Part 1 Confidence building mental toughness

Confidence building mental toughness

Chapter five confidence building mental toughness from the ground up. How top players think Peter Jacobson tells a story about being paired with Andy bean and Jack Nicholas in the 1986 Memorial tournament at near-field village in Columbus, Ohio, Nicholas had shot 30 the last round on the backside at Augusta to win his six masters at the age of 46, a few weeks earlier. Jacobson, Nicholas and bean were all about even on Sunday after nine holes, the gallery was huge. They were there to follow their local favorite in 1986 masters champion, then Nicholas birdie, 10, 11, 12, and 13. As the birdie string began, the crowd grew their approach shots to the 14th hole, left Jacobson four feet being 12 feet and Nicholas 15 feet from the hole. Nicholas was obviously a way and it was his turn to putt. However, being set his ball down putted first and made his, the crowd applauded.

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00:01:02

Then Nicholas turned to Jacobson and said, Peter, do you want to go ahead and put out Jacobson responded? Why would I want to put out Jack you’re away? Then Nicholas said, because when I make this putt, the people here are going to go crazy. Nicholas made the putt and a deafening roar went up from the thousands of onlookers. And similar story was told by Tom Weiskopf. It was the 1973 Ryder cup. And I quote where one or two up on the Brits were playing. When Jack and I both knocked the ball close. He’s about 10 feet away and I’m within five or six feet. Now I’m in Jackson line and about to mark my ball. When Jack says pick it up. I look at him incredulously and say, what rack your cue? He says, I’m going to sink mine. So I pick up the ball, stand back and sure enough, he Rams it into the center of the cup.

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00:01:56

When you asked Jack Nicholas about putting, he says, it’s all in the mind. Believe you can knock them in the hole and you’ll knock them in. Believe you can’t. And you won’t. I would be remiss if I didn’t also highlight some of Nicholas’s comments regarding the mechanics of putting interestingly, he says, achieving equal grip pressure in both hands, that address, then sustaining it throughout the stroke has been a putting key of mine for many years. He also says that you should have your eyes over the target line putt for distance. Find a stroke that is natural for you. Stay with your putting style in don’t change. I couldn’t leave you with the feeling that Putin is all confidence and no mechanics. As Nicholas says, I believe that you can put is important. Two great putters. Dave Stockton and Greg Norman have both made confident comments about their Putin ability, confidence alone.

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00:02:48

Won’t change your performance. Confidence is based upon performance and how you talk to yourself about your accomplishments on the greens, tees and fairways. If your thought focuses on the great shots and putts you make during a round or in practice, you’ll build confidence. If your thought focus is on your bad shots and missed putts, you will build self doubt. It’s as simple as that, most players have ingrained habits of focusing on their poor shots and miss putts. As you have already read what you feed attention grows. Sam Snead said the following regarding confidence. Whenever I’ve been able to pull myself out of a slump, it’s because I didn’t forget that brakes always even out over the long pole and that the Bain of golf and life in general is to remember your mistakes and not your right moves in clubhouses. You’ll see men sitting around complaining, going over their bad shots.

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00:03:43

They should think back to their good shots. Then try to repeat them. This is the only way to build that feeling called confidence. You can build it or tear yourself down. The choice is up to every individual. If you know yourself to be a whiner, you’ll never play up to your full ability. It takes guts to be an optimist in golf. He who thinks like a winner will win well done. Sam European tour and Ryder cup player. David fairity made golf his career. In spite of the fact that he was never a champion in his youth, his mother stated that. What said David apart was blind ambition. He thought he was better than he was at the time during his rookie year in 1990, Robert Gamez was quoted as saying, I feel I can win. Anytime. It it up. I don’t feel like I’ll finish out of the top 20 and that’s playing bad.

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00:04:36

I feel like if I play halfway decent, I’ll finish in the top 10. And if I play good, I should win. People. See me as cocky because I walked to the tee. Like I’m better than everybody. I’m just walking with a lot of confidence. If I don’t feel like I can win a tournament, I won’t play. Ben Crenshaw ended a two year windlass period at the 1992 Western open. He described his thoughts when he got into contention for the win, I realized it was like riding a bike. I just told myself you’ve been there before you can do this. Watson won the 1975 British open and the 1977 masters and British open. He described his conclusions and internal dialogue associated with these wins. He said to himself, maybe you can play this game. Maybe you are a quality player. Obviously the winds helped my confidence when you were as tight as I am or any player is who was under pressure and you experienced that kind of success.

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00:05:34

You finally start believing in yourself. I would like to see you. Unlike Watson, build confidence around good shots and solid putts not wins in an interview with golf world. During the spring of 1992, Payne Stewart said my game. Hasn’t been brilliant. There’s absolutely nothing mechanical wrong with my game. Just confidence and momentum. Once you start playing well, you get that confidence. I still haven’t quite got the momentum I need on his way to winning the PGA tours Canadian open in September, 1992, Greg Norman made an interesting observation regarding his pudding. I prided myself on that. Meaning putting in the past, I was one of the best putters inside 10 feet God ever put on the planet. This just shows me that all my worries, the last 14 months about my putting stroke were ballooned. It’s easy to say. Now sitting up here after I’ve won, but my putting stroke never left.

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00:06:32

It was just a matter of trusting it. Putting had been my downfall all year. You try to fix your stroke. And in the end, it’s not your stroke. It’s probably your posture. I probably fiddled around with it too much. Confidence is something that is built in small steps Watson’s or GAM is his belief that they can win is based upon a confidence in their total game. Good players have confidence in every shot they make. I believe Sam Snead described the process best what you feed attention grows. If you focus on your mistakes or poor shots and take your good shots for granted, you will recall those bad shots when faced with the same or similar situation. Again, this thinking style will drain your confidence. It’s as simple as that, how confidence develops. We learn at an early age to practice negative. Self-critical thinking consider for example, our parenting styles or the way we were parented, where we praise for what we did well or more often told what we did incorrectly.

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00:07:31

Our laws are negative and punitive teachers record the number wrong at the top of a corrected paper, seldom the number correct as children. We internalize this communication style. It becomes the foundation of our communication with ourselves. Our internal dialogues with ourselves that become the strategies for our perceptions about the world are shaped from an early age. These events produced our present day thinking habits, especially in our styles of internal communication. Our negative versus positive perception strategies are learned from how we were parented as children and from the social interactive world in which we live, you work at your job for seven hours and 55 minutes and things go well, then in the span of 90 seconds, you have a problem that becomes apparent to your supervisor. What do you think your supervisor is going to comment on? Will you hear about the seven plus hours of success or the 90 seconds of problem?

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00:08:27

What will you be thinking about at the end of the day? Will your thought focus be upon the success of the day or the failure? We are unwittingly taught from an early age to take our successes for granted self-confidence results from our beliefs and thoughts about our capabilities. If our successes are taken for granted and our focus is upon what is wrong rather than upon what is right? Our confidence level will be low. Our confidence in our abilities, golfers is equal to our perceptions of our performance. Everything you do has some form of evaluation by you. You have a habit of paying attention to either problems or successes. I find it interesting and predictable when working on the practice screen with the students that patrol in the hole and there’s complete silence. When a putt misses, there’s a comment, a groan or a frown. I see the same thing in the full swing, great shot, not a word bad shot.

