Golf Psychology Newsletter - A PATH TO SUCCESS.

 A great couple of weeks for Trained Brain client Phil Archer

who has had two top ten finishes in the last couple of weeks 4^th in the Spanish Open and then 6^th in the Italian Open.  I have worked with Phil on a regular and systematic basis now for the best part of 5 years.  Over that time, he has also worked with his outstanding coach Mark Pearson for the same duration. In 2002, in his thirties, Phil was playing regional PGA tournaments and was completely disillusioned with a lack of progress towards his true potential.  His improvement, which if you look back to 2002 is incredible, has not been about a quick fix or an instant cure - it has been about a systematic approach to improving each aspect of his game, technical, physical and mental and is almost unique these days. Where as some players change coaches, caddies and psychologists almost as often as their underwear!!!   The secret is that there is NO SECRET other than looking at what you need to improve and then TAKING ACTION. Phil didn’t think about doing something - he has DONE SOMETHING.  

THE POWER OF DREAMS

There is strong evidence to suggest that happy people have on the whole pleasant dreams and depressed people have unpleasant dreams (no rocket science there!!).  However, it seems that what we dream about one night can strongly affect our mood the next day.  It has always fascinated me when golfers say things like ‘I just woke up one morning and KNEW I was going to play well’ or conversely ‘it was ALWAYS going to be a bad day!’  Surely, these feelings don’t just fall out of the sky and point the finger of good fortune towards us one day then leave us out the next?  Well, if the research from the likes of Martin Seligman

are to be counted as true, then it would seem that the thoughts we have late at night as we ponder the days events that have just passed us by will have a BIG impact on the quality of our dream sleep and in turn the way that we feel (mood) the next day. What do golfers tend to do when they look back on the just completed days play?

• ‘I shot 68, but……. and then proceed to ruminate and play over and over again in their mind the missed putt on seventeen or the duffed pitch on the last.

The problem is that as you sit thinking about your mistakes you are inadvertently rehearsing to make the same mistakes all over again.Everybody in golf understands the importance of a pre-shot routine but over the past number of years I have found it immensely beneficial for a golfer to have a ‘post round’ routine to bring the day to an effective close and to set themselves up for a successful day tomorrow.   A couple of simple tasks can literally start to make your dreams come true! At the end of each golfing day follow this ritual, but only if you want to improve!

• Ask yourself what was the absolute BEST shot of the day, then ‘hit’ that shot again in your mind a minimum of 3 more times
  Write out in detail in a notebook 3 shots from the day that you want to store for future reference
  Whatever was the worst shot of the day RE-PLAY the shot in your mind, this time how you wanted it to turn out
  As boring as it may be for others, tell your friends, partner, family or whoever is close to you about the best shots. Verbalising a memory solidifies the experience in your memory bank
• Ask yourself the question ‘what could be BETTER next time’? as opposed to "why did I make such a mess of….."

RESEARCH Motor Skill LearningLet me sleep on it!!! 

A team of German researchers led by Stefan Fischer at the University of Lubeck,

studied 52 volunteers who were asked to learn a sequence of finger-to-thumb taps.  Sleep after practice dramatically enhanced performance of the task, both in speed and accuracy. 

Writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers concluded that the study demonstrated “an essential role of sleep in the formation of memory for motor skills” Become a Mental Game CoachTrain with Dr. Karl Morris and become a qualified NLP Sports Practitioner.5 day course runs in central Manchester 20^th to 24^th November 2006.Call 01925 764053 for details

www.golf-brain.com

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

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