WHAT MAKES A GOOD COACH?
Over the past few years, I have been really lucky to meet some truly outstanding coaches. Some of the more famous names would fit into that category as being outstanding, whilst other ‘names’ underneath all the hype, turn out to be ‘truly ordinary’. I have met coaches who you have never heard of who blow me away with their knowledge and passion for the game and the results that they get at grass roots level.

For too long now, it has seemed that the ‘mental game’ has conflicted with coaching in the fact that a lot of ‘mental coaches’ will say ‘just focus on the target’ or ‘just visualise’ or ‘be the ball’!! Well, over the years, I have seen a lot of players trying to ‘be the ball’ and the ball has still ended up in the woods!

You have to be able to blend technical with physical, mind and body, left brain with right brain. Very soon, I will release a new programme that will give the most indepth information about blending technical with mental. No bull, no hype just some new soundly researched facts that draw on the latest findings from the world of neuro-science.

PRESSURE
“Pressure! That’s what I put in my car tyres!” said the great basketball legend, Charles Barclay, who had his own take on the concept of ‘pressure’ as applied to a sporting situation.

It seems these days we can’t move for pressure, everybody seems to be under its spell. Your doctor is under pressure; teachers are under pressure, even youngsters talk so often of being ‘stressed out’!

Some people seem to handle it whilst others just crumble in the face of it. We all talk about it, but what is pressure really and how do we go about dealing with it?

Just take a look at the two lines here and I think they give us a clue as to what pressure is all about.

The two lines here are identical in length but they APPEAR so different depending on how we look at them. If you take the arrows off the end they would both look exactly the same, however, with the lines in place, our PERCEPTION is altered and the mind is fooled into thinking that the lines are a different length.

With a lot of the players I work with, we spend a lot of time on the concept that PERCEPTION is REALITY. Whatever you believe a situation to be will, indeed, become your reality.

If you believe missing this putt would be ‘the end of the world’ or a ‘disaster’, then, chances are somewhat increased that your body will respond to the situation with tension and anxiety and tightness. I heard a wonderful story from one of the world’s greatest coaches, Pia Nilsson, who has worked for years with Annika Sorenstam. Prior to the final round of the first U.S. Open that she won, Annika confessed to Pia she felt really nervous because she had the chance to win such an ‘important’ tournament.

The championship was being held in New York State and Pia asked Annika how important the tournament would look if they floated up above the whole of New York. ‘Still pretty important!’ came the reply. ‘Well, what about if we floated up and were looking down on the whole of the USA and then even further to the whole world with all its problems, wars, famine, natural disasters and the like?

The smile which broke out on Annika’s face was the signal that she had grasped the point: the US Open was really important but let’s keep it in some sort of perspective in terms of a world event.

For me, this illustrates the power of perspective and it seems now so many of the younger players on tour are better at dealing with this than perhaps previous generations. So many new first time winners seem to suggest today’s tournament Pro could well be better armed technically and mentally at an early age. Witness Wentworth’s Ross Fisher, recently in Dubai, the way in which he handled playing with Tiger Woods and the perception that even though he didn’t win ‘his time would come’. Sound mental game training is now part of the regime of most top players and the mental toughness displayed by the likes of Ross Fisher bear testimony to the fact the brain can be ‘trained’ to deal with potential ‘pressure’ situations.

How do your perceptions affect your game and how are those perceptions increasing or decreasing the amount of ‘pressure’ that you feel?

Not for one minute am I diminishing the importance of winning in golf or the incredible pleasure that success can provide, however, you just need to be aware when you have let your ‘pressure gauge’ boil over as a result of placing too much importance on the outcome of a game of golf.

It is also important to understand that to ‘experience’ pressure your mind has to be in a certain time zone. The ability we have mentally to go out into the future is deadly when we apply it to sport. The feeling of pressure is the mind creating scenarios of what might or might not happen at some point in the future.

The good news is that although the mind can do time travel thankfully the body cannot.

The ‘gateway’ to the present moment is through the body. So next time you are feeling the pinch out on the course place your attention on something physical in the here and now. The feeling of the ground under your feet the sounds around you and probably the master key to present moment awareness, your breathing.

Placing your attention on your breathing (body) will literally ground you in ‘the now’ with the added bonus that deep abdominal breathing will relax any muscle tension.

Dr Karl Morris will be hosting the U.K’s first MIND FACTOR Golf School at the The Wildernesse Golf Club in Kent 25-27th June 2007. 3 days of PRACTICAL mental game tools to TRANSFORM your game. Places are strictly limited. Phone Now 01732 761527 for details

More tools and techniques for assisting memory are available in the Golf Brain series at www.golf-brain.com.

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