Confidence is a Powerful Tool

June 23, 2013 / The Grateful Golfer / 1 Comment

Golfing is a unique sport that has so many moving parts, that even the slightest change can spell disaster or success. Take the Travelers Championship today! Ken Duke won his first PGA tournament in his 187th start. He played very well in the last round and was beaming with confidence after winning the second playoff hole over Chris Stroud. Today was his day and rose to every challenge. His performance may be very difficult to duplicate, however it can be done if he continues to believe he can play well and compete with his peers…..he must remain confident!

How many times have you stepped up to the ball and hit the exact shot you envisioned? Your confidence increases and your next shot is pure as well. Conversely, how many times have you stood over the ball and the voice in your head fills you with doubt. Then you shank your shot and say “See, I knew you could not do it.” Confidence is a powerful tool!

So how do you gain and keep your confidence? Is it really something that can be turned on and off? Is it something you have to find or is it a state of mind?

DR. BOB ROTELLA, from Golf Digest, has ten things that will build confidence in any golfer. Rotella suggests: “I believe every golfer has the potential to be much better than he or she is, and that using the mind is one essential way to improve. You will never know if you have the ability to be the best player in the world, or the best player in your club, unless you commit yourself to developing both your physical and mental skills.”

David MacKenzie from Golf State Of Mind, also suggests ten things that all golfers can do to improve their confidence. My favorite is #10 – Believe in Yourself! There is simply no reason not to! That can be applied in all aspects of our lives, but that is a discussion for another day.

Regardless of which points resonate with you. Confidence is a state of mind! By mentally staying positive and focused on each shot, any golfers confidence will grow. My specific trick to build confidence is to mentally play the shot in my mind from behind the ball. It is like watching the shot on TV! Even if I hit a bad shot, I go through the same routine on my next shot. It works for me and something I am confident in!

I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!

Mental Wellness and Golf

April 9, 2013 / The Grateful Golfer / 11 Comments

Today is a glorious day! My four-year battle with non-Hodgkins Follicular Lymphoma has come to a turning point. After 28 months of treatment I am finished! This struggle presented many ups and downs, but thanks to my awesome wife who pushed, pulled, dragged, listened, lead, followed, and loved me every step of the way, I am turning the corner and running towards the “thrive zone”.

So what does any of this have to do with golf! Mental wellness when fighting any serious incident in your life is critical to success. Fighting a disease is no different. Many experts state that meditation, stress relief and focusing on a positive goal are important to strong mental wellness. I can tell you from personal experience this is absolutely true!

Throughout my entire ordeal, I used golf as my focused goal of healthy living. I would sit and think about how to improve my game, how awesome it feels to walk down a fairway at 6 am, I would feel the joys of chipping in, or the joys of shooting my best score ever. I would dream of opening day (which is still delayed this year, but I still dream), and I focused on the fantastic feelings of being successful on the golf course. On those dark days, and there were a few, golf was my mental shining light to which I would run to with gusto!

Additionally, golf has help me focus on the four pillars of wellness – healthy eating, moderate exercise, stress relief and good quality sleep. These guidelines are nothing new and their importance was reaffirmed from a support group that I am a member. By adopting these important life-changing tenets, I was able to expand my mental wellness into areas of happiness, health, and joy. Although I use this new life style to help address my medical challenge, it is something that would be beneficial for everyone.

Today is a fantastic day! The love of my wife, daughter, friends and family have been nothing short of heroic! I count my blessings everyday that they are in my life!

Golf is instrumental in my battle. It provides focused goals that help my mental wellness. Golf is a game of hopes and dreams for everyone.

I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!

Are You Ready?

March 29, 2013 / The Grateful Golfer / 6 Comments

Are you ready for golf season? Are you ready physically? Are you ready mentally? Are you ready with the right equipment? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you ready?

As the last of the snow leaves northern Canada, many golfers are frantically running around asking the these questions over and over. The anticipation of playing soon is raising their anxiety level because after 5 months putting on their carpet, it will soon be time to hit the links.

Preparing for a golf season is something unique to each player. Everyone has different ideas on how their season will unfold; they have dreams of the elusive hole-in-one; breaking 100 or 90 or 80 or even 70; or winning their local club championship (or flight). So how does someone prepare for success in the upcoming season?

Some focus on fitness. At Golfsmith.com, Brian Hill from Demand Media suggests that working on your upper body, core, lower body and flexibility is the way ahead. Callaway Director of Fitting and Instruction, Randy Peterson, talks about looking after your equipment, starting early and working on your short game in the early stages of the season. At mindbodygolf.com, Rick Williams, a PGA member, tells how he uses various tools to keep fit and flexible during the off-season. All of these suggestions and hundreds more can help prepare you physically for the upcoming season. Personally, I believe staying fit for golf is a year-round process, but everyone has to decide for him or herself what level of commitment they are willing to put forth.

However, is fitness the only area that needs preparation? How about being mentally ready for the up coming season? Mental preparation is as important as physical preparation to succeed in golf. Napoeon Hill‘s famous quote: What ever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve is so true for golf!” So what exactly does all this mean?

