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From Mindy, golfer: |
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What is your best advice for help in the
mental aspect of the game? |
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PGA/LPGA
TEACHING
PROFESSIONAL
RESPONSES: |
Arizona
"Mentally
take one shot at a time with a comfortable pre-shot routine."
- Don
Williams, Teaching Professional
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Arizona
"Mindy, I have a question for you: Do you practice your mental
game? If not that is were you need to start. Sit in a chair at home close
your eyes and visualize hitting perfect shots one after another. Try it
for six months or so. Oh, one more thing ever thought about seeing a
sports psychologist? They sure do help. I have been going for 8 to 9
months now 4 months ago I shot my career low round of 63! Thanks, Mindy."
- Frank
O'Connell, Teaching Professional
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Arizona
"One of the greatest challenges of dealing with the mental aspect of
golf is convincing yourself that
you are not having a mental problem. This is why the best players have
mental coaches who help them organize their thoughts and
assemble them into a habitual sequence that works consistently.
I wonder sometimes if we have the ability to do this alone. Did you
discover a mental golf problem on your own or with the help of some well
meaning critics? Remember there are more teachers than players in this
game."
- Marc
Silliman, Teaching Professional
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Florida
"Mindy: Try to keep things
very simple. Think of how you would want your caddy to speak to
you. Be that positive. Try to avoid hitting clubs or shots that you lack
confidence in until you have developed the confidence in practice."
- Jim
Kosters, Teaching Professional
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Florida
"Mindy: Enjoy yourself, have fun, look at the beautiful course,
appreciate all aspects of the and your game. Also words of wisdom from
me: DON'T TRY let it happen. The key point use your eyes to see where it
is that you want to go!!! Remember your nice ones and laugh at your bad
ones!"
- Sean
Gorgone, Teaching Professional
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Florida
"There are a number of articles in the library section of our
website that may assist you with the mental game. Additionally, the book
The Art & Zen of Learning Golf has suggestions from
many players. This information can be found at www.mikehebron.com
- Thank you for your interest and keep up the good work!" - Mike
Hebron, Teaching Professional
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Florida
"Mindy: fill your
mind with positive images of where you want the ball to go and how it
looks getting there. Each time a undesirable image comes into your head,
stop, start your pre-shot routine over and put good pictures in your
head again. Develop a good pre-shot routine. Visit www.mindtraining.net
- a good site!!"
- John
Brott, Teaching Professional
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Florida
"Mindy: The mental side of golf is nothing but staying in the
present. There is no fear in the present, only in the past or in the
future. Staying in the present is being more fascinated with what you are
doing then what the ball ends up doing." - Joe
Sciortino, Teaching Professional
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Indiana
"I suggest to students interested in the mental aspect of the
game to compare their game (golf) to football. In the game of football,
there are certain plays that count for more value or points than others.
For example, a touchdown is worth 6 points, a field goal 3 points, and an
extra point merely 1 point. Golf, however, is different in that each
stroke counts exactly the same - 1 shot. There are no shots that are more
important than any other-they all count the same. The focus on the mental
approach, then, needs to be 1 shot at a time. If a bad stroke is executed,
put it away and forget about it. The next shot, and each shot after it
count equally as much, so concentrate on executing these subsequent shots
to the best of your ability." - Darren
Galgano, Teaching Professional
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Indiana
"The best advice I can give is get in good
physical shape which promotes good mental health. Yoga is a good practice
to follow as well. When you devote your time to practice, you will see
dividends paid. Learn to shake off bad swings quickly without beating
yourself up mentally after poor swings. Concentrate only when preparing
your routine, and turnoff your thoughts between swings."
- Bruce
Cohen, Teaching Professional
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Minnesota
"Interestingly, we just had a discussion on this subject. To
briefly summarize, three things were suggested: 1) focus only on the shot
at hand. Don't worry about results or the final outcome. "Stay in the
present". 2) Avoid becoming too high or too low. Keep your emotions
level. 3) Refuse to beat yourself." - Jim
Manthis, Teaching Professional
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Missouri
"Dear Mindy: The best advice I give my
students is to work with a pro on golf course maintenance.
Bob Rotella has two great books out - Golf is a Game of Confidence
and Golf is Not a Game of Perfect. Both of these will help you
understand your mental approach to your game. Then the golf course
maintenance will help you to better understand the right approach to use
for each shot you encounter on the golf course." - BJ
Miller, Teaching Professional
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New Jersey
"Hopefully you took up this great game because it was fun, you
enjoyed the outdoors & it led to fine camaraderie. Never lose sight of
these values. The game has a way of inducing us to believe that perfection
lies just around the corner when, in reality, it is the most difficult of
all sports. Enjoying leads to relaxation. Relaxation leads to natural,
instinctive performance. This is usually us at our best! Keep the fun in
the game."
- Bryan
Jones, Teaching Professional
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North Carolina
"Mindy: You may try reading some books by Dr. Bob Rotella and Dr.
Richard Coop. Both are fantastic sports psychologists and have excellent
information about the mental side of the game in their books. Dr. Rotella
has two books that are good, Golf Is Not A Game of Perfect and Golf
Is A Game of Confidence. Dr. Coop's book is entitled Mind Over Golf."
