The obvious answer is to let go of mistakes and focus on the next shot. Frustration is an emotion that results from failure to achieve what you want. It happens to all golfers because none of us is perfect. The difference between pros and amateurs is that the pros’ reaction time is shorter. By the time pros get to the next shot they are completely focused. 

Five ways to deal with the frustration of failure are:   

1.  Be aware of perfectionist tendencies. Trying to live up to overly perfectionist standards probably stems from a childhood where failure was not tolerated. If you do not demand perfection from yourself, you will experience less frustration, be more flexible and more relaxed.

2.  Set realistic goals. When you set high standards that aren’t readily attainable, you will constantly experience failure. It is important to acknowledge that you will hit bad shots. Blaming yourself and feeling badly only increases the chances that you will make even more mistakes because you will be on an emotional roller coaster.

3. Learn from missed shots. The more you replay your missed shots in your mind, the more you deplete your energies to play good shots. Use your missed shots as an opportunity to learn. You cannot change your missed shots, but you can change the thoughts that upset you.

4. Play your percentage shots. Choosing a low percentage shot when there are safer options can result in frustration when you fail to pull off the “miracle shot.” Also, be realistic about the distance you can hit your clubs and don’t expect to hit the maximum distance every time. Playing to the center of the greens will produce lower scores than shooting at the flag every time.

5. Physically release the emotion. When you feel frustration, take a deep breath and visually let go of the shot as you exhale forcibly. Take a practice swing with your club as hard and fast as you can to release the physical tension. 

Life or a round of golf is very seldom all good or all bad.  Don’t make your missed golf shots the central theme of your day of golf. Have the expectation that golf is a fun game to play regardless of the outcomes!

Play “In the Zone” With Joan 

Log on to the PMI website for additional mental golf tips. 

If this article was helpful to you, and you want to learn more, call Joan for a complimentary 15-minute consultation about improving your mental game. She can be reached by phone at 828-696-2547 

Self-empowering hypnosis mental golf CDs are available on the PMI website 

Most people think that confidence only comes from playing well. Since no one plays well all of the time, there are other strategies to develop self-confidence. Golf confidence is developed by feeling good about your abilities and in believing that you can improve.

What produces a lack of confidence?

When the “wheels come off” and you lose your confidence, it is natural to think about your mistakes and to try and correct them. When you stop thinking positive thoughts and focus on what isn’t working, the emotions of anxiety and fear take over. You are then in a state of fear concentration instead of confident concentration.

Build your golf confidence with good mental skills 

Playing golf involves both physical and mental abilities. There have been many times when you played beyond your own expectations. You were the producer of all those great rounds and successes.

To be confident and play your best, you have to be relaxed and trust your golf swing. Deep breathing will help you relax. It takes considerable practice to be able to trust your swing mechanics. Act “as if” you are confident and you will begin to experience those feelings.

Here are five mental golf strategies to practice for developing and enhancing golf confidence:

1. Increase your ability to remain calm, relaxed and focused during play and your confidence will increase. As you maintain this self control you will begin to believe that you can play well.
2. Trust the abilities that you have. Practice having more confidence in your game than doubts. Use your imagination to see yourself being successful. “Seeing is believing.” The more you imagine the shots you want, the more confident you will be that you can execute them.
3.  Release all conscious judgment of your ball striking. Believe that you can execute what you have learned. Trust that you can continue to play well by having fun. Enjoy your success without judging how you are doing it! 
4. Keep your self-talk encouraging. Stay focused and confident by repeating positive affirmations to yourself constantly on the golf course. Affirm that you believe in yourself and in your ability to play well. Affirm that you are going to really enjoy hitting each shot. 
5.  Respond in a positive way to mistakes. Don’t doubt your ability when you make an occasional mistake. Accept your mistakes and concentrate on recovering with the next shot. Stay in the present by giving every shot your full attention as if it is the most important shot of the day. 

“Play In the Zone” With Joan

There will be no post next week as I will be on vacation. For additional tips to improve your mental golf game, read the Archived Newsletters on the Positive Mental Imagery website.

Why is the mental game of golf different from other sporting games?

From the address to the finish, a golf swing takes about three seconds to complete. In a four-hour round, the actual swing-time would be around five minutes for an average golfer shooting 100. That leaves 3 hours and 55 minutes to think about what you are doing.

