Not playing what you think is your “A” game can suck the fun right out of golf…

As a golf game lover you want to play well… very much so. This can lead to tightening up and actually playing this game much worse!

You see this pattern all the time….

You work your tail off, expect a lot from yourself on the course, and then want to win (heck, just score good) really bad. Sounds good so far, right?

But here’s the problem. All this wanting to play well and high expectations can cause your mental game to unravel even before you hit your first tee shot!

After my personal chat with Dr. Patrick Cohn recently of Peak Sports, I learned that I wanting so badly to play well… I further realized that this also causes me (and no doubt, yourself) to play with fear… the fear of failure… Damn, I hate that!

We tighten up, get anxious about results, and lose any trust we had in practice.

As Dr. Patrick Cohn explained to me… “It gets even worse for many of my students”… “After a blow up hole, missing an easy putt or an up and down, most of us find ourselves getting frustrated or worse – trying harder to not make more mistakes.”

I immediately understood that this leads you to want the round to be over fast because you’re not having fun. Crap… been there, done that!

So… how can we have more fun on the golf course?

Yani Tseng, top in the world in women’s golf and past defending champion at the McDonalds LPGA Championship, thinks fun is the name of the game when it comes to playing well:

“The harder you try the worse you can get. My mental game was not there for a period of time. My brain just (kept) going down. My expectations were too high in 2008. I just wanted to try so hard and win so hard and it wasn’t working. So now I adjust my mindset and just go out and have fun,” said Tseng.

Myself, I find fun and pressure are polar opposites in golf. The more you [and I] pressure ourself to play well -and the harder we try, the tougher it is to shoot low scores and, of course, we’re not having fun now.

However, let’s face it… having more fun is easier said than done.

But the first place to start is to remove the pressures and expectations to always be perfect or play your best. And “fun” doesn’t have to always come from playing great.

Tap into what excites you on the golf course besides winning within yourself. If you simply replace the ‘must be perfect’ thought patterns with simple… gratitude for allowing yourself to ‘enjoy’ the moments of the game, you just might discover a simple, yet powerful tool to add to your bag.

I’ve applied this technique and within a few holes on my first round out I was (surprisingly) able to connect to my ‘happy’ self and removed my perfection outcome attitude. And, it felt comfortable as it released a good deal of my tension, which did allow for better shots.

Yet, getting past the… “it’s ok to have fun” thought pattern took a few holes, especially when one starts out with a couple of bad hits. But, once you break the mold and really connect to your fun’ness’… well, anyway… give it a go next time out to see what you discover.

If you want, chip on over to The Golfers Mental Edge and, for sure, listen in (above) on the portion of the talk I had with Dr. Patrick… btw, get in on my email list and receive a copy of the free eBook… “Stepping Up To The Ball With Confidence” – and from time to time you’ll also receive (complete) insightful conversations with other leading mental golf professionals.

To Your Better Experience on the Course…
Enjoy Your Game!

-Michael
the Mental Golf Psychology Review

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Myths -

1) If you have a perfect golf swing you’ll have a perfect game.
2) You can buy a better game with the latest in gadgetry.
3) Technology has lowered golfers scores.

Most every golfer subscribes to these beliefs in one way or another. The entire golf instruction, training aid, and golf club making market bear this out. Golf magazines, tv shows, and article after article offer tips, fixes, cures and virtually every imaginable training aid conceivable to craft the perfect swing. All with the pretense that ‘hardware alone’ will have you playing better golf.

Well has it worked? Let’s take a look…

In 1978, 75% of all golfers never broke 90 – so barely 25% ever shot in the 80’s.

In 2004, a full 26 years later, after the advent of 460CC drivers with 45″ multi-kick point shafts, cavity back irons, balls that prevent hooks and slices, and world class instruction from the smartest minds in the buzz, that number has been increased by a whopping 3%!

Now a full 28% of all golfers have broken 90. But hey, let’s cut the industry some slack, there’s only been 90+ billion spent on golf equipment over that time! That doesn’t include lessons or training aids! All that technology and collective wisdom and this is how far we’ve come…impressive, huh.

Seriously, any other business that produced numbers like these for their customers would be out of business. But the golfing public has an insatiable appetite that an ever growing horde of manufacturers and marketers are more than willing to feed.

As golfers, we are bombarded with instruction tips, training options, and product offerings that’ll have your head spinning faster than a shanking streak.

Where’s the moral you ask?

