Part 1 Concentration Keeping Your Head in Play

Concentration Keeping Your Head in Play

Chapter four concentration, keeping your head in play. Check. Nicholas describes going from abroad focus prior to shots to a narrow focus. As he approaches a shot, then he returns to a broad focus. After he hits a shot. I still can’t concentrate on nothing but golf shots for the time it takes to play 18 holes. Even if I could, I suspect the drain of mental energy would make me pretty fuzzy headed long before the last putt went down. I’ve developed a regimen that allows me to move from peaks of concentration, into valleys of relaxation and back again, as necessary. My focus begins to sharpen. As I walk onto the tee, then steadily intensifies. As I complete the process of analysis and evaluation that produces a clear cut strategy for every shot. I play then peaks as I sat up to the ball and execute the swing.

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00:00:58

When ideally my mind picture of what I’m trying to do is both totally exclusionary and totally positive unless the shot finds trouble. When I might seriously start processing possible recoveries, I descend into a valley as I leave the tea either through casual conversation with a fellow competitor or by letting my mind well on whatever happens into it. The next buildup of concentration begins as I reached the marker from which I’ll paste the distance to my ball and start figuring yardage note that this is where Nicholas has routine begins on each shot. My focus then gradually tightens as my caddy and I complete the math and I, again, finalize a clear-cut play strategy until it again, peaks at a dress. And during the swing, Nicholas describes his third phase of concentration on approach shots to the green. As I walked toward the green, I returned to the valley, although rarely, quite as deeply as after the tee shot, then I gradually began to emerge again.

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00:02:03

At whatever point I can begin to assess my next shot, be at a putt chip pitch, sand shot or whatever the peak occurs during the setup and swing or stroke after which my focus remains fixed and sharp until the ball is finally in the hole. Larry Bird led the Boston Celtics to three world titles and was the NBA most valuable player? Three times. He said my biggest fault as a golfer was my strong point as a basketball player, concentration on the court. I could never have told you who was sitting in the front row, everything, but the game was invisible to me. Paul Azinger had a bout with cancer during the 1994 season. He made his return to the PGA tour at the Hawaii tour stop in 1995 in June, 1995, Azinger said for the six or seven year stretch, I felt like I out concentrated 90% of the field.

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00:02:59

90% of the time. I don’t feel anywhere near that right now. I recognize that as a problem, I’m trying to get back into that level of concentration and committed focus that I was on. When I left the game. Thoughts about concentration from two of the grades, Byron Nelson finished in the money in 109 tournaments in a row. He won 11 consecutive PGA tour events and a total of 19 tournaments in 1945. He was voted athlete of the year by the associated press poll in both 1944 in 1945. Nelson says that concentration is standard equipment with all champions. He further states success has alluded many golfers of mechanical excellence, simply because they did not realize the importance of concentration or had been unable to develop this power concentration. Is this decisive a player who has all the shots and fails to fully concentrate. Each time he plays one will often lose to an opponent of inferior mechanical ability who exercises to its fullest.

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00:04:05

His faculty for close mental application. Nelson said that a loss of concentration due to mental fatigue was a primary factor in his 1945 wind streak ending Gary player, winter of all four majors. And that includes the masters, the British open, the U S open and the PGA championship and numerous other tour events has similar comments about concentration. The difference between an ordinary player and a champion is the way they think it’s as simple as this. If you don’t concentrate, you’re not playing your best. There’s absolutely no question that golf is a game of mind. Over matter. A golfer has to discipline his mind to keep absolute attention on what’s happening. That very moment, not on the bogey made on the last hole or on the tough par five coming up next, but on the particular shot at hand to the exclusion of everything else during every major championship I’ve won, I concentrated so hard that I played rounds without knowing my score.

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00:05:05

I’ve often been in a, I don’t know who I am sort of days, total relaxation with complete control player goes on to say, concentration takes years of practice to acquire. It’s difficult to come by and easy to lose. If you let up an integral part of developing concentration, of course, is self-discipline the kind of self-control that teaches your mind to do what you want it to do. The neuro mechanism of concentration. There’s a system located in the brainstem that neuroscientists refer to as waking brain. This system processes the sensory information to the brain and selects out content that makes up conscious thought. We refer to this filtered focus as concentration. The desired concentration level on the golf course is similar to that. Which many people, when they’re reading a book, they like no matter what is going on around you, you don’t hear or see it because you are so focused on the content of your book.

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00:06:06

Your mental filter is working so that no content outside the book comes to a level of conscious awareness. The average golfer plays the way many of us use to study a school subject. We found uninteresting. We could read a chapter or several pages and not be able to recall any of the content. Our mental filter was letting all the extraneous content into our conscious awareness while filtering out the content of the book. We were attempting to study many golfers, just aren’t mentally present during a shot. I believe the zone or flow state, so many great players describe when they play their best is mostly a function of concentration. However, your ability to concentrate is dependent on many different interacting variables. Most of these variables interface in and around the neuro mechanism of concentration in the brainstem that ultimately affects the higher brain and vice versa.

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00:07:00

When we become aroused, the body mobilizes for action. And there is an acceleration of activity in the part of the brainstem that serves as the filtering center for concentration, the body mobilization or alarm is a danger signal produced by the higher brain. The process begins with information entering the nervous system through the filter in the brainstem. At these times of arousal, this filter system selects out the information for conscious thought and opens and sensitizes us to each area of sensory information by scanning the environment for impending danger. This scanning produces an overload of sensory information, hearing and vision become more acute. The senses of touch, taste and smell heightened. And it is difficult to think about one thing for very long. The overloaded circuitry of your nervous system has billions of neurons firing like an electrical storm. There’s so many that a flood of thoughts becomes part of this firing process and one’s ability to focus concentration diminishes this wreaks habit.

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00:08:06

When we are faced with life’s three footers concentration strategies of top players. When you played your best round of golf, what were you thinking about? What did you think about before you got to the golf course? What did you think about before each shot? What were you thinking about during the shot where you patient with poor performance and bad breaks, let’s look at how some of the top players think when they perform their best and see if they are similar to you. Most of you will see that their thinking is not much different from yours. When you perform your best during an interview. After the third round of the 1992 Honda classic, where he had a two-stroke lead, Fred couples said he did not like to get too far ahead. He said, he used to think about winning when he would be ahead and then not win.

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00:08:52

Now he thinks about playing a hole a time. If you thought focuses on anything other than the shots you are playing, your performance will suffer, help PGA tour players. Sherri Steinhauer won the DeMaria classic in August, 1992, since the beginning of the 1989 season, she had started the final round of seven tournaments in first, second or third place only to falter. She summed up the change in her thinking during the final round as follows. I just tried to play one shot at a time and not think too much about where I was or what I was trying to do. Help PGA tour player. Carolyn Hill was a college All-American a 1979 Curtis cup team member and winless on the tour. 14 plus years after turning pro, she won her first event, August, 1994 at the McCall’s LPGA classic at Stratton mountain Vermont. She described years of work with a variety of professionals from sports psychologist to martial arts experts regarding her.

