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 Boy, how times have changed. Now, half the best-selling golf books are written by psychologists and duffers who once thought the only guy named Yogi was a catcher for the Yankees. When did we all get so … sensitive? Brad Faxon writes in the introduction to Bob Rotella’s “Putting Out of Your Mind” that when he joined the PGA Tour in 1983 “players who talked to psychologists didn’t advertise the fact.” But soon because of Rotella’s insight into the mental game, the best in the game are now happy to tell the world about their “links shrinks.” Anyone who’s ever teed it up knows that golf tests the limits of our mental and physical abilities and rewards those who excel in both — just as it punishes those who don’t. Instructor Jim Flick says “golf is 90 percent mental and the other 10 percent is mental, too.” That pretty much adds up to the mental side of the game being the most important component in golf. But is seeing a psychologist the best thing for everyone? It depends who you ask. Fortunately, the Southland has some of the finest minds in the game to help golfers get their heads on straight. Grab a seat (it doesn’t have to be a couch) and check out a few of their tips. PREPARE A GAME PLAN Rick Sessinghaus starts by asking his clients why they play the game. When a businessman recently told Sessinghaus that he was going to play in a corporate event in three weeks and didn’t want to embarrass himself, Sessinghaus knew what needed to be done. “It wasn’t the greatest goal in the world, but I knew where he was coming from,” said Sessinghaus, owner of Sessinghaus Golf Performance Systems in Burbank. Once you know what you want out of golf you can work on clearing a path to achieve your goals, said Joseph Parent, author of “Zen Golf.” “What I try to do is enhance a player’s mindfulness and awareness and notice what kind of obstacles lie in their path,” he said. “You have to have awareness to recognize your obstacles. Then you have to change your habits and remove the obstacles.” HAVE REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS When golfers approach a round with no expectations they’re often surprised at how well they play, said David Wright, owner of the Wright Balance Golf Academy in Mission Viejo. “My tour players and I will tell you that some of our best rounds of golf are when we’re hitting it sideways on the range,” Wright said, adding that expectations are much higher for players who are striping it on the range. “As soon as you miss your first shot, we think, ‘why did that happen?’” Self-analysis and focusing on a bad swing often leads to technical thoughts, which can kill a round, Wright said. “Walter Hagen had the best technique I’ve ever heard of,” he said. “He expected to hit seven bad shots a round. But the average amateur doesn’t want to hit any. When Hagen hit a bad one, it was just one of the seven.” Wright said amateurs should adopt a similar philosophy of 20 shots to help clear the mind for the next shot while forgetting about past failures. PRE-ROUND ROUTINE Whether it’s hitting balls on the range, centering yourself with 15 minutes of yoga or listening to the soothing voice of your favorite guru on the way to the course, pre-round routines are necessary for golfers who want to play their best. “It is my firm belief that you’ve got to start your mental preparation when your eyes open in the morning,” Wright said. “If you think about it, you got into the shower today, and physically you were in the shower, but mentally you were somewhere else. Ninety percent of the population resides in the future. If you are anywhere but present, you’re not going to be in the shot you’re about to hit.” Taking five minutes to tie your shoes like John Jacobs or 20 minutes to shave like Johnny Miller might be unrealistic, Wright said, but everyone can modify their actions to slow down and focus on the round. Parent advocates playing an imaginary hole on the practice range as a way to establish a rhythm before getting on the course. By practicing a pre-round routine, golfers will feel like they’ve played a few holes and be in a groove from the opening shot, he said. ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE “At Riviera I was doing a talk and there was a pro ahead of me describing the 18th hole,” Parent said. “He said, ‘now this is a really tough hole. After you hit your tee shot you have a hanging lie. Along the left of the green is a big hill; if you hit into that your ball bounces into it and it will sink down into the thick grass. On the right is a steep drop off to the hot dog cart.’ He finished his talk and I got up and said to the audience: ‘Remember the description the pro gave? Hanging lie, hill full of kikuyu, hot dog stand ... How much fairway and green did you picture?’ They all said none.” Parent then went on to describe the hole in a different way. “When you’re out in the fairway, the ball is slightly below your feet, which promotes a fade that matches the shape of the fairway and the green, so you can take it into the front left of the green and let it release to the back where the pin usually is,” he told his listeners. “Now how much fairway and green did you see on that one? They said, ‘only fairway and green.’ I said, ‘which one makes you more at ease playing the shot?’ We were both describing the same hole.” Wright’s favorite analogy about remaining positive came from a former professor who said attention grows the more you feed it. “If you focus on failure you’re going to fail,” he said. “If you remain positive, you’ll succeed. DEVELOP AND PRACTICE A PRE SHOT ROUTINE Many golfers go through the motions of a pre-shot routine without knowing why they do it or how it helps their game. Sessinghaus advises being completely aware of the environment before putting the club in motion. “Know the conditions you face for your shot, what’s needed to play that shot and how the ball will react accordingly,” he said, adding that golfers need to narrow their focus on the target and the swing after selecting the right club. Wright likes his students to be more visual with their pre-shot routines. “Take 45 seconds — a selfish 45 seconds — to stand behind the ball, see the shot, picture the swing you want to make, picture the motion you want to make and then be committed and picture a similar shot that you hit before,” he said. VISUALIZE YOUR SHOT Bad shots have a tendency to take precedence over good shots in our minds. To keep self-doubt from continually creeping into your game, players must practice positive visualization. “Your body is going to do its best to fulfill the image that you give it,” Parent said. “It’ll use whatever it has been trained to do.” According to Wright, visualization will keep our bodies balanced and relaxed, which will help the mind send clear images of focus and success. “When you say to yourself, ‘don’t hit a bad shot,’ your brain is not discriminating ‘do’ from ‘don’t,’ but you’re probably pretty creative in calling up a picture of a bad shot,” he said. David Wurzer, director of golf for Golf Excellence International, suggests spending time off the course imagining good shots. “Bring as many senses into it as possible,” he said. “See the good shot, smell the grass, feel it.” TARGET, TARGET, TARGET Pros concentrate on the target. Amateurs focus on the ball. It’s often the difference between a good shot and a bad one. “There’s a chapter in my book called What’s my Target?” Parent said. “Is it the ball? Or where you’re sending the ball? I try to get them out of a hitting-at mode and into a sending-to mode.” Wright agrees. “If you talked to the pros I worked with 20 years ago they would tell you that the most important thing I taught them in the first two months of working with them was image of target or ball flight, or seeing the ball roll in the hole, or a stationary target on the putting green if they were to have it in their minds eye,” he said. This advice applies to range as well. Before you get too encouraged or discouraged by your shots on the range, remind yourself of your target and check your alignment. Plenty of shots that veer “off target” were never intended for the target in the first place. STAY IN THE PRESENT Lee Trevino talks. Fuzzy Zoeller whistles. Bobby Jones hummed. For all these famous golfers, occupying their minds with non-golf activities helped keep their inner critics quiet. “You can look at the scener,” Wurzer said. “Anything that prevents you from beating up on yourself. You don’t want to be grinding away in between shots.” FREE THE PUTTER If there’s one part of your game that requires a clear mind and relaxed body, it’s putting. Unfortunately, it’s also easy to get technical while on the green. Perhaps one of the best methods of non-technical putting comes from Rotella’s book, “Putting Out of Your Mind.” In it he talks about how Davis Love III took Michael Jordan’s free throw technique and applied it to his putting. After Love lined up his putt, he simply looked at the ball, then at the hole and then as soon as he looked back at the ball, he’d stroke the putt. This method kept him “out of his head” and promoted a more reactionary style of putting. Parent uses particular language when building carefree and confident strokes. “The most important thing is that whatever path — a path is easier to walk than a line — you pick, you commit to it. If you commit to your path you make a confident stroke. You make a confident stroke by rolling it on the path at the pace you wanted with a nice roll coming off the putter face. If you achieve that, you made the putt. If you made the putt, then you look up and if it doesn’t do want you thought it was going to do, you just learned something about reading the green.” BREATHE It’s obvious that breathing is important. But breathing is really important when swinging a golf club, because any amount of tension is going to affect the fluidity of movement. In “Zen Golf,” Parent suggests taking “a full breath into your swing routine for every shot,” which can easily be practiced at home. To do so, he writes: “Sit up or stand with good posture and close your eyes. Breathe gently and slowly through your nose. Feel the breath going down the back of your throat. On the next few breaths, feel as if your breath were going into your back, filling it first side to side and then down to your tailbone.” Parent also recommends taking a deep breath while standing behind the ball and lining it up before exhaling as you approach the ball. n |
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