In no other sport do you have this much time to think about what you are going to do next. The way you use this time could be the difference between having a good day or a bad day on the golf course.

Remember these five beliefs for a successful mental golf game:

1. Be realistic about the game of golf. Everyone playing the game will hit poor shots as well as miss chip shots and putts. Golf is a game of inches when ½” can be the difference between success and failure. It happens. Stop thinking about a missed shot and treat it as an anomaly.
2. Golf is not a game of perfection. Let go of trying to hit perfect shots. Relax and enjoy the feeling of your body creating smooth, fluid swings. Most pros swing with 85% of their possible power.
3. Golf is basically a game of recovery. Every shot is hit from a different place. When it is your turn to hit, slow down and take time to prepare your mind; deep breathing will help your focus and visualization of the upcoming shot.
4. Take responsibility for your game by paying attention to your own game. You are responsible for every decision and every swing you make. The numbers on the scorecard do not always reflect how you played. Stop using excuses and own your mistakes. Learn from them and you will make fewer mistakes in the future.
5. Maintain the right mental attitude. Remind yourself that golf is a game that you play for enjoyment. Your misses don’t reflect upon you as a person, but your reactions to your misses do. Smile more often and enjoy playing in the beauty of nature.

 Play “In the Zone” With Joan

Log on to the PMI website and Blog for additional mental golf tips.

If this article is helpful to you, and you want to learn more, call Joan for a complimentary 15-minute consultation about improving your mental game. She can be reached by phone at 828-696-2547, or through the Positive Mental Imagery website or blog.

Self-empowering hypnosis mental golf CDs are available at www.pmi4.com/cart

Distractions such as noises on the golf course are common place. There is also the distraction of your inner voice that can bring up interfering negative thoughts.

If inner thoughts or outer noises distract you, you have not totally prepared your mind so your body will know what to do. Using a consistent pre-shot routine is a good way to focus your attention so you won’t notice distractions. Programming your mind for the shot you want is the only part of your golf swing over which you have total control. Indecision about your golf swing or the club to use will interfere with a clear process of creating the shot.

An excellent step to add to your pre-shot routine is the “D-Line”. From behind the ball as you look down the fairway at your target, draw an imaginary line between you and the golf ball. This is your Decision Line (D-Line). All thoughts and decisions must be made before you cross this line.

Plan your shot by taking into account the distance, wind and target. Be decisive about the club you have selected. Practice your swing mentally and/or physically. Picture in your mind the flight of the ball, or rolling the ball into the hole. When you have done this, you are ready to move to the ball and trust that your subconscious mind has received the information and will act on it. Any other thoughts you have over the ball will be a distraction.

If you are distracted at any time after crossing your D-Line, begin your pre-shot routine again to refocus your mind.

Keep a mental scorecard with a pass/fail system or a 1-10 system (with 10 being totally decisive) to record your level of preparedness for every shot. You might be surprised how many shots you hit without being mentally ready.

 Play “In the Zone” With Joan

Log on to the PMI website and Blog for additional mental golf tips.

If this article is helpful to you, and you want to learn more, call Joan for a complimentary 15-minute consultation about improving your mental game. She can be reached by phone at 828-696-2547, or through the Positive Mental Imagery website or blog.

Self-empowering self-hypnosis mental golf CDs are available at www.pmi4.com/cart

The Inner Game of Golf is the mental game of golf. The Outer Game is the physical game which includes the mechanics of the golf swing.

The mental game includes learning the skills to decrease the mental obstacles that keep you from playing at your peak performance levels. These skills are relaxation and concentration. In order to relax and focus on playing the game, you must overcome self-doubt, fears such as failure & embarrassment, worry, anxiety, a limiting self-image, and negative attitudes and beliefs.

The mental hazards created in your mind on the golf course are many of the same pitfalls that you encounter in your daily life. Unless these weaknesses are changed into strengths, you will be overcome, frustrated, and you will sabotage your game.

