For my birthday last week, family bought me a copy of “Don’t Choke” by Gary Player, which is his take on the mental game of golf. This book has been a great read so far, in spite of the odd title.  As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the mind focuses only on the action and doesn’t distinguish between do and don’t. So the title is actually received as the command “choke”. Need proof of how this works? Don’t think of a yellow golf ball… OK… now do think of a yellow golf ball. In both cases, you conjured up an image of a yellow golf ball. Make sure when you select your targets in golf that you do so positively; saying “don’t hit the bunker” makes you think of the bunker.

In any case, the point of this post is to post a great quote from the book:

And I can tell you that golf is in its infancy concerning the power of the mind. All you ever hear and read is what a beautiful swing so and so has and what a long ball he hits. You drive for show and putt for dough. Give me the man with a good mind and a great putter any day.

Gary Player – Don’t Choke (2010)

I am looking forward to reading the rest of the book!

In the June14 edition of Golf World magazine, there is another great article on golf conditioning, who’s doing it, the reasons and the results.

In June it was Lee Westwood. He admitted to being overweight. He also stated that in order to compete with stronger guys on longer courses with thicker rough etc., he had to make himself bigger, stronger and more capable of competing.

What Lee and his Conditioning Coach are doing is a lot of Olympic stly lifting, but also taking care of all aspects of his health, fitness and nutrition.

“Having more muscle now, I’m also more powerful,” says Lee

“I’m more flexible in the areas I need to be. I hit the ball farther. I feel like I have a much more athletic swing. I find it easier to make more economical movements. I just feel like I have more control. There isn’t a shot I can play now that I couldn’t before, but I’m better at everything to varying degrees.

” I’ve fine-tuned everything rather than making one big change.”

Those are awesome quotes by Lee Westwood! What are you going to do to get your game to the next level and to be able to make your own awesome quotes?

Louis Oosthuizen used a red dot (like this one) on his golf glove as a trigger for focus

Louis Oosthuizen did a fantastic job of staying in the moment while playing with a sizeable lead at the 2010 Open Championship at St. Andrews. While watching the final round, I noticed there was much discussion about the red dot that Louis has on his golf glove and how his pre-shot routine included looking at the red dot on his glove. After the round, Louis acknowledged that he used the dot as a trigger for focus.

Golf is a unique sport in that there is no signal or trigger to let us know that it is time to hit a shot. Having a trigger, or anchor, is a great way to consistently start your shot routine. Anchors can be visual (a little red dot on your golf glove), kinesthetic (hitching your pants or touching the brim of your hat), auditory (saying “go” to yourself) or any combination thereof (anchoring the sound and feel of pulling on the velcro of your golf glove).  Each of these triggers can also have an emotional state attached to (or anchored to) them; you can train your mind to feel focus, power, or fearless whenever you use the trigger.

When I work with clients, one of the first things that we do is identify a mental state or feeling that corresponds to excellent golf for the client. We then build and set an anchor that the client can use as part of the pre-shot or routine. When you see a stop sign you automatically think “stop”.  There was a time in your life when you didn’t know that a red octagon meant that you were supposed to stop. Now, your mind has built a clear and immediate association between seeing a red octagon and needing to stop. Anchors work the same way in sports; you simply train your mind to associate your trigger (i.e. looking at a red dot on your golf glove) with a desired action or feeling (i.e. focus). The process does require time and practice, but the end result of being able to create an instant shift in your emotional state is well worth it.

“Beyond good hand-eye coordination, perhaps my greatest gift in golf is the ability to compartmentalize my mind, to switch it at will totally from one activity or concern to another; then, for the required duration of the new focus, blank everything else out 100 percent.”

Jack Nicklaus, My Story

Did you see it? No, not the Open, the bit before the final round on Golf Conditioning and Fitness? It was so cool to have a profile of conditioning and fitness done and especially since it applied to professionals on the Tour.

You have read my golf blog before and know how passionate I am in getting golfers involved in sport specific movements. Having the PGA run a piece on the fitness trailer at all their events and then to mention the name of all the pros who regularly work on fitness, stretching and strength programs was WAY fantastic!

So, what’s your excuse? I mean, if the professionals are willing to do what’s needed to up their game, what are you doing? What does your game look like now? What do you want it to be? Gotit sussed out? Good, then get moving.

Thanks for the read and as always, your comments are appreciated.

If you are looking for the ultimate display of staying focused when things don’t seem to be going your way, look no further than the round put together by Jamie Kureluk, an Albertan pro, in last week’s Alberta Open.

Jamie was +2 after 8 holes. Many pros would lose interest in their round at this point, believing that a good score is out of reach. Jamie set a new standard on how to recoup your losses and proceeded to go 12 under on his last 10 holes. You heard me right… he finished the front with a birdie and then shot 25 on the back to card a 61. He then went on to win the weather-shortened tournament.