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00:09:22

And you hear it sometimes a fair way away, two or three bad shots in a row. Look out when a new student on the lesson tee hits a bad shot. He will turn to me and say, what did I do wrong? Or what caused that? When that same student hits a good shot, I never hear what caused that. That’s what I encourage students to ask themselves. Remember what you feed attention grows. The following are a few examples of what you might say to yourself, following a good shot on the range or during play contact with solid. I was in balanced set up. I finished the swing in balance. My tempo was good. My set up felt well-grounded. I only thought about the shot I was hitting. I planned that shot. Well, I chose the right club. I was confident I could hit the shot, had a good image and feeling of the swing I wanted to make.

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00:10:13

I chose a specific target and stayed focused on the target through my routine. I was relaxed. I thought about the same shot I hit well on my home course. Last week, I remembered the ball flight and could picture and feel the swing. I took a practice, swing and focused on the feeling of the swing. I was able to repeat the feeling of my practice swing. As I hit my shot. Now I’m going to recall those thoughts and feelings and repeat that shot again, or I’m going to bank that shot. So it is available to call up when I need it in the future author in golf enthusiasts, Ken Blanchard described a discussion he had with Jay seagull, two time United States, amateur champion, British amateur champion, and the longest standing member of the Walker cup team. You can never tell from the look on J Siegel’s face, what shot he is hit.

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00:11:01

He never shows any emotion at all. Blanchard reported Siegel’s comments about emotional control. When I hit a good shot, I tell myself, good shot. Then respond with an inner smile on the outside. You wouldn’t notice, but there is a difference in the way I respond to a well struck shot and a poor one. Siegel won his first professional tour event in 1994 as a rookie on the senior tour. What do you say and do following good shots and bad shots. Do you talk to yourself about what went well or do you take good shots for granted and focus most of your attention on poor performance? I’m sure the concept of post swing routine is new to most of you, although it exists in every swing. What do you say to yourself after each shot? As I said earlier, you should have an expectancy and belief of hitting every shot you want to hit.

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00:11:51

Well recognize after the shot that the best players in the world hit an average of just under 13 grains per round and make only 45 to 55% of six foot putts. The greatest players in the world had their problems too. Ray Floyd was contending at the 1994 senior PGA championship. When he hit two straight shots in the water, Payne Stewart laid up at the 1994 masters on the 15th hole only to put two straight wedges in the water. Ben Crenshaw took a 13 on a hole after hitting four straight shots in the water at the 1994. Bob hope classic. As I mentioned earlier, one of the greatest players of the early 19 hundreds, it was Walter Hagen. He had an interesting strategy for dealing with bad shots reportedly. He said he expected to hit seven bad shots around when he had a bad shot, it was expected.

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00:12:43

It was just another one of the seven. So when he was playing really well, it hit a bad shot. He was no surprise. And there was no unnecessary emotion wasted on poor performance. Unnecessary emotion creates tension. It creates a loss of concentration and the list goes on. There is one word that will account for 60 to 70% of the mental game. That’s confidence. When you do anything in your day to day, live confidently, you’re relaxed and you predict success. You have images of success. Confidence is built on both sides of the golf swing, pre swing and post swing and experienced in swing. When PGA tour player, Fred couples was asked how many players on tour are better than he? His response was none. Nick price had an unbelievable year last year, but I don’t think he’s a better player than I am. I’m part of a group at the top senior PGA tour, Mike Hill winner of several regular tour events in the 1970s and two senior tour events in the 1990s.

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00:13:44

It says the following, you have to be tough in your mental approach. Tough enough to stand it when you’re not as successful as you think you ought to be. It takes a certain amount of toughness to win. When it’s time to come down the stretch and hit golf shots and make yourself do those things. There’s a direct correlation between being tough and being a winner. I am able to draw up on myself to win when I need to. I believe it’s the Indian, not the arrow confidence carries with it. A feeling of being in control. A lack of confidence carries with it, a feeling of being out of control confidence results. From what we tell ourselves about our performance, consider the following your golf instructor follows you for a round of golf and tells you what a great golfer you are. Every time you hit a good shot.

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00:14:30

When you had a poor shot, your instructor says, ignore it. All players hit some poor shots. How do you think you would feel at the end of a round? Confident probably it is important that you are positive with yourself, both on and off the golf course. Most of you wouldn’t dare talk to anyone else. And the way you talk to yourselves, you tend to take good shots for granted and kick yourself in the pants for the pour shots, consider how you would feel if your instructor ignored your good shots and focused only on your poor shots, or if he told you what an awful player you were. Johnny Miller described his father’s communication with him regarding his golf performance. One thing that my father always did, and he put in thousands of hours with me was accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. He was smart enough to realize that golf is a game of misses, even for the pros who hit a couple of shots a day, that they would classify as great shots.

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00:15:25

If you, as a parent, you’re always looking for a great shot from your kid. Then you’re both going to have a lot of disappointment. Johnny Miller likely internalize this positive communication style from his father. And it became a habit of communication with himself. These kinds of habits become the internal dialogue. That is the foundation of mental toughness. Keep one thing in mind. Once again, what we feed attention grows like all other habits. This style of internal communication resides in the neural networks of the brain, given a particular condition, the circuitry is activated or triggered. If the habit pattern is a negative evaluation, that’s likely what will be triggered unless you actively intercept this process through conscious thought. If your style is to negatively and self critically, evaluate yourself and you choose to change, you will need a written, structured plan and daily practice to change both the behavior and the neuroanatomical basis of the habit.

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00:16:25

Insight is the first step to change. However, it won’t change the long practice and reinforce physical structures of the nervous system, recent brain research using the pet scanning procedure described in the chapter on visualization showed that people who suffer from depression have a specific neurochemical cluster, which non-depressed people don’t have. Interestingly non-depressed people participating in a study were asked to engage in sad or negative thinking with the onset of negative thoughts. These non-depressed people began to show neurochemical activity at the same site, and that’s the left frontal cortex of the brain. As that found in depressed people, without question this study and research and treatment of mood disturbance through cognitive behavior therapy show that negative thinking, not only depletes confidence, but also it can affect mood and structural changes in the brain that become the physical foundations of habits. Psychologists have known for years that a style of negative self judgment and evaluation creates an emotional state of depression.

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00:17:29

Cognitive therapists teach their clients to talk differently to themselves by teaching them to discontinue their negative self punitive conversations and to substitute supportive self-reinforcing internal dialogue. I used these strategies for years in my clinical practice to treat a wide range of disorders. These strategies work. If you choose to change, it’s going to take time and work. The work includes setting daily goals and practicing new thinking habits daily while recording in a written diary, strategies for changing your thinking are presented in this chapter and the chapters titled how to talk to yourself on and off the golf course and live clean in place. Applying what you’ve learned, consolidation, the neurochemical process of converting short-term memory to long-term memory is called consolidation. Much research has been done over the years on the process of consolidation. Recent studies show that the limbic system and that’s the part of the brain, which is the seat of emotions plays a major role in the consolidation process.

