Saturday, November 04, 2006

Golf Is A Game Of Precision

Your thoughts can't hold any power over you if you don't judge them. If you notice yourself having a negative thought, detach from it, witness it, and don't follow it.

Golf is a game of precision and so should our mental approach be precise. Doubt, fear, lack of concentration, or being angry over your last missed putt are all factors that affect your scores. You must deal with cause and effect. Is it your putting stance that causes you to miss a two foot putt? Doubtful! Is it the fact you fear missing it, or doubt yourself in front of your peers? Of course it is. Most six or seven year olds can make a two foot putt. Understanding the fact that mental lapses exist and that they are the cause of errors in our games is a great step in creating a foundation for improvement. With improvement comes more satisfaction, with more satisfaction comes more fun.

Doubting yourself, huh? Well, unless you have played golf every day for a living and hit three hundred balls a day, of course you are going to doubt yourself. Let's talk about it for a minute. There are numerous reasons why doubt creeps into one's mind, affecting your golf game. One of them is not trusting our ability to carry out a certain action. We're not talking about hitting our drives as far as Tiger here. Not making a four foot putt is more like it. Doubt can be caused by past experiences. Our competence is questioned, therefore our ability to carry out simple actions is hindered. When faced with a tap in, there is no doubt. A four footer, on the other hand, increases our anxiety level. When you get anxious, the result is a tightening of not only the body,
but also our minds. You can't feel the clubhead, so your awareness of what it is doing decreases dramatically.

Anxiousness is caused by doubt. Not trusting yourself to play your best golf is the reason that you are not playing your best golf. If you are vulnerable, you are weak. Let's take that four foot putt. You know that you can miss it. You lack faith and you tighten up. You're conscious mind is screaming at you, " YOU CAN MISS THIS STUPID!" You half stab at it, miss, and your beliefs are confirmed. So my friends, the viscious cycle begins. Each succeeding stroke becomes harder, and your capability to perform wanes. The conscous mind reminds you that you can miss a shot, producing fear and doubt. When doubt is at the forefront of our thoughts, the mind starts telling the body how to do things and you keep trying harder. Golf is the perfect game for 'trying too hard'...

In his book "Change Your Brain, Change Your Life," Dr. Daniel Amen talks about "ANTs" - Automatic Negative Thoughts. These are the bad thoughts that are usually reactionary, like "Those people are laughing, they must be talking about me," or "The boss wants to see me? It must be bad!" When you notice these thoughts, realize that they are nothing more than ANTs and squash them!

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Quit Talking To Yourself When You Play Golf

A person who can control his own mental processes stands an excellent chance of improving their golf game, for the human mind works along definite lines of thought, and can be studied. One can only control one's, mental processes after carefully studying them.

The human mind is a strange thing. One thing golfers need to understand is: Your conscious mind is easily overloaded with more information than it can handle. This is where stress and anxiety come from. Your conscious mind is the little voice saying, "You can't do it!" because you know that you have screwed up before. So you try harder and get poorer results. Your golf game is suffering from the fact that you are trying to improve.

When starting something new, your conscious mind is focused and in control. This is why a golf tip you have learned about seems to bring a renewal to your game. Suddenly, you are hitting it straighter or longer. You hit more greens in regulation or your putting improves. What happens next? Your subconscious takes notice. Your accomplishments are not normal. For years, you have struggled and this is what the subconscious mind expects. You are not a good golfer and the picture of yourself through the subconscious is inconsistent with the results that you experience in the newness of the golf tip. Defensively, your golf game reverts back to its old self. This is a terrible cycle that you get caught in. Your long term memory is stopping you from getting better.

Sunday, October 29, 2006

The One Thing Golfers Should Understand

A worry-free, fear-free state could do so much to improve your golfing ability. By staying positive, you attract good energy that would be able to easily recognize imminent feelings and events.

Why do you keep telling yourself that you can improve, but find yourself worse off than when you began. Going through the motions, hitting a good shot here and there, and then trying to figure out why you hit a bad shot, and how to fix it. Instead of concentrating on what it is you are trying to accomplish. You deserve to play better golf. You deserve to hit great shot. Now is when you need to start. You and only you, can empower yourself to reach your full potential as a golfer. So what it is that we need to understand?

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Positive Thinking On The Golf Course

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO IMPROVE YOUR SELF?

