Most golfers will have a certain shot that tends to get their nerves prickling, those butterflies in the stomach stuff. It may be the first Tee shot of the day, a certain hole on your course that has some "nasty" history for you, or is it when you have an audience watching on?
This added pressure is going to play merry hell with your swing unless you are well-practiced at playing under pressure and controlling your thoughts and emotions even when the heat is on. After all, in an ideal world you would want to be able to remain calm and put a normal swing on the ball when the pressure is on wouldn't you?
Left uncontrolled, pressure can interfere with your rhythm and timing, cause you to "try" to manufacture a swing, yank the club down from the top, tense up muscles in all the wrong places at all the wrong times, swing too fast, and more! Not exactly great for peak performance is it? Which means you are more likely to make a poor swing. Poor swings equal more poor results which will just reinforce your worry, nerves and pressure for the next time thus creating a negative downward spiral.
If you are not trained or practiced to handle pressure shots then a good intervention you can try is to focus on your swing rhythm. Make a few practice swings and just try to get a "feel" for a swing speed and rhythm that feels normal to you. As you make these practice swings, face your target, pick a small specific point you want the ball to go to and ask yourself this question.
"What would a great shot look like here?"
As you ask this question your mind is going to give you the answer and you will also be internally imaging the shot you want. Now keep the picture, image or feeling of the shot in mind and then just focus on making a swing with a good rhythm.
Don't delay, ask the question above, get a clear image of it, have one or two rhythm swings still imagining a great shot and staring intently at your target, then walk in a let the swing go.
A good swing thought you can try, and you should really only have one, is to feel you are slowing your backswing down just a little, keep it un-hurried and moving smoothly. Keep the rhythm going back and through, you will naturally speed up in the downswing as your body weight shifts toward the target, so just work on good rhythm down and through.
A last bit of advice you can also incorporate into these situations. Make sure you walk calmly toward the Tee, do not rush, keep your pace calm and measured. Make sure you go through all your normal routines, don't rush and leave something out. When walking it is extremely important to keep your head up and eyes high, as if you are supremely confident. Looking down and slouching in dread is a real confidence and shot killer! As you are preparing for the shot and doing your practice rhythm swings, take slow deep breaths in through your nose and release them through your mouth.
Read this article several times, take down notes on the advice here. Don't try to do it all at once. Perhaps try to incorporate one or two points at a time until you have those integrated and then add some more elements. Over a period of a few weeks or months you will incorporate all the points and by design have installed a nice pre shot routine.
While this article is not the definitive article on playing under pressure there are some really useful strategies that will help you to increase your level of performance and consistency under pressure, I'm sure you will agree?
Remember: Information without action is pretty much useless, so USE these techniques. Write your list NOW and then put it in your bag along with your pitch mark repair tool or laminate it and then tie it onto the side of your bag where you will - see it- use it- benefit.
Find out more by the mental game of golf now and how to easily apply principals such as visualisation, focus of attention, targeting and many others that will dramatically improve your golf results and enjoyment of the game now go to http://www.golfmindshop.com
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Wishing you FIRs, GIRs & Blue Skies,
Mark Wright.
GET YOUR Peak Mental Performance FREE EBookto get your mental game started now at http://www.golfmindshop.com or FREE GOLF GRIP EBook.
Mark Wright is a Master Coach and Sport Psychologist, NLP Sports Coach, Hypnosis Expert and Master Club Maker with nearly 25 years of Sports Coaching Experience.
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