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00:18:32

Those events where we experienced the greatest emotion are going to be remembered more readily than those events we take for granted or to which we attach minimal emotion. Where do you respond with more emotion, good play or poor play. Now there is a trap in this process, too much emotion attached to either good or poor play produces increased arousal. If your personality style is one of an over aroused player, you run the risk of a loss of focus in the present, increased tempo and a subsequent deterioration in performance acknowledge your good shots quietly to yourself. You know, that internal feeling which comes with a good shot, focus on it. Smile inwardly. After your round, sit down with your scorecard and review each hole. Recall your good and great shots. Attach emotion to those shots. Remember anger and frustration will only serve to set the stage for recall of those bad shots.

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00:19:28

Especially if you continue to emote over one shot in this book, you will learn strategies to stop focusing on swing thoughts, to relax, to concentrate, to develop a routine. And so on one word describes a significant percentage of the natural correction to many of these problem areas. That one word is confidence. You will be taught strategies to put out the fires of a crisis, both on and off the course. However, preventing these crises and developing mental toughness by learning and applying strategies to increase your confidence is a primary goal of this instruction. Learning how to positively reinforce your success is a big step in that direction. Changing your critical internal dialogue to positive Gary player describes the effects of negativity. He refers to comments like gee, I’m unlucky. I never get a good bounce. I know I’m going to land in the water. I work hard and don’t get anywhere.

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00:20:29

I never get a break. These golfers are beaten before they begin to win first, you must want to win second believe you will win. And third think only positive thoughts. We create our success or failure on the course, primarily by our thoughts. Now you say things to yourself. You would never say to others, would you speak to a good friend? The way you speak to yourself? Your answer is likely. No. Why not? Because they wouldn’t be a friend for long because it would dampen their self-confidence. What’s it doing to you? The same thing as you approach this overview on self reinforcement, please try to remember the following. Talk to yourself. As you would speak to someone you care about encourage be supporting counter negativity, acknowledge success, and create a positive internal existence. Be a good friend to yourself. The technique of self reinforcement can be particularly useful in turning around habits of self punitive or self critical thinking.

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00:21:31

Examples of negative expectations and self critical thinking might include predicting poor performance. And shot-making I better use an old ball here or I go right on this hole every time I may as well set up, right? You evaluate each shot with a focus on your mistakes, errors or failures, Mr. Green. Again, that’s good for another bogey in day-to-day life. This thought pattern might follow an eight hour Workday that went well, except for a moment. When you made a mistake, if you focus primarily on your mistake instead of the success in your day, you will see the day as a failure in general. If you focus only on poor shots, you will see yourself as a bad golfer. Again, please remember what you feed attention grows. Now the examples include you evaluate past performance with unrealistic expectations. You attempt to show that you aren’t capable of executing.

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00:22:25

You become frustrated with your less than expected performance. You negate positive comments from others verbally or in your thinking. Not really. I hit it fat or it wasn’t a bad miss. If someone compliments you on what a good job you’ve done, you undo the praise by minimizing the importance of the job, or talk about the mistakes you made or you thank them and focus your thoughts on the mistakes you made or minimize the accomplishment. And you’re thinking thought patterns such as these are habits. If allowed to increase in frequency, they can virtually immobilize you. If all you notice or pay attention to are your errors and failures, you will begin to feel what’s the use of trying and arousal levels. Build this cycle. Intensifies. If you set expectancies that are unrealistic, given your experience and capabilities, self reinforcement is a useful technique in interrupting self-critical thoughts.

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00:23:21

Don’t blame me. There is another style of negativity that many great players use to her players have told me that they were instructed as rookies by the better players. Never blame yourself for poor play. Now, this one was hard for me to take it is completely contrary to any value I want my children to learn. Of course, you always assume full responsibility for your behavior. Don’t blame others or conditions in the environment. Well, I have changed my position. At least my understanding of the principle. My sons will learn of this only if they read or hear this chapter, if you blame yourself for poor play, you will drain your confidence. If you make a bad stroke on the putting green and tell yourself it was a horrible stroke, you will start to believe you have a problem with mechanics began to search for the mechanics problem and your performance will deteriorate if it was a spike mark or another player’s movement.

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00:24:12

Well, there’s no problem with your stroke, just a bad break. And your belief that all is intact. Mechanically will be retained. I have heard players overdo the discussion of bad breaks, bad greens, awful playing partners, and the reasons for poor play build and build. It’s walking a fine line between retaining confidence and staying positive. I retreat to Walter Hagen strategy. If you’ll recall, he expected to hit seven bad shots around when he hit a bad shot, he was just another one of the seven. And the Sam Snead says brakes, always even out over the long pole and that the Bain of golf and life in general is to remember your mistakes and not your right moves as noted. Your style of communication with yourself was ingrained at an early age. Not only is it part of your internal communication, but also it is part of the hard wiring of your nervous system.

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00:25:07

Like any other habit. It resides as part of the neuroanatomical nervous system structure, poised to be triggered by environmental events, the primary triggering event, being performance, performance, lights up those centers of the brain that fared out the problem. My swing was too quick. I hit it fat thin, too high, low, and so on on those occasions, when performance is good, the success has taken for granted attention, a powerful social reinforcer. As a university professor in a medical school, I wrote several journal articles and made films having to do with the impact of the social consequences of attention on health and illness. These articles included the following case studies JM was a 10 year old boy burned over 65% of his legs. He was hospitalized several months, made no progress and was facing the amputation of one or both legs. Sani was projectile vomiting, 25 to 30 times per day.

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00:26:07

At four years old observation show the GM’s increased pain complaints and refusal to participate in a physical therapy program. And Sammy’s vomiting show that the majority of attention, these children received follow the expression of pain and vomiting. When attention was directed to healthy behavior and illness, behavior was ignored. These kids got better quickly. The medical and social histories of these children. Aren’t quite as simple as I described. However, the treatment was attention is a very powerful reinforcer, whether directed inwardly or outwardly the things we pay attention to increase in quality and frequency as noted many times what we feed attention grows. It’s important to focus our attention on the things we value things we want to grow both on and off the course, especially as related to ourselves self reinforcement, recall the PGA tour player. Greg Norman says that everybody likes to hear words of encouragement as he faces a tough shot and congratulations after he pulls it off.

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00:27:14

Unfortunately, unless you play golf with your mother, you can’t depend on hearing these things. That’s why I talked to myself, not allowed, but inside my head, the tougher, the shot I’m facing, the more I talk, if I’m on the last hole of a tournament facing a long iron shot to the green, needing a birdie to win, I’ll say to myself, you know, this shot cold. You’ve knocked it stiff a thousand times, and now you’re going to do it again. I also talk after I hit shots after a particularly long drive, I’ll often say, damn, Greg, I’m pretty impressed with that one. These inner words can be more encouraging than the cheers of the gallery. You don’t want to linger too long on your shots, good or bad, but you do want to stamp the good ones on your mind for future reference in pressure situations.