The next time you get down on yourself for starting a round poorly, remember that golf is a game that is played one shot at a time. Just because you have had a bad hole or two, does not mean that your round is destined for failure. If you have a bad front, challenge yourself to shoot lights out on the back and see how low you can go!

Yesterday, I played a round at my club which, even on a Sunday afternoon, generally takes less than 4 hours. My round was much longer as we played behind a junior golf tournament that was serving as a qualifier for a local match play competition. I watch lots of tournament golf and am always amazed by the slow pace of play. It was particularly interesting to watch juniors, complete with an entourage of supporters, taking almost a minute to prepare for each shot. I witnessed pre-shot routines that included no fewer than five practice swings (complete with mechanical swing checks in the backswing), as well as all manner of waggle and pause at the address position.

As a mental game coach, I know that it is only possible to maintain a peak level of focus for a short period of time. The ideal shot routine, from club selection to contact, should take no more than 30 seconds. With longer shot routines, there is simply too much time for doubt, indecision, and negative thought to come into play. This is particularly true at address.

If you’d like to play your best golf, spend no more than 5 seconds over the ball.  Your only goal at address is to maintain your focus and SWING! Your shot routine can be designed to make this happen by giving you the tools to have a clear mind, a specific target, a positive intention, and to be in your peak emotional state for golf. Once this happens, there is no more conscious thought or planning, and you can simply swing freely.

Today’s golf blog looks ahead to the fall: the post-season and off-season for golf. Even if you live in a year round golf climate area or play all year round, consider this; most pro sports have an off-season. As a golfer, you can take advantage of an off-season too.

So, what does a golf off-season mean? What can you do during this time and most important, how can you go about planning for off-season training? It may be a lot easier than you think.

As a golf conditioning specialist, I treat all clients like athletes (within the scope of their present abilities) whom can benefit from a year round training and instructional programs for their golf game. We have the pre-season, the playing- season and then the off-season. There should be a plan to reach a goal within each one of these cycles. Here’s how to plan and implement your off-season training;

Make a goal that gets you excited. Choose something you really want and it will be easier to focus on attaining it. “I want to hit more fairways during my round” is a good one. Accuracy is the issue, so perhaps you need better co-ordination through motor pattern development. “I want to add 20 yards to my drives” Ok, power and strength development are necessary. Get a strength program developed for you and make sure you have enough time to get a power program completed too before the pre-season training starts. In total, you can get through a strength program and a power program in as little as six weeks for each.

Next, decide how much time you can dedicate to the goal and set up the weekly or monthly calendar to reflect your commitment. Hire a swing coach for the fall and if you’re looking to improve physically hire a trainer. Seriously, if you just hit the gym and do your own plan without professional guidance specific to golf, it can be very easy to compound current limitations and not develop the optimal motor pattern development to get your game where you would want it.

As well, be aware that you should also be looking ahead to the pre-season, where you will spend a month taking the new strength and power and developing it into an endurance program to get you what hopefully will be one of your best golf seasons yet! Don’t forget the mental game training, nutrition training and of course the swing lessons you will be doing too right? It’s all part of the complete picture.

Please post comments if you like, we really do appreciate your input. Thanks for the read.

What motivates you to get active? What goals stimulate you to get moving or get the instruction you need?

I thought about this yesterday while playing in the last group of a tournament. I was thinking about my golf game, my abilities, expectations and my motivations. I was thinking about these from a conditioning and fitness perspective. I decided today’s golf blog would look at these issues.

What amuses me about my abilities is that as much as I need more instruction or lessons, I realise that I would be better served getting my conditioning level to where it needs to be so I can progress better.

I want to hit the ball farther. Having a limitation in my turn into a backswing certainly won’t help. I also want better consistency. If I have not learned and then trained my body to get into repeatable positions, I won’t be consistent.

When I realised what I wanted I was able to see what was holding me back; I was with my ego and pride. Having pride is fine, but if it is false and leads you to believe you are better than you actually are, or if it closes you off or limits you to getting and using resources to get better than it’s not serving you well.

So I resolved to let others help me for all the right reasons. I can help myself physically because of the background I have; my skill set. I contacted one of the best teachers to set up lessons and on course management lessons. I have looked at my abilities, thought of my expectations, found motivation and have taken action to get it done. I ask you to challenge yourself and do the same today!

Complete Golf Performance appreciates you reading our blogs and we always appreciate your feedback and comments.

“To my surprise, I found myself making this many birdies. I was in a calm mental state for all 58 strokes.”

-Ryo Ishikawa on shooting 58 on the Japan Golf Tour