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00:09:53

When she said, I really did a good job of playing one shot at a time, I stuck right with it. Moving the ball from point a to point B I wasn’t thinking about the last shot or the next shot. Similarly, Gilberto Miralis won the junior world championship in July, 1992. The Venezuelan shot at 11 under 2 79 for the week. Morales credited his victory to a focus on hitting good shots. One at a time Bon wedding, the pain Webber invitational in May, 1993, senior PGA tour player. Mike Hill said, I practiced being more alert. Sometimes I just go through the motions on Friday, almost like I’m shadow boxing this week. I thought I should concentrate harder on Friday. Patty Sheehan won the standard, registered ping to place herself in the LPGA hall of fame. She said of her final round. I didn’t start off very well. So I kept telling myself one shot at a time.

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00:10:49

Don’t think about anything else. Jack Nicholas says the more tense I am, the more I try to think of just one shot at a time, one situation at a time. It’s not only when you’re playing poorly that your concentration diminishes. It can also occur when you were playing. Well, Sam Snead was playing a 1953 Ryder cup match against Harry Wiedemann. He recalls that after 30 of 36 holes, he had Wiedemann four down. He was so sure his record of never having lost a Ryder cup match was safe. He said in my mind, I was ordering a nice steak dinner. When we walked up to number 31, Sam lost five of the next six holes to lose to Wiedemann by one Sam Snead concluded from this experience, a good rule, never collect any trophies in your head until you had them in your hand. Similarly, in the 1966, us open at Olympic club, Arnold Palmer held a seven stroke lead going into the final nine holes.

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00:11:44

It appeared he clearly had the title. One Palmer said he lost track or focus and began to think about trying to break. Ben Hogan’s us open scoring record Palmer dropped his seven stroke lead and lost the open title to Billy Casper in a play off patients. Patients is a process of combining focused concentration and redirecting thinking that is unrelated to the present. Patients is a big part of mental toughness. Mental toughness is a trait. All peak performers have when you lose patients, you lose focused concentration. Simply stated. Patients is the ability to stay focused and resist the emotional and physical decay. In the face of frustration. Sam, Steve described a practice round at his first PGA tournament in Hershey, Pennsylvania in late 1936, he played with George Fazio and two other tour professionals. He discussed his first four shots. The first two were big slices out of bounds into a chocolate factory.

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00:12:44

His third tee shot went into the water, just off the front of the T. He had hit three shots and none of them were in play. The other three professionals had hit 260 yard drives down the middle of the 345 yard hole. Two of the professionals grumbled about Sam’s level of play, but George Fazio, calmly and patiently told Sam to hit another ball. Sam, his fourth tee shot landed on the green 20 feet from the pin. Sam shot a 67 in that practice. Round his point to this story is never give up many players had a bad tee shot and immediately conclude that they have bogey doubled or tripled the hole they give up. They have no patience. They lose their focused concentration. Sam Snead summarizes the process of giving up and 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 players not only learned the bad habit of giving up on a whole, they give up on nine or the entire round.

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00:13:46

Once they lose their concentration. How many times after six or seven holes of marginal or poor play, have you thought I’ll get it back on the backside. As soon as you lose your focus, your play will further deteriorate. Sam Snead cites another example of having patients and staying focused at PGA tour. Stop Westchester open. He said he had three straight drive so far out of bounds on the third hole that the Eagle Scouts couldn’t have brought one of those balls back. He further adds that he had patients continued to play a shot at a time and was carried off the 18th green on the shoulders of the crowd. When he won the tournament. When you hit a ball out of bounds into a hazard, or you have a big lead going into the final holes, stay focused, don’t quit. Don’t guard your lead and play every shot as though it’s the only shot you’re going to hit that day.

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00:14:35

When tour players described the reasons for their wins, it is not uncommon for them to cite patients. As a reason, Craig Stadler attributed his 1991 PGA tour championship to being patient Jack Nicholas reportedly attributed his 72 us open wind to patients. Everybody was three Pedy due to the conditions of the greens. He reflects that he just had enough patients to finish. And when patients for the weekend, golfer is hitting several bad shots without analyzing his swing and attempting corrections. Don’t try to create the shot or analyze why that belongs on the range with an instructor, recognize this as the time to practice patience and be mentally tough performance expectancies. What happens when you drop your last bit of change into a soda machine and nothing comes out well, you probably try the coin return or another selection. If that doesn’t work, you might hit or kick the machine as you walk by.

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00:15:35

Why? Because you have a one-to-one expectancy that is you expect to deposit a set amount of money into the machine and receive a soda. Many golfers have the same one-to-one expectancy on the golf course. They expect to hit a good to great shot. Every time they swim the club, the frustration and anger produced by failure to produce positive results. In this case is soda or a good to great golf shot in these situations, stays on your mind and disrupts your concentration until you’re able to set it aside. Decay, psychologists call this process of a gradual decline of behavior due to an inability to produce positive change extinction. The inability to produce positive change relates to anything from hitting a golf shot to waiting and heavy traffic. The resulting behavior is frustration irritability and an inability to focus your thoughts on what you were doing for any length of time.

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00:16:34

Mental toughness is the ability to persevere, avoiding frustration and anger or to express patients. Instead of extinction, I refer to this process of frustration, anger, and loss of concentration as decay. When we behave in ways we believe should result in some change and nothing follows. We try again and again, finally giving up with anger, loss of concentration and frustration, muscles tense, and physical arousal follows. As part of this decay. We lose patients, the person who lasts the longest at the soda machine or who can hit several bad shots or experience repeated bad breaks without aroused aggression, loss of concentration and performance deterioration has low arousal, high frustration, tolerance and patience. How long would you last at the soda machine? How many bad shots or bad breaks does it take before you experience a deterioration in performance? Do you have a high resistance to decay? How many, three footers do you need to miss before you lose your concentration during putting or you consider changing putters or making some mechanical change?

