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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”.

Now, I’ve been writing an article today for the next edition of my Golf Hypnotist Ezine and it reminded me that many of my clients prefer to play on their own when they’re working on their game. They often find it embarrassing to play with someone else when they’re integrating a new swing idea from their golf pro or working on a golf psychology homework task I’ve given them. It also reminded me that I have another homework task that’s just perfect for any situation where you’re playing on your own.

So the next time you are out playing on your own, whether it’s for a full round or just a few holes, try one of these homework tasks I sometimes give my golf hypnosis clients.

1. If you can only play one ball, imagine you are playing as one of your golfing heroes. It could be Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Annika Sörenstam or perhaps just you playing to the best of your capabilities – it’s your choice. Take on all the mannerisms of your role model and imagine how they would be thinking and what they would be seeing, hearing and feeling.

1. If you’re allowed to play 2 balls around your course, then do the same as one, but imagine you’re one role model for one ball and a different role model for the other. Keep score and see which persona has the best score – you may learn something here. It could be interesting to play as Tiger Woods with one ball and Phil Mickelson with the other. Although I wouldn’t recommend playing left handed if you’re right handed!

If you’re not really sure exactly who you want to model, then try modelling a number of different players. Over a period of a couple of weeks, you should be able to identify the one who helps you the most.

The article explains how golfers and other athletes have used mental imagery to complement their physical practice. Sometimes practicing golf in the mind actually produces better results than physical practice. In a study of medical students in Texas, students were given 30 minutes of guided practice for a complex medical procedure followed by either

1. no further training
2. a further 30 minutes of physical practice
3. 30 minutes of guided mental imagery.

In follow up tests, the students who did the guided mental imagery performed at the same level as those who had the additional physical practice and both these groups were significantly better than the group who received no further training.

So why is mental practice at least as good as physical practice? Well other research shows that the act of “Imagining” fires up the identical parts of the brain that would be activated if you were actually playing a stroke. The neurons used in the brain are the very same ones that would be used if you were actually playing. Indeed, some of the actual muscles involved in the imagined shot experience tiny movements. You effectively practice just by the act of visualisation.

One of my favourite stories about the power of imagination in golf comes from an American Major, James Nesmeth. He was an average golfer consistently scoring in the mid 90’s, until he developed a unique way of improving his golf game. It came when he spent seven years in North Vietnam as a prisoner of war. During those tortuous years, Nesmeth lived in solitary confinement inside a prison cell that measured four and a half feet high and 5 ft long. To keep from losing all hope, he realized that he needed to do something to occupy his mind.

Every day he played 18 holes of golf in his mind. He imagined everything in vivid detail from the country club he was playing at to the smell of freshly cut grass in the summertime. He would imagine the grip of the clubs and practice his swing mentally many times until he perfected it. In reality, he had no place to go, so he spent four hours a day on the course in his mind never leaving any detail out. When he was released from prison and returned home, he played his first real game of golf for 7 years, he scored 74!

So when you find yourself with nothing important to do, maybe when you’re travelling on public transport, when there’s nothing worth watching on television or you’re just daydreaming, just go inside your golf mind and imagine playing a round of golf. You may be surprised by the positive results.

As a low handicap golfer for over 40 years, I’ve done a fair bit of work on the practice ground and had lots of golf lessons from lots of good coaches – some of the best in the world in their day. However, I know that much of the technical advice I received left me confused and inconsistent.

Since qualifying as a Hypnotherapist and NLP Master Practitioner, I now know that much of that old advice led me to play golf almost completely in my conscious mind. And that’s about as far from being in the zone as you can get! A bit like having a driving instructor sitting next to you for the rest of your life reminding you exactly what to do – when and how to indicate, change gear, look in the mirror, etc.

So what’s confused me now – I read about Muhammad Ali

Well, for starters, here I am reading an article about Muhammad Ali and in between saying, “I am the Greatest”, he slips in this very sincere quote:

"Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them: A desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last- minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill." Muhammad Ali

Now I have to agree with this as when Ali talks about being in the ring, it’s clear that he was in an extremely altered state. I cant remember the exact quote, but one of my favourite recollections was of him talking about how he felt like he was watching his own fights from above each of the four corners of the ring and it was like he could “see” his opponents back muscles move long before any signs from the front that punch was on its way. After that, “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee” seemed quite mundane.

Then what happened – I read about Tiger’s Practice Routine

A short while later, I’m reading about how Hank Haney told viewers on the Golf Channel about a typical golf practice day for one of his pupils. Yes, you’ve guessed it he’s talking about Tiger Woods. Now according to Haney, here’s Tiger’s schedule

So when does Tiger he do all his work with Jay Brunza, his Golf Psychologist? I suspect he’s there with Tiger when he’s practicing. And I bet he’s helping him to build his unconscious resources at the same time. Why didn’t somebody tell me about all this golf psychology stuff 40 years ago?

What do I think about Practice?

I’m going into this in a lot of detail in my forthcoming book, “The Secrets of Hypnotic Golf.” For now, I can say that I’ve come down on the side of “Better Golf Without Practice.” Alex Morrison published a book with that title in 1940 and its messages are still true today.

So who’s Alex Morrison? Well, he was rated as the greatest golf teacher of his day by far and had his own golf school in New York. He coached many great golfers like Henry Picard, 26-time winner on the PGA Tour and winner of the Masters in 1938 and The PGA Championships in 1939. He also taught many famous celebrities, including Bing Crosby and Bob Hope.  Are you old enough to have seen Bing’s wonderfully smooth and slow swing? It was effortless right through to his death, playing golf at the age of 73.

Oh yes, there’s one other important link between Alex Morrison and my world of golf in the mind – perhaps his greatest contribution to golf. He coached a certain Charlie Nicklaus, father of golfing legend Jack Nicklaus…