Dreaming of success on the links gets everyone excited. At golf-mental-game-coach.com suggests that preparing for a round of golf (which can be applied to the season) each player should establish their rhythm, preview their round, and have a game plan. These three points can be very important to lowering your score. At the Heart of Golf, Rick Semple lays out an off-season process to use mental imagery that will prepare anyone for swinging the clubs successfully at the start of the season.

If you are like most golfers, all of this can be overwhelming. There appears to be no right or wrong answer. However, preparation can be boiled down to one simple concept: managing expectations. That is it.

Managing one’s expectations is the basis to an awesome golf season. Before the season starts it is helpful to establish a couple of goals. Make them reasonable, but something you have to work at to achieve. Think big and do not worry about the details; they will take care of themselves.

For example, this year’s goal is to break 80. Start to focus on this idea. Just quietly think about breaking 80. Do not dwell on the details, but just mull it around for a little while. Next ask what part of your game you should work on to achieve this goal; your swing, short game, off the tee, etc. Once you have selected the focus area, break it down further. For example, if you have a tendency to three putt, work on your lag putting. Finally, write down what you have been thinking.

Go through this process a couple of times. After a short while, a realistic game plan for the season will unfold. You will have managed your golf expectations, written it down (thus making it real) and reduced the mental anguish not changing anything, but expecting different results.

Golf is fun. Each player has different goals, expectations, and aspirations. Regardless, golf is meant to be enjoyed. How are you managing your expectations this year?

I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!

A Change is as Good as a Rest!

March 16, 2013 / The Grateful Golfer / 4 Comments

Recently, I visited my family who I have not seen in quite some time. During our visit, I was caught up on all the news, entertained by the young and potential golfers (well everyone is a potential golfer in my eyes) and realized how much I miss visiting these fantastic people. During many of the interesting conversations, I thought how refreshed I felt and how energized I was when we had to say good-bye.

This fantastic visit had a positive impact on my attitude and energy level. As always, I wondered how my experience could be applied to golf. After much contemplation, I think I have it: a change is a good as a rest in golf? I would say a change is absolutely good for your golf game.

I and many golf advocates talk about consistency, repetition, and staying focused. Of course this is very important. But what do we do when we hit the wall and all our efforts do not result in any tangible improvement in our game. I suggest making a change. Specifically, play a different course!

Playing a different course will help change your mental thought processes towards your game. I know, many are saying no way, but how many of us are choosing the same club on the same hole even before we get to the tee. On our home course, we know which club we want to use (whether it is the right club or not), when, and where. After ten rounds in two weeks, this approach may become stale and actually have a negative affect on our score.

Many websites provide information on vacations, rating and walking of golf courses. Sites like: Golf Vacation Insider, World Golf, The Walking Golfer, Golf Association of Ontario, Dallas Divot Report, and Gorilla Golf. All are valuable resources when choosing local or destination golf excursions.

Regardless, the benefits of periodically playing different courses throughout the golf season will only improve your game. It will keep you mentally strong, focused and provides many new experiences. I like to play about 10 different courses throughout the year. An added bonus is that playing different courses helps check if my handicap is real or not! Additionally, It is fun, challenging and as the Mindful Golfer says: Golf is a Contact Sport. Meeting new people is always a grateful experience.

How many courses do you try to play during the year?

I am a grateful golfer. See you on the links.

Conceive – Believe – Achieve

February 2, 2013February 2, 2013 / The Grateful Golfer / 6 Comments

The phrase ‘Conceive, Believe, Achieve’, finds it roots from the mentor Napoleon Hill – It was later adopted and given an addition by another highly successful man – W. Clement Stone. No truer words have been spoken! But really, what do this have to do with golf.

Do you think that Phil Mickelson, who was 1 centimeter from shooting the ever elusive 59, has ever sat on his couch and thought of what it would feel like to break 60. I say – absolutely! Hasn’t everyone. Do we not think of shooting a hole-in-one, chipping in from 150 yards, making a 60 foot put for eagle or winning the club championship on the 18th hole with everyone watching? If you said yes to any of these statements, then you are half way to setting yourself up for success on the golf course.

Manage your internal expectations and reality will tend to meet them. Although this is not just for golf, it can easily be applied to our favorite game. The use of positive mental imagery is nothing new. It is all around us. At Clear Mind Meditation Techniques, they describe how to use this powerful technique. It is very simple, yet can change even the greatest obstacles. Norman Vincent Peale said that “we tend to get what we expect.” So why not expect great things on and off the golf course!

At GolfMindShop.com, they talk about four benefits of positive mental imagery: emotional control, perfect result imagery, physical bio mechanics imagery and self-image “Engineering” imagery. These benefits are very important to success on the golf course. It is not just about swing mechanics, but developing a strong mental attitude in all areas of the game.

At Golf Mental Game Coaching also outlines the benefit of using mental imagery to change your game. They go into more detail of what areas can be affected, but the process is basically the same. Ultimately, each player will decide the area they what to improve – keeping it all positive will definitely help.

In an earlier post “When Life Gets In the Way“, I suggested a 5-minute mental exercise to calm your mind and to focus your efforts while running to the first tee. The techniques suggested today are an extension of that exercise. It allows for a total examination of your game and will help improve your mental toughness. There is no specific length of time one should perform mental imagery….it really is up to the individual.

Golf is not just about swing a club. A positive mental attitude through imagery is a fantastic technique to improve your game. What other tips would you suggest to help with your golf game?