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Mental Game

 

FOCUS ON SUCCESS (Michael Anthony)

(www.mentalkeys.com)

To those of you who have read The Mental Keys and my many mental tips, you are well aware that associating negative emotions to facts adversely affects your chemistry and performance. So what do you focus on when faced with facts that challenge your ability to pull off difficult shots?

Let’s assume you make a bad tee shot and your ball landing in the rough is completely covered by the grass.  Or, your ball buries itself in a sand bunker with the top barely showing, or any other worse case scenario that Old Man golf will occasionally confront you with. 

When this happens to you, what runs through your mind?  Do you get upset or complain that you got a bad break and face a very difficult shot?  If you do, train your mind to focus on success. Start playing each shot with your focus on your probability of success, instead of failure.

By this I mean, once you estimate your chances of making a shot, focus totally on making the shot. Don't concern yourself with the probability of not making the shot. Even if the odds are only 1% that you can make a very difficult shot, be happy and excited that you have a 1% chance of making that shot.  Expect to be able to make the shot, if everything goes right.

This will put you in a very good frame of mind and chemical state. You will find that you will make more shots if you believe you can. If you end up missing the shot, so what because the odds were against you anyway.

This holds true for a shot that you should make 90% of the time. Focus solely on making the shot and don't concern yourself with the 10% chance of missing. If you end up missing the shot, so what because you will make it 90% of the other times.

Learn to love the challenge that each shot brings. Expect success, but allow yourself the freedom to fail as just part of the game. If you focus on success, you will have more fun and lower scores.

Michael Anthony, mental trainer and author of “The Mental Keys to Improve Your Golf” contributed the above tip. For more information visit www.mentalkeys.com/intips.htm.

© 2001 by Michael Anthony.  All rights reserved.