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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!
OCTOBER, 2000:
Practice the Pressure
Tiger
Woods' Dad, in a book he wrote on teaching Tiger
golf, describes using irritating and distracting
situations to teach Tiger to block out everything
except what is important for making the shot.
This article talks about this process and how
you, too, can learn to play well regardless of
distractions.
In law school there is an old saying, "If
you're drunk when you study, you better be drunk
when you take the test". This means that the
state of mind you are in when you study is the
best state of mind for recalling the information
you learned. In golf we might say, "If you
practice without pressure, you better play
without pressure". Of course you cannot play
without pressure because pressure is one of the
normal aspects of competitive golf. So how do you
successfully bring pressure into practice without
causing it to slow down or damage the practice
itself?
The answer is to drill hard on the basics and
then bring pressure into the practice session in
a controlled and positive manner. Breaking the
physical basics down into their basic moves and
practicing these over and over allows the golfer
to perform without having to consciously go over
the basics or having to rethink each move before
it is accomplished. What this does is create a
larger chunk of behavior by combining several
small basics into the one, larger, chunk called a
putt or a wedge shot. This process begins with
the simple and moves into more complicated shots.
For
instance you might begin with a short flat putt
and then add distance and slope to the putt.
After each session the golfer is asked to talk
the instructor through the process of handling
the shot and what was needed. The instructor
gives positive and corrective feedback, focusing
on the positive aspects of the practice and on
positive expectation of change and increased
success. Doing poorly and getting upset is not
the kind of pressure we are talking about.
Frustration and anger are not competitive
pressures; they are self-generated and usually
destructive pressures. These pressures are caused
by a loss of appropriate focus and should not be
allowed during practice or competition.
After the basics have been practiced, the
pressure is increased by systematically adding
"pressure" elements. These elements can
be part of the shot, like increasing the
difficulty, or by adding outside distractions,
such as talking or asking the golfer to ignore
distractions like golf balls being rolled across
the golfer's putting line. While practice can be
fun, preparing for competition has a serious
side. In order to bring a sense of
"pressure" into practice, the golfer
must learn how to react to an entire gamut of
pressure simulations.
Giving
the golfer only one chance to make a specific
shot or putt is one example of practicing under
pressure. Attaching a prize of desired reaction
is also a way of bringing in the
"pressure". Another way to increase
practice pressure is to create games so that a
scoring system is set up and the winners are
acknowledged. All of these techniques simulate at
least some of the pressure that will be
encountered in competition. If you are basically
training yourself, you can still bring these
pressure situations into the practice by simply
setting a time at which you will automatically
assume that the next shot is the one.
If
you miss, you do not get a second chance. If you
miss, you must pick up the ball and begin a
different practice exercise. This "do or
die" challenge adds to the pressure so the
golfer, and his or her coach, can ascertain
exactly how the golfer reacts. Does the golfer
become too involved with the distraction or
possible outcome? If they do shift their focus to
irrelevant factors, they can be coached on how to
hold their focus on what is important and how to
let go of, or ignore, the rest. A golfer is
always focusing, so the question becomes: is the
golfer focusing on that which is most helpful in
making the next shot?
Other
questions such as: "Is the golfer practiced
enough so that he or she does not have to think
their way through each piece of the action?"
and, "Does increased pressure alter the
golfer's ability to make his or her best
shot?" are both being explored when
practicing under pressure.
Make pressure a part of each practice. Make sure
that you have mastered the physical aspects of
each shot and that you are able to perform
physically with great consistency. Then add
pressure to the practice so you are more prepared
to handle the pressure in competition. Make the
feedback frequent and positive.
To be
even more specific, and to paraphrase what was
said at the beginning of this article, "If
you are under pressure when you play, you better
be under pressure when you practice". If you
make playing and practicing very different, your
response to them will be very different. Are you
a great practice golfer, but a poor player?
Perhaps you need to turn up the pressure in the
practice session.
RETURN
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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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