14 April 2010
What The US Open Tournament Means To Your Game…
Posted by Darren Zahradnik under: Golf .
So you may be wandering just what does the US Open Golf Tournament have to do with my game? Well, if you want to play well under pressure it should have everything to do with it. When you practice simply focusing on your swing and blasting balls at the range it's only one small aspect to true practice. This is what is called the practise makes perfect method. Yet if you've golfed for any length of time you know this simply isn't true: practice doesn't make perfect. Practice makes permanent. So practice what is really necessary to play at your peak. Your inner game of golf requires the same attention .
In order to play well with the anxiety of stress you need to practise under the same conditions. When the chips are down and you need to hit the shot of your life, the self imposed pressure felt increases 10 fold for most golfers. The trial by fire approach to improving your mental game of golf toughness and performing under pressure is a haphazard method. Yet this is all most people know.
They enter more competitions with the hopes that by being in more events they will acquire the mental game toughness and concentration skills to deal with the pressure. It just doesn't work that way. What do you see happen most of the time with this typical approach ? Most players don't perform to their own potential in the key moments when everything is on the line because they lack the mental game preparation.
Inevitably when they fail it's chalked up to experience and they simply hope to be in a position to win again. They call this approach the natural way. Just get in contention enough times and you're sure to win. It's a very haphazard mental game approach. Well this might be true, since a player will win eventually if they give themselves enough chances.
I want to submit to you that the more times you are in contention and don't win that what you are doing is increasing the likelihood of losing again, not of making winning easier. Why is this, lack of mental game preparation ? You have built a mindset of losing in your subconscious mind around not performing well under pressure. It will drive your behaviour (your thought processes and the swings you make under pressure ). You will automatically reproduce the experience of losing that you are accustomed to.
It certainly is a hard pill to swallow but if you ever want to become more than just a mediocre golfer then mental game training can save you months, and even years for some golfers, of needless inner turmoil around pressure, performance anxiety, competitive stress and its influence on your golf game. So what if you could simulate the US Open tournament pressure when you practise and then were able to take that mindset out to the course when you play?
What if your preparation included a mental game imagery process that mirrored any and every pressure filled setting you might face and included it into your practice routine? Do you think it would be safe to say that you are a few steps ahead of your competition? I believe you most certainly would be!
By feeling with your mind's eye, not simply seeing, you can undergo the exact pressure you'll face in competition. Your subconscious mind will absorb these sessions and add them to your mental game collection and integrate them into your golfing self image. They become real situations in your subconscious. This technique provides the body and mind with sensory specific information of what pressure is and how you need to perform when it's present.
You are, in fact preparing your mind and body to act and perform in a desired way when under pressure. Practise your mental game by imagining you are in the US Open and at the range hitting balls. Give yourself only one shot to hit your desired target. Establish a scoring system to examine how well you perform this way. Increase the pressure by taking only one drive, then one iron, then a chip shot if you miss your target with your approach shot. Try to pay very close attention to how your perform when using this technique.
If you want to accelerate your mental game progress and begin to play well under pressure then it's vital you simulate pressure in your practice sessions . What other way is there to get ready to face the inevitable? Do you honestly want to rely on the time worn routine of entering more and more tournaments and matches with the hopes of getting used to it? How much time money are you prepared to lose before you make the changes necessary ?
Take hold of your potential by developing a rock solid mental game. Your overall mindset on the course, your Mental Game of Golf toughness, your sense of clarity and inner confidence under the gun, and a list of other benefits will enter your game. Not just sporadically but for a lifetime. You will be amazed how the little things that used to distract you before no longer enter your mind.
To get information on the mental game and to find a Mental Game of Golf Training program visit TheGolfaholic.com where you will also find comprehensive Golf Club Reviews .
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