Masters Mind Mastery

I enjoyed watching Angel Cabrera win the Masters, even though I was fractionally rooting for the older guy, Kenny Perry, I was very impressed with Angel’s performance. Why?

Cabrera was the lowest ranked player (69th I believe) before the tournament start and yet this former caddie beat the best and came out top, even when at times it seemed he had blown it.

He is now officially - if I am correct - the lowest ranked player ever to win the Masters.

The Woods/Mickelson battle attracted more viewers in their gallery and post masters, more articles have been written about that little match play battle than about Cabrera winning, in style, with good mental game, lowest ranked ever…... etc.

The public - according to the press and they are probably right - were more interested in Woods shooting a 68 against Mickelson’s 67 than Angel winning the Masters! And lets face it, if you were watching the Woods/Mickelson pairing, it was exciting stuff. (for a golfer)

How did Cabrera achieve his win? While nothing is a panacea he quoted one thing that pretty much rules the roost. “I had confidence” he said.

Beware the lesser golfer who has greater confidence and if you don’t already know it, then appreciate that even if you have the worlds best swing it won’t work very well without confidence.

If you are confident then you really do have a major puzzle piece in winning, with or without the best swing.

Cabrera, confidence in hand (head) went a head and won. Yes, getting-a-head for golf will definitely help you in getting ahead and winning. If you are not spending at least as much time on the mind aspects of practice and playing as the physical, then you are a long way from achieving to you real potential, and in the competitive game you will lose virtually all the time to the athlete with superior mental attitude and toughness.

And by the way. what you think your real potential is and what it really is are two different things. 98% of people vastly underestimate what they are capable of.

Cabrera has a history to draw on to give him confidence. In 2007 he won the US Open at Oakmont, holding off Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk to win. So he has memory of doing battle with the best and winning, which no doubt he drew upon.

Angel had no reason to doubt his abilities after all he had done it before so the right thing to do was recall a peak past performance and use it to help him do it again.

What can you learn from this? That recalling a best performance is vital and not just about the big picture. Within a winning round of golf, each individual shot should be recalled from memory. Remember a time when you hit a shot just like the one you are faced with, and it had a great result. Relive that shot in your mind and then allow yourself to feel confident as you draw on a past performance and then hit the shot again, fully committed and confident. Do this on every shot, from your driver to a gimme putt and your scores will begin to drop.

A short aside here on confidence and winning. I often hear athletes who have not yet broken through to win saying that when they win they will be confident. In other words confidence comes from performance. While it is true that winning breeds confidence, it doesn’t come first. Confidence must come before winning and there are very specific ways to breed confidence in order to get out of a slump, improve performance and then win. This is subject for another article as it is worthy of many words not a few.

Reliving great past performances instils a feeling of confidence and the more you practice this skill, the better you get at it. When you feel confident you will be properly relaxed and happy, tension free physically and anxiety free mentally.

When you are in this confident, empowered state, you will be playing the shot rather than worrying about your swing mechanics and a possible bad outcome of the shot. Worrying about your swing or worrying about a possible bad result (EG:I hope I don’t hit this out of bounds!) is quite simply THE RECIPIE FOR DISASTER. You will get, more often than not, what you are thinking about.

MCS – Training: Mastering Confidence Sates is a skill available to everyone and when you master this you can apply it to any aspect of your life, not just golf, to vastly improve performance. For example I had a lady who was terrified of public speaking and it was seriously holding her back in her chosen career. In a group seminar of 50 people she was able to take the floor and give a speech after just 10 minutes of MCS training.

Confidence comes from mastering your mental game not your swing.

Stop worrying about or even just thinking about where you don’t want the ball to go and start thinking where you want the ball to go. Remember and relive a shot just like it from your past, know you can do it again, and then let go, commit and hit.

By the way if you can’t remember hitting a good shot like the one you are about to take on, then the chances are that you should not be trying to do it. You may be having a course management crisis which may soon show up as a crisis on your scorecard.

Or – You could have no choice but to try it, a do or die match play situation where your opposition is gimme on the green for birdie, and you have to make birdie to half. In this case you must imagine yourself playing the shot well. Make it up, run a movie in your head, feel the swing you need to make and rehearse it a couple of times until it feels good. When you have mentally and physically rehearsed making the shot, then commit and hit.

Or – You could be new to the game. Throttle back and try to play shots that you really think you have a high percentage of pulling off successfully. You must also imagine playing the shot well, feel the swing, imagine the ball soaring through the air and landing on your target. Rehearse, commit and hit.

FIR’s, GIR’s and blue skies.

Mark

Golf Coach & Sport Psychologist

Author Mark Wright - www.golfmindshop.com

You may copy and use this article on your web-site as long as you include author name and link to authors web-site.