We all need to fulfill that important human craving of getting better at what we love. Yet where we place our attention to achieve this goal is what has to change. Our core beliefs about what causes improvement should be based on reality, not myths. They should empower us, not encourage wishful thinking and needlessly empty our wallets.

“So if it isn’t gear that makes us better maybe it’s lessons,” did I hear you say? Certainly lessons are an asset and obviously accelerate your skill development, but they’re not absolutely essential either. Ask Lee Trevino, Jim Furyk, Chris Dimarco and countless others who are self taught. And I think we can all agree that there isn’t much robot “pretty” about any of their swings, however, they work! Golf ain’t a beauty contest.

In the final analysis, there is only one area that promotes the quickest and most lasting change in any golfers game. And what’s interesting about it is this is the only area that doesn’t cost a penny to use, yet almost no-one uses it.

That area is the often quoted 6 inches between your ears! Your mind. The mental game of golf. Using your mind in a strategic, methodical and focused way is the surest method of lowering your scores. Period.

If you want to run out and spend $500 on a new driver and another $1000 or more on irons to make you play better, go for it. You might be that one in a million that changes the statistics. I realize we’ll all buy nice gear once in a while but we can’t buy it with a belief that this will seriously lower our scores.

After my recent experience with Wade Pearse’s, Golf Mental Game, I’m discovering that he probably won’t be sponsored by Taylor Made or Nike any time soon. You see, he doesn’t help sell much golf equipment… His approach to lowering your handicap, improving your swing, and increasing your satisfaction leans towards inner change before outer gains. Ahhh… now we’re talking the mental side.

True improvement only begins when we first assess where we are in relation to our goal. Then we must take an inventory of all the things that have actually produced measurable results. Which means no denial! We can’t hope to move our game to the next level by hanging on to a lie. If you do then that’s what Wade calls a real “hanging lie”. And that is the worst lie in golf.

Each and every one of us has the innate ability to tap our own potential and transform any part of our lives, including golf. We just require the right road map and a good compass to keep us on target.

It’s time to wake up and smell the Bent-grass or the myths that cloud our brains will keep us believing we can buy a better game.

Wade Pearse is a Peak Performance Golf Coach. Having spent 7 years researching and applying the most advanced mental game techniques available he identified what actually produces lower scores and increases overall performance. Using these strategies he lowered his own handicap from a 26 to a 3 without any golf lessons. He walks his talk.

Check out his Golf Mental Game for more mental golf tips and tricks and a complimentary self assessment.

Btw… be sure to grab your free eBook on “Stepping Up To The Ball With Confidence” and also receive other insightful golfs tips as part of being in the eClub.

Your partner in pursuit of a better game of golf…
Michael Lofton

http://thementalgolfpsychologyreview.com

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This week’s review is on a new mental golf training product called Amazing Golf Mind.

As you know, I’m always interested in taking a look at sites that deal with mental golf.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Amazing Golf Mind mental audio program does something that, in my opinion, all golfers who want to lower their score need.

Basically it does the following:

1) Puts you into a relaxed stated using brain wave techniques

2) Programs your subconscious mind with the affirmations required to improve your full swing, short game, putting or success in tournaments.Your Golf game is put on autopilot without thinking.

3) Is easy to use and required only 20 minutes three times a week to listening to a relaxing sound

4) The bonus visualization software allows to improve your swing thoughts while working on your computer.

This concept makes a lot of sense because it is used by Tiger and the top tour pros. Tiger is said to use subliminal messages since he was 13.

Ok lets talk about the audios.

Amazing golf mind comes with four subliminal mental audios: Full Swing, Short Game, Putting and Tournament Success. The audios are in MP3 format and can be downloaded within minutes to your PC. You can transfer them to your MP3 player, burn a CD or listen to them on your PC.

The bonus software runs on Windows PCs and is easy to install.

Overall the mental audio program is very good and does just what it says it does. Very relaxing and easy to use. Once again you need to have the discipline to listen to the audios 3-4 times a week. If you do it you will see results very quickly. And for me it’s much more convenient to listen to 20 minutes of relaxing music than reading 100 pages of a mental golf book.

So in conclusion if you want to automate your Golf game and put it on autopilot without thinking, give the Amazing Golf Mind a look see. It is a very effective system to lower your score and feeling more relaxed.
Check out Andrew’s free video describing his Golf Mental System here…

Happy Golf Days!
-Michael

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