- Ben
Hynson, Teaching Professional
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North Carolina
"Learn what you CAN do with the shots and use those shots only on the
course. If you want to get better practice learning more shots on the
range so you can positively transfer them to the course."
- Bill
Johnson, Teaching Professional
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Ohio
Mindy: The first thing I do when working with a student on the mental
aspects of the game is to have them do the following reading: Golf is
Not a Game of Perfect, Golf is a Game of Confidence, The Golf of Your
Dreams, Putting Out of Your Mind all by Dr. Bob Rotella. Then we start
to discuss what Dr. Rotella is saying and how it applies to the students
mental state while playing. The mental aspects of the game is not an easy
part of playing and takes considerable time to get the proper mindset. I
would also recommend the following books to read: The Elements of
Scoring by Raymond Floyd, Harvey Penick's Little Red Book and The
Rules of Golf by Tom Watson. Good luck."
- Rick
Bailey, Teaching Professional |
Oregon
"Mindy:
see if you can practice breathing and keeping track of where your
breath is in your body. This will help you stay focused and in the
present moment. One's mind can wander very easily and therefore not
play one shot at a time." - Penny
Larsen, Teaching Professional
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Pennsylvania
Never
hit a shot before you are ready and picture the shot and the swing it will
take to make the shot."
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Pennsylvania
"Mindy: Your assignment is to read 5 Days to Golfing
Excellence by Chuck Hogan and The New Golf Mind by Drs. Gary
Wiren and Richard Coop. Get back to me when you've finished."
- George
Skomsky, Teaching Professional
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South Carolina
"Mindy: Wow, what a tall order. My impression is that you are a
tried athlete, for only an athlete would ask such a question. So,
evaluate golf in comparison to your other sport. There should be little
difference between the two. I will use a basketball free throw as
example. You align yourself to the target at the line. Do the same in
golf. You bounce the ball in front of you as you take a few deep
breaths. No ball to bounce in golf so play with the softness of your
grip without conscious thought. You might visualize the basketball
streaming through the net. Do the same in golf, see accomplished what is
about to occur. Then you fire without conscious involvement and
visually follow the basketball as you wait for the outcome. Take the
same 'I do not care' attitude to the situation at hand in golf. The
point is that you are only naturally responding to a target rather than
trying to make the ball go somewhere. When the motion and intent is the
same athletic golfers seem to be luckier. Good Luck. Call me if I can
help further."
- Michael
Lucas, Teaching Professional |
Tennessee
"Mindy:
Don't know what you may hear or read, but your question deserves much
more than can be said here. So the "best advice" is to set
yourself on a "path of discovery." I would suggest that you
start with the following website and go from there: www.clearkeygolf.com.
You will need to learn about your playing style (everyone has one and it
is their very own, not like anyone else's). You will need to learn about
the difference in the thinking you do in pre-shot and that which you
need for actually executing the shot (all shots). And you will need to
understand how your thinking leads you from developing your skills to
building your habits. Without good habits, playing will never reach the
automatic level. After you have done those
things, call on us again and we'll get you to the next step. Best
for your game!"
- Larry
Shute, Teaching Professional
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Texas
"The best mental advice I can give is
to gain control over your golf ball by giving up control. What that
means is once you have sufficiently observed the situation and made a
strategy on how you are going to play the shot and with what club go
through your pre shot routine. Check your grip, alignment, posture, look
at the target and swing without any further thought. Thoughts during the
swing only cause tension and indecision and have no place in the games
of successful players. Good luck!"
- Dave
Baron, Teaching Professional
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Texas
"I don't want to bail out on your question, but the mental side
of golf is very individual. Without knowing your game and
personality it would be impossible to answer. I recommend that you read
a few mental side books on golf and find one that fits your personality."
- Randy
Dalton, Teaching Professional
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Texas
"You can learn the mental aspect by reading sports psychology
books. I recommend GOLF IS NOT A GAME OF PERFECT by Bob Rotella.
Play the percentages! Playing within yourself will allow you to
reach your optimum performance without too many penalty or bad shots."
- Mark Moore,
Teaching Professional
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Virginia
"Bob Rotella's books and tapes are, in my opinion, the best for a
solid and positive mental approach to the game."
- Bob
Benning, Teaching Professional
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Wisconsin
"Read, read, and read.
Rotella is the best on the mind game. I would then encourage the player to
take what they have read to the practice range and course. Self-confidence
is very important. Go out to the range or practice green and play games (8
out of 10 up and downs from location around green). Sounds more like
practice but, the pressure of achieving your goal add pressure. Then go to
the course, work on becoming comfortable with hitting shots that might
make you nervous. Players break under pressure because they do not feel
comfortable, you have to become comfortable with your surrounding.
Much like the first day of school each year, a new job, or new house."
- Sean
English, Teaching Professional
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Wisconsin
"Mindy: The best thing to do to help your mental game (in all
aspects of your golf game) is to "Try harder to not try so
hard." This has helped me immensely (especially on the green) because
sometimes you want to give it your best effort and consequently bog down
your mind. Watch Brad Faxon putt and you'll see what I mean. Another thing
that will help you is to understand that golf is a game of mis-hits, even
touring professionals only hit 2 to 3 'perfect' shots a round."
- Brian
Gadowski, Teaching Professional
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