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00:28:00

Self congratulations is one way to do that strategies for developing self-reinforcing internal dialogue. The following are steps for applying self reinforcement techniques. Step one, listen, in on your thinking on and off the course, keep a diary of your self communication style, recognize self-critical thoughts, behavior follows patterns. Keep a diary of the times and situations in which you practice a negative self-critical style of thinking. And when you practice a positive self-supporting style, the conditions in which these patterns of internal dialogue occur will become apparent. Once you identify the times and situations for negative self-critical discussion, discontinue your diary of this negative style. Remember what you feed attention grows. Keep a diary only of your positive conversations with yourself. Step two, develop cues or reminders to focus on self-supporting statements. Place a five by seven card on your mirror or in your desk drawer that you open every morning and evening write positive focus, praise, self, or some similar reminder on this card.

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00:29:10

Step three, use the techniques for thought restructuring covered in the chapter. How to talk to yourself on and off the golf course review the consequences of self critical thinking. For example, anger, frustration, decreased self-esteem immobilization, decreased initiative, increased muscle tension, physiology of arousal, sadness, and poor performance, and even depression in the more severe circumstances use these as reminders to redirect your thinking to mindfulness in a positive self-focus step four, practice, the relaxation strategies and positive imagery or imagery you will be learning in the subsequent chapters. See yourself being successful. Schedule times daily, when and where you will practice the imagery strategies, focus on your recent success and future goals. During these practice times, step five, consider all the shots you hit well today, rather than the shots you missed the score, bogeys, doubles, putts, et cetera, say things to yourself that will compete with self-criticism.

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00:30:14

I played the best I could today. I have the opportunity to create whatever kind of day I choose. I am going to enjoy the rest of the day. Note the mine under par series scorecard provides the structure for this practice. Step six, keep a daily diary of the positive aspects of your game and your life review. This diary at least weekly and visually recall. The days in shots research in behavior therapy shows a common denominator for behavior change, regardless of what the behavior is, that common denominator is keeping a diary. If you write things down daily, you will begin to see a positive change. Be sure your diary is positive and review your entries every couple of days. As long as you keep a positive diary, you will continue to experience behavior change. Review your diary weekly on the same day. At the same time every week, notice and record your success in change.

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00:31:10

You can begin this process on the course and carry it into your day-to-day life or vice versa. If you have a resume, review it, look at what you have accomplished. Don’t negate the positive, recognize and focus on your accomplishments. This is a good springboard to begin your diary, success focus, PGA tour player, Patrick Burke won his second Australian tour event. In December of 1994. He won his first, the tournament of players championship. In January of 1994, he contracted a virus, a European tour event in the spring and was ill throughout the summer of 1994. He missed several PGA tour events because of health Patrick’s confidence was beginning to wane due to his mediocre play during his illness and preparation for returning to Australia to resume the tour in the fall, he began repeatedly watching a video of his January when he finished second at the first event valley and won the Victorian open the following week, seeing yourself succeed, builds confidence.

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00:32:12

If you don’t have a video of your past success, recall those successes from memory and replay them over and over again. In your mind recall that Greg Norman describes his post swing routine and how he talks to himself so he can remember and repeat good shots. I also talk after I hit shots after a particularly long straight drive, I’ll often say, damn, Greg, I’m pretty impressed with that one. These inner words can be more encouraging than the cheers of the gallery. You don’t want to linger too long on your shots, good or bad, but you do want to stamp the good ones on your mind for future reference in pressure situations. Silence, self congratulations is one way to do that. Focusing on success is a foreign concept to many of you as noted. Most of us take our success for granted, but not peak performers like Greg Norman, a success focus is the very foundation on which confidence is built.

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00:33:06

Call itself reinforcement, self congratulations, positive internal dialogue, successful focus, positive self-talk it’s all the same. What it is not is taking your success for granted. I was traveling to a tournament site with my friend and fellow teacher, Derek Hardy. We were discussing the concept of self reinforcement of part of the post swing routine. This discussion led to the consideration of the kinds of comments a player might make to himself after a good or a great shot. These comments are supportive and build confidence in our ability to perform the following is the list we generated. Great shot. Terrific. Okay. I can’t be stopped. It’s mine. Yes. Awesome. Felt great. Online all the way. That was solid. Easy. I’m playing well. Super outstanding. Good show. Beautiful. I’m good. Boy. Can I putt? I know I can do this. This is mine. It’s a walk in the park.

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00:34:05

Here I come. I have a great short game. I hit every drive solidly today. The fairways are 200 yards wide smooth. What a shot just as I called it. Perfect. Excellent. That’s a 10 piece of cake. Boy was that pure. This list is an ideal. These comments will be performance enhancing. Remember what you feed attention grows. I don’t suggest that you announce any of these to your plane partners. Only to yourself. There’s a feeling that only you will experience when you hit a good shot. Savor that feeling. Recall the ball flight in the feeling of the swing. Smile. Inwardly never let your eyes drop below the horizon. There’s a fine line between being self-supporting and building confidence and being obnoxious. You don’t need to say these things to others. Your performance will speak for itself. When you are complimented by your playing partners, just say, thanks.

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00:35:01

Don’t negate the compliment regardless of how uncomfortable it may make you at the time. Don’t allow yourself to undo the compliment and your thinking. Say thanks and tell yourself to accept the compliment. It’s like changing your grip or putting your underwear on backwards. It’s uncomfortable at first, but you get used to it. And in time it feels natural. Peak performers have an internal dialogue of confidence that sustains them after winning his first senior PGA tour victory at Dearborn, Michigan, 1991, Ryder cup, captain Dave stocked instead of the nine foot putt he had to win. I wouldn’t anyone else to put that I was born. Being able to put Lee Trevino won his fifth senior title at the bell Atlantic classic in may of 1992. After that, when he had three top 10 finishes and thumb surgery in December of 1992, he played his first 1993 tournament in mid-March and had only one top 10 finish in his first five starts.

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00:36:00

He finally got into contention again at the 1993 bell Atlantic classic, where he was defending his title. He finished that tournament tied for third. He won the following week at the Cadillac NFL golf classic by two shots. He said at his climb back to the top, I didn’t expect to do anything last week. And then when I got in the lead, I was as surprised as anybody, but I came into this week expecting to win peak performance for world-class players and the mental toughness attitude that they can win are not something with which they are born. The internal dialogue and associated confidence are learned through a focus on their successful experiences. Many people have success. However, in this success, their focus is still on what went wrong, not what went right. PGA tour player, Rocco mediate described an event that changed his outlook and expectancy.

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00:36:53

When he is playing poorly, he relates the story. It happened at bay hill this year. Now this was 1993. I was six over par after 11 holes. The first day six over, I had just doubled the 11th. I’m standing on the 12th tee it’s windy and it’s tough. I got up and told my caddy, if we can just get two or three birdies, shoot 75 or 76. Okay. I can handle it. Hey, I just miss birdie at 12, I birdie 13. I get up and down at 14, I birdie 15 Eagle, 16 birdie, 17 and 18. When I got done, I looked at my caddy and said, what did I shoot? He said, even par, I couldn’t believe it. That changed my outlook on golf. I feel like now, no matter where I am, I can come back from adversity. I may not do it, but I know I have already done it. Senior PGA tour player, Larry Gilbert won the 1994 vantage championship. His best finished prior to that. When was the second in December, 1993, when he lost a Ray Floyd in a playoff, he had earned over $1 million on the senior tour. Despite not having one. He said the following regarding his climb to victory. I couldn’t convince myself that I was good enough to compete with those guys. Confidence is 90% of the battle against these guys. If you think you can beat him, you just might.

