© Phartisan

Now, it’s not that uncommon for enthusiastic golfers to play a practice round before playing an unfamiliar course. Maybe it’s to help them play their best in a friendly game or to score their best in an upcoming competition.

Either way, you generally have so much more time for mental and general practice than you do for actual practice on the courses you are going to compete on. That means that you really have to make the most of those practice rounds and gather as much information as you can to help you with your mental and general physical practice.

The most important information you can get from a practice round comes on and around the greens. When you are looking at each green, assess the likely pin positions and, for each one, consider where you would ideally choose to take your first putt from. Then think about how best to get the ball to finish there. What would be the best choice of target, distance, direction, club and style of shot to safely achieve the result you want?

I was watching Miguel Angel Jimenez in the Pro Am before the PGA Championship at Wentworth. After holing out his real putt and while his amateur partners lined up their putts, he hit a number of approach putts to different parts of the green. Maybe he was doing something similar.

Now you have the options for each likely pin position, you can decide on where best to be for your approach shot. If it’s a tee shot, then which side of the tee would be best. If it’s a fairway approach, evaluate the position you want to hit from in terms of the risk and reward of hitting the ball there. Maybe revise you’re desired approach shot accordingly.

Once you’ve done this, you have a set of options to use in your mental and general physical practice. Even better, when you get out on the course in competition, you just have to identify the approximate pin position to already know the best shot to play.

So, there are many ways to make the most of extra time you have to practice your golf. And even if you don’t have all the time for practice that you’d like, you’ve seen a number of ways to make the most of whatever time you do have to practice.

Finally, don’t forget that you can achieve Better Golf with Less Practice using golf hypnosis.

Research shows that the act of “Imagining” yourself doing something fires up the identical parts of the brain that would be activated if you were actually doing it. So if you’re imagining yourself playing golf, the neurons you’re using in your brain are the very same ones that you’re using when you’re physically playing the game. Indeed, some of the actual muscles involved in playing a real shot are activated and make the same movements at a barely noticeable level. You really do “physically” practice your swing when you imagine hitting the ball and you have no reason to hit a bad shot when you’re practicing and playing in your imagination.

This means that if you can augment your physical practice by using your mind to follow the same suggestions that I gave you earlier for best general practice between rounds. Find a quiet, comfortable relaxing place and let your imagination run free. You can use the Finger Breathing technique as an easy way to achieve a good state of relaxation.

If you want to take this even further, then why not have a look at my Better Golf with Less Practice hypnosis audio programme. It includes hypnosis sessions for Playing Golf in Your Mind, Practicing Golf in Your Mind and Playing Golf in Your Dreams.

In my next Golf Hypnotist blog post, I’ll continue this series on Best Practice for Better Golf with part 5, “Best Practice Rounds for Better Golf”.

I feel that it’s best to think of and use your general practice time as an opportunity to rehearse every aspect of your physical and mental game in a controlled environment. On the golf course, success is only really measured by what’s written on your score card, not by the quality of your shot making and your mental game. On the practice tee and green, we have the opportunity to measure every shot objectively and precisely, using feedback from cameras, coaches, shot monitors, alignment tools, etc.

So what I’m talking about here is:

· Rehearsing “real” rounds of golf

• thinking about the courses you plan to play
• considering all the likely pin positions on each green
• thinking about the ideal position to be hitting your first putt from
• deciding on the best place to land the ball for those pin positions, allowing for contours and balancing risks
• choosing the best possible position and distance to hit each of those possible approach shots from – where on the fairway or which side of the tee
• deciding on how to get the ball into your ideal positions on the fairway.

· Simulating playing those “real” rounds of golf

• playing each rehearsal shot, each practice swing, in turn using the clubs and shots you’ve decided on
• using your pre-shot, shot and post-shot routines on very shot.

· Enhancing your post-shot routine by taking advantage of all possible feedback information.

· Walking away and taking your time between shots, so that you take an hour or more to hit a bucket of 60 balls.

· Making every shot count – just like you do in a real round of golf.

· Practicing your putting and chipping with one ball.

And don’t forget that you can extend all this using hypnosis to imagine stepping into the shoes of any golfer you admire to Learn Better Golf with Your Golfing Heroes.

In my next Golf Hypnotist blog post, I’ll continue this series with part 4, “Best Mental Practice for Better Golf”.

Now, I don’t think I have to tell you or any experienced golfer about the benefits of gradually warming up your body before every round of golf. However, I do think you need to do something to “warm up” your golfing mind at the same time. Exploring what types of shot are working well for you today, will also help your scoring. Remember, this is a time to learn about making the most of the game you’ve brought to the course, not a time to fix faults or make swing changes.

This is why I named the final hypnosis track of my Winning Golf hypnosis programme, “Making the Most of Your Game”. Perhaps I should have added the word today at the end because with so many variables in golf, our game often seems to change so much from day to day. Have you ever seen hit every shot on the practice tee with a fade and then try in vain to draw their first approach shot on the course. They probably try again on the next hole as well and when that still doesn’t work, they start making changes to their swing!

