“The best thing about losing games like this is you get to forget about them. But when you WIN – you get to remember those moments FOREVER.”
If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it.
Yesterday I dared to struggle. Today I dare to win.
Clear thoughts produce clear results.
Nothing happens unless first we dream.
There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love; there's only a scarcity of resolve to make it happen.
Self control saves you of mistakes, embarrassment and loss.
Concentrated thinking, visualization, faith and taking action make dreams come true.
Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe.
”Golf is my profession, I tell jokes to pay for my greens fee.”
The Mind is your greatest weapon.
It’s the greatest club in your bag.
It’s also your Achilles Heel. (A vulnerable spot)
Relax, Trust your swing.
If you keep putting your self in position to win tournaments, you’re going to win a whole bunch of them.
See the target, see the shot, execute.
Once you’re on the tour, the mental part of the game is 85-90 %.
The hardest thing to teach an Amateur is to slow down there swing.
You can’t let it happen; you’ve got to let it happen
Hit the shot you know you can hit, not the one you think you should.
Remember that someone, somewhere, is practicing, and when you meet him he will win.
Golf is not my life; it is a part of my life...an integral part.
"I've spent most of my life golfing - the rest I just squandered"
" It is a bad teacher that does not allow his student to become better than himself."
Golfing, Rhythm and timing are the two things which we all must have, yet no one knows how to teach either.
What other people may find in poetry or art museums, I find in the flight of a good drive.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Prepared for a Competition by Dr. Graham and John Stabler from Golfpsych
There are 7 Keys to Being Well-Prepared for a Competition Besides Good Golf Skills
1. Thought Control
2. Practice Round
3. Game Plan
4. Programming
5. Good Sleep
6. Nutrition and Hydration
7. Pre-Round Warm-Up
1) Thought Control
These 7 Keys will have you ready to play to your ability if you know how to do them well and put in the effort to do them well.
While all of these are done the day of competition or one or two days before, Thought Control needs to start long before the competition.
The tournament schedule has been set and some time before the tournament you have to commit to play in it.
As soon as you make the commitment to play that tournament your analytical mind will start posing questions and imagining scenarios.
What are your thoughts about playing in the tournament? Do you have memories of this event in the past? How does it compare to other competitions you play? How competitive is the field? What are your chances? What are your expectations? How have you been competing recently? How is your game? How much have you been able to practice? Who will be watching? How will your performance effect your future? etc., etc.
All of these questions and more may begin to course through your mind. If any of the answers to these questions are not to your liking or create anxiety, then you will be programming higher arousal and negative expectations.
If the answers to these questions are really positive and exciting, then you will be programming higher arousal and higher expectations.
Which one are you? Maybe some of both?
For some players these questions and answers will be working in the background, seldom recognized, never admitted inwardly or outwardly, perhaps denied.
For others, they just don’t think about it until closer to the event, then these thoughts can come like a tsunami, overwhelming them suddenly a few days before the event.
As you know from my previous emails, arousal kills. Your thoughts long before tournament day can raise your arousal gradually so you don't realize you are already higher than normal. This probably has happened when you just don't feel comfortable over the ball or your tempo is off or something is wrong with your swing or your putting isn't working before the tournament.
Of course when the tournament starts arousal goes even higher and things can get ugly fast.
Awareness of your thoughts about competition and how they affect you is the first step to managing or controlling your thoughts.
Every now and then ask yourself what you were just thinking about. We call these moments Thought Checks. Were there any thoughts about the competition? If so, were they hurtful thoughts, thoughts tied to the competition which raise arousal and create anxiety or raise or lower expectations?
If so, then you must change them. Unfortunately, most of us cannot simply stop thinking those thoughts. “Don’t think about...” doesn’t work very well. Don't think about a pink elephant. What did you just picture?
This is where using your imagination really helps.
Imagine writing that Not-Allowed thought on something...a golf ball...a toy car...an airplane...a plate...the beach...a pelican...anything at all.
Now in your imagination you take the time to write or draw the not-allowed thought on this thing and then you send it away or have it change into something and it is gone. The more elaborate and unusual the action, the better. The more your mind engages in doing this the better it works.
Then choose an Allowed thought. This is any thought that you like to think about and that is calming. Could be anything at all...a vacation...a favorite place...doing something fun...your pet...favorite people...music...a great round or great shot.
There, you have controlled your thoughts, choosing what you will think about instead of letting the thoughts just flow.
Another way to do this is to identify the problem thought and then use that as a “Cue” to think about something specific, something that will help you play on that competition day. It could be how well you are going to do some part of your Mental Routine like Commitment, in that future competitive round.
For Example: Every time you think about “I hope I shoot below...” or “I need to shoot.... to have a chance or win”, say to yourself, "that’s my Cue to think about how committed and how freely I will swing in this tournament". Then imagine how you feel and think while you are over your shots when you have been really committed and swinging freely in the past.
This is programming yourself to be the way you want to be on that competitive day.
There are more ways to Control Your Thoughts before competition, but this should help. I encourage you to raise your awareness of your thoughts and the effects they have on you. Try either of these techniques in the days before for your next competition.
2) Your Practice Round
Are you getting the most you can from your Practice Round before the competition starts?
In some cases you cannot get a practice round before you have to compete. If you get no practice round, then you should try to collect as much information as possible on the course. Get the course map, type of greens and any other information available. The internet can be really helpful.
Generally courses allow practice rounds the day before the tournament. So assuming one practice round the day before the tournament starts, try to do as much of this as possible.
Try to mimic the tournament situation. Can you tee off at the same time of day as your tournament tee time? From the same tees?
Get the weather forecast for the next day, especially wind direction and speed. Make sure you understand where the wind will be coming from on each hole. As you play try to imagine what effect the wind will have on your shots and where this shot would have ended up. Note any features that may affect the wind like a large building or tall trees.
Play every shot with a tournament quality mental routine, trying to hit a specific target and shot. This is not the time to free wheel and play crazy agressive because it doesn't count. See where good quality shots end up. Hit a second confirming shot if you miss the first one a bit.
You can also hit shots to play the hole two different ways.
Do Not Keep Score!!
This is not competition. You are not the same on a practice day as on the competitive day. Your outcomes don't matter and your level of arousal is probably lower.
Time after time, players tell us how well they played the practice round and they establish expectations for competition. Those expectations for performance and comparisons to the practice round then distract, raise arousal and create problems when the competitive round is not the same.
You should be measuring the course as you go, like a good caddie. Use a range finder or step it off. Not all course markings are accurate or measured in the way you expect. If the wind changes, then that shot you hit in practice may not work in competition. Knowing the yardages to all features enables you to judge this better and make adjustments to changing weather.
You need to understand how wide the fairway is at different areas, how far to the fairway bunkers and how far to clear them. How big is the green? Are the yardages to the middle or front of the greens?
Where is the trouble? Can you take it out of play or reduce your chances of hitting it? How far to clear the trouble?
Work the greens. Where are likely pin placements? Are they marked in advance? Putt in those areas to learn the breaks and the speed. Don't worry about the current pin placement, it will be changed. You can also assume that the greens will be mowed and a bit faster the next day.
How much slope and where do you want to be putting from on each green. Sometimes it doesn't matter where the pin is. On small greens you may choose to shoot at the middle of the green.
Determine where you don't want to be if you miss the green. Practice getting up and down from your preferred miss areas.
(Have you done all of this on your home course? Or do you just play the same shots everytime? Do certain holes always play hard? Do they deserve to?)
You are collecting data so that later you can make a written game plan for competition. It is the only purpose of a practice round.
You should not be working on your swing or mechanics. You should not be working on your putting. It is too late to perfect your physical game the day before the tournament. Don't worry about how you are hitting it or rolling it.
May I repeat, You Should Not Be Playing For Score. You should not be gambling.
Gathering this information can be time consuming and tiring. Make sure you are hydrating and eating. Be respectful of the groups behind you. Let them play through if you are slow.
If you are competing on a course you know well, then use your practice round to verify your game plan. You may not hit all the shots, only the ones that you find challenging. Spend most of your time working on the greens.