Golf is an easy game: Everyone should and can learn to play. If you can stay away from the technical aspects of the game, and learn to trust yourself and your ability, golf is somewhat
simplified.

Trying to think of keeping your left elbow in, right elbow tucked, take the clubhead past the right knee. . . right knee flexed, wrist cocks when the shaft is parallel, keep turning till your chin is under your left shoulder. . . shaft pointing at target, start down slow, shift weight to your left foot, tuck right elbow into hip. . . delay the uncocking of your wrists, keep your head down, release the club, flat left wrist. . . etc., are all thoughts that should not be part of the golf swing.
Can you perform the simple act of walking while thinking of firing each individual muscle or each process that it takes to raise and lower your foot to the ground? This is absurd. Your conscious mind is not capable of performing these complex actions. Your subconscious mind is the motivator for your responsive body movements. Overload the conscious, and you induce doubt!
And doubt, my friends, is the enemy of your golf game.

Sometimes, when all our doubts, fears and insecurities wrap ourselves up, we always come up with the idea of “I wish I was somebody else.” More often than not, we think and believe that someone or rather, most people are better than us.- when in reality, the fact is, most people are more scared than us.
You spot a totally eye-catching girl sitting by herself at a party, casually sipping on a glass of Asti Spumanti. You think to yourself, “she looks so perfectly calm and confident.” But if you could read thru her transparent mind, you would see a bunch of clouds of thoughts and you might just be amazed that she’s thinking “are people talking about why I am seated here alone?... Why don’t guys find me attractive? …I don’t like my ankles, they look too skinny… I wish I was as intelligent as my best friend.”
We look at a young business entrepreneur and say “Wooh… what else could he ask for?” He stares at himself at the mirror and murmurs to himself, “I hate my big eyes… I wonder why my friends won’t talk to me… I hope mom and dad would still work things out.”
Isn’t it funny? We look at other people, envy them for looking so outrageously perfect and wish we could trade places with them, while they look at us and think the same thing. We are insecure of other people who themselves are insecure of us. We suffer from low self-esteem, lack of self-confidence and lose hope in self improvement because we are enveloped in quiet desperation.
Sometimes, you notice that you have an irritating habit like biting off your finger nails, having a foul mouth, and you – of all people, are the last to know.
I have a friend who never gets tired of talking. And in most conversations, she is the only one who seems to be interested in the things she has to say. So all of our other friends tend to avoid the circles whenever she’s around, and she doesn’t notico how badly she has became socially handicapped – gradually affecting the people in her environment.
One key to self improvement is to LISTEN and TALK to a trusted friend. Find someone who you find comfort in opening up with even the most gentle topics you want to discuss. Ask questions like “do you think I am ill-mannered?”, “Do I always sound so argumentative?”, “Do I talk too loud?”, “Does my breath smell?”, “Do I ever bore you when were together?”. In this way, the other person will obviously know that you are interested in the process of self improvement. Lend her your ears for comments and criticisms and don’t give her answers like “Don’t exaggerate! That’s just the way I am!” Open up your mind and heart as well. And in return, you may want to help your friend with constructive criticism that will also help her improve her self.
One of Whitney Houston’s songs says “Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all.” True enough. In order to love others, you must love yourself too. Remember, you cannot give what you do not have.
Before telling other people some ways on how to improve themselves, let them see that you yourself are a representation and a product of self improvement. Self improvement makes us better people, we then inspire other people, and then the rest of the world will follow.
Stop thinking of yourselves as second-rate beings. Forget the repetitive thought of “If only I was richer… if only I was thinner” and so on. Accepting your true self is the first step to self improvement. We need to stop comparing ourselves to others only to find out at the end that we’ve got 10 more reasons to envy them.
We all have our insecurities. Nobody is perfect. We always wish we had better things, better features, better body parts, etc. But life need not to be perfect for people to be happy about themselves. Self improvement and loving yourself is not a matter of shouting to the whole world that you are perfect and you are the best. It’s the virtue of acceptance and contentment. When we begin to improve ourselves, we then begin to feel contented and happy.

