Never Hit A Shot When This Happens!

If you could cancel out the 3 or 4 worst shots from your round, that would make a pretty major difference to your score, right?

Well, there are certain moments in golf you simply should never hit a shot, and these are certainly those times. These times it is best to walk away from the shot, and return to re-address the shot in a new frame of mind.

This would be invaluable information to have when you are playing a competition - but is there a way of knowing when these shots are about to happen? Yes, there is! So when? Well, that's the hard part - I can't tell you - you see, only you know when these times are, and the good news is that you know before you hit the shot.

These are the times when your mind is sending you subtle signals before the stroke - signals not to hit the ball. These signals arrive in your conscious mind through your intuition - and these are those instinctive feelings that you receive directly from your subconscious mind. How many times have you said to yourself after a bad shot "I knew I was going to do that!".

The problem is, these signals are so subtle that most of the time we either don't hear them, or don't listen to them.

These signals generally arrive in the subtle form of:

feeling mentally unprepared or unready to play the shot
feeling uncomfortable during the setup for the shot
simply having a hunch that you would be better off not playing the shot

So how the heck does your mind know that you are about to play a bad shot? Because of the fact that the subconscious is the control center of all your golf, and all bodily movement. It knows everything about your game, and about your body - and it knows when you are primed to hit a great shot, and also when you aren't. And it's only way of communicating this information to you is through your thoughts, feelings, instincts and intuition - and it's highly recommended that you listen!

When you instinctively do not feel right to hit a shot, it means that you are not ready to play an effective shot, and that you are being given advance warning. Your mind knows more about your golf than you will ever know - so regardless of the type of shot, when this happens it is best to pull away and move back from the shot, take another look at your target (and the line of the ball's future flight path), and then move back once again to re-address the ball.

Effectively, all you have done is to stop, gather more information, and then re-engage the shot. Ninety-nine percent of the time this second attempt instinctively feels better, and hence is a more successful result.

You might say that this instinctive approach does not sound very scientific - but in fact you are taking advice from the world's most sophisticated computer system, your mind. It knows the perfect conditions, both physical and mental, for you to hit each and every shot on the course, and it knows your exact level of talent, current mood and physical capabilities - intimately. It will constantly give you feedback and any advance warnings required about any shots you are about to hit - it's just a matter of tuning in to listen.

This approach is possibly even more imperative in putting, where even the smallest details make the biggest differences. If you happen to practice any form of visualization, relaxation or meditation techniques, these also help to make you more intuitive to interpreting this subtle information while you are in the heat of competition play. However, simply practicing tuning in is an effective way of developing this skill - like anything, it's use it or lose it.

So next time you are playing, begin taking notice of what your mind and body are telling you before each shot - you may be surprised at the storehouse of information you begin to gather.

"The Mind controls the body, and the Mind is Unlimited"

The best of success, Craig Townsend

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