Mind
Training For Golf - Golf
Tip No.31
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Keep
Your Game Insulated
From Your Playing Partner
Even
though golf is mostly a game
where you generally compete with
yourself,
it is surprisingly easy to
be affected by your playing
partner and their game -
if you are not vigilant.
Believe
it or not, just a few chosen words uttered
by your playing partner, and
even the simple act of watching
them play a bad shot can
surprisingly have - if you
are not careful - a negative
impact upon your game (but
luckily not now that you are
reading this article!). Let
me explain.
If
your playing partner is having
a particularly bad day, they
can often make some rather
negative or self-demeaning
comments about how bad their
game is today, or possibly
even how difficult
the conditions are, etc.
Whilst it does not matter quite
so much what you say to
these comments in response,
it is absolutely crucial as
to what your mental
response to
this is.
For
instance, if you find yourself mentally
agreeing with
these negative comments,
you may open yourself up
to a possible and classic
case of mental
sabotage. This
is where you find yourself
suddenly focusing upon some
of the negative
conditions of
the game or the course, instead
of playing with the positively-focused
mind you had been up until
that point of the found.
It is no mystery that focusing
upon 'negatives' - no matter
how subtle, is one of the
quickest ways to sabotage
an excellent round, even
if you have just played some
fabulous holes.
This
may sound a little melodramatic,
but it actually takes exceedingly
little to
change your mental environment
whilst on the course, especially
if you are unsuspecting - and
this should be guarded against
very closely every time you
play competition, or even a
practice round for that matter.
Needless to say, this is not
to say that your playing partner
would be trying in any
way to
de-rail your game - most mental
sabotage is usually done quite
easily by oneself!
So
if you are thinking negatively
about your shot before you
start, walk away from the shot
and silently recite a positive
mantra that can quickly change
your mental attitude around
(eg. possibly something like "I'm
getting better and better").
Amazingly,
this sabotage can
even occur by the simple
act of watching your
playing partner miss a shot. By
now, having read from my
golftips just how important mental
images are
to your next shot, you would
realise how disastrous it
would be to hit your tee
shot with the fresh image
in your mind of the terrible
slice that your playing partner
just hit!
If
you do not cancel this
mental image from your mind
before you set up for your
shot, you can often find
that you replicate that
very shot you were just watching
your playing partner hit. This
is simply caused by the predominant
mental image which
is in your mind before you
hit the shot - so it is very
important to delete
any previous negative images from
your mind before you move
up for your next shot. Even
better, run
some positive images of
your next shot through
your mind before you set
up for it.
If
you find it difficult to mentally
erase the
image of your playing partner's
last shot (and some images
can be more difficult to
forget than others!), mentally replace their
shot with another shot instead
- by simply conjuring up
images of them making a brilliant
shot instead!
Regardless
of what you
do, never ever begin
your shot in a negative frame
of mind.Even
though you play golf with a
playing partner, in the crucial
moments before each and every
shot, you must mentally become
an island, totally
unaffected by the outside world
and focused purely
upon the positive outcome of
your own shots, not
anyone else's.
As
long as you are watchful
of your mental state directly
before each shot, you
can be as relaxed with your
playing partner as you wish
to be - as mental sabotage
only generally occurs to
the unsuspecting.
So
be aware of your mental state
before each shot, and ensure
that you have only the best
expectations. Remember,
we don't get what we deserve,
we get what we expect!
"The
Mind controls the body, and the mind is unlimited".
The best of success, Craig Townsend
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