Monday, October 23, 2006

Mental Attitude In Golf

MENTAL ATTITUDE
Success is in the blood. There are men whom fate can never keep down they march forward in a jaunty manner, and take by divine right the best of everything that the earth affords. But their success is not attained by means of the Samuel Smiles-Connecticut policy. They do not lie in wait, nor scheme, nor fawn, nor seek to adapt their sails to catch the breeze of popular favor. Still, they are ever alert and alive to any good that may come their way, and when it comes they simply appropriate it, and tarrying not, move steadily on.
Good health! Whenever you go out of doors, draw the chin in, carry the crown of the head high, and fill the lungs to the utmost; drink in the sunshine; greet your friends with a smile, and put soul into every hand-clasp.
Do not fear being misunderstood; and never waste a moment thinking about your enemies. Try to fix firmly in your own mind what you would like to do, and then without violence of direction you will move straight to the goal.
Fear is the rock on which we split, and hate the shoal on which many a barque is stranded. When we become fearful, the judgment is as unreliable as the compass of a ship whose hold is full of iron ore; when we hate, we have unshipped the rudder; and if ever we stop to meditate on what the gossips say, we have allowed a hawser to foul the screw.
Keep your mind on the great and splendid thing you would like to do; and then, as the days go gliding by, you will find yourself unconsciously seizing the opportunities that are required for the fulfillment of your desire, just as the coral insect takes from the running tide the elements that it needs. Picture in your mind the able, earnest, useful person you desire to be, and the thought that you hold is hourly transforming you into that particular individual you so admire.
Thought is supreme, and to think is often better than to do.
Preserve a right mental attitude the attitude of courage, frankness and good cheer.
Darwin and Spencer have told us that this is the method of Creation. Each animal has evolved the parts it needed and desired. The horse is fleet because he wishes to be; the bird flies because it desires to; the duck has a web foot because it wants to swim. All things come through desire and every sincere prayer is answered. We become like that on which our hearts are fixed.
Many people know this, but they do not know it thoroughly enough so that it shapes their lives. We want friends, so we scheme and chase 'cross lots after strong people, and lie in wait for good folks or alleged good folks hoping to be able to attach ourselves to them. The only way to secure friends is to be one. And before you are fit for friendship you must be able to do without it. That is to say, you must have sufficient self-reliance to take care of yourself, and then out of the surplus of your energy you can do for others.
The individual who craves friendship, and yet desires a self-centered spirit more, will never lack for friends.
If you would have friends, cultivate solitude instead of society. Drink in the ozone; bathe in the sunshine; and out in the silent night, under the stars, say to yourself again and yet again, "I am a part of all my eyes behold!" And the feeling then will come to you that you are no mere interloper between earth and heaven; but you are a necessary part of the whole. No harm can come to you that does not come to all, and if you shall go down it can only be amid a wreck of worlds.
Like old Job, that which we fear will surely come upon us. By a wrong mental attitude we have set in motion a train of events that ends in disaster. People who die in middle life from disease, almost without exception, are those who have been preparing for death. The acute tragic condition is simply the result of a chronic state of mind a culmination of a series of events.
Character is the result of two things, mental attitude, and the way we spend our time. It is what we think and what we do that make us what we are.
By laying hold on the forces of the universe, you are strong with them. And when you realize this, all else is easy, for in your arteries will course red corpuscles, and in your heart the determined resolution is born to do and to be. Carry your chin in and the crown of your head high. We are gods in the chrysalis.

I'm going to be blunt here and tell you that the main blame for the condition of your golf game is right under your nose. You keep telling yourself that you can improve, but find yourself worse off than when you began.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Your Own Golf Mind

Golf psychology is nothing more than understanding the components of your own mind and guaging the workings thereof. Understanding the mental effects resulting from the various external causes on your own mind. You cannot be a successful psychologist of others without first understanding your own mental processes, my must study the effect on yourself of the same thing happening under different circumstances. You react differently in different moods and under different circumstances. You react differently in changing moods and under different conditions. You must realize the effect on your golf game of the resulting irritation, pleasure, confusion, or whatever form your reaction takes. Does it increase your efficiency? If so, strive for it, but never give in to yourself or your shortcomings in the golf game.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

What Professional Golfers Know

Find something that you are good at can help realize that small step towards improvement. Diligence is the key to know that it is worth it.

Play Better Golf By Learning From The Pros

The professional golfer knows that most of the game is played between their ears. I would say that almost everything that can be known about the swing has been figured out. How much further can technology take us? The real advances are being made from within the mind of these guys. Most of them hit the golf ball as far as the next. There are a multitude of swings out on tour. You have Jim Furyk's loop , John Daly's try to see your clubhead out of your left eye, or someone like Tiger Woods whose swing looks perfect. Each of them have won numerous tournaments, but why don't they win every week. Like us, they have bad rounds. Their confidence is down for some reason, concentration suffers so they don't perform perfectly.

