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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!
SEPTEMBER, 2000:
Boxing Out the Next Shot
A
major problem with even professional golfers is
that it is so easy to let our minds take a wide
sweeping view of what the next shot means:
"How will it affect my
score?"
"What does it mean to me
personally?"
"Is this the best round I
have ever played? Is it the worse round?"
"If I sink this putt it
will put me one up on Harry!"
"My dad is watching, I
really want to do well."
All
of these comments, questions and statements are
possible, along with
hundreds more, at the very time you need to be
focused on the elements of planning and executing
the shot. If you are doing this, you are not
"boxing out" the shot.
"Boxing out" means that you mentally
put up a fence around what you need to do, so
that you are not distracted by the things and
thoughts that have no real bearing on the shot or
putt. By not "boxing out" you allow
your mind to wander to distractions.
Remember:
even pleasant thoughts of success are not
relevant to making the shot. Sometimes this lack
of limiting your thoughts is called "outcome
thinking". In other words, you spend time
and energy thinking of what the outcome could be
and how that would feel. This is truly an unwise
way of spending the time and energy needed to
make the shot.
Think of a piece of paper with words and pictures
covering it. All of these words and pictures are
in some way related to the next shot, but only a
few of them are helpful in making the shot. Now
group the needed and useful elements together on
the page. Now draw a box around these few things.
Some
of the things in the box would be: a solid plan
to make the shot, a solid pre-shot routine,
feeling the swing or putt in your mind, seeing
the ball go to where you want it, and ending up
looking at the back of the ball as you swing or
putt.
Things
left out of the box are: past mistakes, thoughts
of how bad it would be to miss the target,
thoughts of how good it would be to make the
shot, or just about anything else you could think
of. All of these are left out of the box because
they do not help you make the shot.
It is important to really understand what should
be in the box. Make a list of what is important
to making the shot. You may even what to consider
the sequence or order of the included thoughts.
Any other thought or picture is out of the box
and not allowed. If you find anything in the box
that does not belong in there, simply pick it up
by its tail and drop it outside the box. Practice
limiting your thinking to only what is in the
box.
Begin
by practicing at home. Practice "boxing
out" fifty times at home before you begin to
practice it in physical practice. After two or
three weeks of practice you will be ready to
begin to use this in competition. Remember, you
must first practice mental training at home and
then in physical practice before you can expect
to use it in competion.
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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