The Golfers Mind
"The inner game has always been the last frontier in golf. Why? Because the source of all excellence is within, and because that's usually the last place we look for it."
Timothy Gallwey
The Inner Game of Golf
Aim & Alignment Series
The Golfers Mind
1st Tee Nerves Out of Control? Calm Your
Golf-
Banishing first tee jitters would be a big help to a lot of golfers both amateur and pro alike and there are many interventions possible that can and do work. As with most things in life not all of the techniques work all of the time for all of the people.
In actual fact I think deep slow breathing works for just about everyone as relaxing breath work is a natural "trigger" for the body to slow and relax, the problem is how strong are the nervous reactions you are getting?
Do they overpower relaxation breathing? I mean if an angry bear is charging at you with the intent of tearing you to bits then taking a few deep breaths, holding the air and then slowly exhaling... Now my guess is that the 1st Tee isn't quite that serious but if it is you may want to consider direct contact with a good NLP Practitioner. (Neuro Linguistic Programming)
First things first though. Have you tried relaxation breathing? If not then here is the really simple version that works for me. You can look up diaphragmatic breathing for more detailed versions but personally I don't want complex, I want the result in the simplest quickest way possible.
The physical breathing work is very simple, here it is.
1) Breathe in through your nose. Fill your lungs completely and allow your stomach to expand. In other words breathe low down as if your stomach is filling with air. Do not rush the intake of air, keep it filling at a comfortable pace for you. Personally I take 3 – 4 seconds to inhale a breath.
2) Hold the breath for a few seconds, again only hold it as long as you feel
comfortable.
3) Now allow the breath to release through your mouth. Expel it slowly and comfortably
as your stomach contracts again.
Summary -
OK here is the very important bit! Make sure you do this next part if you want great results in the long term.
Practice this exercise everywhere you can even if you don't particularly need it, just practice and see how much more relaxed you can get. Notice that I did not say how many breaths to take and that's because I have no idea how many will be needed for the individual so the rule is you keep doing the breathing UNTIL you feel you are relaxing. Even if you just notice a tiny relaxation, celebrate because its working, and all you need to do is keep building it.
For example it may take you twenty breaths in the beginning to feel a difference
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Your mind will begin to associate the mere act of taking one breath with relaxing the mind/body system and may even begin relaxing you at the mere thought of doing your breathing exercises. In other words you will have taught it a trigger (trick) that it knows to relax you when you think and/or do this on the Tee. (or wherever you need it)
Here is some more powerful stuff.
Practice at night before you go to sleep and when
you are seriously relaxed, gently squeeze your thumb and forefinger together for
a few seconds and as you feel the gentle pressure between the thumb and finger, feel
and enjoy the relaxed state your body is in. You are developing a physical trigger
and if you do this enough you will be able to gently squeeze your thumb and finger
together on the tee as you take a breath and you will immediately start to relax.
You have trained your mind to associate the finger/thumb squeeze with relaxing.
Now here is the kicker.
As you are lying in bed breathing, relaxing, I want you to
imagine watching the first tee at the golf course. I want you to watch as a person
who looks exactly like you walks onto the first tee, looking really calm, confident
and relaxed. Watch them perform perfectly, just like you would love to and really
admire this exact twin, who looks like you, acts like you, dresses and even uses
the exact same equipment as you.
Watch them teeing off time and time again, relaxed, calm, and confident and then
I want you to float over to them and merge. Now really feel and experience for yourself
what it feels like to be confident and relaxed on the first tee. Let these feelings
absorb throughout your body and really experience them first hand in your body –
as your unconscious mind can remember to encode these emotional controls for you
and allow you to use them when-
Work on these techniques and you WILL begin to get great results. It is not a matter of if but when as long as you KEEP DOING THEM.
Modify them a little to suit yourself if you wish. Read this article many times so you really learn the techniques.
Remember that nerves are there for a reason, to remind you that you are doing something
exciting. Imagine you could take all those butterflies and instead of them flapping
around uncontrolled, what if you imagined taking them all and organising them into
perfect patterns that you can control? Remember the great players have said that
they don't want to get rid of their nerves; you just want to have control over them
and be able to manage them now. Great players can be friends with their nerves you
know but then I have also known golf beginners that learnt to be friends with their
nerves and co-
Warm regards,
Mark