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00:17:46

Most of us expect perfection in performance. We expect to make most putts from five feet. We expect to hit most fairways off the tee. We expect to hit most greens and regulation. And so on the reality is that the best players in the world don’t meet the expectancies you have for yourself. Nicholas says that when he and Hogan were playing their best game, they expected to hit only a handful of shots in a round exactly the way they wanted to. He further says that even at the highest levels of golf, perfect shots are mostly accidental and extremely rare. Walter Hagen reportedly expected to hit seven bad shots. And around when Walter Hagen hit a bad shot, he just chalked it up to one of the seven bad shots. He was going to hit that day. What a nice way to fend off the emotional and physical consequences of decay expect to hit every shot perfectly.

speaker 1

00:18:39

But when you don’t talk to yourself about realistic expectancies, consider Hagens Nicholas’s and Hogan strategies for yourself, these will help you be patient and maintain your focused concentration. Jack Nicholas said that he took the little bit of patience that came with the blessing of having a discipline disposition and worked it up into a lot of patients through conscious and hard willed. Self-control if you were striking the ball well on the range, expect to strike the ball well on the course, one shot at a time if you expect to score well, just because you were striking the ball well, or you expect to hit every shot, perfectly. One of two things will likely occur. Number one, when you hit a shot sideways, your tolerance to frustration will be lowered. You will become more easily frustrated and your concentration will begin to diminish. This will likely lead to a swing analysis of why the increased frustration and associated arousal will spill into a faster tempo.

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00:19:41

Number two, your concentration focus will be on score during the round. Your thoughts will be predominantly on the future as you calculate score and not on the shots you were playing LPGA tour player and former us open champion. Meg melon says you’re just going to have those days when it isn’t there, but more often than not. If I’m practicing before I play and I’m comfortable with how I’m hitting it, I’ll go out on the course and spray it all over the place because I’ve lost my focus and concentration and have relaxed too much. The distance disease let’s discuss distance. As an expectancy, men in particular are fixated on distance. When they find themselves in a group of the long hitter, they tend to compete. There must be some unwritten guideline of level of masculinity being acquainted with distance off the tee. These pairings with long hitters tend to create effort intention in the swing of the shorter hitters in the group.

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00:20:37

And that spills into a deterioration in their performance. This results because of a change from focused concentration on hitting targets to another player’s performance. Kenny Knox earned $423,025 in 1991 on the PGA tour. Then at the 1992 PGA championship, he was paired in the final round with John Daley who eventually won NOx, acknowledges that daily’s distance got to him. Not long after that tournament Knox pursued instruction to learn, to hit the ball further with his swing changes went the rest of his game. Kenny Knox said it best the field that you have. That’s how you play the game. I really have lost that ability to play the game. That’s what I’m looking for. I’m tired of swinging. Like someone else wants me to, when you’re thinking mechanics, you’re always changing your thoughts on the golf course. You make a good swing and say, that reminds me of a swing I made at the 1986 Honda.

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00:21:35

Now I’ll try this. There’s also the matter of attention. Remember what you feed attention grows. PGA tour player, Tom watched and estimates the between 50 and 75% of the golf fans want to watch John Daley, the 1990s PGA tour, long driver. First and foremost, I find it amusing to watch amateurs. Usually men try to compete with a distance of a long hitter in their group. I also find it interesting to listen to the all expressed over a long drive. Did you see that he hit it off the planet or he nearly drove the green on number seven shots close to the pin are long. Putts are admired, but nothing like the long drive advertisers are aware of the distance disease hit it further, or the longest ball in golf. They must sell balls. These slogans have been around for awhile. When senior tour driving distance leader, Jim dent was asked how he has changed over the years.

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00:22:32

He says chipping and putting which I worked on a lot before I came out on the senior tour years ago, I almost never worked on them. I used to practice hitting the ball along because I thought that’s all I had to do. I found out that wasn’t true. You have to get the ball into the hole to score. Well, Ben Crenshaw finished 23rd on the 1995 PGA tour with $737,475 in official money. His average driving distance was 253.1 yards. He was 172nd on tour and driving distance and 49th and putting Cory pave and finished number one on the PGA tour money list. In 1991, he was named PGA player of the year. His average distance off the tee was 252 yards in both 1991 and 1992 seasons. He says I lost concern for distance long ago. I can hit it 2 71. I want to. And that’s far enough.

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00:23:31

I made 80 Eagles last season, Pavan finished 18th and eighth on the 1993 and 1994 money list respectively with similar driving statistics, he won the 1995 us open finishing 66 out of 73 players and driving distance with an average of 257.3 yards, Tom kite winner of the 1992, us open ranked 51st and hitting fairways 29th and hitting greens and fifth in putting among the 66 players who played the final two rounds. Kite had 25 putts, both Saturday and Sunday. During the last round, he made pots of 15, 18, 20 and 35 feet and shot an even par 72 to win by one shot. Similarly, Jeff sluman had only six greens on Sunday while making only one bogey and shot a one under par 71 to finish second in the tournament. Aanuka Soren stem and Laura Davies finished first and fourth respectively on the 1995 LPG tour money list.

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00:24:32

So our Instem ranked fourth in putty and Davies 10th for the 1995 season Monte shine bloom was the 1992 national and world long drive champion and finished second in that event in 1991 and 1993 Monte’s goal is to one day play on the PGA tour and he’s a good player. Two weeks before winning the long drive championship in 1992, he shot a 63 at Southern links in Illinois to tie Ray Floyd’s course record Monte will be the first to tell you that he didn’t tie the course record by hitting the ball long. He did it with his short game, the better he hits his short irons. He putts and chips, the lower his score due to his distance. And course management Monte uses his driver much less than the average tour player PGA tour player. Dennis Paulson finished the 1994 season second and driving distance.

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00:25:28

His longest drive of the year was 385 yards. Jose Maria olive fireball shot a course record 63 on Thursday. The first round of the PGA Freeport McMoRan classic Dennis broke the course record the next day with a 10 under 62. He followed on Saturday with a 74 and finished fourth in the tournament. Dennis said he didn’t hit the ball much better. The day he shot 62 over the day he shot 74. The difference was his pudding. When Jack Nicklaus won the 1992 senior us open, he reportedly used his driver 17 times in 72 holes. Gary player won the 1962 PGA championship at aeronomy without ever using his driver. So what should you do when everybody is hitting it past you and you find yourself swinging for the fences, trying to keep up. Peter Thompson won five British opens and some 100 other tournaments around the world.

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00:26:26

He relates advice. He received from Sam Snead. Sam once gave me a wonderful tip. He told me on the downswing, the longer you take to hit the ball, the farther you will hit it, it’s just a feeling you wouldn’t vary one 10 hundreds of a second, but it’s the feeling of not rushing. That’s the trick recall that one of Nicholas’s three swing keys was to feel the same pace on the downswing. As on the backswing, I would also encourage you to practice with a focus on grip pressure, feel a very light grip pressure and hold that same pressure for the entire swing. If you go after a ball on the tee, you will likely increase your grip pressure at the top of the swing and hit an errands shot. Research shows 25% of the game is, would play. 43% is putty. And approximately 72% of the game is played from 150 yards in when you were on the tee, focus your concentration on your fairway target and repeat the feeling of your practice.

