Archive for Golf Hypnosis
As a golf psychologist using hypnosis and NLP, I am often asked about the merits of taking swing thoughts or keys out onto the golf course when they play. I’m thinking here about some of the classic ones like “keep your head down”, “keep your eye on the ball”, “swing back in one piece”, “left shoulder under the chin”, etc.
Now, my major concern about swing thoughts and keys is not so much about their content, but rather about when you think of them. Some would argue that there’s no place for them at all during a round of golf and they should be confined to the practice ground. While I broadly agree with this, I feel it’s more important to eliminate conscious thoughts about the swing once you step in to address the ball.
There are parts of a golfer’s routine that require conscious though and there are parts where it’s better to trust your unconscious …
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Six Steps to Unconscious Putting
Posted by:Learn the Six Steps to Unconscious Putting, a key part of the pre-shot routine that Darren Clarke used so effectively at Royal St Georges in wining the Open Championship.
Unusually for me, there are no instructions here about using any formal self hypnosis technique before following these six steps. You’ll usually be using this technique as you transition from the conscious process of planning your putt in your pre-shot routine to the, hopefully, unconscious process of stroking the putt in your shot routine. Having said that, if you’re an experienced user of the “Finger Breathing technique, you’ll only need a couple of deep breaths at this point to get into just the right state.
Step 1: …
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Better Putting in Your Unconscious Mind
Posted by:Shortly after first publishing my technique for “Six Steps to Better Putting in Your Unconscious Mind” over a year ago, I was surprised and delighted a few weeks later to see Darren Clarke using virtually the same technique in his dramatic return to form to finish second at Scottish Open at Loch Lomond.
I remember avoiding the suggestion, at the time, that Darren started doing that after he or one of his support team read about it in my ezine. However, it was obviously helping him in overcoming some of the “demons” that seemed to be afflicting his putting confidence back then. The six steps and his action back then of gripping left hand low and then re-gripping right hand low were clearly keeping his conscious mind occupied while just trusting his unconscious mind to hit the putts. …
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Well that’s the opinion of two senior marketing executives who’ve been telling the golf industry about my success as the Golf Hypnotist. I think they may be a bit over zealous in describing me as, “the UK’s leading golf hypnosis expert”. How do you measure that? However, they are clearly impressed with the help I gave them in overcoming their Yips problems.
Here’s what GOLFMagic had to say in the Instruction Articles section of their website under a dramatic headline and a rather worrying sub-heading! There’s a similar article on the Golfshake.com website.
Have you thought of using Golf Hypnosis to get the best out of golf training devices? If you’re anything like me, you’ve been tempted to buy almost every new golf training device that’s ever been invented. Well, I was certainly more than tempted a few times, but that was a long time ago and before I got into golf hypnosis.
The problem I’ve found back then was that, however well conceived and constructed these training aids are, I only used most of them a couple of times before they start gathering dust!
If you still want to use golf training aids, then here’s a way to use Golf Hypnosis to get the most out of them …
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Why do golfers talk themselves into playing the shots they don’t want to hit? I’m talking here about saying or thinking to yourself something like, “Now, don’t hit it into the water”. If it wasn’t the water, it could have been the bunker, the trees or the wrong side of the green that they were trying to avoid. If it wasn’t one of those, it could have been about not slicing, hooking, topping, shanking or yipping, for all I know. …
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Best Practice Rounds for Better Golf
Posted by:In this fifth and final blog post in this series on practicing for golf, I’m addressing the subject of Best Practice Rounds for Better Golf.
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. …
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Best Mental Practice for Better Golf
Posted by:In this fourth blog post in the series on practice, I’ll be talking about Best Mental Practice for Better Golf, a favourite subject of mine – for obvious reasons.
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. …
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Best General Practice for Better Golf
Posted by:This is my third blog post in this series and today I’m addressing the subject of Best General Practice 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. …
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Warming Up to Winning Golf
Posted by:In this second blog post on Best Practice for Better Golf, I’m addressing Warming Up for Winning 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. …
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