In this case you may think it is OK to be competing with others and trying to win some money. The downside to this is that you may use too much mental energy before the tournament starts, effectively lengthening the tournament. I recommend saving your energy and competitive spirit for the real competition.
Enough said. I think you get the picture.
3) Your Game Plan
Continuing my series of newsletters on How to Prepare Well for a Competition, this one is about how to develop a good Game Plan for this competitive round.
Do you have a Game Plan? Do you know what clubs, targets and type of shots you want to play for today's round? Or are you making it up as you go?
Are you a professional or amateur? Are you a serious competitor? Do you want to play your best in today's round? Then you better know how you will try to play the course today in detail before you start.
Here are some guideline concepts that you should follow to help you make your game plan.
1. This is your plan based on your abilities and confidence.
2. Choose your strengths as much as possible.
3. Take some risk based on your abilities.
4. There may be some shots you do not have the ability to play.
5. Write it down in detail.
6. Commit to your Game Plan.
7. Review and Modify for Next Round.
1. This is Your Plan! You have to decide on how you want to play the course. Do not let others talk you into choices that you are not comfortable with. Do not let peer pressure push you into shots you are not comfortable with.
Just because others are choosing to play driver on that short par 4 does not mean you should. Just because others think you should play the par 5 as reachable in 2 shots does not mean you should.
Just because the stated par is 4 does not mean you have to be on the green in two shots. For you this may be a par 4.5. You can choose to play it as a par 5 in your mind and in your plan. Some tough par 3's, you may plan to be short of the green and chip up whether because you are between clubs or the green just isn't accepting or holding shots.
When you make the choices, it is much easier for you to Commit to the shot and therefore play it better and more consistently.
2. Choose to play to your strengths as much as possible. What is your favorite approach club and yardage? How many times can you have that in your hand this round? The more times, the better you should play.
Choosing to play closer to the green where you have to play a partial shot or very touchy lob wedge is much more difficult in competition and when the pressure is on. You will do much better by choosing a full shot in these circumstances.
In addition by choosing shots you have a lot of confidence in, your ability to fully commit to that shot and do a good mental routine is enhanced. This increases the probability of good outcomes.
3. Take some risk based on your abilities. Choosing shots that you have lots of confidence in does not mean you cannot be aggressive at times. We have developed a rule for this decision making process. We call it The 50% Rule.
The 50% Rule says: when choosing the club and shot, the choice you make should have at least a 50% probability of success. Another way to say this is, if you hit this shot 10 times, how many of those times would you expect it to come off exactly as you hope or be acceptable? Try to be very honest in this self-assessment. Shots that have less than a 50% probability are very hard to be fully committed to and tend to raise arousal.
Players that measure Dominant on the personality assessment easily choose shots that may only be a one out of ten or even one in a hundred chance of coming off. We call these "Hero Shots". Sure feels good when they work but most of the time they don't. The risk here is too high.
Players that measure Submissive on the personality assessment often choose shots that are very safe, say 8, 9 or 10 out of 10 shots. We ask them to pick a few shots a round where they will play the 50% probablity shot if there is a good reward for doing it. Not all the time.
Under pressure Dominants get more aggressive and Submissives get more defensive, hurting them both.
For the very accomplished player that has every shot with high confidence, you will have find significant differences in your confidence levels with each shot choice. Always go with the highest confidence choice you can without being too careful or defensive.
4. Are there shots you just don't have any confidence in? What about that shot on #17, the island green with no bailout position? What are you going to do when there is not a shot you can play that has at least a 50% probability of success, based on your abilities?
This is called a free play or free roll. Your chance of success is low. The course architect or the greenskeeper was too aggressive. So give it a wack. Swing freely and aggressively. Don't hold back. Don't swing afraid. Plan on missing in your game plan. Expect to miss and be pleasantly surprised if it works out.
But you cannot think about the trouble or the miss in your mental routine when playing the shot. All you see is your ball, well struck, heading for the target in your imagination and during the Visual step of the routine.
Playing the shot while fearful of the outcome will guarantee the miss.
5. Write Your Game Plan in Detail. Every club, every target, every shot shape/type, for every shot, tee to green. What part of the green do you want to be on? Where is the trouble to avoid? How many yards to clear that fairway bunker if that is the plan? How wide is the landing area for this club?
You must assume the weather and conditions you expect to play this round in. How does the anticipated wind affect targets and shot selection.
What if a front is forecast to come through during the round or soon after? Is writing a detailed plan a waste of time?
If this is the situation, make two game plans accomodating the wind from the two different directions.
Is it a waste of time if your tee shot does not go where you planned it? First of all check your mental routine for errors. Then check your calculations that led to that game plan and those choices. Then adjust for the next shot. If your choices were wrong and it wasn't a mental error in your routine, adjust the plan for tomorrow.
You could plan two different approach clubs for this one hole: one if the tee ball stays on the upper plateau and another if it catches the slope and kicks forward for more yardage.
Sometimes the greens are small and aiming for the center of the green is a good plan. Other times there are places on the green you don't want to be, no matter where the pin is. This is all part of your Game Plan.
If you are playing in New England where the weather seems to change every 20 minutes, planning for the dominant weather pattern is still better than no plan. The time you take to think about the course design and your abilities will make it easier to adapt the plan if you need to, especially under the pressure of competition.
6. Commit to Your Game Plan. If it is a good plan for you, this should be calming and enable your performance. If you get behind on score, of where you think you should be, don't change the Game Plan.
There is a reason things are not going as well as you think they should. Most of the time the issues or problems are mental. Don't change Your Game Plan to get more aggressive to make up strokes or to catch another player.
Focus on your Mental Game and doing good Mental Routines. Work on lowering your Arousal level as it is probably too high. As you settle down, Your Game Plan should start working for you.
There are only two times we agree that you should change your Game Plan.
1. When the weather or conditions change.
2. When you are on the Back Nine Final Round, and you know the score for sure, and you have great tempo and confidence, and there are opportunities to pick up some shots by getting more aggressive.
Otherwise stick to your Game Plan. Play it right into the clubhouse. Let the other player stumble coming in.
7. After the round, Review and Modify Your Game Plan, if needed or different weather is forecast. How did it work? Were you confident enough in your choices to swing fully committed? Can you improve the choices in Your Plan in any way? This will help you get ready for your next round.
For practice, do a Game Plan for your home course, from each of the tees that you might play. Most players have never done their home course. They tend to play the course the same way each time. Some holes always play easy and other holes always play hard. Is it the hole or is it your Game Plan? When they play hard, do they play harder or cost you more strokes than they should?
4) Programming Yourself for Performance
Do you program yourself for success or failure before competition?
The average golfer has no programming system for preparing for competition. They entertain any thoughts and conversations that come along.
Their thoughts could be of how they played in this tournament last time, good or bad. They might think about their chances and using logic determine that they have a great chance or no chance based on their skills, recent practice (or the good score in their practice round) and recent competitions, creating expectations. Expectations of Outcome are Not Good.
Before the round, the expectations can raise arousal and make you more concerned with your outcomes. As you play you will constantly consider how things are matching those expectations and react acccordingly. This usually triggers emotions and raises arousal, hurting your play.
Others will talk about how things may go and what you have to do, what score, how many putts, who will be watching, results of winning, etc. They can pull you into outcome thinking and raise expectations or put pressure on you for performance. Reporters are notorious for doing this, as are some parents and other players, caddies and spouses, some coaches too.
If you are unaware of the real impact on your game of these average thoughts and comments and you let yourself entertain them, then you are unlikely to play well in the tournament.
If you spend much thought imagining scenarios where you fail or win, then you are programming yourself with those scenarios and your outcomes will suffer. "But, But I thought you were supposed to picture success?"
Picturing success and imagining what it will be like to accept the trophy and prize money are great for overall motivation, but they cannot go on the course and they are dangerous to performance the night before and on the course because they will raise your arousal and reduce your golf abilities. They will keep you focussed on your outcomes and your chances of winning as you play.