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00:27:28

Swing. A distance focus will tend to create effort, tension, and Arun shots. Your best distance and accuracy will come naturally not forced realistic performance goals. The 1995 PGA tour statistics show the top players had an average of between 10 and 13 greens and regulation. More specifically, the top tour player in greens and regulation was Lenny Clemens with 72.3%. The top putter in 1996, Brad faxing average 1.709 putts per green in regulation. Mark O’Meara wasn’t far behind at 1.737. So what are realistic expectancies for you? If the top players on tour hit 10 to 13 greens and average, just under 1.7, five putts per green in regulation. Other statistics show that the average tour players make 45 to 55% of six foot putts, 15 to 30% of 10 foot putts, 10 to 22% of 15 foot putts, six to 16% of 20 foot putts and less than 10% of 25 foot putts.

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00:28:40

The best players in the world make about one half their putts from six feet. What would you think if you miss two in a row from that distance, do you have realistic expectancies? As I said, I want you to expect to make every putt be determined and confident. However, when you miss plays that miss within a realistic expectancy, resist decay, stay focused in the present and your next shot. Once again, if you hit what you perceive as a bad shot, stay where you are set up and make another swing. Your nervous system will store your last swing for a brief period. You want to groove memories of good swings, not bad swings. Secondly, taking another swing will help you deal with the emotional discharge of frustration. Play the course, not your competitor. Ben Hogan had an interesting approach for tournament play. He never concerned himself with competitors or leaderboards.

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00:29:36

His focus was the course. The contest was between his plane ability and the course, he would walk the course during a practice round, assess the conditions and decide what score he had to shoot to win. As part of his tournament, preparation Hogan would walk the course backwards. Starting on the 18th green, he would determine the best landing areas for approaches to the greens. Then he would place his skills in a contest with a course, not as competitors. When Hogan won the us open at Oakland Hills in 1951, he shot 76, 73 and a 71, the first three rounds upon recording as 67, his last round, he said, I vowed, I would bring this monster to its knees. Similarly girls’ junior champion, Kelly Booth, 1 24 of 57 national junior tournament. She entered, she finished out of the top 10, only twice. She claimed her eighth national title of the year with a victory at the 1992, Edgewood Tahoe, junior classic.

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00:30:37

Following this victory, she said everything has come together for me this year. Before when I had the lead, I would play the other players. Now I’m more sat on playing the course and I’m able to focus better. On the last round. Once Hogan started a tournament round, he would often not acknowledge a great shot hit by another player. A story is told about Hogan being paired with Claude Harmon at a PGA tour event. Harmon made a hole in one Hogan made no comment when they got to the next tee Hogan asked who was hitting first in summary, play the course as your challenge, not your playing partner. When you focus on the judgment of others or when in competition, you become occupied with another player’s play your score or anything that takes you mentally out of the present. Your performance will suffer playing. The course will keep you focused on the task at hand.

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00:31:28

Also treat yourself as you would a good friend. Be a good friend. When you talk to yourself, have realistic expectancies and accept poor shots. While at the same time, expect peak performance, have patience, be mentally focused and tough. The chapters titled how to talk to yourself on and off the golf course and lift clean in place. We’ll teach you strategies to stay focused. One shot at a time. Nancy Lopez had 43 career LPGA victories going into the rail charity classic in Springfield in late August, 1992, not having one in over a year. She said of her recent history. I hadn’t won in a year and my nerves. Weren’t good. I’d look at a leaderboard and make a bogey on the next hole. She took some time off at home with her family upon her return. She wrote one in Springfield and again, in Portland, the following week regarding these two wins, she stated that winning concentration that I hadn’t felt for a while, crept back in and it was with me again here with that concentration, the putt started dropping for me again.

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00:32:36

That had been my problem. I’d been striking the ball well, but not making many putts. Greg Norman describes the intensity of his focus during the rounds where we recorded some of his lowest scores Darale and Turnberry stand out the 62 at bay hill and the 62 at the 1986 Canadian open come to mind. All it is you get so focused on what you’re doing, that you don’t even know what score you’re shooting. Nick Fowler was leading in the 1992 French open by two strokes on the 14th tee. He then lost five strokes over the last five holes and shot three over on that round, finishing tied for third. He described his thinking during this five hole struggle. I’m a nerd. I screwed up 14 and 15, but even at 15, I had a really good shot at 17. I was brain dead. Okay. I thought to myself, I’ve had enough.

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00:33:27

My mind was on the 18th green. I hit it as though I was mentally drained. The 1990 masters, Wayne Grady approached the 18th hole of his last round. He thought that all he needed to finish in the top 24, which would get him with an invitation back to the masters. In 1991 was to par 18. He was on the front of the green and two. He ran his first putt by the hole, six feet, his second pot for par missed again, running by two and one half feet. He was certainly had missed the top 24 and said I was in sort of a day as I walked around and missed the next one. As it turned out, a bogey would have made the top 24, regardless. Grady won the 1990 PGA championship that win, earned him a return trip to the masters. Remember, it’s never over until your ball rolls in the hole on 18.

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00:34:19

If the fat lady starts to sing before your final stroke in 18 don’t listen, mark Omero describes Ray Floyd’s level of concentration. I told him at the Ryder cup, he is the most intimidating player I’ve ever played against. He plays every shot, like it’s the last shot of his life. He’s like a black leopard stalking. The jungle of course, concentration practice. Let’s review a procedure described in the chapter on relaxation, quieting movement and focus thought through mindfulness. Remember quieting. Your thinking will also quiet your nervous system as already noted. Most of us mentally live in the future, especially during routine activities like grooming, dressing, travel, and so on. Also recognize that if you have a habit of future focus and distraction off the golf course, that is likely going to be your pattern on the course. Concentration is not something you can turn on and off like a light switch.

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00:35:18

You must practice number one, set goals and ignore deadlines. When you have something to complete by a specific time, ignore the clock, focus all of your thoughts and what you were doing, not how much you have left to do how much you might not finish. Now how much time you have left, be mindful. All other thoughts will accelerate your nervous system and impair your performance and mood be dispassionate and non-emotional except intrusive thoughts allow these thoughts to pass without reaction, and then return your mental focus to the present. Number two, be mindful during your daily routine activities. When you go about your automatic daily routines like grooming or driving your car, be mindful, focus your full attention to every color sound, feel, smell, and taste, focus, all of your thinking or what you were doing. Notice how relaxed and in control you feel with this exercise again, be dispassionate and non-emotional with intrusive thoughts, listen to the themes of these thoughts and note what drives your moods and nervous system purposely remind yourself to redirect your thoughts to the present practice.

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00:36:33

Going from abroad to narrow focus, practice, going from a narrow specific focus to a broad general focus and then returned to a narrow focus. And then again, to abroad, broad attention focus, spend 60 to 90 seconds in each of these concentration states, you have the ability to focus on a sensation. Anytime you choose, think about the feeling of your big toe on your right foot. That information was always being transmitted through your nervous system, to your brain. You simply used a mechanism in your brainstem to focus your attention there. This is an example of a narrow focus. The more precise your attention is, the more narrow your focus becomes thinking about the sensations of your big toe and your right foot is a narrow focus.