After winning the 1993, Bob hope Chrysler classic, Tom kite attributed his impressive play over the last year to confidence. It’s just confidence in my game. A little bit of maturity. Now, when I look at the guys around me, there’s not many. I say, boy, that guy is better than I am. Failure. Focus. Even world-class players have periods of poor performance that deplete their confidence in one part of their game, often putting right Floyd finished third in a field of four grades that included Chichi Rodriguez, Arnold Palmer, and Jack Nicklaus at the 1993 senior skins game Floyd, one $60,000 with birdies at the first fourth and six tolls. And that is putting went sour and he was shut out over the last 14 holes. There were two playoff holes in this and his, this is his quote. I just lost confidence in my putter. When you miss a few, it gets into your mind in 1986, Lee Trevino set of Bob toy.

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00:01:01

If you’re looking for the next superstar, there he is, that guy can golf his ball in 1993, golf digest. Michael Bamberger interviewed Bob toy during the colonial Texas PGA tour stop. He had missed seven cuts in a row shooting, two rounds of 81 and four rounds in the high seventies. His last, when was the Las Vegas invitational in 1990, he finished 170 ninth on the PGA money list for 1992 twice spoke candidly about his slide from the top. The problem started off mechanical, and then they got mental. I started driving the ball bed and then I reached a point where I’d get to a tee and say, where’s this one going to go? My confidence level changed when you’re playing good. You have a lot of inner calmness. Your mind is working very, very slowly when I’m feeling confident, everything is so slow when you’re playing poorly.

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00:01:56

Your mind is bombarded with thoughts, Bob toy. Didn’t like the way his swing felt after a successful year in 1986, sound familiar recall Sandy Lyle, David Frost and Greg Norman. So toy turn the mechanics and began to make changes. He had a handsy, but rhythmic hook swing the swing that won the PGA championship. His thoughts the year following his PGA championship winner. Interesting. Your expectations change. So you go out the next year and kind of expect to keep playing that way. What you don’t realize is that everything was going very good for you to do that. So when things aren’t going that way, it’s like, what’s wrong. How come I can’t keep doing what I did before? Our expectations in the level of play? It’s not reality. Reality is to keep plugging along 20, worked on mechanics and began to show improvement. Instructor. David led better summarize plays twice.

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00:02:51

Technically he has a better swing now than he did in 1986. But in tournaments, it’s almost as if he has the hips with a driver, make good swings on the practice team. But that doesn’t mean deadly. When you have no confidence in the end toy returned to the field at one, the 1986 PGA championship, his old swing 20 made a significant breakthrough. When he won the MCI classic in April of 1995 in a three-way playoff with David Frost and Nolan Hinkey, he commented that the wind was a boost to his confidence. In spite of the slow climb back to the top, Bob toy experienced before his win his comments reflected interesting insight during this struggle, let’s say your confidence is low, but your ball striking is starting to get better. Your mind hasn’t caught up to your ball striking. You’ve got to hit more good shots to get those bad shots out of your mind.

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00:03:44

I’ve actually been hitting the ball better lately, but I’m not as comfortable and as relaxed as I should be because they still have a lot of memory of hitting crummy shots. You’ve got to hit a lot of good shots and competition until you can get relaxed. I can’t really brainwash myself and say, okay, you’re going to hit good shots. People say, relax, let it go. It’s easy to let it go when it’s going good. But if a couple of shots go right, and a couple left, it’s not so easy. The brain research discussed in the chapter on visualization suggests that a focus on an image of poor shots, lights up the brain and areas to produce that same poor performance. Johnny Miller reflected on toys. Swing changes. When I think of toy, I think of the one piece of advice I’d give every serious golfer, use your own darn swing and tell everyone else to shove it.

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00:04:34

Tell them to keep their swing thoughts to themselves. Why? Because more players get ruined by trying to improve their swings. Instead of just going with a swing that won them. All those junior in college tournaments expectancy also played a role in toys, dilemma, European, and us PGA tour’s players. Sevi bias Terros has won 18 straight years on the European tour. He is well known for hitting tee shots everywhere and still making birdies and pars from the rough, from behind trees out of bunkers. And even from an occasional parking lot by the stereos expects to hit some tee shot sideways. Then he finds his ball and the next target during his search for the perfect swing toy, expected to hit his tee shots in the fairway. When he didn’t, he described a loss of confidence in poor play. The majority of you likely take your good shots for granted and direct most of your attention to your poor performance.

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00:05:27

What do you think after around? Do you think about the great drives, fairway shots, chips, and putts, or do you think about the bad breaks and the hooks and slices or shots into the hazard? The following is a list of pre swing and post swing statements that will deplete your confidence cause you to be distracted, frustrated, and angry, increased tension, promote bad swing mechanics and create poor performance. This is the pre swing. Again, these will deplete your confidence. I can’t, this is a big carry. I wonder if this is enough club. I need this. I have to I’m playing over my head. All right, keep your head down straight left arm. And don’t look up. If I go par par, this will be my best score ever. Oh no, don’t hit it left. I hate this whole, this shot this club. I may as well kick it.

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00:06:21

I can’t putt. Don’t be short. Don’t be long. The last time I had this shot, I hit it dead left or dead. Right? And so on, the hazards are short, left and long, right? These are posts when comments, they will deplete your confidence. What’s wrong with you. These lessons haven’t helped that stinks. I may as well give this game up. And that was awful stupid. You suck. Why don’t you think you idiot you and you can add the upper relatives and the profanity to that statement. You should play left-handed you belong on the red teas. Your mother’s better than you are. If you could putt that would only leave woods and irons to work on. That was a 300 yard drive, 200 yards up and a hundred yards out post swing steam. Now there is a difference between being complacent with poor performance and self-critical, as in the previous examples, Sam Snead referred to it as letting off steam while at the same time, knowing when to shut off the steam valve, however, he did not endorse verbally beating yourself up great players intuitively know that a self-critical posture will deplete their confidence and indifference takes them nowhere regarding indifferent.

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00:07:33

Sam said, show me the fellow who walks along calmly after topping a drive or missing a kick in putt showing the world he is in perfect control yet burning up inside and I’ll show you one. Who’s going to lose. Similarly, Lee Trevino described the close of 1992 and his depleted confidence. I had no confidence. It’s not easy walking around with spring in your legs. When you’re making bogeys, I want to win. I’ve got a lot of killer instinct in me. And if people expect me to jump up and down when I’m shooting 75, well, that just isn’t me. You show me a guy who smiles when he’s shooting 75 and I’ll show you a guy who’s broke. There’s a fine line to walk in learning to be self-supporting in your internal dialogue. While at the same time, learning to quickly vent frustration, determine how much venting of frustration improves your play and how much causes a deterioration in performance.

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00:08:27

It varies from one player to another. The content of the venting is also important. If your comments are punishing, your confidence will be drained. This is a good time to recall Walter Hagen’s strategy for dealing with poor play. Remember Hagan expected to hit seven bad shots around when he hit a bad shot. It was just one of the seven. Walter Hagan was one of the greatest players to play the game. How many bad shots around should you expect? Some of you may see Hagen style as indifferent. It was, but it doesn’t mean he didn’t care. He knew what getting upset can do to score. In addition to Hagan style, you can also learn to be a good internal coach. Be a good motivator. For example, you might say, come on, you can play better than this. Get focused. You’re much better than you were playing.

