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Mental side of the game

jusme said:
Is it really this simple? I know what I have to do - doing it is not always that easy. The fact that sports psychologists exist must go someway to confirming its not as easy as 'forget about it....it's done....nothing you can do'

Please don't take this as criticism - it truly is not meant - I'm just saying - the understanding is easy - the doing not so much. I totally admire those of you that really does not let any shot in golf affect you at all - I tip my hat, I really do.
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Read Zen Golf by Joseph Parent. It won't take long to get through but there are some amazing lessons in there.

The one that had instant results for me was the "Anyway" column. An "anyway" is where you stand over the ball and you don't feel right, but you hit it anyway. They're doomed to fail. Next time you feel it you'll acknowledge it and step away, address whatever it was you were unsure about and commit fully to the shot. That has a much higher chance of success. He said every time you hit an anyway, mark it in a column on your scorecard. When you have to mark them, you’ll soon realise you’re not doing them anymore.

Now that you have a name for it, it loses its power. You can do the same with bad shots. He gives you the mechanism to put it behind you. I used to drift away when I should have been thinking about the shot, thinking about what I’d tell the lads down the pub that evening, what they'd think of me for coming home with yet another rubbish card (the answer to that one, by the way, is nothing different - your friends/family don't love you because you shot 70 net. Many don't even know what that means, let alone care), the putt I just missed, that bad bounce on 13…. Again, acknowledging being out of the moment puts you straight back in it with focus, it’s all behaviour we can learn. Does this mean I never do it anymore? Of course not, but I do it far less often.

Many great, practical pieces of advice in a book I look forward to rereading soon. Easily the best fiver you can spend in golf.
 
Curls said:
Read Zen Golf by Joseph Parent. It won't take long to get through but there are some amazing lessons in there.

The one that had instant results for me was the "Anyway" column. An "anyway" is where you stand over the ball and you don't feel right, but you hit it anyway. They're doomed to fail. Next time you feel it you'll acknowledge it and step away, address whatever it was you were unsure about and commit fully to the shot. That has a much higher chance of success. He said every time you hit an anyway, mark it in a column on your scorecard. When you have to mark them, you’ll soon realise you’re not doing them anymore.

Now that you have a name for it, it loses its power. You can do the same with bad shots. He gives you the mechanism to put it behind you. I used to drift away when I should have been thinking about the shot, thinking about what I’d tell the lads down the pub that evening, what they'd think of me for coming home with yet another rubbish card (the answer to that one, by the way, is nothing different - your friends/family don't love you because you shot 70 net. Many don't even know what that means, let alone care), the putt I just missed, that bad bounce on 13…. Again, acknowledging being out of the moment puts you straight back in it with focus, it’s all behaviour we can learn. Does this mean I never do it anymore? Of course not, but I do it far less often.

Many great, practical pieces of advice in a book I look forward to rereading soon. Easily the best fiver you can spend in golf.
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Some interesting comments and it doesn't sound a mile away from some of the thoughts in New Golf Thinking especially about losing focus. Either way it's a part of the game that needs work as much as anything else. I don't know about others but thinking properly throughout a round isn't something I do often enough or find easy
 
chrisd said:
Not so!

On the next tee the butt of my club accidentally caught your spare ball and I noticed you were shedding some tears
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That was three holes later, but you do hold a grudge.:whistle:

Don't think I will ever forget Smiffy's words as he picked up his ball rather than hole out. 'He will not four putt from there'. He was right, our very own Nostradamus.:whistle:
 
richart said:
That was three holes later, but you do hold a grudge.:whistle:

Don't think I will ever forget Smiffy's words as he picked up his ball rather than hole out. 'He will not four putt from there'. He was right, our very own Nostradamus.:whistle:
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:D

Its 5 mins that will forever live in memory

When are they mounting a plaque near the green ?
 
richart said:
That was three holes later, but you do hold a grudge.:whistle:

Don't think I will ever forget Smiffy's words as he picked up his ball rather than hole out. 'He will not four putt from there'. He was right, our very own Nostradamus.:whistle:
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and how right he was! I'm still remembering the tee shot and the 4 iron in - Jack Nicklaus said he never 3 putted and neither did I !!
 
HomerJSimpson said:
Some interesting comments and it doesn't sound a mile away from some of the thoughts in New Golf Thinking especially about losing focus. Either way it's a part of the game that needs work as much as anything else. I don't know about others but thinking properly throughout a round isn't something I do often enough or find easy
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Hi Homer, I've picked up that you're trying to clear your head rather than put more stuff in it so I don't want to add fuel to the fire, but that book has a great message. It put the whole thing in perspective. I used to attach far too much personal self-worth to my golf game. It makes you anxious when things are going badly on the course, and even more anxious when they're going well and you fear you won't be able to close it out. The crazy thing is I knew all of this already. Its a long story but I've spent a lot of time with Buddhists in the past and read their books and chatted to them about the same stuff that came up in Zen Golf. It just hadn't been contextualised for me in terms of golf so I wasn't accessing what I already knew. Hope you have a good season ahead!
 
Curls said:
Hi Homer, I've picked up that you're trying to clear your head rather than put more stuff in it so I don't want to add fuel to the fire, but that book has a great message. It put the whole thing in perspective. I used to attach far too much personal self-worth to my golf game. It makes you anxious when things are going badly on the course, and even more anxious when they're going well and you fear you won't be able to close it out. The crazy thing is I knew all of this already. Its a long story but I've spent a lot of time with Buddhists in the past and read their books and chatted to them about the same stuff that came up in Zen Golf. It just hadn't been contextualised for me in terms of golf so I wasn't accessing what I already knew. Hope you have a good season ahead!
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Thanks for that. I'll certainly get it on the kindle and give it a read
 
HomerJSimpson said:
Thanks for that. I'll certainly get it on the kindle and give it a read
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Good man, I have it off the shelf ready to reread, if you want to chat about it PM me, I have no fear in saying it completely changed the way I play golf for the better.

Would someone get those blasted white tees out already?! Can't wait to tee it up for real mid-April!
 
Im over a bad shot as soon as its done, just make sure my next is better

Im getting jittery when i know I've got observers! Shocking performance on 1st tee today and few weeks past we had some greenkeepers working around the 5th and again absolutely stuffed the drive!
 
Did some NLP work with the pro I had a lesson with to try and slow the breathing down over the ball and calm my tempo down. Felt very tranquil over the ball and started to swing very smoothly with a slow (for me) tempo. Not too sure what NLP is all about but he talked about it a lot, and said it worked for him when he played and that a lot of his single and plus handicap golfers have tried it
 
HomerJSimpson said:
Did some NLP work with the pro I had a lesson with to try and slow the breathing down over the ball and calm my tempo down. Felt very tranquil over the ball and started to swing very smoothly with a slow (for me) tempo. Not too sure what NLP is all about but he talked about it a lot, and said it worked for him when he played and that a lot of his single and plus handicap golfers have tried it
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I learnt quite a bit about NLP from a pro-golfer friend around 10 years ago and have applied it to my game in a few areas. I'm naturally curious about performance behaviors in sports especially and found it very interesting. It became instinctive quite quickly and helped eradicate some wasteful processes which I'd developed. Perhaps not for everyone but I'll happily claim it took a couple of shots off!
 
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