When you were practicing a broad or narrow focus, be certain your breathing is deep, diaphragmatic and rhythmic that you have no sudden or abrupt movement. Your movements should be slow and deliberate. Number four, practice, deep diaphragmatic breathing throughout your day. Breathe deeply and slowly 60 to 70 times per day. Consider pairing your deep breathing with daily activities. Let the phone ring at least twice before you answer it planned inhale deeply on the first ring. Breathe deeply. When you walk through doorways, when you apply the brakes in your car, when you sit, stand and so on, focus on your breathing note, the flow of air into and out of your lungs. Number five, practice supportive internal dialogue. Talk to yourself as you would a good friend, supportive conversations with yourself will both encourage and relax. You. You will learn about specific techniques for self reinforcement in the chapter title, how to talk to yourself on and off the golf course.

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00:01:11

Number six, focus on the present. When you have sleep problems, we all have difficulty with sleep at one time or another. Our tendency is to awaken, look at the clock and then mentally calculate exactly how much sleep we can get. If we fall asleep right now, this tends to set off discussions with ourselves about how much sleep we have to have to perform well or not to feel tired. This thinking that is accelerated to the future also accelerates our nervous system, arouses us and keeps us awake. It has the same effect on our sleep performance that mentally calculating our score during, around, as on our golf performance, set your alarm, turn the clock so you can see the time and become mindful. If you’re concerned that your alarm might not work set two alarms. If you’re a traveling, set your alarm and request a wake up call, feel your body become heavier.

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00:02:08

As you sink deeper and deeper into the bed, let your arms, shoulders and neck drop into the bed and pillow feel the texture of the sheets and the softness around you. Continue this mindful focus as you practice deep diaphragmatic breathing become aware of your inhalation and exhalation. As you count your breaths, OnCourse concentration practice. What kinds of things can you do on the course to help maintain your concentration? Number one, never add your score until the end of the round. Nothing will take you out of the present faster than becoming score conscious. You have already read what tour players say about a score, focus, or looking at the leaderboard. Make a conscious effort to play one shot at a time. Use your scorecard to rank each shot on a one to 10 scale, 10 being the best shot you can hit set a goal of hitting a 10 on every shot.

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00:03:03

The mine under par series scorecard provides detailed strategies for using a scorecard to develop focused. One shot at a time, concentration confidence, a memory bank of good and great shots and an analysis of strengths and weaknesses in your game. Number two, follow the same routine on every shot, a consistent pre swing and swing and post swing routine cues, the same internal and external behaviors on each shot and ensures that you focus only on the shots you were playing practice, going from a broad focus as you do, yardage is wind and so on. Then now your focus from behind the ball, into your setup, to your target. Number three, stay target focused, pick a target for every shot you’re going to play and keep that target integrated through your entire routine. Maintain that target focus during your swing. Remember LPGA tour player and us open champion.

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00:04:01

Meg melon says when I’m playing my best, I know I’m focusing right down to the leaf on the tree. I’m aiming at number four, never analyze mechanics during around swing mechanics analysis belongs on the lesson tee. If you don’t have it during the round, remember what Sam Snead said, dance with the one you brought returned to the lesson tee and asked for drills to work on the changes you need to make after the round. Number five practice, deep diaphragmatic breathing before, during and after your round deep breathing will keep your nervous system arousal to a minimum and enhance your ability to purposely focus your thoughts on the shots you were playing. Number six, practice, quiet movement and mindfulness quieting your movement before and during practice in play will help you develop a desired rhythm and tempo that will build a foundation for peak performance mindfulness.

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00:05:00

During this quieted movement, places you in the present and minimizes distraction, practice being non-emotional and dispassionate with regard to your performance, except the outcome of a shot or situation and remind yourself to return your thoughts to the present. Number seven, practice supportive, reinforcing internal dialogue, supportive dialogue, both on and off. The course will teach you to be patient and to manage emotional and physical decay that produces mental distraction and physical arousal. Number eight, feel the swing you want to make. Then repeat that feeling. Focus your thinking on a feeling of the swing you want to make as you take your practice, swings, focus your thinking on repeating that feeling as you swing. I once heard it stated that you can think of two things at the same time. I disagree. You can feel the swing you want to make and still hold an image of the target.

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00:06:00

It takes practice, but you can do it. You were accessing two separate sensory systems, simultaneously feeling and vision imagery takes place in the same part of the brain as vision. Remember, none of these things turn on and off like a light switch. The more you practice them off the course, the more accessible and successful you will be during play, develop a plan for on and off the course use of these concentration strategies. Using the format of the examples in the chapter, titled lift clean and place. Non-mechanical focus. Jack Nicholas reflects on the common mistake of becoming focused on swing mechanics. If I could get inside the heads of most of the amateurs I’ve played with and the pro-ams I’m certain, the pictures I’d see would be mostly about clubs swinging and ball striking. That’s about as bad, a mental mistake as you can make. Nicholas began in 1994 with a senior tour victory at the Mercedes championship.

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00:07:01

And then he missed four straight cuts. His fourth missed cut was that the PGA Nestle invitational in March, 1994. He summarized his problems on the course as follows. I played really well at the Mercedes and I suppose it was because I hadn’t played any golf. When I came out, I hadn’t had time to think and really work on my swing. Once I started thinking about it and working on it, I couldn’t do it. PGA tour champion, Johnny Miller describes a similar fate for many tour players, including himself, especially since the advent of video. It’s a common problem for today’s pros even more so, because just about everybody uses videotape. Video can kill very few guys on tour, watch the tape of their swing for the first time and said, wow, I liked my swing. Instead. A lot of them said, geez, I didn’t know. I did that.

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00:07:54

They try to change. And then problems begin. It happened to me. Everybody said, you take it back too far and your left foot hops at impact. So there I was trying to change my back swing, but if I had it to do again, I’d say, Hey, it’s my swing. I’m kicking, but who cares? My swing must be beautiful because the ball flew beautifully. Some of the most consistent golfers are guys who knew very little about their swings. Billy Casper, Lanny Watkins, Arnold Palmer, Bruce Lecky. The list goes on. Johnny Miller goes on to say, the secret of golf is not the swing. If you have an ugly swing and had good looking shots, you can win major championships. If you trust the rest of your game and work on the mental side, the golf swing is just part of playing golf. I’m convinced that the swing isn’t the reason you score well at the professional level you score well because you’re at peace.