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00:09:16

This internal dialogue is not self punishing. It’s being an internal motivator, a good coach. The emotional states of anxiety and anger are incompatible. Similarly, this good coach internal dialogue will help override any anxiety you might experience with poor play. Just keep that supportive, no nonsense, aggressive dialogue, going be patient. The chapter titled lift clean in place. Applying what you’ve learned, provide several examples of how to redirect your internal dialogue to improve performance. Now I’m going to refer back to one of Sam Snead’s comments that says it all. Whenever I’ve been able to pull myself out of a slump, it’s because I didn’t forget that breaks always even out over the long pole and that the Bain of golf and life in general is to remember your mistakes and not your right moves in clubhouses. You’ll see men sitting around complaining, going over their bad shots.

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00:10:13

They should think back to their good shots. Then try to repeat them. This is the only way to build that feeling called confidence. You can build it or tear yourself down. The choice is up to every individual. If you know yourself to be a whiner, you’ll never play up to your full ability. It takes guts to be an optimist in golf. He who thinks like a winner will win. Remember we recall things to which we attach emotion, review your good and great shots following around and attach emotions to those shots, not your poor shots. It is important to remember that your nervous system is storing experiences with every event and golf swing you make. If you are negative and focus on your mistakes, your confidence will be low. You don’t have to get overly excited with good shots. Just note them and focus on them immediately following the shot.

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00:11:05

And after your round, you will build confidence in small steps. The first step is beginning to listen to your thinking and how you talk to yourself, both on and off the golf course. If you are negative and self punishing off the course, you will be negative and self punishing. On the course. I have a standing rule for students attending our golf schools at Pelican hill golf club and resort at Newport coast, California. If you call yourself a name on the range or during play, that becomes your name for the remainder of the school. We’ve had some interesting people come through our schools. Oh God, no. Join me on the first tee one weekend. And Jesus Christ picked up our group on the 12th hole. You stupid so-and-so and I’ll let you fill in the blank. Usually attends a school once a month. The next time you tee it up with your foursome, adopt the mine under par rule.

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00:11:55

If you call yourself a name, it becomes your name for the remainder of the round. This rule will help you become more aware of your verbal of self abuse and add a little humor to your round strategies for success. Focus let’s look again. At several ways, you can begin to make changes, pick out what was right about a shot. Don’t take anything for granted. For example, you might say felt solid tempo was good. It was online, good distance feel. That was a right club selection. I am mindful and focused in the present. My routine is becoming more and more automatic. I am feeling more relaxed with deep breathing and quieted movement. I’m playing one shot at a time and think about score only after the round I’m being patient and mentally tough. I’m managing my anger. I’m really into my targets. I’m seeing every shot, even able to recall similar shots I’ve hit well and use that ball flight memory for visualization.

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00:12:54

I play so much better when I’m able to see what kind of shot I want to hit. That really helps me stay narrowly focused, pick out what is right about off-course behavior. For example, you might say my intent was good. I gave 100%. I did what I felt was right. I did a good job. I’m being more positive and I feel better about me and life. Being more positive makes errors less emotional and easier to correct. I’m being more assertive. And I am free of a lot of my distressing thinking, being positive and complimenting others makes me and them feel good. When I eliminate negativity about others, I feel better about them and myself. I like myself. I’m good at this. That’s a big positive change for me. I feel relaxed. I feel good. This stuff really works. Now. Develop written reminders or cues to keep a positive focus and record these thoughts in a daily diary.

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00:13:55

Talk regularly to someone close to you about your goals and review them regularly. Write down your successes. I asked the players, I work with to write down what they did well after each round, they use this as a daily journal practice to build confidence, PGA tour champion, Gary player, established practice goals that required a specific performance before he discontinued practice. He described some of these practice routines in a 1967 book. And I quote, I would leave that bunker until I’d hold five shots. I just stay there until I’d done it. Even if it took two or three hours, I had my own private self-imposed goals. I had to chip five into the hole before I’d quit. Player also says, if you think I’m going to get this chip close enough for one PUD, it’s the wrong attitude. He says, you should focus on holding out every shot.

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00:14:46

Nothing will build your confidence faster than successful performance, especially if you will focus your attention on your successes. Now, there are a number of strategies you can use to focus on success while practicing set specific measurable practice goals. Be sure you can succeed at the first level. Once you succeed, gradually increase the difficulty level. The goals of the tour player and low handicappers are going to be much higher than the 15 index player. The tour player holds out bunker shots and chips in for the fringe will have goals to hold a set number of shots before moving to the next drill. The following are a list of successive approximations for practicing shots from Greenside sand bunkers for the higher index player. Regardless what your playing level is adopt the same strategy of setting goals. Hey, get five of 10 shots out of a practice. Bunker B get seven of 10 shots out of a practice.

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00:15:43

Bunker C get nine of 10 shots out of a practice bunker and D get 10 of 10 shots out of a practice bunker. He get five of 10 shots within 10 feet of the hole. If get seven of 10 shots within 10 feet of the hole. Now your entry-level may be at step F for this drill, or you may enter it 10 of 10 within five feet of the hole. You can always get closer. Finally, you’ll be holding out one of 10 and so on. As noted, the tour player will set goals for holding shots. You must however, set realistic goals, realistic starting goals simply mean you are capable of having success relatively quickly. If during your practice session, you go from B, which is seven out of 10 shots out of the practice bunker to see, and don’t have success. One of two things has happened.

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00:16:31

Number one, the step between B and C is too big and you need to break down the step further. BNC is a seven out of 10 versus nine out of 10, which means that you may need to just go back to eight out of 10, between BNC or number two. You have reached your maximum performance capability. Now, if you’ve reached your maximum performance capability, it’s time for a lesson. In fact, it’s a good idea to have a lesson on putting chipping and bunker shots. And so on before you set practice goals, there’s no substitute for good technique, especially with trouble shots and shots that are going to help you score. In other words, the short game, these techniques will also give you a good idea of your proficiency level across a variety of shots and give you a realistic performance expectancies. If you were hitting seven out of 10 bunker shots within 10 feet of the hole during your practice times, there’s no reason to expect anything less than that during play.

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00:17:26

In fact, both during practice and play, I would like for you to see the ball land and roll into the hole before every shot use your practice success level, which may be seven out of 10 bunker shots within 10 feet of the hole, as opposed swing expectancy, evaluation, you should be satisfied with every shot within your practice. Success range, always practice with a purpose and a specific goal set practice goals and keep a diary so you can follow your progress. Jackie Burke, former PGA tour champion once told me that he would not leave the practice green in the evening until he made 100 straight three footers. If he missed one, he started over, he said, balls in a circle around the hole. There’s a different puddle on every stroke. This is called a clock drill. Jackie said when it came time to making a three footer under pressure, it was just another one of the a hundred.

