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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!
JANUARY, 2001:
The Short Course in Mental
Training
for Young Golfers
Usually
I talk about one element of mental training in
each article. This time I want to talk about the
three most important elements for young golfers.
Golfers who are beginning to find that they
really do have what it takes to play competitive
golf. This training should be part of their
training from the very beginning. Of course the
physical game should be the main concern at the
beginning but the mental side is important even
at the beginning.
Mental Imagery:
Let's begin with imagery and talk about the right
way to mentally practice. The most common mistake
is to make images of yourself doing well. You
close your eyes, visualize yourself having a
great round and feel good about it. That makes a
nice feeling, but it does little as far a real
mental practice is concerned.
The
most productive way to use imagery is what is
called the "associated" form or style.
In the associated style you may begin by seeing
yourself, but then you step into the image and
the rest of the image is of what you would see
and feel if you were actually playing the golf
yourself. You know you are in the associated
style if you can not see your forehead or your
back. You can not see these parts of your body in
the real world and in associated imagery you can
not see them either. When using imagery focus on
how the body feels when it is doing things right.
Focusing
on the feel of a good swing or putt emphasized
the memory and recreation of the swing or putt.
Next time you want to actually hit or putt the
ball you will find that the imagery, if done
often and correctly, has made it easier to
actually perform better. Having the child learn
how to use imagery in this way is a great tool
for practicing all the aspects of golf.
Self-talk:
What
you say to yourself determines how you feel and
how the body responds. Sounds important to me and
I hope to you also. A child should learn how his
or her self-talk directly determines his or her
level of performance. You can not talk yourself
down, or over react, and expect a good round of
golf.
A
child can learn the connection of how the
thoughts make the chemicals that make you both
mad and your body uptight. Help them catch their
negative thoughts and change them into less
negative ones. Even a child know that you can't
simply pretend it doesn't matter. So do not try
and get them to discount a bad situation or
event. They know better. Teach them how people
tend to make things worse than they really are,
and how we "awfullize" things. Help
them check out their "stincken thinkin"
and change their self-talk to words and attitudes
that are more helpful on the course.
Focus:
Finally, help each child learn how to focus on
what is important and how to let the rest go.
Help them determine what is important as far as
making the next shot and what thoughts and
concerns are not important. If you teach them how
to start out in a broad fashion and then to take
notice of what is important for the success of
the next shot without including things that are
not important, you have helped them to focus.
Then help them make a plan and teach them how to
stick with it.
Then
you teach them how to end up with no thoughts or
concerns (even about how their body is doing) and
being only aware of the back of the ball. All
still and quiet just before they make the stroke.
Teach them that they control where their minds go
and what they think about. Remind them often that
they do not lose focus, they just put it in the
wrong place at the wrong time. Focus is always
somewhere, but sometimes it is not where it will
do the most good.
These
are the basics. From these three things come the
dozens of other important mental training lessons
and techniques. If you help a child begin well
you have given him or her a real advantage that
will last all their life.
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.
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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
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