To deliver a fluid, effortless golf swing, especially when you’re under pressure around the course, two vital things need to be accomplished, but which are rarely addressed by the mainstream approach to coaching.
Luckily, the Chi GOLF Academy offers a tried, tested and proven solution!
But first… let’s define what pressure actually means.
Fred Shoemaker (author of “Extraordinary Golf”) cites the fact that no matter how good a golfer you are, a couple of bad shots in a row can crush your mental state and reduce your game to one where you are constantly on the verge of getting upset.
The reason for this is because like most golfers you probably bring a whole bundle of emotions with you to the first tee, including “doubt, excitement, fear, key swing thoughts, desires and a lot of hope”.
Pressure, also known as stress, anxiety or a general feeling of ‘up-tightness’ can be anything from not wanting to feel embarrassed when you drive off in front of your friends, the anxiety of a corporate event when you haven’t played for several weeks or it might be having to play against someone who can’t help offering you advice every time you get ready to take your shot.
Jack Nicklaus (one of my favourite golfers) has said a lot of useful things over the years which are worth paying attention to if you’re looking to improve your game.
For instance, the Golden Bear said that a big mistake many players make is that they try to swing like somebody else, to do what another golfer can do, rather than finding out what they can do well and sticking with it.
I think this is true of the majority of recreational players, who “search for a swing” via their coaches, golfing friends, magazine articles and so forth – all of whom they believe know more about their golf swing than they do!
I truly believe that if you could just play with the swing you have now, the next time you go out on the course you will be more consistent, make more birdies and enjoy your game a whole lot more.
So how do you stop playing “search for a swing” and start trusting the swing you’ve got?
To begin with, you’ll need to reduce your mental interference (which is constantly undermining you and telling you why you can’t make the shot!) and secondly, you’ll need to master your bio-chemistry i.e. your nerves and adrenaline, which make you feel anxious and interferes with the fluidity of your swing.
Both of these things can be accomplished quickly and easily and applied to your very next game using the oldest of all the world’s performance enhancement techniques: the art of focusing on your breathing – also known as Mindfulness or Zen.
Tom Watson summed it up the best when he said “When I learned how to breathe, I learned how to win”.
Learning how to breathe properly – that is, deeply and slowly accomplishes the following:
It quietens the internal dialogue a.k.a. mental interference, and it produces a ‘relaxation response’ in your nervous-system, which negates the disastrous effects of adrenaline and helps you enter ‘the zone’ or flow-state of relaxed concentration.
There are many ways to take Mindfulness of breathing into your game.
Here are a few suggestions to help you get started
Arrive at the club 20 minutes early for your next tee time, then just sit in the car and quietly notice your breathing. This will induce your ‘relaxation response’, keep your inner voice to a minimum and ensure you arrive at the first tee unruffled.
Use this simple technique when going through your pre-shot routine, when standing at address, when walking to the ball and so on. Just be aware of your breathing.
You hardly need another mental game technique than this – it will calm your nervous-system, control your bio-chemistry, keep you neutral under pressure, stop your internal voice and allow you to trust your own swing, for a more relaxing and enjoyable game.