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00:18:19

If you start this drill, depending on your entering skill level, you might begin at five or 10 in a row and gradually build to a level that meets your time allocation for practice. Remember the bigger the performance goal, the longer, the time allocation, no matter what shot you practice. If you practice with a purpose and set goals, you’ll be more confident when you have that shot. During a round note, the mine under par series, sending practice goals for golf provides a comprehensive program for developing shot proficiency and building confidence. Another practice strategy to build confidence is to play from closer teas. If you’re accustomed to playing from the regular men’s tees, play the ladies’ teas for a few rounds. If you usually play from the men’s tees or the championship tees play a few rounds from the men’s regular teas, you will not only be playing a shorter course to build confidence.

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00:19:12

You will have different shots to the green than usual. Forget about what people think when you play from the closer teas. In fact, if you were concerned about what people think play from the red teas and practice quieting your internal dialogue and becoming focused in the present, you can work on two goals at once building confidence and setting aside thoughts of what others might be thinking, perform for yourself and nobody else. Lastly, during play rate, each shot on a one to 10 scale record, the eight, nine, and 10 shots on your scorecard. If you had a shot, you judged to be seven or less, don’t record it. Review your eight, nine, and 10 rated shots at the end of each round. Think about and picture each shot feel and see the swing that produced that shot. Focusing only on your success will help you build confidence.

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00:20:03

The mine under par scorecard presents a comprehensive summary examples for building confidence and practice strategies to recall good shots for future rounds. Generalization let’s assume you practice swing changes on the range and have success. When you attempt to take those swing changes out to the course to play your performance begins to deteriorate you thoughts go to the mechanics of your swing. And the deterioration is amplified. When you return to the range you were able to perform well again, this state or situation of the range where learning originally occurred, promotes the repeated good performance. This is called state dependent learning. The original learning occurred in the state of the relaxed non-demanding environment. The range it’s easily repeated. When you returned to the range, the range is relaxed non-threatening and provides no performance demands. You likely hit several shots in a row with the same club overall arousal, and the range is low.

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00:21:02

You’ve never had to perform your swing changes with an internal state of high arousal. You go to the course to play and the range performance abandoned you. Many players ask why can’t I hit on the course? The way I hit on the range, the answer is you don’t practice the way you play when you practice the way you play, you’ll be able to repeat your range performance on the course in increasingly more competitive or stressful situations. This means hitting only one shot at a time with one club on the practice range, go through your full routine on each shot and start to practice the way you play. Choose targets and practice deep diaphragmatic breathing and mindfulness between shots with repeated practice. The way you play, you’ll be able to take the swing you make on the range to the core successfully LPGA tour player and us open champion.

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00:21:55

Meg Mellon describes her practice strategies under the direction of PGA tour instructor. Mike McGarry. The thing I’ve learned from Mike is that routine is such a big part of the shot. Every time I hit a shot on the range, I stepped back and line it up. I go through the same routine I go through on the golf course. Melon also described how she gets a new shot to a point of confidence so she can take it into a tournament round. I love to go out on the course on practice holes and hit over and over again. The shot I’ve been learning. This shows me I can do it on the golf course, right? Give yourself different lies on the range. Practice with a headwind and a tailwind, compete with your friends, heading to a target on the range, play a practice round and play two balls.

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00:22:40

Play your worst ball on each shot. That means if you hit your first shot to the green, to within 10 feet of the pin, you must hit it within 10 feet to have at least that shot Asian Australian and PGA tour player. Dennis Paulson says he plays the worst ball game frequently. He indicates that it’s the best way to prepare for a tournament. He notes. You find yourself thinking a lot like you do during a tournament, and you begin your breathing and thought restructuring and working on staying focused on one shot at a time. The story is told about Sam Snead betting Doug Sanders, $500 that he would play worse ball and not make more than a bogey on any one hole. Sam lasted three holes before he lost the bet. Now you want to return them. If you’ve never used the new swing and an atmosphere of high internal arousal, you begin to notice remnants of your old swing surface.

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00:23:28

Again, you’re swinging tempo. Quickens. Why the transfer of training from the range to casual play to tournament play is called generalization. This transfer of training occurs only through repeated exposure to higher arousal states during play many teachers encourage early repeated exposure to higher arousal situation. So there is a to the effects of the stressful situation. That is why many teachers advocate gambling on the course, no matter how small the bed repeated exposure during play to having something on the line provides a learning opportunity during various arousal states practicing one shot at a time while going through your full routine is the first step toward improved on-course performance. The next step is to play in the easiest performance situation you can and gradually increase the stressful conditions over time. Compile a list from easiest to most difficult plane conditions for you. For example, the easiest may be playing alone.

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00:24:28

Next easiest, maybe playing with players whose handicaps are higher than yours. Third, playing with friends who have the same handicap fourth, playing with players better than you fifth playing in a tournament, scramble format, best ball. And so on six match play tournament and seven stroke play tournament. For example, clubs, school, city, state, us amateur, many tour Nike PGA and LPGA tours. Consider this list a ladder to climb and each step are wrong. Your starting level on this list may not be item. Number one, you will find plateaus in your performance at various rungs. It simply means you need to participate at that level longer. If the plateau is prolonged, it may be time to look at setting goals for practice that are performance-based. Every club champion has experienced plateaus on different rungs. Every PGA tour players experienced plateaus and periods of adoptation on the rungs of this ladder.

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00:25:26

Remember the range is filled with scratch golfers, take it from the range to the course establishing practice criteria that promote higher arousal is another strategy. For example, I will leave the putting green only after I make 30 consecutive three foot putts. If I miss a putt, I’ll start over or I will leave the range. Only after I hit 10 straight wedges within five feet of the flag. If I’m outside five feet on any one shot, I start over. You can imagine how much pressure and frustration you would begin to experience after missing your 28th PUD or your 10th wedge shot. As you have success at each stage, you increase the criteria to 35, 40 75, 100 putts or 12, 15, 20 30 wedge shots until you experience pressure range contest with other players can also add competition and pressure. That is good practice exposure. This is why the experience of competition seasons, a tour player or competitive amateur.

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00:26:29

The frequent state of intense competition provides an opportunity for learning both mental and mechanical. After years of repeated experience in the state of competition, a player learns mental and mechanical strategies that hold up well under pressure, situational confidence, our confidence changes depending on the conditions of play with whom we play and how we perceive these conditions as related to our past success and experiences. When faced with situations in which we have performed well in the past, our confidence rises Lanny Wadkins was five shots off the lead going into the final round of the greater Hartford open Sunday, August 2nd, 1992 in an interview. Prior to that round Watkins, when asked if he thought he had a chance to win responded, maybe if it got windy and I shot 65, he was paired with Billy Ray brown, another good wind player on the practice tee Sunday morning, the wind began to blow.

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00:27:28

Wadkins turned to Billy Ray brown and said, Hey, we have a chance. What can shut 65 and won the tournament on July 11th, 1993 wide gins was tied for the lead following the third round at the PGA tour and Hauser Bush golf classic at Williamsburg, Virginia after shooting a 64 on Saturday, the heat index was as high as 140 and a minimum of 115 during that weekend Watkins was interviewed following the third round. His response to his lead on Saturday was a bit different from the year before. There’s one more day to go still time to screw it up. Perhaps the conditions of the heat being in the lead, his evaluation of his performance, or just not wanting to sound too confident, produce that response. However, it was a self-fulfilling prophecy on Sunday, Watkin shot a 100 par 70 to finish the tournament. Three shots behind the winter, Jim Gallagher, Jr.