Here are five ways to change your inner dialogue:

1. Start listening to the dialogue inside your head. Make a decision to replace negative self-talk with positive self-talk.. Change negative thoughts into “I can”, “I will”, “I can recover”, “thank you”. Avoid the failure statements of “I can’t”, “if only”, “I could have”, “I hope”, “It’s a hard shot”, “It’s a tough hole”. Repeat positive messages until they are hard-wired into your brain, body and spirit and have become a conditioned response.
2. Talk to yourself as if you are a winner.  World class golfers rarely put themselves down. Pro caddies constantly pump up their pros with self-affirming observations.
3. Don’t agree mentally when someone makes a negative comment. Breathe to relax your mind. Ignore the comment or turn it around and give yourself the opposite positive message inside your head.
4. Program your self-talk for what you want instead of what you don’t want. If you tell yourself not to miss another shot, your subconscious mind will reinforce the missed shot. What you resist persists. This is called negative hypnotic programming. Focus your dominant thought on what you do want.
5. Remind yourself what it is that you love about the game of golf.

“The trouble with all of us, who grumble over the game and thus spoil an otherwise pleasant afternoon with congenial friends, is that we do not understand the game, nor ourselves. In this we can take a number of lessons from the poorer player who without fail has fun. For no matter how good we may be, if we should fancy that we have mastered golf to the extent that we can go out day after day and play as we please, then we are greater fools than ought to be left at large”.
~ Bobby Jones

For additional information on improving your inner dialogue, read the PositiveMentalImagery May 2007 newsletter “Positive Thinking for Positive Results” at www.pmi4.com Archived Newsletters.

“Play In the Zone” With Joan

Log on to the PMI website and Blog for additional mental golf tips.

If you want to learn more about how you can improve your mental game, call Joan for a complimentary 15-minute consultation. She can be reached by phone 828-696-2547, or through the Positive Mental Imagery website or blog.

Self-empowering self-hypnosis mental golf CDs are available at http://www,pmi4.com/cart

The Olympics started today with the women’s soccer matches. In the coming interviews with the athletes you will be hearing a lot about how the athletes visualize their way to success.

 Most pre-school children of all cultures are lucid visualizers (day dreamers) until they start school. Our education system and society depend on left brain communication. Visualizing or seeing mental pictures is a function of your right brain. When you don’t use your right brain as much, you tend to believe that you can’t visualize. Since it is one of our five senses we can all visualize. When I ask you to think about the color of your car, what do you see?   

The Power of Visualization 

Golfers are notorious for thinking about their missed shots, high scores and the “what if” scenarios on the golf course.

By changing your thoughts and mental images you can create the reality you want. It is like changing your dream. I remember sitting in class as a teen-ager wishing it would snow, day dreaming about skiing down the mountains. I didn’t know then that visualization was a mental technique using my imagination to make my dream come true. I just knew that skiing was what I loved to do, and I saw myself enjoying it by day dreaming. 

The power of visualization is used by top golf professionals and Olympic athletes on a regular basis. They visualize, picture, or imagine the positive outcome before taking any physical action.  Visualizing your swing and imagining your club striking the ball exactly how you want it to happen will help you be better prepared when you take your shot. Visualizing in your pre-shot routine, the target, the trajectory your shot takes, and the ball landing on your target area will reinforce your images.

Build Trust with Mental Rehearsal

The best time to practice your golf game is at bedtime or before you get out of bed in the morning while you are half-awake. Rehearse what you want to happen that day. Inside your mind is the only place where you can practice perfectly. Scientists have found that this kind of mental practice is actually programming your muscles as you visualize yourself hitting the perfect shot. In addition to visualizing your swing, feel the emotions, and feel your swing using words such as fluid, smooth, and effortless to trigger the complete picture.

Program your mind several times a week with this kind of practice. There is no such thing as muscle memory. All thought originates in the mind. Mental rehearsal gets your mind clearly focused on what you want to accomplish so there is no fear, worry or indecision.

For additional information go to the Positive Mental Imagery website and click on the Archived Newsletters link for the January 2002 newsletter, “Mental Rehearsal.”

Play “In the Zone” With Joan

Log on to the PMI website and Blog for additional mental golf tips.

If this article is helpful to you, and you want to learn more, call Joan for a complimentary 15-minute consultation about improving your mental game. She can be reached by phone at 828-696-2547, through the Positive Mental Imagery website or blog or by leaving a comment below.

