. Now open your eyes. Your visualization has just prepared you for a great round and will increase your chance of a good result. Goals for Your Round As we discussed in Module 2 ( Process vs. Outcome Thinking ), in a round of golf there are certain things that are within your control and certain things that are not. It s no good setting goals 113

115 around things that you don t have control over, and score is one of them. The more you focus on those things that are uncertain, the more stress, tension and pressure you ll be feeling. Another trap that I ve experienced players will fall into is expectations. Many players that I ve worked with have scored well in one round, and then score badly in the next. The reason: because they scored well in one round, they expect the same thing to happen in the next one. And what do expectations do? They create pressure, and then frustration when you can t repeat that same level of play. You ve shifted from process focus (which will have contributed to the low round) to outcome focus (trying to repeat the performance). Before every round, make sure that you set goals that are: A) within your control; and B) the things that will help you the most in achieving success. So what are these goals? In this section, I m going to help you to define your process goals, which will become your goals for a round. If you need a refresher of why you should be focusing on process vs. outcome, then please re-read Module

116 Process goals Hopefully, as you ve gone through this material, you ll have a better idea of the things that are most important to you in playing your best golf shots. These could be any parts of your shot routine, such as: - Strong visualization of the shot shape and target. - Feeling centered and balanced before pulling the trigger. - A deep breath before walking into the ball. - Choosing to respond well to poorly hit shots. - Making tension-free swings with good tempo. - Aligning properly to every shot. - Engaging with the target. - Quieting your mind during the engagement phase of your routine. I d like you identify 3-4 goals and make them your recipe for success for every shot, such as CLEAR TARGET VISUALIZATION STAY CENTERED ACCEPT 115

117 You might write this acronym CVSA on your glove as a reminder. These could be different for a full shot, short game shot and putt, but make sure that you have them written out before your next round. To ensure that you stay focused on these process goals, it s important to have some accountability. For this, I d like you to print out my Mental Game Scorecard. After each shot, do a quick review and determine whether you achieved your process goals or not. If you did, the shot was a success, no matter where the ball went. Give yourself a point on the scorecard for each shot during which you stayed in your process. (If you don t print it out the mental game scorecard, you can use the back of your actual scorecard to put checkmarks.) At the end of a round, you ll need to work out your mental score and part of this is the total number of shots on which you stayed in your process as a percentage of your total actual shots. We ll look at this further in the post-round evaluation module. When you set process goals for each shot: 1. Your focus is on the 3-4 most important things that you know will increase your chance of success. 116

118 2. You lower your performance anxiety by displacing thoughts about the what ifs and what you don t want to happen. 3. Your focus is now on those things that you know that you can control, instead of what you can t control. It will also reduce performance anxiety to know that you are in complete control over whether you are successful. These process goals don t have to be set in stone, but stick to them for at least a few rounds. You can review and refine them during the post-round review. Have a great attitude A bad attitude is worse than a bad swing Payne Stewart A great game + A great attitude = A great player Attitude is so important in this game, and it can make the difference between success and failure. The good news is that attitude is a choice. Being negative and having a why does this always happen to me? attitude will keep you from becoming as good as you can be. Choose to be positive, optimistic and mentally tough. No matter how you re playing, you re learning and growing as a player if you can keep a good attitude and an open mind. All the great players in this game have or had a winner s attitude. Make this a goal for every round. 117

119 Remember, it s just another golf shot It s only you that attaches more importance to one shot than another, or one round than another. The reality of the situation is that it s just another round and it s just another shot. Remind yourself of this as much as possible before and during your round. Having an attitude of gratitude A lot of the elite players I ve worked with - those that are playing under a lot of pressure - have found it helpful to be thankful and have an attitude of gratitude while playing. When you put the game of golf in perspective, there are far worse things that you could be doing than being outside in beautiful surroundings, with good people, being healthy enough to play, etc. As an exercise, I d like you to write down everything that you are grateful for in the game and be thankful for it! Positive mantras Instead of driving to the course thinking about what score you d like to shoot, let s try a different approach. Try telling yourself: - I am excited about the possibilities for this round today. - I know that I will hit shots that I don t like (That s part of the game.), but something that I love about golf is the challenge of recovery. 118

