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Mind
Training For Golf
- Golf Tip No.20
http://www.MindTrainingForGolf.com
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Discover
Your Peak
Emotional
State
You may not have
consciously noticed, but you are in a particular mood every
time you play your best golf.
Surprisingly, this
particular mood will usually bring you consistently good results,
and it is worth finding out what it is - and then re-creating
this mood as often as possible whenever you play a round of
competition.
Moods (or emotional states) can play a major role when playing
an important competition - especially when they can fluctuate
so much during one round! Emotions are somewhat less important
in practice - as it's difficult to get as emotionally charged
in practice as you might in a competition.
Every golfer (and general sportsperson, for that matter) possesses
their own 'winning mood' which will bring them with their own
best possible performance. When you play at your peak level,
we call this mental state 'the zone' - or your peak level of performance,
as mentioned in some of my earlier tips.
Of course, your
mood can swing dramatically several times during a round (which
is generally something we wish to avoid!), and so it is your
dominant mood throughout the round which is of most
importance to us. Unfortunately there are hundreds of different
moods and emotional states, however I have narrowed them down
to 4 main ones which I consider to have a major effect upon golf.
They are:
-
hyped / excited
-
calm and focused
-
nervousness /
tightness
-
anger (which
sometimes brings surprising results, but generally works better
for athletics and boxers!).
By knowing your
own peak emotional state, you can work at getting into
that mood each time before you play (eg. using music in the car
on the way to the course, etc) and then work at maintaining
that winning mood throughout the 18 holes.
There are several ways
to do this - one is simply to consciously observe your moods from
now on, and the effects they have upon your standard. A more scientific
way is is to create a Mood Chart, like the one below. This allows
you to map out what your optimum emotional state is, over
the course of 15-20+ competition rounds.
All you do is - after a competition round - simply write down
how you felt emotionally throughout the majority of
your round, and then 'grade' the round on a scale of 1 to
10, as to how good it was. So (for example only) after 6 competition
matches, you might finish with a list which look like this:
Mood Chart
| Date |
Dominant Emotion During Round |
Performance Level |
Best |
Worst |
| 4th March |
Nervous |
6 |
- |
- |
| 5th March |
Calm/Relaxed |
9 |
* |
- |
| 11th March |
Angry |
5 |
- |
* |
| 12th March |
Hyped/Excited |
7 |
- |
- |
| 18th March |
Calm/Relaxed |
8.5 |
* |
- |
| 19th March |
Hyped/Excited |
8 |
- |
- |
As the above example shows, this golfer's two best performances
were when they were calm and relaxed, and their worst result
came on the day that they were angry about something. Yet other
golfers might find that this is the exact opposite for them -
everyone is different. This is valuable information worth knowing
before you go out to play - the more you can truly know about,
and understand, your own mind and body the better.
So, if the chart above shows that this golfer is best when relaxed
during a round, they might use relaxing music in the car on the
way to the course, or a mental relaxation exercise before they
leave home, to help them get into their peak emotional state.
Music is also useful for those who are better when hyped-up to
play.
Knowing your own
worst emotional state can also be valuable knowledge
- for instance (for the golfer above), it would tell them that
anger was the best emotion to avoid when playing a round!
Surprisingly, there
are a few players who do bring out their best when they
become angry - though this is definitely the exception
rather than the rule. These types of golfers could actually practice
looking for reasons to get angry (!), such as pretending
that everyone thinks that they are the worst golfer on the course,
etc.
Nervousness, more
often than not, is an emotion which may be present at the beginning
of the round, but it often evaporates as the player plays a few
holes - though of course many golfers do experience it the entire
round. This is an emotion often avoided by many, who find it
can have a negative affect upon their golf - though a little
nervousness at the beginning is often a good sign you are mentally
ready to go. This is not usually an emotion which needs
to be cultivated, however.
Let me point out once again that every single golfer is different
- you have to find out your own peak emotional state, and
only you can do it. By recording this information for about
15-20 competition rounds, it will reveal your personal moods
which give you your best (and worst) performances.
Once you know this, you will have a greater understanding of
your own personality, mind and body, and how to extract the
most
from them.
So try 'mapping' your moods, and finding out which ones bring
you the best performances. I occasionally make similar charts
for some golfers which also map out their sleeping patterns,
so they finish with data which tells them how much sleep and
what emotional states will bring them their best golf.
Try it, and see if you discover some information about yourself
you didn't know. Knowledge about yourself is the power
you take with you every time you walk onto the course.
"The
Mind controls the body,
and the mind is unlimited".
The best of success, Craig Townsend
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