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00:08:50

You have a shot. You trust her. You just want to go out, play aggressively and make putts even the best fall into the trap of occasionally focusing on swing mechanics in 1988, Sandy Lyle won the masters and two American PGA tour events. Plus two of the European tour’s top events, the Dunhill masters and the Suntory world match play in 1989. Sources close to Lyles say that he began to question his swing mechanics. As he watched a tape of the 1987 players championship a tournament, he won. He reportedly described his swing as awful. This assessment of, of his swing sent Lyle from one instructor to another. After a lifetime of instruction from his father, Alex and English teaching professional, he’d dropped a 53rd on a European order of merit in 1989. His lowest position since turning professional in 1977, that same year he told European Ryder cup, captain Tony Jacklin not to pick him for the team.

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00:09:52

In 1990, he finished 170 fifth on the American PGA tour money list. And 59th in Europe, Lyle sought the assistance of an Australian sports psychologist, no Blundell who got him off swing mechanics and into targets in 1991, he won the European open and finished 22nd on the order of merit in 1992, he won the Italian open and the Volvo masters and finished eighth on the order of merit, Bob 21, the 1986 PGA championship and decided he could do better. He began to work on his mechanics and sled from the top of the money list. 20 halted his slide after five winless years at the 1995, MCI classic at Hilton head following his, when he reflected on his struggle in pursuit of getting better. I monkeyed with my swing and got worse. I played poorly for so long. I had no confidence at all. I never knew how big confidence was until I didn’t have any.

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00:10:51

Only since last year as I got back to my natural swing, as opposed to connecting the dots. Have I done better? I’m just trying to climb the ladder again. No more mechanical thoughts, just relax and be natural. I’m more of a field player than I ever thought. I was Laurie Rinker Graham joined the LPGA tour in 1982. She won LPGA tour events in 1984 in 1986. And the JC penny classic team play in 1985 with her brother, Larry. She began a search to improve her game consulting. Some of the top instructors in the country, her play began to gradually deteriorate. Her final stop was with Mike Adams at the PGA national academy of golf in Palm beach, Florida. Mike reviewed videos of Lori set up and swing when she was playing well. He told Lori that when she played her best, she sat up a little right of her target.

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00:11:44

He said that this set up, allowed her to release through the ball better. Sure enough. Lori resumed her old setup. Her ball striking, improved, her confidence raised, and her scores began to lower. Many of the tour players and amateurs. I work with describe an in swing focus on mechanics at the time of our first meeting. This I believe is a primary reason for poor performance. Many of these players had their video recorders with them on the range. During every practice session, they would make a few swings. Then review the video and analyze their swings. My first request of these players was to put the video recorders away and to begin to work on drills that promote a feeling of the swing they want to make swinging analysis belongs with a swing instructor. These players lack confidence in their swings and would go from one instructor to another.

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00:12:34

My advice, find an instructor and stay with him or her. There’s no such thing as a perfect golf swing. If this is your goal, you won’t find it in this lifetime. Most of your time will be spent chasing corrections. If you want to XL chase your success. The mine under par series scorecard provides practice strategies to get you out of focusing on corrections and into practicing success. PGA tour player, David Frost won the 1992 Westchester classic and Ryan New York. This was frost first win. And two years after having won four in the previous six years to improve his game, he went to a well-known instructor of some of the top tour players in the world. His play quickly deteriorated. His thoughts went from plain shots to having ensuing mechanical thoughts. His comments, I’ve been very mechanical with my game. I’m trying to eliminate all swing thoughts and play an average game of golf.

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00:13:32

Like I was 16 or 17 years old. I’m trying to neutralize my mind. That’s the difficult part. It feels great, more natural and less manufactured. The guy who knows the least will probably do the best. The guy who doesn’t know much, doesn’t have too much to think about the better you get, the more things you change to go forward. I got too serious instead of enjoying what I had for us. Next wind came at the Canadian open September of 1993. Again, the following week, the 1993 PGA tour Hardee’s classic and the 1994 Canon greater Hartford open. Similarly, Greg Norman described going to the same instructor as David Frost and becoming too mechanical. Norman said that once he dropped the method and began to feel as he used to that’s when he got his consistency and steadiness back this transition back to his old swing, began at the Houston open toward the end of 1991.

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00:14:29

While working with instructor Butch Harmon, Norman says it took 10 to 12 months to get back to where he was when he was comfortable. Then he won the PGA tours Canadian open in September, 1992. The Miami Doral writer opened in March, 1993 and the 1993 British open. He finished second on the 1994 money list and led the tour in scoring average in 1995, he finished number one on the money list. And again, led the tour and scoring average in just 16 events. Butch Harmon discussed his work with Norman. The first thing we did was getting back to swinging like Greg Norman. He tried a different swing that didn’t work for him. It took about six or seven months to get that out of there. Norman described the effects of mechanics focus had on his game. I lost the feel of what I was doing that’s because I was trying to be too mechanical instead of being basic and natural.

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00:15:24

At the end of 1990, I decided to try to get better and improve my golf swing. I should have left the golf swing alone and gone ahead and had a break and started all over working with what I’ve got, which had been successful for 15 or 16 years. So I tried to improve. I tried a different method and that destroyed me. That destroyed my natural instincts and feel for the game. Watch struggling tour players. You will see them working on their mechanics during a round between shots. You can see them look for the position of their club during a practice swing. Sometimes with an imaginary club. This I believe is a primary reason for the struggle. You cannot be thinking of mechanics and playing well at the same time, the tendency is for the mechanics. Thoughts to spill into the swing. A mechanics focus is a formula for disaster.

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00:16:16

In 1974, Nicholas described his early years of work on his golf swing. He said he grew up in an era of Ben Hogan and everything he saw read and heard indicated that Hogan had reached mechanical perfection, Nicholas notes, that he felt all he needed was time to work, to develop this perfection. Nicholas commented on his perceptions of those years. No matter how much work I did one week, I would have it. And the next I couldn’t hit my head. This is still true today. I’m a far better golfer than when I started out on the tour 12 years ago. And I feel that I have improved to some degree each year, but that is more the result of maturity and competitive experience then of improvement in the mechanics game. Former PGA tour champion and teacher Ken Venturi sums up the mechanics focus quite nicely. If you’re hitting the ball well, don’t start fiddling with your swing to make it look prettier otherwise sooner or later, your shots will turn ugly.

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00:17:18

When you start freezing positions, looking in the mirror to see if you’re perfect, you become tense and hinder the natural flow of your swing. Ray Floyd states. I’ve had enough of that mechanical stuff. All the swing keys, the pulling and pushing. Now I let the clubs swing naturally. All of these examples, remind me of the story of the Chinese philosopher who asked the centipede, how could walk with so many legs in such a coordinated fashion. As the centipede began to describe the mechanics of its gate, it stumbled and fell. Top golfers will tell you that they play their best golf when they have no thoughts regarding their mechanics. Why is that? The case one explanation takes us back to wiring’s coops and she ends description of left and right brain functions. A focus on mechanics is a left brain function that interferes with performance. Another explanation is that you begin to play swing and forget the shot.

