New Golf Thinking opportunity - the lucky 8 are....

A really good day. Big thanks to John O'Keefe, GM and the other guinea pigs who were there. Great to put names to faces of those I've not met before and great to catch up with the likes of Pieman and Phil the Frag. A really intense morning although the presentation was done in a very good way but a lot of information to absorb. Definitely a case of having to go away, look at the book and work through it based on my own needs.

The Grove was a joy to play. They had treated the greens so only running about 9.5 on the stimp but they were still so true. We were playing off silver (medal) tees and so it was a real challenge at 6766 yards. The morning work must have done something for me. I had 32 points (17 and 15) and started on the 340 yard first with three wood and 8 iron to six feet. I lost a few shots on the last three holes but to be honest by that stage I was mentally and physically knackered.

It was a great day and plenty to work on. I can't say it will turn me into a world beater overnight but there is some good stuff to work on but I reckon it'll take some time to become something I do automatically. A very interesting day and lets see how we go from here.
 
Khamelion said:
A write up of the morning with John will be forthcoming once I can gather me thoughts, but for the time being, shout out SILK as loud as you can 12 times, then 6 times, then 3 times, then ask yourself what to cows drink.

Phil, Saint, is it Milk? :D
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That's the same as the old bread/toast word association.

Looking forward to hearing a breakdown of the morning with John, but my question would be, has it given you too many more things to think about?
 
Fish said:
That's the same as the old bread/toast word association.

Looking forward to hearing a breakdown of the morning with John, but my question would be, has it given you too many more things to think about?
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It has given us lots of things to think about, but the way the talk and how the book is structured is that you can find the area that will give the early best results and work on that area alone, dismissing the other areas till needed. It's all about focus.
 
Others have summed up the day perfectly, very enjoyable day and a great 4 ball to play in.

I may have been a little intimidated playing The Grove off the medal tees as it was long, especially to someone with my handicap. Which meant at times it was challenging trying to remember to have very positive thoughts and be in mental position A at all times when I was hacking out of the rough. Plus my driving was inconsistent to put it politely, varying from occasionally boom boom to whack whack oops. But as they say, it's a process and something that I definitely think will help me get better. Many thanks GM.
 
Fish said:
That's the same as the old bread/toast word association.

Looking forward to hearing a breakdown of the morning with John, but my question would be, has it given you too many more things to think about?
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As Khamelion has mentioned, we did a 'mental handicap questionnaire' that sort of highlighted the areas you should start to concentrate on. And of course at the start then you can argue that there are more things to think about in addition to the several swing thoughts most golfers have (which you are supposed to mostly forget about, easier said than done in my case).

But I can definitely see that if you concentrate on your areas where you are the weakest mentally to begin with, it will all become more natural over time.
 
c'mon guys, DETAILS. Proper forum write ups as per the norm for everyone that didnt attend and want to know more.

Pics and vids (as one excellent write up had;)) would be a benefit
 
CMAC said:
c'mon guys, DETAILS. Proper forum write ups as per the norm for everyone that didnt attend and want to know more.

Pics and vids (as one excellent write up had;)) would be a benefit
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Only if the Le Scooter was at the event.. we wud have had a write up by now along with 300 tweets..
 
Very interesting day. Was great to see a couple of familiar faces in PTF and HJS and was good to meet the other guys. Went into this with an open mind as previously have been a bit sceptical about sports psychology in the past. For me what I was looking for we're ideas to help put me in a more positive frame of mind when playing, particularly if playing and scoring badly and therefore trying not to put pressure on myself to force things and try to make a score.

Like others have said, a bit difficult to put into words exactly what was covered as the morning part was quite intensive, but it's all clearly explained on the website. For me got some great tips on playing well under pressure and keeping concentration levels up; and avoiding any negative mind sets (i.e. 'Never play this hole / shot well'); which worked brilliantly on a number of holes where I made birdies and where in the past I have not played well. Also found the tips on not being distracted by others negativity very useful - they are obviously going to come in use on other Forum days!!

The golf in the afternoon was very enjoyable - Jezz, Khamelion and n_m_w were excellent company and we had good fun putting the morning exercises to use!

Thanks to GM for the opportunity, and also to John O'Keeffe for imparting his wisdom and knowledge on us - am certainly going to hope I use it to good effect over the next few months, starting on Friday!
 
PieMan said:
Very interesting day. Was great to see a couple of familiar faces in PTF and HJS and was good to meet the other guys. Went into this with an open mind as previously have been a bit sceptical about sports psychology in the past. For me what I was looking for we're ideas to help put me in a more positive frame of mind when playing, particularly if playing and scoring badly and therefore trying not to put pressure on myself to force things and try to make a score.