Some players have read or heard mental gurus expound on the following generally accepted concepts and may say to themselves tomorrow or on tournament day "I will play one shot at a time, I will be patient, I will do really good routines, I will manage my emotions", etc. Nice thoughts but unlikely to get you very far.
I am writing this newsletter to break you out of this average thinking and performance purgatory.
You can do a lot better than this before the round and therefore during the round. We call it Programming Champion Thoughts and Attitude.
In the first email in this sequence on preparation for competition, I gave you several Thought Control techniques. You should have been using these to deal with the thoughts of outcome and expectations in the days leading up to the tournament.
Programming: The night before your round, (you could do this every night of the days before the tournament), find some quiet place and time when you will not be interrupted. Shortly before you go to sleep is ideal, but anytime is good. You could do this several times a day.
Sit down in a comfortable position. Laying down is not recommended because you may go to sleep.
Begin breathing slowly, 5 seconds inhale, pause, then 5 seconds exhale. Focus on controlling the air and breathe abdominally. That is, as you inhale your stomach expands. Your chest should not rise. As you exhale, your stomach should move in, your chest should not fall. Modify the speed to go as slow as you can without having to take a catch-up breath. With practice you will be able to go slower and slower. This is great for lowering arousal.
It does not matter whether you breathe through your mouth or nose. We like equal time in and out.
Feel yourself get really relaxed. Facial tension should be the last to go. Everything soft and warm. No tension.
Now recall a round where you played really well, maybe best ever. Remember what it was like on the course. How you were feeling and thinking during the round. This will include things like fun, patient, calm, confident, great focus, peaceful, competitive, great tempo, great touch and feel, good green reading, committed, didn't know score, un-troubled, un-distracted, good visual steps, etc. Really live it in your mind.
Do not include the parts about winning or adding up your score or the applause afterwards when you got your trophy.
Once you are there and feeling these things, imagine tomorrow's round. Imagine yourself on the course feeling and thinking the same way as you did that great day. See yourself playing well, in the moment, patient, etc. Then play some of the shots you will face, according to your game plan.
Imagine doing a full and excellent mental routine including hitting the ball and watching it fly, feeling it through the air, landing and finishing. Do this in real time, not rushed or quickly. It should take the same amount of time to imagine it as to play it for real. Fully engage your mind in doing these steps as vividly as you can. See good results. Feel good ball striking.
If you have been following my sequence of preparation steps, then you have a detailed game plan for this competition. Pick some of the toughest shots you will face tomorrow. Play those and imagine good shots. Enjoy them vividly.
Play from 6 to 10 shots like this. It is not necessary to play every shot, although Jack Nicklaus said he did. We know this is mentally tiring.
This Programming should take 15 to 20 minutes. Longer is OK but not more beneficial. Doing it with full engagement mentally is the key.
If you are distracted or other thoughts keep intruding, then you are not relaxed enough. If you have had caffeine or sugar or other stimulants and they are still affecting you, this will be harder to do.
This is all about emphasizing the mental process of playing and the Champion attitude of focussing on the process and letting go of the outcomes of your shots and your round. Focus on your mental goals for the round and make them the most important thing when you are playing. Your score and your swing are not fully in your control. Your mental game is.
Programming your Champion Mental Attitude the night before will make you much more likely to operate with this attitude in the competition. It is real, effective practice for thinking like a champion.
Now it is up to you to do it.
5) A Good Nights Sleep
Many players have problems sleeping well the night before the first round and the final round. This is usually due to their thoughts about the competition.
If your thoughts about the competition are triggering the release of chemicals in your body, then they are raising arousal and making it more difficult to go to sleep. This heightened arousal may also have you sleeping poorly and waking early. This is the most common source of the problem.
The first thing you must do is to Control Your Thoughts effectively. Our "Regulating Thoughts" technique can help you do this nicely. It is detailed in our Personality Assessment and Report. Any of our GolfPsych Instructors can give you the details of how to do it.
If you are doing the Programming I described in the previous step for preparing to compete, this will help a lot with the anxiety thoughts.
Then there are a number of things that will help you prepare to sleep.
There is a natural rythym to your level of arousal and the hormones in your system. A healthy rested person will experience their highest levels of arousal and hormones in the morning and declining through the day until they reach their lowest levels at night. These lowered levels enable you to go to sleep.
Using stimulants during the day will upset this pattern. The size and timing of meals has a big effect on this pattern. Try to eat your lightest meal at night, several hours before bedtime.
Avoid violent or horror movies and video games that may raise arousal just before bedtime.
A warm glass of milk about an hour before bedtime can be helpful. Eat a high protein snack and a small piece of fruit about 2 hours before bedtime. This will provide L-tryptophan an amino acid and help it get across the blood-brain barrier. Tryptophan helps your body produce melatonin and seratonin in the brain.
Melatonin is secreted in your brain at night and reduces some hormone levels. According to several sources taking a melatonin supplement in the evening can help prepare your body for sleep. We know of several players that have had success with this supplement and use it to aid sleep on planes as well.
Try to maintain a similar schedule each day. Do not try to change your pattern for your tee times, aside from very early tee times that make you get up earlier than normal. Changing your pattern will make your internal clock change and get you off pattern. It may take several days to normalize.
When crossing multiple time zones, it is very important to try to get on local time as quickly as possible. Some of our clients have found that a good workout shortly after arrival, depending on the local time of day, can be very helpful in shrugging off the effects of the long flight and getting their bodies adjusted to local time.
A short time before bedtime, you should be doing things that are relaxing like meditating, journaling, sipping herbal tea, reading relaxing material, talking quietly with a loved one, etc.
Always try to prepare for bed as normal: brushing teeth, washing your face or showering, disrobing, putting on pajamas, etc.
Finally, you are in bed and need to go to sleep. A simple technique to help you go to sleep combines relaxation technique and thought control. Begin slow abdominal breathing. That is inhale slowly, 5 seconds in, filling your stomach. It can help to put a hand on your stomach and feel yourself raising that hand as you inhale.
Then pause for a moment and exhale for 5 seconds, feel your hand lowering as you pull in your stomach to push the air up your throat and out of your body.
Focus on the air and controlling the air movement. Feel it in and out.
On the exhale work on relaxing your body. You can imagine exhaling stressors.
After several good breath cycles, then in sequence focus on relaxing the muscles in your feet, then your lower legs, then your thighs, then your stomach muscles and your lower back. Continue all the way up your body focussing on each section with the exhales. Do not move to the next area until the current area is really relaxed and warm feeling.
At the end you will be left with your facial muscles and your eyes last. Feel the little muscles around your eyes relaxing.
It is most likely that you will float off to sleep before you ever get all the way.
To enhance your sleep quality, it helps to be in a very dark room and have the temperature lower, 70 degrees or below. Light pollution will reduce sleep quality as will noise. Do not sleep with the TV on.
For more ideas on improving your sleep visit Dr. Mercola's article, "33 Secrets to a Good Night's Sleep"
If you are going to think like a Champion in competition and have all the energy you need to finish your rounds and the tournament well, you need good sleep each night!
This should help.
6) Nutrition and Hydration for Competition
Many players will tell us they eat healthy and know what to do to hydrate, but when we ask for details, we are usually disappointed. It is not that you do not want to eat and drink in healthy ways, it is that you don't know what is truly good for you and for competing.
This is not a matter of "Eating your Peas" or "Brussel Sprouts". It is certainly not carbo loading the night before for max energy. Nor is it about avoiding animal fats or "Fast Food".
If you are already tuned into this, forgive me for re-stating what you already know. If you are, you are in the very small minority of the population and of golfers.
First let's start with what you need to be able to perform in competitive golf. It is a very demanding sport primarily because it takes a long time and you have to be sharp mentally the whole time to do your best.
Studies have determined that a player walking and carrying their bag, who weighs 160 pounds, will burn 2,000 calories in one 18 hole round. (Somebody should market golf as the greatest weight loss program ever.) If you weigh more you will burn more. Most people in the world get just 2,000 calories for 24 hours.
The first symptom of low on calories is difficulty focussing and concentrating.