One of the best ways of “warming up” your mind before a round is to make every shot on the practice tee count. That means picking the shot you want to hit and then following your pre-shot, shot and, most importantly, post-shot routines for every shot – just like you do on the course.

Remember that your post-shot routine includes learning from every shot. By the end of your warm up session, you should have a good idea of the game you’ve brought with you to the course – the shots you are capable of hitting well today. You may also get some other feedback about things like how far the ball will travel today.

In my next Golf Hypnotist blog post, I’ll continue this series on Best Practice for Better Golf with part 3, “Best General Practice for Better Golf”.

How do you make the most of extra time to practice your golf? What’s the best way to practice for better golf? Those are questions a lot of my clients have been asking me in recent weeks. For some it’s the long summer evenings, for others it’s holiday time and, for a lucky few, it’s about devoting themselves to playing golf full time.

Whatever your reason, one of the first things to consider is what form of practice will help you the most. Remember that practice doesn’t just have to be confined to beating balls on the range. What about

• working on your swing – perhaps after a session with a coach
• warming up before a round – loosening up and seeing what works today
• general practice between rounds
• mental practice – away from the golf course
• practice rounds before a competition – especially away from home.

So starting in this post with Best Practice for Better Golf Swing Change, I’d like to start by suggesting you keep your swing change practice completely separate from the other types of practice and especially from your golf on the course. The last thing you want, when you are playing, warming up and rehearsing your golf, is to think consciously about your swing. It’s so much better to be thinking about how well you can score with your current swing when you’re confidently following your routines and trusting your natural ability.

When you are working on a swing change on the range, there are two key things to remember. Firstly, treat every practice shot as if it were a real shot in a round of golf. That means going through your routines and only consciously thinking about the swing changes during the pre-shot planning and rehearsal swing elements. Once you get the feeling you are looking for, just step into your shot routine and begin trusting your unconscious mind to integrate the swing changes.

Secondly, after every three shots you hit while concentrating on your swing change, select another club and hit three shots the way you would on the golf course. That means following your normal routines without thinking about the swing change. With your natural ability, you can make any swing change work to some degree after three practice shots. By switching back to your normal routines for a few shots, you give your unconscious mind the chance to integrate the new techniques into your natural game. This will help you to practice for your next round while at the same time working on your swing changes.

You can also work very effectively on your swing, in the comfort of your own home or anywhere else for that matter, using hypnosis techniques. That’s why I developed my hypnosis audio programme for Better Golf with Less Practice.

In my next Golf Hypnotist blog post, I’ll continue this series on Best Practice for Better Golf with part 2, “Warming Up to Winning Golf”.

So today, I’m pleased to announce a new, improved and, very important this, free 12-minute MP3 audio version of a simple technique for taking yourself into a safe, light and relaxing trance. Using it will help you in getting the most out of the golf psychology ideas included in my other articles, newsletters and posts. You can also use this technique to calm and relax yourself at times of stress and anxiety, like taking an exam, meeting the boss, first-tee nerves or standing over an important shot on the golf course.

You can learn how to use the Finger Breathing self-hypnosis and relaxation technique by regularly following the “Seven Steps to Learning Finger Breathing” outlined on my ezine website. That page also includes download instructions for new and improved Finger Breathing MP3 recording.

As you’ll soon realise, this “Finger Breathing” technique does require a bit of imagination, but you must already be pretty imaginative if you’re looking to use golf psychology to improve your golf!

Now I’m not suggesting that Darren started doing that after he or one of his support team read about it in my ezine. However, it is obviously helping to overcome some of the “demons” that seemed to be afflicting his putting confidence in recent years. The six steps and his action of gripping left hand low and then re-gripping right hand low are clearly keeping his conscious mind occupied while he’s just trusting his unconscious mind to hit the putts. It certainly seems to be working for him.

Why not give it a try? You can still read that ezine edition here and subscribe to regularly receive my free Golf Hypnotist Ezine using the box on the right hand side of this page. The new edition of the ezine comes out later today and includes the opportunity to download a free audio recording of the Finger Breathing relaxation technique I’m always talking about.

Coming back to those New Year’s resolutions, have you made your ones yet? No, don’t tell me what they are, that’s supposed to be unlucky. It’s enough that you’re clear about what you would like to change in your life and your golf in 2010? You know what you’d like to accomplish and where you want your life to go. That’s enough, isn’t it?

Well, I’ve got some bad news and some good news for you. Which would you like first? Okay, let’s start with the bad news. The bad news is that New Year’s resolutions generally don’t work. Recent articles suggest that that over 80% of the resolutions we make fall by the wayside within a few weeks or months? That’s not the good news, is it?

New Year’s Resolutions traditionally don’t work because they are based primarily on willpower and that’s a function of our conscious mind. If willpower worked 24 hours a day 365 days a year, then we’d all be the shape we want and we’d be fit, rich and happy. We’d all be great golfers as well. How often have you gone out to play golf determined to concentrate hard on every shot only to suddenly experience a lapse of concentration and hit a disastrous shot? I know I have. How often have those dieters amongst you remembered you’re on a diet, but not until after you’ve eaten something fattening?

