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A tip based around your advice of storing the memory of a particularly
good shot in your mind as you play a similar shot on the course.
Embellish the image with colours sounds etc if I remember rightly.
Your playing destiny is largely predetermined,, preprogrammed
and preconditioned by the quality of shots you habitually store
in your memory. The images, sounds and feelings of every shot you
have ever taken, according to contemporary cognitive research,
will be etched in your mind and muscle memory, for ever. If you
think hard about your game afterwards, by going over your most
memorable (good and bad!) shot and hole in your mind, and even
perhaps talking about them with your playing partners in the bar
afterwards, or in your mind after taking each shot on the course,
or at home afterwards, whatever you give most attention to, will
reinforce your memory, and therefore prepare you well in the future
to precisely repeat your failures and mistakes, triumphs and victories.
By selectively recalling and then replaying (what you see, hear
or feel) your bad shots, will inadvertently reinforce your ability
to become really good at repeating this pattern of failure in future
- poor scores and a higher handicap is most probable. Likewise
if you mostly pay attention to your good shots, you improve the
probability of making more good shots, though overall performance
improvement maybe small. Or most commonly, mentally rehearsing
all the ups and downs of the game, as you actually remembered the
experience. This self-fulfilling pattern will help you retain your
handicap and stay in your comfort zone. If you want to effortlessly
improve you scores and handicap, here's the secret.
- Find a quite place and comfortable chair, and get into a nice
calm and relaxed mood
- Replay your past round in your mind (seeing,
hearing and feeling every shot)
- For your good shots. Relive the
experience, but make the pictures and sounds clearer and
sharper, and relish the feelings by making
them more empowering.
- For your bad shots. Recall the pictures
in your mind's eye, and make sure you are looking at them
as if they were a home
movie of you taking the shot. Edit the sequence of pictures,
sounds and
feelings, as if you were a movie director. Now, step
into the picture of yourself taking the shot you would have liked
to
have taken,
and check out how it looks, sounds and feel. If it still
looks
and feels wrong, repeat the editing process until it's
exactly how you want it.
- Paying close attention to ever finer detail
of your good shots will enable you to build a mind-muscle
memory bank
of potentially
repeatable excellent shots.
- These foundation skills are
essential to building a pre-competition mental practice routine
for an upcoming
event. If you have
done your course management correctly, you can now
mentally prepare
yourself, like all good players do, for sustained
success.
If you are very busy, don't get enough time to practice or play,
or can;t play during the Winter months, then this exercise is ideal.
An hour of mental rehearsal is equal to ten hours of physical practice.
Furthermore, practice doesn't make perfect - only, PERFECT practice
makes perfect. All mental practice (what I call 'armchair golf')
can be perfect. By making a habit of storing memories of good and
excellent shots will precondition your mind and body for sustained
performance improvement, greater consistency, lower handicaps and
competition success. Without it will ensure continued tension,
frustration and inconsistency.
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| © MIND4Golf Academy 2004 |
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