This means that it is very important that you eat before the round, what you eat, what you ate the night before and you need to eat on the golf course.
Your food choices must also support your optimum levels of arousal for golf. Any food that boosts your blood sugar rapidly is also raising your level of arousal rapidly and keeping it too high for golf, no matter how hard you try to lower it.
The major food culprits in raising blood sugar too fast are simple processed carbohydrates: sugar in any form, white bread, cereal, pasta, bagels, fruit juice, sodas, etc. Start reading the labels. Many foods have high fructose corn syrup hidden inside. This is the most unhealthy sugar you can eat and it is in everything because it is cheap.
The other side of this arousal boosting from simple carbohydrates is that once used up, your body does not transition well. This means you will bonk, that is feel tired, sluggish and hungry when they are used up. Not good for focus and concentration either.
GATORADE is not good food because it is full of high fructose corn syrup. G2 has half the levels but that is still too high for golf. High fructose corn syrup is not good for you in any amount.
To get maximum energy without boosting arousal for golf you need a combination of foods in this ratio. 1 Protein + 1 Carbohydrate +1/2 Fat.
This will give you a slow burn or long-lasting source of energy.
The optimum proteins come from the most organic and naturally fed animals, fish and beans you can get. Wild game is great.
Optimum complex carbohydrates come from any fruit or vegetable that is organically grown and still a whole food, not processed, as close to the farm as possible.
Optimum fats come from those same organically raised animals and fish. They also come from avocadoes, olive oil and nuts.
These foods produced these ways will give you optimum nutrition and health.
Most of us cannot get this quality of food all the time. Do the best you can in the situation. Even in fast food restaurants, you can get a balanced meal.
There are some super foods that make this balance easier to achieve. Whole dairy products have all three food groups. Whole eggs cover all the bases. Nuts actually have all three too.
Do not avoid fats. They offer the most energy per gram and take time for your body to release it. You need saturated and un-saturated fats. Please avoid hydrogenated fats like margarine which are very unhealthy.
Please take food to eat on the golf course. Don't wait until you are hungry to eat. If you are not hungry until you finish and then you are ravenous a short while later, you have been too tense while playing which kills appetite.
Good choices for the course include nuts, trail mix (read the label), jerky (read the label), whole fruits like bananas and apples and some nutrition bars. We recommend Lara Bars and Cliff Bars. They do contain nuts so may not work for you if you are allergic. Please read the labels on any other bars because they are probably full of sugar.
To judge how much sugar, a teaspoon holds 4 grams of sugar. How many teaspoons of sugar are in that food?
Hydration
The first symptom of moderate de-hydration is difficulty focussing and concentrating.
Unfortunately the rate of re-hydration into your body's cells is very slow, only 4 ounces per hour. This means that no matter what you do, you will be low by the end of the round.
This means that before you start your cells need to be full up. Alcohol, diuretics and caffeine cause your body to lose water. Not a good idea before the round or even the night before.
If your body is low on electrolytes this slow rate of re-hydration is even slower. Through blood tests we found that all of our Tour clients tested were de-hydrated. This was because they were not actively replacing the electrolytes they were losing through perspiration and other ways. You are probably low in electrolytes too.
If you want to know exactly we can organize a blood analysis for you. Please contact me for the details and directions.
There are five primary and important electrolytes: calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium and chloride. You need them all. Sodium chloride is table salt. So salting your food is OK as long as you drink plenty of water.
2 1/2 servings of Gatorade have less than the potassium in one banana. This is not a good way to get your electrolytes for golf. It only has two electrolytes and way too much sugar for golf and health.
Trace Minerals has a line of electrolytes that are the best we have found. Many health food stores carry them and others. Emergen-C is not a good choice because they have added too much sugar.
With Trace Minerals we recommend one packet in water before the round and one packet during the round along with plenty of water. They come in 6 flavors and have lots of other vitamins and minerals included.
Make a water plan for the round. Try to drink often and before you are thirsty.You might plan to empty and fill your water bottle twice or three times during the round or more. You may drink more when it is hot, but don't skip it because the weather is cool. You need it then too.
Don't under-estimate the need for both enough calories and water. Many golfers finish their rounds poorly because one or both are low. They are one of the things we look for when players tell us they finish poorly or play poorly after the turn.
Hope this helps.
Let me know how it goes.
Unfortunately because I am making recommendations, based on our experience and the research of others, of things that you will ingest, you must be aware that I am not a licensed health care professional or licensed nutritionist. Please do the research yourself and come to your own conclusions. I believe these conclusions are sound and follow them myself. Your results may be different. You are responsible for what you put in your body. I cannot be responsible for your results or adverse or allergic reactions. Please consult your physician or a nutrionist for their advice and make your own decisions.
7) Your Pre-Round Warm-up!
The Seventh and Last Step in your pre-round preparation for a competitive round, the Warm-Up.
Quite often players develop a pre-round warm-up that they consider necessary for them to play well. Often it requires a certain amount of time and sequence to make you feel that you are ready to play. Less than that and you may feel un-prepared and have negative expectations.
How do your rounds start? How do you feel at the beginning of the round?
If your rounds typically start rough or poorly or you are very wound up, high on the arousal scale, then your pre-round warm-up is not effective.
The only objective of the pre-round warm-up is to have you ready to play. You may have some butterflies, but you should feel pretty good with good tempo and great focus.
Here are the guidelines we know to be most effective. Exactly how you do them is up to you.
1. You do not want to feel rushed in anyway. The morning of the competitive round you should have a plan for waking, dressing, eating, and getting to the course that has plenty of time in it. You need to have extra time to allow for problems, like spilling your breakfast and having to change, like a flat tire or traffic on the way, a dead battery, etc.
2. When you get to the course, park the car and then sit for a moment, breath and relax before you get out. Imagine how the day will be and adopt your Champion Attitude. Then get out of the car, get your gear and head for the practice areas. No rushing.
3. It is your choice which sequence of areas you go to: range then short game areas or short game areas then range. It doesn't matter.
4. The main objective is to warm up your mental routine and get into playing rhythm, not hit great shots or putts and definitely not to work on your swing or stroke.
5. On the range: stretch and loosen up, then choose an easy club and hit 3/4 shots. Do this until you have good tempo and rhythm and feel for the shots. Then play shots with a full mental routine just like you will on the course. Each shot is different. Don't replay the shot if you miss. Don't be too concerned with your swing or where the shots go. The most important thing is to get your mental routine working well and good tempo. You will only need to hit 12 -15 shots like this.
You may want to play the first 3-4 holes on the range. Imagine the hole and shot from your game plan. Choose the club and commit, then see it and feel it and play it just like you were on the course. Judge where the ball went and what the next shot would be. Then do a good routine and play that shot. Get into playing rhythm.
Don't play shots over. That is range mode. You do not get to do that on the course.
6. On the green: Start with one or several balls, 3 is popular. Roll the balls up hill, down hill, cross the slope, long and short. Try to roll to spots not holes at first. Try to get the ball to stop on the spot. This will give you full feedback on the speed and break and grain of the green.
When you feel you understand the green and have good feel for the speed and break, then roll one ball for real. That is do a full mental routine just like you will do on the course. You may even mark the ball and take care in lining it up, if that is what you do in competition. Do your routine and roll the ball. If it is not a tap-in, then it gets a full mental routine again. Do not repeat any putts, you don't get to do that on the course.
You are trying to get into play mode mentally. Don't worry about whether the putts are dropping. Is your mental routine working? Are you able to block others out and focus on the putts? Can you feel the speed? Can you imagine the ball rolling across the green and going in the hole? If not, you are probably over-aroused. Work to calm and simplify your mind with simple breathing sequences. You could even put a single breathing sequence into your routine after commitment and/or over the ball.
7. Move to the first tee calmly. Stroll. Make sure you have time to get there and relax.
8. On the first tee, breath, relax and review your mental goals for the round. Think about your target and the game plan for the first shot. Confirm your choices and commit to them. Do a really good mental routine and let it fly. No holding back, no guiding, no careful swings. Trust it and swing fully.