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00:28:25

Following the Sunday round, what can summarize his impressions of his play? It was a bad day for me. I’m totally disgusted with the way I played different situations or conditions promote different degrees of confidence or lack thereof. The best players have the greatest number of conditions that promote confidence and the fewest number that creates self doubt. Those players who have the most mental toughness believe they can perform well, regardless of what the conditions are or what their recent performance has been. The following are a few examples of conditions that will cue an attitude of confidence or one of self doubt, whether when rain sun hot cold, if you start around well or started poorly bogey or a series of bogeys, a birdie or a series of birdies, someone else’s poor play or their good play, a casual round versus practice round versus tournament round playing with good or better players.

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00:29:21

1, 2, 3, 4, et cetera, three pod greens in a row club to be used. Whether you have confidence may be a one, two or three iron or driver or fairway wood, water hazard trees, and, and so on between you and the target. One pod from outside six feet, two greens in a row, make four, three footers in a row left to right putz, right to left putz, fairway or green side bunker shot, high score, low score. In the last round you played hit good or bad shot. The last time you played the same hole played well in the same tournament. Last year, played poorly in the same tournament last year, playing your home cores hard or soft greens, consecutive bad shots, consecutive good shots. And then we would quantify that and add a number there. How many does it take before your confidence begins to change? If you hit poorly on the range before you play, or if you hit well on the range before you play putt poorly on the practice screen before you play or pot?

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00:30:18

Well, on the practice green, before you play and the list of situations that promote situational confidence or lack thereof goes on and on Johnny Miller won the 1994 at and T at pebble beach making it his third time to win that title. He won in 19 74, 19 87. And then again in 1994, Miller had some interesting observations regarding his 1994. When I wasn’t supposed to win, I’m retired. I’m a golf announcer. I don’t play more than 25 rounds of golf a year. I don’t practice. I don’t know what it is, but something about this course makes me hit it. Good. I feel like I play young. When I come to pebble beach, the best players will focus and capitalize on confidence, building events and situations and minimize their attention to problems with the exception of practice to overcome deficits. During the 1992 interview, Fred couples was relating the effects that comments from Tom Watson had on him.

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00:31:15

When someone like Tom Watson says something good about you, it can have a big effect on you. He told me you’re a great player. Keep doing what you’re doing and it’ll happen. Nick price won the 1992 PGA championship at Bellerive country club in St. Louis. He made an interesting observation, Tom kite winning the open at 42 helped me a lot. I figured when you’re in your mid to late thirties, you’d better start winning with older guys like Raymond Floyd winning that gave me the confidence that there was still time left for me. Most people think that once an athlete in one sport experiences, pressure, he won’t have problems with pressure and other sports not. So this is true. Only if that athlete has had repeated exposure to pressure in both sports, Miami dolphins, quarterback, Dan Marino was playing in a shootout with nine PGA pros during the spring of 1992.

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00:32:07

And an interview with golf world magazine Marino said, yeah, I was nervous. The worst part was the tee shot. That’s as hard as anything I’ve done. I was happy because I didn’t hit nobody. This is the same person who played in the super bowl on national television, in front of millions of people, your comfort zone and your confident zone are determined by you and your prior experiences in those situations and your perceptions with repeated exposure to those conditions. Dan Marino would likely have little difficulty with Sam Snead called first tee jitters, PGA tour player. Patrick Burke played his first major at the U S open in pebble beach, California. In 1992, I met him on Thursday morning prior to the first round, I had never seen him so revved up internally. He said he had played a practice round and noted as is customary for the U S open.

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00:32:59

The roughs were high, the fairways were narrow and the greens were quick. Patrick informed me that he had removed two of his wedges and replaced them with one wedge and a clique, which is a five wood railer. So he could escape more easily from the deep rough. It also changed his putter because of the quickness of the greens. The first round he struggled. It was painful to watch. In spite of the clique, he still had problems with a rough. He shot 79 the first day. And his play was well below his capability. After the round, he remarked that his greatest problem was getting close to the pin since he didn’t use his normal wedges, which he knew well. And with which he was confident during dinner, we discussed the obvious returning to the full set of clubs. He usually played the second day with an Eagle and two birdies.

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00:33:43

Patrick was 400 after nine holes. He brought it in, even on the day after two double bogeys, he missed the cut and the rest is history. This was an important lesson for Patrick. The situation of his first major affected his confidence in his ability to perform in us open conditions. His second day took care of all the doubts mental toughness in 1988, Matt beyond he was a member of the U S Olympic swim team. Many predicted that beyond he would repeat mark spits his feet of seven gold medals beyond he won a bronze and silver. His first two events, television announcers began to prepare the public for continued sub gold performance. Onlookers didn’t have expectations for gold and beyond these subsequent events beyond he responded with five consecutive gold medals. Why was mad beyond able to turn his performance around prior to the Olympics, mad beyond he was given false feedback by his coach on the 100 yard butterfly.

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00:34:41

His actual time was 50.2 seconds. He was told his time was 51.7 seconds. The Andi was asked to rest and repeat the event again. The second time he improved to 50 seconds flat better than his actual first time. It is not surprising that Matt beyond he was able to come off bronze and silver metals and turn in a golden performance. When faced with negative feedback, he turned things up a notch, stayed focused and perform better. Matt Biondi is mentally tough. Brad facts and won over $1 million on the PGA tour in 1996 to finish eighth on the money list. And he was ranked 24th in the world. 1996, PGA tourist statistics showed that Faxon was ranked a hundred and 70th in average, driving distance 142nd in total fairways hit 134th in greens and regulation. And first in putting with an average of 1.709 putts per hole, he played in 22 tournaments and may 22 cuts.

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00:35:48

His peers will tell you that he scores well with these statistics for two reasons. The first reason is obvious. When you can put like Brad Faxon, you can score. Secondly, they will tell you that Brad Faxon can hit the ball 100 yards offline, and you would never know he had hit a bad shot. He simply finds his ball and his next target, the key to scoring well is to have a strong short game and the mental toughness to negate a loss of confidence with poor play. The next time you start to miss fairways and greens or hit the ball offline, think about Brad, Faxon be mentally tough and a good internal catty European and PGA tour player, David ferret. He made an interesting observation about the importance of how you handle adversity. He said, it’s not what happens to you that matters in the long run.

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00:36:41

It’s your attitude. That’s what determines how you cope with the next experience that comes along quite often. It’s how you deal with failure. That determines how you achieve success. The mental process is like building a muscle. It’s not letting your whole framework of thinking fall down around you. It’s having the resolve and mental toughness to take it on the chin. Keep your head up and feel good about yourself for having done that. You can either feel bad because you failed or good because of your positive reactions to it. That will give you the armor to cope with it. The next time also recall what Sam Snead said about giving up in tossing in your cards. After a bad beginning, you also undermine your whole game because to quit between T and green is more habit forming than drinking a high ball before breakfast. We think in pictures, if you are confident and mentally tough, you will see success. If you are fearful, don’t believe you’re capable or interpret. Poor performance is not having it today. You will give up and see failure. The next chapter describes the role these pictures have on performance.