Golf Psychology Newsletter - 28/07/05

Welcome again to the Golf Brain newsletter.

I spent a very interesting week up at the Open golf championship watching at first hand the very best in the world tackle a tricky Old Course at St.Andrews. I was thrilled with the performance of trained brain client Graeme McDowell as he continued his progress with a best ever finish in a major of 11th. The week obviously belonged to Tiger and it became even more obvious how he has now got much more comfortable with his golf swing. The combination that he has of a trained brain alongside solid fundamentals is awesome. This time in the newsletter I have put together some of Wood’s golden nuggets of information on the mental game.
Many of the tools and techniques are available for repetition on the cd series at www.golf-brain.com

TIGER’S SIGNALS

“My creative mind is my GREATEST weapon. It is a kind of inner vision that enables me to see things that others might not, like a certain way to play a shot The psychology of golf can be complicated as it does entail mental toughness, self-confidence, conquering inner demons, instant recall of past successes and the ability to let go of failure. It is the game within the game.
The psychology of golf can be complicated as it does entail mental toughness, self-confidence, conquering inner demons, instant recall of past successes and the ability to let go of failure. It is the game within the game.

Tiger Woods comments on the importance of the mental game and how big a part it plays in his own success. Most people are aware of the fact that Tiger has worked extensively on the technical aspects of his game but few realise that he has been working on the mental side of the game since he was twelve years of age and was introduced to a sports psychologist called Jay Brunza.

For me the key to Tigers phenomenal record is his ability to control his state. No matter what the golf ball is doing, how well he is playing Woods has an incredible ability to be in what I call his IPS (Ideal Performance State)

Just imagine what you could do in terms of your own golf if you learned and practiced just a few of the mental game techniques that have elevated Woods to the summit of world golf.

Here are some of the triggers that Tiger has installed into his own game.

The 10-yard line;

The rule that Tiger set up for himself is that once you have hit a shot be it good, bad or indifferent you need to release whatever emotion is inside of you. You DEAL WITH the outcome of the shot and you see in front of you at line at 10 YARDS, once you have walked over that line the shot is OVER.

Tag the Good Shot

Woods has said ‘Every time I hit a good shot I give the club a twirl. The message is clear whenever you hit a good shot, ‘tag’ that shot with a gesture so as to install firmly into your memory bank.

Breathe

Tiger’s mother has a Buddhist background and the influence of calmness and serenity is obvious with her son. Under pressure Tiger is awesome at controlling his state. Correct breathing is ‘the key’ to effective state control.

Switch on and off

‘Back in 2000 I had realised that it was impossible to concentrate for a full five hours’ said Woods on his ability to switch on and then switch off on the course. In between shots Woods has developed with Steve Williams (caddie) what they call B.S. time where they talk about anything other than golf, look around and generally give their mind a rest until the onset of the next shot.

Imagery

‘My creative mind is my greatest weapon’ talking about the skill of imagery. Having vivid multi sensory images of the path of the ball to the target gives the body some very precise commands as to the task at hand. Get creative with your imagery. Darren Clarke won the NEC invitational seeing a VIVID red line from the ball into the cup.

RESEARCH

A team of neuroscientists at the Johns Hopkins University has found that within the first 5 to 6 hours of practicing a new motor skill, the brain shifts the new instructions from short-term memory to the areas responsible for PERMANENT motor skills. As subjects initially learned a task, the prefrontal cortex – involved in short term memory and many kinds of learning – was very active. When the subjects returned 5 hours later, they had no trouble retracing the movements. But at this point, the premotor cortex and the cerebellum – regions that control movement – had taken over.

During the intermission, it seems that the neural links that form the brains internal model of the task had shifted from the prefrontal region to the motor control region.

Even WITHOUT practice after 5 to 6 hours the formula for the task had become virtually HARD – WIRED into the brain.
Suggesting that a newly learned skill could be IMPAIRED, CONFUSED or even LOST if a person tried to learn a different motor task during the critical 5-6 hour period when the brain is trying to stabilise the neural representation of the task.

KEY LEARNING

When working on your swing, give your brain a chance. ONE move at a time.