9. If the first shot or couple shots are not your best, DON'T PANIC. You are probably a bit over-aroused. Breath, walk slowly, think about your mental goals and doing good routines. Don't anticipate the score. Don't extend your play to the end. Don' put pressure on yourself to get the shots back right away. You understand that as you settle down your skills will improve. Don't try to fix your swing.
10. Stay committed to your Game Plan and the process. Let the score and outcome take care of itself.
This process should have you ready or more ready to play to your ability from the beginning. If you still struggle, then we need to identify the sources and develop a strategy to solve this problem.
We are here for you. Don't be bashful about asking for assistance. You don't want to waste any more rounds starting poorly.
http://www.golfpsych.com/
I read the book the Eight Traits of a Champion Golfer by Dr. Graham and John Stabler from Golfpsych, it's a must book to read on mental skills training
1. Thought Control
2. Practice Round
3. Game Plan
4. Programming
5. Good Sleep
6. Nutrition and Hydration
7. Pre-Round Warm-Up
1) Thought Control
These 7 Keys will have you ready to play to your ability if you know how to do them well and put in the effort to do them well.
While all of these are done the day of competition or one or two days before, Thought Control needs to start long before the competition.
The tournament schedule has been set and some time before the tournament you have to commit to play in it.
As soon as you make the commitment to play that tournament your analytical mind will start posing questions and imagining scenarios.
What are your thoughts about playing in the tournament? Do you have memories of this event in the past? How does it compare to other competitions you play? How competitive is the field? What are your chances? What are your expectations? How have you been competing recently? How is your game? How much have you been able to practice? Who will be watching? How will your performance effect your future? etc., etc.
All of these questions and more may begin to course through your mind. If any of the answers to these questions are not to your liking or create anxiety, then you will be programming higher arousal and negative expectations.
If the answers to these questions are really positive and exciting, then you will be programming higher arousal and higher expectations.
Which one are you? Maybe some of both?
For some players these questions and answers will be working in the background, seldom recognized, never admitted inwardly or outwardly, perhaps denied.
For others, they just don’t think about it until closer to the event, then these thoughts can come like a tsunami, overwhelming them suddenly a few days before the event.
As you know from my previous emails, arousal kills. Your thoughts long before tournament day can raise your arousal gradually so you don't realize you are already higher than normal. This probably has happened when you just don't feel comfortable over the ball or your tempo is off or something is wrong with your swing or your putting isn't working before the tournament.
Of course when the tournament starts arousal goes even higher and things can get ugly fast.
Awareness of your thoughts about competition and how they affect you is the first step to managing or controlling your thoughts.
Every now and then ask yourself what you were just thinking about. We call these moments Thought Checks. Were there any thoughts about the competition? If so, were they hurtful thoughts, thoughts tied to the competition which raise arousal and create anxiety or raise or lower expectations?
If so, then you must change them. Unfortunately, most of us cannot simply stop thinking those thoughts. “Don’t think about...” doesn’t work very well. Don't think about a pink elephant. What did you just picture?
This is where using your imagination really helps.
Imagine writing that Not-Allowed thought on something...a golf ball...a toy car...an airplane...a plate...the beach...a pelican...anything at all.
Now in your imagination you take the time to write or draw the not-allowed thought on this thing and then you send it away or have it change into something and it is gone. The more elaborate and unusual the action, the better. The more your mind engages in doing this the better it works.
Then choose an Allowed thought. This is any thought that you like to think about and that is calming. Could be anything at all...a vacation...a favorite place...doing something fun...your pet...favorite people...music...a great round or great shot.
There, you have controlled your thoughts, choosing what you will think about instead of letting the thoughts just flow.
Another way to do this is to identify the problem thought and then use that as a “Cue” to think about something specific, something that will help you play on that competition day. It could be how well you are going to do some part of your Mental Routine like Commitment, in that future competitive round.
For Example: Every time you think about “I hope I shoot below...” or “I need to shoot.... to have a chance or win”, say to yourself, "that’s my Cue to think about how committed and how freely I will swing in this tournament". Then imagine how you feel and think while you are over your shots when you have been really committed and swinging freely in the past.
This is programming yourself to be the way you want to be on that competitive day.
There are more ways to Control Your Thoughts before competition, but this should help. I encourage you to raise your awareness of your thoughts and the effects they have on you. Try either of these techniques in the days before for your next competition.
2) Your Practice Round
Are you getting the most you can from your Practice Round before the competition starts?
In some cases you cannot get a practice round before you have to compete. If you get no practice round, then you should try to collect as much information as possible on the course. Get the course map, type of greens and any other information available. The internet can be really helpful.
Generally courses allow practice rounds the day before the tournament. So assuming one practice round the day before the tournament starts, try to do as much of this as possible.
Try to mimic the tournament situation. Can you tee off at the same time of day as your tournament tee time? From the same tees?
Get the weather forecast for the next day, especially wind direction and speed. Make sure you understand where the wind will be coming from on each hole. As you play try to imagine what effect the wind will have on your shots and where this shot would have ended up. Note any features that may affect the wind like a large building or tall trees.
Play every shot with a tournament quality mental routine, trying to hit a specific target and shot. This is not the time to free wheel and play crazy agressive because it doesn't count. See where good quality shots end up. Hit a second confirming shot if you miss the first one a bit.
You can also hit shots to play the hole two different ways.
Do Not Keep Score!!
This is not competition. You are not the same on a practice day as on the competitive day. Your outcomes don't matter and your level of arousal is probably lower.
Time after time, players tell us how well they played the practice round and they establish expectations for competition. Those expectations for performance and comparisons to the practice round then distract, raise arousal and create problems when the competitive round is not the same.
You should be measuring the course as you go, like a good caddie. Use a range finder or step it off. Not all course markings are accurate or measured in the way you expect. If the wind changes, then that shot you hit in practice may not work in competition. Knowing the yardages to all features enables you to judge this better and make adjustments to changing weather.
You need to understand how wide the fairway is at different areas, how far to the fairway bunkers and how far to clear them. How big is the green? Are the yardages to the middle or front of the greens?
Where is the trouble? Can you take it out of play or reduce your chances of hitting it? How far to clear the trouble?
Work the greens. Where are likely pin placements? Are they marked in advance? Putt in those areas to learn the breaks and the speed. Don't worry about the current pin placement, it will be changed. You can also assume that the greens will be mowed and a bit faster the next day.
How much slope and where do you want to be putting from on each green. Sometimes it doesn't matter where the pin is. On small greens you may choose to shoot at the middle of the green.
Determine where you don't want to be if you miss the green. Practice getting up and down from your preferred miss areas.
(Have you done all of this on your home course? Or do you just play the same shots everytime? Do certain holes always play hard? Do they deserve to?)
You are collecting data so that later you can make a written game plan for competition. It is the only purpose of a practice round.
You should not be working on your swing or mechanics. You should not be working on your putting. It is too late to perfect your physical game the day before the tournament. Don't worry about how you are hitting it or rolling it.
May I repeat, You Should Not Be Playing For Score. You should not be gambling.
Gathering this information can be time consuming and tiring. Make sure you are hydrating and eating. Be respectful of the groups behind you. Let them play through if you are slow.
If you are competing on a course you know well, then use your practice round to verify your game plan. You may not hit all the shots, only the ones that you find challenging. Spend most of your time working on the greens.
In this case you may think it is OK to be competing with others and trying to win some money. The downside to this is that you may use too much mental energy before the tournament starts, effectively lengthening the tournament. I recommend saving your energy and competitive spirit for the real competition.
Enough said. I think you get the picture.
3) Your Game Plan
Continuing my series of newsletters on How to Prepare Well for a Competition, this one is about how to develop a good Game Plan for this competitive round.
Do you have a Game Plan? Do you know what clubs, targets and type of shots you want to play for today's round? Or are you making it up as you go?
Are you a professional or amateur? Are you a serious competitor? Do you want to play your best in today's round? Then you better know how you will try to play the course today in detail before you start.
Here are some guideline concepts that you should follow to help you make your game plan.