Like others have said, a bit difficult to put into words exactly what was covered as the morning part was quite intensive, but it's all clearly explained on the website. For me got some great tips on playing well under pressure and keeping concentration levels up; and avoiding any negative mind sets (i.e. 'Never play this hole / shot well'); which worked brilliantly on a number of holes where I made birdies and where in the past I have not played well. Also found the tips on not being distracted by others negativity very useful - they are obviously going to come in use on other Forum days!!

The golf in the afternoon was very enjoyable - Jezz, Khamelion and n_m_w were excellent company and we had good fun putting the morning exercises to use!

Thanks to GM for the opportunity, and also to John O'Keeffe for imparting his wisdom and knowledge on us - am certainly going to hope I use it to good effect over the next few months, starting on Friday!
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care to share for the groups benefit?;)
 
CMAC said:
care to share for the groups benefit?;)
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As others have said it really is difficult to sum up and do the techniques justice on here. The greatest thing I took away was getting into "mental position A" which is basically a tool to find the best in any golfing situation and then progress from there. A good example used was "I always much this hole up". The mental position A may be "I've played it badly and so I'm due a birdie today"

The other thing was to take distance readings to the back of the green. Most of the trouble is at the front and most golfers choose "vanity clubs". We spent a large chunk talking about stopping the shorties, be it shots into greens, pitches or coming up short on the green.
 
Fish said:
has it given you too many more things to think about?
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Personally I would say yes, and I think my game suffered for it. I started off fine but got gradually worse as the round went on, to the point that I tried to forget what I was supposed to be concentrating on and just get back to hitting a ball in roughly the right direction. Like I said in my earlier post I think it is something that will help the better player more than someone like me, who has enough technical problems that no amount of positivity can cure like a lesson will!
 
SaintHacker said:
Personally I would say yes, and I think my game suffered for it. I started off fine but got gradually worse as the round went on, to the point that I tried to forget what I was supposed to be concentrating on and just get back to hitting a ball in roughly the right direction. Like I said in my earlier post I think it is something that will help the better player more than someone like me, who has enough technical problems that no amount of positivity can cure like a lesson will!
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Good to meet you yesterday Paul, and just a quick one here, but while I appreciate what you're saying about technical issues, and would put my average play yesterday down to technical problems rather than mental ones, I actually think from my observations over the years of watching mid to high-handicappers that there is far greater scope for them to benefit more from a change of thinking than lower handicappers. I suppose what I'm saying is that I think higher handicappers lose a higher percentage of shots through poor thinking as opposed to poor execution than they think they do, even if it's just a matter of applying John's 'play for the back of the green' yardage philosophy more often.
 
Fair comment Jezz. I'm certainly not writing it off and I fully intend to persevere with it. Possibly yesterday I suffered from a bit of 'overload', and tried to remember and apply too much and it had a detrimental effect. The back of the green yardage was the one thing that really sunk in, and worked to some extent.
 
''avoiding any negative mind sets (i.e. 'Never play this hole / shot well'); ''


I played Formby hall last week for the 3rd time and my mind was drawn to places on holes where I had previously been in trouble. memories on the 15th of dumping it in the water, being in bunkers etc. some of these things are good as to avoid a repeat, others I suppose reinforce negative thinking. pretty much impossible to filter the good information from the bad. a single thought could be both.
 
SaintHacker said:
Personally I would say yes, and I think my game suffered for it. I started off fine but got gradually worse as the round went on, to the point that I tried to forget what I was supposed to be concentrating on and just get back to hitting a ball in roughly the right direction. Like I said in my earlier post I think it is something that will help the better player more than someone like me, who has enough technical problems that no amount of positivity can cure like a lesson will!
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Hi Paul,

That's a straight departure from mental position A ;). I can see why you think these techniques are more applicable to a low handicapper, but, turn it around and put it back to MPA (gonna use that for mental position a from now on) - these techniques will help me if I use them (regardless of my handicap). There was a whole heap of information and data during the morning session, and to try and apply all at once would I think be system overload. Just pick one or two of the apples (nearly said try and pick....) and focus on eating them slowly for a while. Personally, I think the same as Homer, the two that will help immediately - play to the back of the green, and reduce the shorties. I think that is a good place to start. All the best.
 
HomerJSimpson said:
As others have said it really is difficult to sum up and do the techniques justice on here. The greatest thing I took away was getting into "mental position A" which is basically a tool to find the best in any golfing situation and then progress from there. A good example used was "I always much this hole up". The mental position A may be "I've played it badly and so I'm due a birdie today"

The other thing was to take distance readings to the back of the green. Most of the trouble is at the front and most golfers choose "vanity clubs". We spent a large chunk talking about stopping the shorties, be it shots into greens, pitches or coming up short on the green.
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Can you get directions from Mental Position Z to Mental Position A on satnav?
 
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