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00:18:17

Your goal was to hit the ball to a target. Focus on your targets to the exclusion of mechanics. Bobby Jones said concentrating on the results of a golf shot to the absolute exclusion of all other thoughts, especially about its method is a secret to every good shot I ever hit. Sam Snead says, all you have to do is tell a player. His hands are in a beautiful position at the top and ask him how he got them there. He says any player begins to think about his hands were begin to hit balls left right everywhere. But at the target senior tour player, Chichi Rodriguez was asked what he does better now than when he played on the regular tour. His response, I put better. If I put it like I do now, I would have one 50 tournaments. My nerves are better. Putting is a state of mind.

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00:19:07

I have confidence that I can make the putts back then. I didn’t. I bought it. Okay. In the early seventies, then somebody gave me $50 to write an article on how I put, when I tried to break it down, I couldn’t figure it out and I didn’t put worth anything for a long time. Ed grant, a lecture and golf enthusiasts. Use the following exercise to show what happens when you focus on your mechanics during the golf swing. Now I’d like for you to do this exercise and I’m going to present the step. So if you need to please shut off the tape and get a piece of paper and a pencil, or if you’re driving in your car, please be sure and come back to this. Cause it’s really a very telling first thing I want you to do is write your name at the top of a piece of paper.

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00:19:53

Okay? Just take the piece of paper, sign your name now under your signature. I want you to copy your name. I don’t want you to sign your name again. I want you to copy your name. Want you to look at the length of each line in each letter, copy every curve as you see it, don’t just sign your name again. Look at each stroke of the pen and your signature as you copy your name. Now, once you’ve done that, that’s going to take a couple of minutes because it tends to be a very slow process. Now, once you’ve done that, and then I want you to copy your first copy again, using exactly the same technique. So this would, you’ll have three signatures in a row, not signatures, but you’ll have one signature in two copies. And your third one is to copy the copy.

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00:20:37

Now, as you do this, you can stop because I’m sure you’re recognizing the progressive deterioration in the quality of your signature from the first to the last your golf swing should be as automatic as your signature. As you begin to think your way through your swing, it’s similar to copying your signature. It’s also similar to driving a car for the first time as new drivers, we had a tendency to oversteer. Our focus was on the steering wheel, the brake, the accelerator, and a very short distance beyond the front bumper. When you oversteer a golf swing, your performance will deteriorate when you drive. Now, your focus is 100 to 600 feet ahead of the car. You’re looking at your targets. When you steer your golf swing, your focus is on the movements of the swing. Not the target. Remember, always think about the target. Don’t forget the quote, stare at the target and glance at the ball.

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00:21:30

The anatomy of learning. When you trace the development of an infant’s brain into its early years of life, it resembles the growth of a young tree. It continues to branch into more and more intricate patterns with age. A recent brain research shows that learning is represented in the nervous system in much the same way that is as learning occurs, structural changes, evolve, and the branching of the nervous system. These structural changes represent many repetitions of simple to complex behaviors. Neuroscientist suggests that there is a massive flourishing of neural structures from birth to about five years. And this is followed by a pruning of those structures until about age 20. The flourishing and pruning process involves both learning and development. Now consider the gradual learning of any motor or mental skill performance is dependent upon the sequential firing of the correct circuitry. The more repetition through the circuitry, the more learning is ingrained and the more predictable the behavior becomes change the conditions in which the behavior was originally learned.

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00:22:38

And you will create a new path of circuitry. Once the behavior is practiced across a variety of conditions, consistent predictable patterns of firing will occur and behavior becomes predictable in most conditions. How many times have you stood on the practice range during a good ball striking period and said, I’ve got it. Anyone who has played golf for any period of time has been on the practice range and concluded he has it at one time or another. He’s also a certain that this magic bullet is going to carry him to a higher level of performance. The next time he plays, there are a multitude of reasons why you don’t have it. These reasons all returned to the structural anatomical nature of learning as represented in the brain. This is why lessons that include drills and practice, which entails repetition of the desired sequence of behaviors. We recall the chain links.

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00:23:32

It’s why this sequence of behaviors and the repetition of those behaviors are going to be your best learning strategies for lasting change. This is why it took European and us PGA tour player. Nick Faldo, two years to rebuild a swing. He was rebuilding the neurocircuitry of the brain. It took Greg Norman, six to seven months to return the old neurocircuitry of his former swing. This is also why you will hear most instructors say that it is easier to teach a beginner than a player of 15 years, who has well-practiced bad habits. These habits have a structural representation in the brain. New circuitry must be built through repeated practice. The old learning branches just don’t go away. Either research shows that these unused neurocircuits appear to atrophy with age, although they seem to fire at the most inopportune times, especially under pressure. The new learning must be rehearsed repeatedly across a variety of situations before it completely overrides the old structural learning circuitry of the brain.

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00:24:32

There are no magic bullets in learning drills, the path to swing fix as already noted your nervous system branches like a growing tree as learning occurs. Your swing memory is in these branches. You’re going to make corrections in your setup in swing or post swing. You have to override old learning the resides in the neurocircuitry. This neurocircuitry can’t be erased or changed in a day or even two or three days. Nervous system branches. Can’t be pruned like the trees in your yard or at your local club daily drills at home and on the practice range are the only way to groove new habits in the nervous system. These drills will reprogram the circuitry of your nervous system through repetition. This is true of both the mental and mechanical routines. If you consider it, it’s true of every behavior we learn. You have never been able to perform a new complex motor skill at your best possible performance level.

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00:25:34

After one, two, or even a series of lessons, it takes practice. Our tendency is to expect maximum performance after a few trials and minimum practice frustration follows. When we don’t experience the expected level of performance, you can change these undesired learn behaviors. The only way to override this old learning is through daily repetition, that grooves new memory, creating new branching networks in the nervous system once learned and practiced in different states, the learning will generalize or transfer to other conditions. For example, from the range to the course to tournament play, I have read and heard it stated that it takes 21 days and numerous daily repetitions to change a habit. I spent the first eight years of my psychology training in a laboratory studying behavior under various learning conditions. I have never seen a scientific study that states it takes 21 days and 60 repetition per day to change a habit.

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00:26:34

However, I would suggest it’s a good guideline. The time it takes to change a habit is going to be dependent upon learning history. That is how complex are those branches of nerve pathways that are related to the golf swing or similar movement, like a baseball swing and in how many different states have you practiced this swing. Once you have made the swing changes in a low arousal setting, graduated exposure to Encore situations will transfer this learning to new states. This is why the person who has a lot of experience in tournament or pressure situations is more likely to play better in those conditions than the person who doesn’t. The seasoned player has learned to perform under a variety of different conditions or states. Most golfers are familiar with Byron Nelson’s, 1945 wind streak of 11 straight PGA tour events. Every golf magazine in 1995 had coverage of the 50th anniversary of this tremendous feat.