1. This is your plan based on your abilities and confidence.
2. Choose your strengths as much as possible.
3. Take some risk based on your abilities.
4. There may be some shots you do not have the ability to play.
5. Write it down in detail.
6. Commit to your Game Plan.
7. Review and Modify for Next Round.
1. This is Your Plan! You have to decide on how you want to play the course. Do not let others talk you into choices that you are not comfortable with. Do not let peer pressure push you into shots you are not comfortable with.
Just because others are choosing to play driver on that short par 4 does not mean you should. Just because others think you should play the par 5 as reachable in 2 shots does not mean you should.
Just because the stated par is 4 does not mean you have to be on the green in two shots. For you this may be a par 4.5. You can choose to play it as a par 5 in your mind and in your plan. Some tough par 3's, you may plan to be short of the green and chip up whether because you are between clubs or the green just isn't accepting or holding shots.
When you make the choices, it is much easier for you to Commit to the shot and therefore play it better and more consistently.
2. Choose to play to your strengths as much as possible. What is your favorite approach club and yardage? How many times can you have that in your hand this round? The more times, the better you should play.
Choosing to play closer to the green where you have to play a partial shot or very touchy lob wedge is much more difficult in competition and when the pressure is on. You will do much better by choosing a full shot in these circumstances.
In addition by choosing shots you have a lot of confidence in, your ability to fully commit to that shot and do a good mental routine is enhanced. This increases the probability of good outcomes.
3. Take some risk based on your abilities. Choosing shots that you have lots of confidence in does not mean you cannot be aggressive at times. We have developed a rule for this decision making process. We call it The 50% Rule.
The 50% Rule says: when choosing the club and shot, the choice you make should have at least a 50% probability of success. Another way to say this is, if you hit this shot 10 times, how many of those times would you expect it to come off exactly as you hope or be acceptable? Try to be very honest in this self-assessment. Shots that have less than a 50% probability are very hard to be fully committed to and tend to raise arousal.
Players that measure Dominant on the personality assessment easily choose shots that may only be a one out of ten or even one in a hundred chance of coming off. We call these "Hero Shots". Sure feels good when they work but most of the time they don't. The risk here is too high.
Players that measure Submissive on the personality assessment often choose shots that are very safe, say 8, 9 or 10 out of 10 shots. We ask them to pick a few shots a round where they will play the 50% probablity shot if there is a good reward for doing it. Not all the time.
Under pressure Dominants get more aggressive and Submissives get more defensive, hurting them both.
For the very accomplished player that has every shot with high confidence, you will have find significant differences in your confidence levels with each shot choice. Always go with the highest confidence choice you can without being too careful or defensive.
4. Are there shots you just don't have any confidence in? What about that shot on #17, the island green with no bailout position? What are you going to do when there is not a shot you can play that has at least a 50% probability of success, based on your abilities?
This is called a free play or free roll. Your chance of success is low. The course architect or the greenskeeper was too aggressive. So give it a wack. Swing freely and aggressively. Don't hold back. Don't swing afraid. Plan on missing in your game plan. Expect to miss and be pleasantly surprised if it works out.
But you cannot think about the trouble or the miss in your mental routine when playing the shot. All you see is your ball, well struck, heading for the target in your imagination and during the Visual step of the routine.
Playing the shot while fearful of the outcome will guarantee the miss.
5. Write Your Game Plan in Detail. Every club, every target, every shot shape/type, for every shot, tee to green. What part of the green do you want to be on? Where is the trouble to avoid? How many yards to clear that fairway bunker if that is the plan? How wide is the landing area for this club?
You must assume the weather and conditions you expect to play this round in. How does the anticipated wind affect targets and shot selection.
What if a front is forecast to come through during the round or soon after? Is writing a detailed plan a waste of time?
If this is the situation, make two game plans accomodating the wind from the two different directions.
Is it a waste of time if your tee shot does not go where you planned it? First of all check your mental routine for errors. Then check your calculations that led to that game plan and those choices. Then adjust for the next shot. If your choices were wrong and it wasn't a mental error in your routine, adjust the plan for tomorrow.
You could plan two different approach clubs for this one hole: one if the tee ball stays on the upper plateau and another if it catches the slope and kicks forward for more yardage.
Sometimes the greens are small and aiming for the center of the green is a good plan. Other times there are places on the green you don't want to be, no matter where the pin is. This is all part of your Game Plan.
If you are playing in New England where the weather seems to change every 20 minutes, planning for the dominant weather pattern is still better than no plan. The time you take to think about the course design and your abilities will make it easier to adapt the plan if you need to, especially under the pressure of competition.
6. Commit to Your Game Plan. If it is a good plan for you, this should be calming and enable your performance. If you get behind on score, of where you think you should be, don't change the Game Plan.
There is a reason things are not going as well as you think they should. Most of the time the issues or problems are mental. Don't change Your Game Plan to get more aggressive to make up strokes or to catch another player.
Focus on your Mental Game and doing good Mental Routines. Work on lowering your Arousal level as it is probably too high. As you settle down, Your Game Plan should start working for you.
There are only two times we agree that you should change your Game Plan.
1. When the weather or conditions change.
2. When you are on the Back Nine Final Round, and you know the score for sure, and you have great tempo and confidence, and there are opportunities to pick up some shots by getting more aggressive.
Otherwise stick to your Game Plan. Play it right into the clubhouse. Let the other player stumble coming in.
7. After the round, Review and Modify Your Game Plan, if needed or different weather is forecast. How did it work? Were you confident enough in your choices to swing fully committed? Can you improve the choices in Your Plan in any way? This will help you get ready for your next round.
For practice, do a Game Plan for your home course, from each of the tees that you might play. Most players have never done their home course. They tend to play the course the same way each time. Some holes always play easy and other holes always play hard. Is it the hole or is it your Game Plan? When they play hard, do they play harder or cost you more strokes than they should?
4) Programming Yourself for Performance
Do you program yourself for success or failure before competition?
The average golfer has no programming system for preparing for competition. They entertain any thoughts and conversations that come along.
Their thoughts could be of how they played in this tournament last time, good or bad. They might think about their chances and using logic determine that they have a great chance or no chance based on their skills, recent practice (or the good score in their practice round) and recent competitions, creating expectations. Expectations of Outcome are Not Good.
Before the round, the expectations can raise arousal and make you more concerned with your outcomes. As you play you will constantly consider how things are matching those expectations and react acccordingly. This usually triggers emotions and raises arousal, hurting your play.
Others will talk about how things may go and what you have to do, what score, how many putts, who will be watching, results of winning, etc. They can pull you into outcome thinking and raise expectations or put pressure on you for performance. Reporters are notorious for doing this, as are some parents and other players, caddies and spouses, some coaches too.
If you are unaware of the real impact on your game of these average thoughts and comments and you let yourself entertain them, then you are unlikely to play well in the tournament.
If you spend much thought imagining scenarios where you fail or win, then you are programming yourself with those scenarios and your outcomes will suffer. "But, But I thought you were supposed to picture success?"
Picturing success and imagining what it will be like to accept the trophy and prize money are great for overall motivation, but they cannot go on the course and they are dangerous to performance the night before and on the course because they will raise your arousal and reduce your golf abilities. They will keep you focussed on your outcomes and your chances of winning as you play.
Some players have read or heard mental gurus expound on the following generally accepted concepts and may say to themselves tomorrow or on tournament day "I will play one shot at a time, I will be patient, I will do really good routines, I will manage my emotions", etc. Nice thoughts but unlikely to get you very far.
I am writing this newsletter to break you out of this average thinking and performance purgatory.
You can do a lot better than this before the round and therefore during the round. We call it Programming Champion Thoughts and Attitude.
In the first email in this sequence on preparation for competition, I gave you several Thought Control techniques. You should have been using these to deal with the thoughts of outcome and expectations in the days leading up to the tournament.
Programming: The night before your round, (you could do this every night of the days before the tournament), find some quiet place and time when you will not be interrupted. Shortly before you go to sleep is ideal, but anytime is good. You could do this several times a day.
Sit down in a comfortable position. Laying down is not recommended because you may go to sleep.