The professional golfer has days of self-doubt, low self esteem, or maybe some outside agent is affecting their overall mental disposition. They practice the same golf swing day in and day out, but each time they tee it up, a different result. They understand that they need a mental approach to their golf game, as well as the physical.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Searching For The Secret Of Playing Golf

Character is the result of two things, mental attitude, and the way we spend our time. It is what we think and what we do that make us what we are.

So many players are in search of the secret to playing the golf game. Ready to try anything, you search for the next great tip or swing thought. If it works for a while, and it sometimes does, you feel that you have it. You hit some good golf shots and the magic tip is the greatest thing in the world. How long will it last? Usually, not long at all. You seem to fade back to your old self.

Then you go searching for the next latest fad or advice from a swing guru. But, in reality, nothing has changed at all. You still have the same golf game.

In this day and age, we are so overloaded with information; work, home, friends, family, trying to succeed, that it's hard to find a way to establish any kind of peace within your mind. When playing golf, do you ever carry on conversations with yourself? I know I have! " Way to go stupid, why did you hit it in the lake" or, "Is this enough club?". How about trying to keep your left arm straight or keeping your head still? Your mind is so full of noise that the body can't respond like it can.

Why do we suffer in life? Because in the scheme of nature we are being forced forward in evolution and we lack the spiritual illumination that alone can light the way and enable us to move safely among the obstacles that lie before us. Usually we do not even see or suspect the presence of trouble until it suddenly leaps upon us like a concealed tiger. One day our family circle is complete and happy. A week later death has come and gone and joy is replaced with agony. Today we have a friend. Tomorrow he will be an enemy and we do not know why. A little while ago we had wealth and all material luxuries. There was a sudden change and now we have only poverty and misery and yet we seek in vain for a reason why this should be. There was a time when we had health and strength; but they have both departed and no trace of a reason appears. Aside from these greater tragedies of life innumerable things of lesser consequence continually bring to us little miseries and minor heartaches. We most earnestly desire to avoid them but we never see them until they strike us, until in the darkness of our ignorance we blunder upon them. The thing we lack is the spiritual illumination that will enable us to look far and wide, finding the hidden causes of human suffering and revealing the method by which they may be avoided; and if we can but reach illumination the evolutionary journey can be made both comfortably and swiftly. It is as though we must pass through a long, dark room filled with furniture promiscuously scattered about. In the darkness our progress would be slow and painful and our bruises many. But if we could press a button that would turn on the electric light we could then make the same journey quickly and with perfect safety and comfort.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

PURE POINT GOLF IS LYING TO YOU

PUREPOINTGOLF claims that they will guarantee to save you 7 strokes a round. Are they lying to you?

I don't know about you, but I find it hard to believe that any kind of golf system can help your game do this. Who are they trying to kid? Kyle Halberg who is he, tells us that his system is so simple to use. Have you played golf? There isn't anything simple about this game that we play! I really dislike people that think they know it all. I read through his sales letter and couldn't believe what they were claiming.

I've been playing golf for thirty five years and have seen all kinds of gurus giving the answer that I was looking for. I lettered in high school, and am currently a 7 handicap. I've taken numerous lessons from pros, and never found anything that would keep me consistent.After winning a little extra money from a lottery ticket, I decided that I would spend it on the PUREPOINTGOLF video to see what the next "fly by night" theory would be. I half expected to open it up, sit down for a few moments to watch, then box it back up and get my money back. My first impression of it was "Here we go again!" But then I started watching the drills, and it seemed like something clicked. I grabbed my weighted club that I keep by the TV and the movements that Kyle was describing seemed to feel right somehow. I could actually start feeling the weight of the clubhead!And when I tried the arm rotation drill, I could see that I had been swinging the golf club the wrong way for all these years. Where was this back when I needed it? I couldn't wait to get to the course. The first round was a little rough, but after practicing for a couple of weeks, it started clicking BIG TIME! For the first time in my life I could go at the ball the way I wanted to. My last round I shot a 74 at a 6800 yard course that we play at .

I STRONGLY SUGGESTPUREPOINTGOLF