The problem is that your conscious mind can only focus on a few things at a time and those are the ones we are thinking about right now. Research tells us that typically a human being can consciously hold between five and nine bits of information – often referred to as seven plus or minus two – in our mind at any one time. That’s why long phone numbers can be difficult to remember, even for the short time from looking at them in the phonebook to dialling them. So the chances are that your resolutions will have dropped out of your seven plus or minus two most of the time.

The good news is that your unconscious mind is switched on to everything you know all the time. You don’t have to remember to breathe, to regulate your heart-beat, to blink if something flies at you, to drive a car or to ride a bike. That’s assuming that you’ve already learned how to drive a car or ride a bike! And mentally there’s no limit to how many things you can do unconsciously at the same time. It’s not recommended, but people can drive a car, hold a conversation, smoke a cigarette and ponder their place in the universe all at the same time and if a car pulls out from a side road they’ll still avoid it and probably check the rear view mirror as they do it.

So how do you hand my New Year’s resolutions over to your unconscious mind? Well that’s easy. You use hypnosis programmes, self-hypnosis and NLP to install them in your unconscious mind. That’s exactly what happens with golf hypnosis programmes like Your Own Virtual Caddy.

So what’s happening here? Well, if your mind is focussed elsewhere, it’s your conscious mind that’s doing the focussing, whether it’s worrying about your health, doubting whether you should be out here on the golf course or just thinking about what you’ll be doing after the game. The only part of you that’s free to think about golf is your unconscious golf mind and trusting your unconscious is one of the most important and effective of my secrets of hypnotic golf.

Now, you probably know that I’m a qualified clinical hypnotherapist and one of the keys to successful hypnosis and hypnotherapy is to pre-occupy or confuse the client’s conscious mind, or simply send it off somewhere nice, while I communicate directly with her unconscious mind, the storehouse off all her knowledge, experience, skill and resources. Coming full circle, that’s just what we’re looking for when we’re on the golf course looking to trust our unconscious golf mind.

That reminds me of a story about the advice that Bob Rotella was giving Mike Weir early in the year before an important tournament. Any advice from Bob is usually good advice and what he told Mike Weir was to “Try to go unconscious on the course.” I looked that up on the internet and found Bob saying pretty much the same thing about avoiding choking under pressure by turning off your conscious mind and switching to your unconscious one. He also tells his clients to, “practice their swing technique all they want on the driving range, but on the course, let instinct take over.”

I agree with Bob that given an absolute choice between playing golf in the conscious or unconscious minds, I’d have to go for the unconscious for better golf. However, I think that the best golf is played using the conscious and unconscious golf minds selectively and independently for different tasks. There’s an important separation in the mind between planning a shot, a conscious process, and executing it, an unconscious process. Have you noticed how when you hit a really good shot, you tend to think,” Wow, what happened there? What did I just do right?” The odd thing is that it usually happens when you didn’t have a thought, at least a conscious one, in your head.

Now isn’t that more or less the same thing that happens when a golfer’s conscious mind is “clogged up” with a cold or flu?

So what happened? Well after writing my recent article about talking yourself into better golf, I sat down to watch a replay of the television coverage of the World Cup from Mission Hills in China. Now I ‘m always thinking very positively after completing an article, so I was amazed at how quickly I was becoming negative watching the golf and more importantly listening to the negative messages coming from the commentators. Here’s a list of the ones I remember from just 30 minutes of watching and listening.

“He’s got to think about trying not to let his partner down”

“Very few golfers have found winning easy”

“The nap is into him as well as the slope – he has to hit it hard”

“Perhaps he was afraid of thinning it”

“They might have felt a bit intimidated”

“It’s not finished yet”

“It’s only a par, but it’s not terminal”

“He missed one of this length at the last hole”

“There’s a tough driving hole coming up”

“He’ll be disappointed to be much further away from the hole in 2 shots”

“He and his playing partner have it all to do”

“I still wouldn’t like to call it, would you? No.”

“For the third hole in a row he gets just this length of putt”

“He’s just 20 years old, what can you expect?”

“Had that gone in, there might have been a glimmer of hope, but they’re running out of holes”

It makes depressing reading doesn’t it? More worryingly, I wonder how many of those negative suggestions have been taken in by my unconscious while I was watching and listening. I dread to think how depressing and potentially bad for your golf it would be playing with some of of those commentators, if they talk like that when they actually play golf.

I’m not saying that television golf commentators don’t say anything positive. You only have to hear them talking about Tiger Woods to hear them talking positively, even when he’s playing badly. To be fair, some of the commentators are very positive, particularly the one’s who played golf at the very top, like Nick Faldo and Peter Alliss, unless he’s talking about putting!

So, be careful when you watch golf on TV. Enjoy watching the golf, learn from your favourite golfers and consciously filter out the negative comments from the positive commentary.