Begin breathing slowly, 5 seconds inhale, pause, then 5 seconds exhale. Focus on controlling the air and breathe abdominally. That is, as you inhale your stomach expands. Your chest should not rise. As you exhale, your stomach should move in, your chest should not fall. Modify the speed to go as slow as you can without having to take a catch-up breath. With practice you will be able to go slower and slower. This is great for lowering arousal.
It does not matter whether you breathe through your mouth or nose. We like equal time in and out.
Feel yourself get really relaxed. Facial tension should be the last to go. Everything soft and warm. No tension.
Now recall a round where you played really well, maybe best ever. Remember what it was like on the course. How you were feeling and thinking during the round. This will include things like fun, patient, calm, confident, great focus, peaceful, competitive, great tempo, great touch and feel, good green reading, committed, didn't know score, un-troubled, un-distracted, good visual steps, etc. Really live it in your mind.
Do not include the parts about winning or adding up your score or the applause afterwards when you got your trophy.
Once you are there and feeling these things, imagine tomorrow's round. Imagine yourself on the course feeling and thinking the same way as you did that great day. See yourself playing well, in the moment, patient, etc. Then play some of the shots you will face, according to your game plan.
Imagine doing a full and excellent mental routine including hitting the ball and watching it fly, feeling it through the air, landing and finishing. Do this in real time, not rushed or quickly. It should take the same amount of time to imagine it as to play it for real. Fully engage your mind in doing these steps as vividly as you can. See good results. Feel good ball striking.
If you have been following my sequence of preparation steps, then you have a detailed game plan for this competition. Pick some of the toughest shots you will face tomorrow. Play those and imagine good shots. Enjoy them vividly.
Play from 6 to 10 shots like this. It is not necessary to play every shot, although Jack Nicklaus said he did. We know this is mentally tiring.
This Programming should take 15 to 20 minutes. Longer is OK but not more beneficial. Doing it with full engagement mentally is the key.
If you are distracted or other thoughts keep intruding, then you are not relaxed enough. If you have had caffeine or sugar or other stimulants and they are still affecting you, this will be harder to do.
This is all about emphasizing the mental process of playing and the Champion attitude of focussing on the process and letting go of the outcomes of your shots and your round. Focus on your mental goals for the round and make them the most important thing when you are playing. Your score and your swing are not fully in your control. Your mental game is.
Programming your Champion Mental Attitude the night before will make you much more likely to operate with this attitude in the competition. It is real, effective practice for thinking like a champion.
Now it is up to you to do it.
5) A Good Nights Sleep
Many players have problems sleeping well the night before the first round and the final round. This is usually due to their thoughts about the competition.
If your thoughts about the competition are triggering the release of chemicals in your body, then they are raising arousal and making it more difficult to go to sleep. This heightened arousal may also have you sleeping poorly and waking early. This is the most common source of the problem.
The first thing you must do is to Control Your Thoughts effectively. Our "Regulating Thoughts" technique can help you do this nicely. It is detailed in our Personality Assessment and Report. Any of our GolfPsych Instructors can give you the details of how to do it.
If you are doing the Programming I described in the previous step for preparing to compete, this will help a lot with the anxiety thoughts.
Then there are a number of things that will help you prepare to sleep.
There is a natural rythym to your level of arousal and the hormones in your system. A healthy rested person will experience their highest levels of arousal and hormones in the morning and declining through the day until they reach their lowest levels at night. These lowered levels enable you to go to sleep.
Using stimulants during the day will upset this pattern. The size and timing of meals has a big effect on this pattern. Try to eat your lightest meal at night, several hours before bedtime.
Avoid violent or horror movies and video games that may raise arousal just before bedtime.
A warm glass of milk about an hour before bedtime can be helpful. Eat a high protein snack and a small piece of fruit about 2 hours before bedtime. This will provide L-tryptophan an amino acid and help it get across the blood-brain barrier. Tryptophan helps your body produce melatonin and seratonin in the brain.
Melatonin is secreted in your brain at night and reduces some hormone levels. According to several sources taking a melatonin supplement in the evening can help prepare your body for sleep. We know of several players that have had success with this supplement and use it to aid sleep on planes as well.
Try to maintain a similar schedule each day. Do not try to change your pattern for your tee times, aside from very early tee times that make you get up earlier than normal. Changing your pattern will make your internal clock change and get you off pattern. It may take several days to normalize.
When crossing multiple time zones, it is very important to try to get on local time as quickly as possible. Some of our clients have found that a good workout shortly after arrival, depending on the local time of day, can be very helpful in shrugging off the effects of the long flight and getting their bodies adjusted to local time.
A short time before bedtime, you should be doing things that are relaxing like meditating, journaling, sipping herbal tea, reading relaxing material, talking quietly with a loved one, etc.
Always try to prepare for bed as normal: brushing teeth, washing your face or showering, disrobing, putting on pajamas, etc.
Finally, you are in bed and need to go to sleep. A simple technique to help you go to sleep combines relaxation technique and thought control. Begin slow abdominal breathing. That is inhale slowly, 5 seconds in, filling your stomach. It can help to put a hand on your stomach and feel yourself raising that hand as you inhale.
Then pause for a moment and exhale for 5 seconds, feel your hand lowering as you pull in your stomach to push the air up your throat and out of your body.
Focus on the air and controlling the air movement. Feel it in and out.
On the exhale work on relaxing your body. You can imagine exhaling stressors.
After several good breath cycles, then in sequence focus on relaxing the muscles in your feet, then your lower legs, then your thighs, then your stomach muscles and your lower back. Continue all the way up your body focussing on each section with the exhales. Do not move to the next area until the current area is really relaxed and warm feeling.
At the end you will be left with your facial muscles and your eyes last. Feel the little muscles around your eyes relaxing.
It is most likely that you will float off to sleep before you ever get all the way.
To enhance your sleep quality, it helps to be in a very dark room and have the temperature lower, 70 degrees or below. Light pollution will reduce sleep quality as will noise. Do not sleep with the TV on.
For more ideas on improving your sleep visit Dr. Mercola's article, "33 Secrets to a Good Night's Sleep"
If you are going to think like a Champion in competition and have all the energy you need to finish your rounds and the tournament well, you need good sleep each night!
This should help.
6) Nutrition and Hydration for Competition
Many players will tell us they eat healthy and know what to do to hydrate, but when we ask for details, we are usually disappointed. It is not that you do not want to eat and drink in healthy ways, it is that you don't know what is truly good for you and for competing.
This is not a matter of "Eating your Peas" or "Brussel Sprouts". It is certainly not carbo loading the night before for max energy. Nor is it about avoiding animal fats or "Fast Food".
If you are already tuned into this, forgive me for re-stating what you already know. If you are, you are in the very small minority of the population and of golfers.
First let's start with what you need to be able to perform in competitive golf. It is a very demanding sport primarily because it takes a long time and you have to be sharp mentally the whole time to do your best.
Studies have determined that a player walking and carrying their bag, who weighs 160 pounds, will burn 2,000 calories in one 18 hole round. (Somebody should market golf as the greatest weight loss program ever.) If you weigh more you will burn more. Most people in the world get just 2,000 calories for 24 hours.
The first symptom of low on calories is difficulty focussing and concentrating.
This means that it is very important that you eat before the round, what you eat, what you ate the night before and you need to eat on the golf course.
Your food choices must also support your optimum levels of arousal for golf. Any food that boosts your blood sugar rapidly is also raising your level of arousal rapidly and keeping it too high for golf, no matter how hard you try to lower it.
The major food culprits in raising blood sugar too fast are simple processed carbohydrates: sugar in any form, white bread, cereal, pasta, bagels, fruit juice, sodas, etc. Start reading the labels. Many foods have high fructose corn syrup hidden inside. This is the most unhealthy sugar you can eat and it is in everything because it is cheap.
The other side of this arousal boosting from simple carbohydrates is that once used up, your body does not transition well. This means you will bonk, that is feel tired, sluggish and hungry when they are used up. Not good for focus and concentration either.
