|
|
 |
Our special guest,
Dr.Bob Phillips "Golf
Psychologist" will be here exclusively every
month to reveal to you techniques used by top
level professional golfers to mentally prepare,
maintain focus, bring about their peak
performance and to help you improve your score!
DECEMBER, 2000:
Building Confidence in
Junior Golfers
Confidence
is one the most important elements in golf. This
is true for golfers of all ages, but it is
especially true for younger golfers. Confidence
can be divided up into two general areas.
The
first is confidence in yourself as a person.
This separates you from golf, or any other single
endeavor. Do you like yourself? What is your
value to you? If you start to question yourself
because you play golf poorly you are not putting
a very high value on you as a person.
The
second type of confidence is performance
confidence.
This is about how well you expect to
perform. Some people have little confidence in
their ability to play well even if all the
evidence strongly suggests that they will perform
well. These people usually have low self-esteem
and therefore have little of the first type of
confidence mentioned above. Without good
confidence in yourself as a person, it is not
likely that a golfer will have high performance
confidence.
Others
have great amounts of confidence in their ability
to perform well, even though they have not put in
the necessary time and training to build up their
level of play. These people begin each tournament
or round with the greatest expectation and often
feel very disappointed after a few holes of
average or poor play. These golfers have not
learned how to develop true confidence and
instead rely on wishful thinking.
The first step in building up true confidence is
to give the youth the understanding that golf is
not life and that it is something that develops
and improves over time. They do not need to play
well to enjoy the game. Talk to them about how
uneven and unpredictable the game actually is.
Help them be ready for anything so that they can
enjoy the experience without tying it to their
own value as a person. If you think you are
motivating someone by belittling them, think
again. You are simply modeling being a bully and
if they buy into your thinking they will not
develop true confidence because they will strive
to satisfy others and not set their own goals and
limits.
One way to help a young player is to have them
break down their game into five or six categories
or components. Make sure that mental preparation
is one of the categories. (Didn't think of that
one did you?) The other categories could include
such things as short putts, long putts, distance,
accuracy, sand shots, and other elements that are
easily kept track of. Ask the young golfer to
make a list and, in a practice round, keep track
of what actually went well and what areas were
problems. It is hard to mess up in everything.
After
the round go over the results and look for the
good and the bad. Talk up the strengths and show
him or her how to improve. Then go over the
problem areas and talk about what is needed to
improve. Always have the belief that they are
exactly where they should be as to level of play.
If you get upset, you teach them that they are
wrong or off base or not trying -- and you
make it hard for them to emotionally be available
to put energy into practice. By breaking golf
down into these components you help them enjoy
the positive and tackle the negative.
Remember
the old saying, "A bad day on the golf
course is better than a good day at the
office". Help the young golfer understand
why this is true.
And remember to build up the person, break down
the problems, stress the positive and model
having fun doing it all.
RETURN
TO DR SPORT MAIN MENU
Bob
Phillips, Ph.D.
Aspire
Training and Coaching Personal coaching for
success in sports, business and life. Helping you
achieve your goals. 748 Holcomb Bridge Rd.
Norcross, Ga. 30071 (770)729-0030 Fax
(770)449-5758
Ask Dr. Phillips about any
mental game of golf question or problem you have
and he will e-mail you an answer.
|
 |
Bob Phillips, Ph.D., has
been helping athletes, sales people and managers
perform at their best for over fifteen years. As
a leading performance psychologist and coach, he
has developed several methods of evaluating and
maximizing performance.
In this series of articles
Dr. Phillips gives golfers the information and
techniques used by top level athletes in all
sports -- especially golf -- to mentally
prepare, maintain focus and bring about their
peak performance. A number of articles will focus
on Junior Golf.
ONE-ON-ONE
COACHING
Now Available
- First Session Free -
Dr. Bob Phillips offers
one-on-one coaching by phone to home or office
for golfers who are "stuck" and want to
move up to the next level of play, taking 5-10
strokes off their game. For more information,
call Dr. Phillips at 770-729-0030 or e-mail him
below.
E-Mail
Dr. Phillips
"Check
out your mental game for FREE"
Visit
Dr. Phillips'
web site
|
AsiaPacificAmateurGolfers.com is owned & managed by Allied Golfers Network Sdn Bhd.
Copyright 2000-2001. Designed & maintained by