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00:27:36

Most people don’t know that Nelson not only won 11 straight tournaments that year, he won a total of 19 tournaments and finished out of the top five. Only one time in 1945 with a stroke average of 68.33, Byron Nelson began recording his plane performance in a diary in 1935. Although his golf career began before that year in 1935, Nelson played 112 rounds in 31 tournaments. He recorded only four rounds in the sixties, three rounds of 69 and one of 68. He recorded six rounds of 80 or higher and 45 rounds of 75 or higher. His scoring average in 1935 was 74.06 in 1938. Nelson played in 24 tournaments and had a scoring average of 74.83 in 1942. Nelson scoring average dropped to 71.02 and in 1944, it fell further to 69 point 77. Byron Nelson climbed a tall ladder. When you look at his performance over the 10 years prior to 1945, you can see his ups and downs and his gradual progress.

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00:28:55

You can also see he was poised for his 1945 streak. Every successful competitive golfer has climbed the ladder of competition. Few players experience immediate success as they step onto a new rung from junior golf to high school, to college, to many tours. And finally onto the big tour, there are struggles in every rung. The tendency is for these players to lose confidence in their swing and their ability to compete. They began to focus their concentration on their swings rather than their targets. Most of the great players in the world don’t have pretty or 100% technically sound swings. However, their swings are consistent. They repeat the same mechanics on each swing. They aren’t searching for the perfect or for every shot to be perfect. They can repeat the same swing, no matter what the condition they are not mechanically focused in his early years, Bobby Jones was described as a great ball striker, but a poor competitor in the 1923, us open at Inwood Jones went into the last round with a three stroke lead until the last three holes where he’d dropped four strokes to tie with Bobby Cruickshank Jones won in a playoff again in 1928, he was three strokes ahead of the field in the U S open at Olympia fields and drop seven strokes.

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00:30:16

The last 11 holes to tie with Johnny Farrell Jones lost in a playoff. One year later, the U S open at Wingfoot. Again, he was three strokes ahead of the field going into the last day. He took two sevens to drop to a tie with Al Watrous. Again, he recovered and won the playoff with repeated experience. Jones learned to compete differently in later years, however, early in his career, anytime he had a lead going into the final round, his pattern was to lose several strokes. The practice swing a meaningless ritual, your nervous system stores, two types of memory short-term and long-term, it takes many rehearsals of a skill verbal or motor to convert memory from short-term to long-term. A practice swing does two things for you. Number one, it is calling up a swing from your memory. Number two, it is providing you with a rehearsal of the ideal feeling for a shot.

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00:31:14

I see many players practicing on the range raking and hitting one ball after another, the speed of their practice session spills into the tempo of their swing and frustration quickly sets in. I’ve watched other players take a practice swing on the course during play. However, they don’t pay attention to the tempo and feeling. And the practice swings seldom resembles the swing they put on the ball. The practice swing has become a meaningless ritual. That is part of their routine. However, not used efficiently share. It makes you feel loose and assist you in relaxing before the shot. However, do you feel the tempo? Do you experience and focus on the feeling of your total practice swing? When you play your best golf, do you take a practice swing? Do you have a picture of the swing in your mind? Let’s look at another situation you play approximately 72% of your golf game from 150 yards in for the majority of these shots, you won’t hit a full club.

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00:32:13

Do you rehearse the feeling of the swing? Whether it is 55 yards or five yards, you probably won’t have the same shot again in that round, or maybe the next two or three rounds. Your eyes feed your brain information regarding distance. The transfer is a feeling of movement to the large muscles. You feel the shot as you take practice swings while looking at the target, most of you will increase the number of practice swings you on a shot. The closer you get to the green. Ideally when you step up to the ball, you’re rehearsed, practice swing is a swing you make when you’re able to do so. Your performance is best. Why not practice, feeling every shot and use your short-term memory. To repeat that feeling in your full swing. Mike McGavick, a friend and PGA teaching professional and instructor for many LPGA and PGA tour players tells me he doesn’t let a student hit a ball without first taking a practice swing.

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00:33:09

The next time you watch a tour event, notice how both men and women feel the distance on the green. As they look at the hole, notice that they take a practice, swing outside a sand bunker before stepping in to hit their shot. They also rehearse their swing when chipping and pitching and all shots from 75 yards into the green. Anytime a player is between clubs. They feel the distance in the shot they want to hit. I recommend you begin taking a practice swing before every shot, whether you’re on the practice range or during, around focus your concentration on the feeling of that swing. If you don’t like the way it feels, take another one. Your goal should be to repeat the feeling of the practice swing. As you make your swing on the ball, mentally maintain your target orientation as you do, you should have no thoughts of mechanics during the swing.

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00:33:58

Only an image of the target and the feeling of the practice. Swing the chapter on visualization. We’ll show why a feeling and even an image of the swing you want to make are two of the best pre swing and end swing thoughts you can have. You will see how this helps construct a performance enhancing motor program. I would encourage you to practice feeling the same grip pressure with every shot you hit. If you increase grip pressure during putting, you will grab the putter, creating a hitting motion and pull or push the putt. If you increase your grip pressure in the full swing, you will also likely produce a hitting motion. Both of these conditions are created by tension effort, creates tension, attempting to hit the ball further results in effort in your swing, you will likely find that the day’s effort is working. Your short game is off the accumulated tension, interferes with your field for the short game, your sense of feel or touch abandoned.

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00:34:54

You peak performers will tell you when they are playing well. The feeling is effortless. Remember how effortless the best round you ever played was focus on that memory for the next time you tee it up with a long hitter Harvey Penick one of the greatest teachers of our time said the woods are filled with long drivers. The John Daly’s, Fred couples, Davis Love’s and Jim dense are the exceptions. Of course, they’re rare. They are world-class players. Remember keep your focus on your targets effortlessly in closing this chapter, I want you to recall what Gary player said. Concentration takes years of practice to acquire. It’s difficult to come by and easy to lose. If you let up an integral part of developing concentration, of course, is self-discipline the kind of self-control that teaches your mind to do what you want it to do. In spite of this practice, there are many events that will steal your concentration.

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00:35:56

It is important that you have as few off-course distractions as possible. If you’re going to play your best tagger woods shot an opening round 70 to tie for eight plays during the 1996 PGA tour championship at 3:00 AM. The morning of the second round tagger took his father to the hospital and stayed with him until later that morning, tiger shot a 43 on the front. And even on the back to record a 78 on the day, his highest score of his PGA career. Needless to say tiger lost his focus that day. His thoughts were with his father in a hospital, a few miles from the golf course, concentration takes practice. If you’re going to heighten your ability to concentrate, I would encourage you to review the on and off course strategies covered in this chapter and begin a daily practice program.