GATORADE is not good food because it is full of high fructose corn syrup. G2 has half the levels but that is still too high for golf. High fructose corn syrup is not good for you in any amount.
To get maximum energy without boosting arousal for golf you need a combination of foods in this ratio. 1 Protein + 1 Carbohydrate +1/2 Fat.
This will give you a slow burn or long-lasting source of energy.
The optimum proteins come from the most organic and naturally fed animals, fish and beans you can get. Wild game is great.
Optimum complex carbohydrates come from any fruit or vegetable that is organically grown and still a whole food, not processed, as close to the farm as possible.
Optimum fats come from those same organically raised animals and fish. They also come from avocadoes, olive oil and nuts.
These foods produced these ways will give you optimum nutrition and health.
Most of us cannot get this quality of food all the time. Do the best you can in the situation. Even in fast food restaurants, you can get a balanced meal.
There are some super foods that make this balance easier to achieve. Whole dairy products have all three food groups. Whole eggs cover all the bases. Nuts actually have all three too.
Do not avoid fats. They offer the most energy per gram and take time for your body to release it. You need saturated and un-saturated fats. Please avoid hydrogenated fats like margarine which are very unhealthy.
Please take food to eat on the golf course. Don't wait until you are hungry to eat. If you are not hungry until you finish and then you are ravenous a short while later, you have been too tense while playing which kills appetite.
Good choices for the course include nuts, trail mix (read the label), jerky (read the label), whole fruits like bananas and apples and some nutrition bars. We recommend Lara Bars and Cliff Bars. They do contain nuts so may not work for you if you are allergic. Please read the labels on any other bars because they are probably full of sugar.
To judge how much sugar, a teaspoon holds 4 grams of sugar. How many teaspoons of sugar are in that food?
Hydration
The first symptom of moderate de-hydration is difficulty focussing and concentrating.
Unfortunately the rate of re-hydration into your body's cells is very slow, only 4 ounces per hour. This means that no matter what you do, you will be low by the end of the round.
This means that before you start your cells need to be full up. Alcohol, diuretics and caffeine cause your body to lose water. Not a good idea before the round or even the night before.
If your body is low on electrolytes this slow rate of re-hydration is even slower. Through blood tests we found that all of our Tour clients tested were de-hydrated. This was because they were not actively replacing the electrolytes they were losing through perspiration and other ways. You are probably low in electrolytes too.
If you want to know exactly we can organize a blood analysis for you. Please contact me for the details and directions.
There are five primary and important electrolytes: calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium and chloride. You need them all. Sodium chloride is table salt. So salting your food is OK as long as you drink plenty of water.
2 1/2 servings of Gatorade have less than the potassium in one banana. This is not a good way to get your electrolytes for golf. It only has two electrolytes and way too much sugar for golf and health.
Trace Minerals has a line of electrolytes that are the best we have found. Many health food stores carry them and others. Emergen-C is not a good choice because they have added too much sugar.
With Trace Minerals we recommend one packet in water before the round and one packet during the round along with plenty of water. They come in 6 flavors and have lots of other vitamins and minerals included.
Make a water plan for the round. Try to drink often and before you are thirsty.You might plan to empty and fill your water bottle twice or three times during the round or more. You may drink more when it is hot, but don't skip it because the weather is cool. You need it then too.
Don't under-estimate the need for both enough calories and water. Many golfers finish their rounds poorly because one or both are low. They are one of the things we look for when players tell us they finish poorly or play poorly after the turn.
Hope this helps.
Let me know how it goes.
Unfortunately because I am making recommendations, based on our experience and the research of others, of things that you will ingest, you must be aware that I am not a licensed health care professional or licensed nutritionist. Please do the research yourself and come to your own conclusions. I believe these conclusions are sound and follow them myself. Your results may be different. You are responsible for what you put in your body. I cannot be responsible for your results or adverse or allergic reactions. Please consult your physician or a nutrionist for their advice and make your own decisions.
7) Your Pre-Round Warm-up!
The Seventh and Last Step in your pre-round preparation for a competitive round, the Warm-Up.
Quite often players develop a pre-round warm-up that they consider necessary for them to play well. Often it requires a certain amount of time and sequence to make you feel that you are ready to play. Less than that and you may feel un-prepared and have negative expectations.
How do your rounds start? How do you feel at the beginning of the round?
If your rounds typically start rough or poorly or you are very wound up, high on the arousal scale, then your pre-round warm-up is not effective.
The only objective of the pre-round warm-up is to have you ready to play. You may have some butterflies, but you should feel pretty good with good tempo and great focus.
Here are the guidelines we know to be most effective. Exactly how you do them is up to you.
1. You do not want to feel rushed in anyway. The morning of the competitive round you should have a plan for waking, dressing, eating, and getting to the course that has plenty of time in it. You need to have extra time to allow for problems, like spilling your breakfast and having to change, like a flat tire or traffic on the way, a dead battery, etc.
2. When you get to the course, park the car and then sit for a moment, breath and relax before you get out. Imagine how the day will be and adopt your Champion Attitude. Then get out of the car, get your gear and head for the practice areas. No rushing.
3. It is your choice which sequence of areas you go to: range then short game areas or short game areas then range. It doesn't matter.
4. The main objective is to warm up your mental routine and get into playing rhythm, not hit great shots or putts and definitely not to work on your swing or stroke.
5. On the range: stretch and loosen up, then choose an easy club and hit 3/4 shots. Do this until you have good tempo and rhythm and feel for the shots. Then play shots with a full mental routine just like you will on the course. Each shot is different. Don't replay the shot if you miss. Don't be too concerned with your swing or where the shots go. The most important thing is to get your mental routine working well and good tempo. You will only need to hit 12 -15 shots like this.
You may want to play the first 3-4 holes on the range. Imagine the hole and shot from your game plan. Choose the club and commit, then see it and feel it and play it just like you were on the course. Judge where the ball went and what the next shot would be. Then do a good routine and play that shot. Get into playing rhythm.
Don't play shots over. That is range mode. You do not get to do that on the course.
6. On the green: Start with one or several balls, 3 is popular. Roll the balls up hill, down hill, cross the slope, long and short. Try to roll to spots not holes at first. Try to get the ball to stop on the spot. This will give you full feedback on the speed and break and grain of the green.
When you feel you understand the green and have good feel for the speed and break, then roll one ball for real. That is do a full mental routine just like you will do on the course. You may even mark the ball and take care in lining it up, if that is what you do in competition. Do your routine and roll the ball. If it is not a tap-in, then it gets a full mental routine again. Do not repeat any putts, you don't get to do that on the course.
You are trying to get into play mode mentally. Don't worry about whether the putts are dropping. Is your mental routine working? Are you able to block others out and focus on the putts? Can you feel the speed? Can you imagine the ball rolling across the green and going in the hole? If not, you are probably over-aroused. Work to calm and simplify your mind with simple breathing sequences. You could even put a single breathing sequence into your routine after commitment and/or over the ball.
7. Move to the first tee calmly. Stroll. Make sure you have time to get there and relax.
8. On the first tee, breath, relax and review your mental goals for the round. Think about your target and the game plan for the first shot. Confirm your choices and commit to them. Do a really good mental routine and let it fly. No holding back, no guiding, no careful swings. Trust it and swing fully.
9. If the first shot or couple shots are not your best, DON'T PANIC. You are probably a bit over-aroused. Breath, walk slowly, think about your mental goals and doing good routines. Don't anticipate the score. Don't extend your play to the end. Don' put pressure on yourself to get the shots back right away. You understand that as you settle down your skills will improve. Don't try to fix your swing.
10. Stay committed to your Game Plan and the process. Let the score and outcome take care of itself.
This process should have you ready or more ready to play to your ability from the beginning. If you still struggle, then we need to identify the sources and develop a strategy to solve this problem.
We are here for you. Don't be bashful about asking for assistance. You don't want to waste any more rounds starting poorly.
http://www.golfpsych.com/
I read the book the Eight Traits of a Champion Golfer by Dr. Graham and John Stabler from Golfpsych, it's a must book to read on mental skills training
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