Self-empowering hypnosis mental golf CDs are available at www.pmi4.com/cart

Now that we are half-way through the summer I have been hearing from a lot of golfers who are unhappy with their golf performances. When you are too focused on trying to achieve your goals or your expectations, your golf games will suffer. Here are some strategies to remember to get you back on track.

1. Golf is just a game.
2. Playing golf is what we do for fun.
3. All golfers, pro or amateur are just playing the game they love.
4. Participate by playing golf as if you are a kid again.
5. Change your limiting beliefs and you change your golf game.
6. Constantly imagine the perfect rhythm and tempo of each shot.
7. Make up your mind to enjoy what you are doing each moment.
8. Think thoughts that will produce exciting and rewarding shots.
9. Treat yourself as you would your best friend.
10. On the course, play the game and not the golf swing.
11. Enjoy the process of swinging instead of trying to make it happen.
12. Give 100% intention and attention to every shot.
13. Validate your small as well as large successes.
14. Enjoy your excellence when it occurs.
15. Accept miss-hits with dignity and humility.
16. Feeling frustration and looking foolish is part of the game.
17. When the hole is over, leave it and move on.
18. Enhance your self-esteem by smiling and enjoying the game.
19. Your golf game doesn’t reflect on you as a person, but your attitude does.
20. Golf is just a game.

  Play “In the Zone” With Joan

Log on to the PMI website and Blog for additional mental golf tips.

If this article is helpful to you, and you want to learn more, call Joan for a complimentary 15-minute consultation about improving your mental game. She can be reached by phone at 828-696-2547,  through the Positive Mental Imagery website or blog, or by leaving a comment below.

Self-empowering hypnosis mental golf CDs are available at www.pmi4.com/cart

In my 30’s I didn’t worry about playing golf in the extreme heat and humidity in Florida. One day I had a rude awakening. As I was pulling my cart up the North Palm Beach CC 9th fairway, everything suddenly went blank. I felt dizzy, light headed and I thought I was going to faint. Back then we took salt tablets in extreme heat. Taking the tablets only made me nauseous. I remember crouching under a four-foot palm tree for relief from the sun as it was the only shade on the hole. I made it into the air conditioned clubhouse just in time to avoid passing out from heat exhaustion.

During the last month 15 states have experienced scorching temperatures as high as 105 degrees in unprecedented record setting heat. Nevertheless, because it is summer, golfers will be out playing under these conditions. As you sweat from the heat, you lose body fluids which cause a reduction in your physical and mental performance if they aren’t replaced.

Make sure your golf game won’t suffer by applying the following five strategies:

1.  Wear loose fitting or sun protective clothing. LPGA Tour gals can be seen wearing the new soft and breathable long sleeves under their golf shirts. These new fabrics circulate air and also protect them from the sun. They are actually cooler than short sleeve shirts because it keeps the direct sun off your skin.

2.  Protect yourself from the sun. Wear a hat, sunglasses and sunscreen to protect yourself from the sun’s ultraviolet radiation. Using a silver sun umbrella will reflect the sun’s UV rays and keep you cooler.

3.  Keep hydrated.  Start your day with two glasses of water to replace what you lost overnight. Drink cool water constantly on course, not ice water. Remember when Jack Nicklaus had stomach cramps from drinking ice water during a tournament?

4.  Do not take salt tablets. Salt tablets drain water from your body and make dehydration worse. Juices and sodas contain more than 10% sugar and are not absorbed well during exercise.

5.  Maintain your electrolyte balance.  Electrolytes are lost in sweat and must be replaced to keep the electrolyte concentrations of your body fluids constant. This is important to keep your nerves, muscles and heart working properly. Sports drinks replace electrolytes but also contain carbohydrate (sugar) calories. I personally drink Smartwater on the golf course and get my carbohydrates from eating fruit.

For additional information on preparing your body for extreme weather conditions, read the July 2010 newsletter, “Healthy Nutrition for Enhanced Mental Golf Energy” at www.pmi4.com

  Play “In the Zone” With Joan

Log on to the PMI website and Blog for additional mental golf tips.

If this article is helpful to you, and you want to learn more, call Joan for a complimentary 15-minute consultation about improving your mental game. She can be reached by phone at 828-696-2547,  through the Positive Mental Imagery website or blog, or by leaving a message below.

Self-empowering self-hypnosis mental golf CDs are available at www.pmi4.com/cart