120 - My intention is to play well but that is not required in order for me to have fun. - I could be choosing to do something else with this valuable free time, but I have the opportunity to play the game that I love. - The only thing that I can expect of myself is to remain calm, stay present and stick to my routine. If I can achieve these things, I m going to get the most from the round. I ve put together a 30 minute pre-round confidence booster audio session, which you can listen to in the car to get your mindset right and confidence high. If you d like to learn more about this, click here. Your 10-Minute Mental Game Warm-up I recommend spending 10 minutes doing the following exercises. This is a variation of the 10 minute mental toughness workout by Jason Selk, and perfect for the time just before you go out. Step 1: Breathing (5 minutes) First, I d like you to spend 5 minutes focusing on nothing else but your breathing, in the same way that you practice meditation. This exercise will help you to quiet your mind, calm you down and lower your heart rate. 119

121 Step 2: Your personal highlight reel (2 minutes) I d like you to spend a couple of minutes thinking about 3 of your best performances in golf. Take yourself back there and relive the experiences as best you can. Step 3: Visualize success (2 minutes) See yourself being successful on the course that you re about to play. Step 4: Your process goals (30 seconds) Remind yourself of the most important goals for each shot routine. Step 5: Attitude of gratitude (30 seconds) Remind yourself to be grateful and have a winner s attitude. Have a Strategy Before any tournament round that you play, you should at least have played or walked the course. If you don t, you might want to consider using Google Earth images. If you get to play a practice round, take notes, so that you know which holes you can take more risk on and those where you need to play more conservatively. Get a yardage book and study it, so that you know where the good miss is for every tee shot and approach shot. Note where the fat parts of the greens are, and 120

122 the more punishing misses. Have a clear idea of what clubs you ll ideally hit for every tee shot and approach shot. Ideally, you will have a chance to putt on the greens. If you do, make some notes on the contours and speed. Eat and Drink Well Don t underestimate the importance of eating and drinking, before and during the round. Not doing this right will affect your mental game and your performance. The evening before your round, it s important to eat a healthy meal and get a good night s sleep. Before a round, keep it light and eat 2-3 hours before playing. (Avoid the clubhouse fried breakfast just before heading out.) Have a snack such as fruit and nuts about 30 minutes before your tee time. A little coffee is fine, but not too much, since that can make you jittery. Tiger s pre-round meal of choice is an eggwhite omelet with vegetables. A small sandwich with fruit would be another good option. To keep your blood sugar stable, eat slowly with small bites. Drink a couple of glasses of water. During the round, avoid the half-way hot dog and drinks that give you high blood sugar like soda or beer. The surge in insulin will make you sluggish. Go for the healthy option of bananas, mixed nuts and health bars and sip plenty of water. 121

123 Get Your Equipment Prepared Being prepared with everything that you will need for your round the evening before will mean that you ll feel more relaxed in the morning. You don t want to be running around getting your equipment ready shortly before you have to leave for the course. Count your clubs in case any extras have made their way in there to take you over the 14 club limit. Have your clothes, shoes and clubs ready the evening before. Make sure that your bag contains 2 gloves, plenty of balls, tees, ball markers and a pitch-mark repairer. Have your snacks and water ready to pop into the bag in the morning. Physical Warm-up Putting warm-up (15 minutes) The first thing to warm up is your putting. The subtle movement in the roll of the ball will get your visualization and feel working and warm up your senses. You ll notice that, during these 3 drills, you won t miss any putts. I think it s important to avoid that feeling before going out. 1. Make sure your geometry is good. What I mean by this is your alignment, ball position and eye position. I d 122

124 recommend a putting mirror such as Eyeline Golf. 2. Putt to the fringe. Take 5 balls and place them various distances feet from the fringe and putt to it, trying to get it as close as possible. The idea behind this drill is to warm up your distance control without a hole. 3. Put a tee in the ground and practice 6, foot putts (3 left to right and 3 right to left). The idea here is that aiming at a tee means that you are not judging whether you are making them or not - anything around the tee has a chance to go in. But it also narrows your focus and tricks your mind into thinking that the hole is bigger than it is when you re on the course. 123