Golf Practice - Not me!

"Practice Practice Practice." "You'll never be any good unless you practice."

"Practice doesn't make perfect; perfect practice makes for good performance."

"Practice creates muscle memory"

And on and on and on... you've hear all of this before haven't you? In fact, I would guess it's so conditioned into your unconscious mind from all those years of hearing such phrases that you still find it hard to believe that there is any other way. Some of you might even still be thinking that I might not be telling the truth when I write in my letters and promotions about my experiences. Just so you know, it's still all true. I really did give up on the idea of getting better at golf in the traditional way of lessons and practicing and only then started scoring when I concentrated on the things I've brought to you in these emails and the CD's.

IF you believe that what I've brought to the golf table is a good compliment to traditional golf improvement, then I'm very pleased that I could be of service in helping you reach your golf goal. For the rest of you that honestly don't have much time to work on your game and really really want to get better, I think we've still got work to do using the principles on the CD's. So here we go:

First off, if you had to pick one word and one word only to describe the most important item you need when you go to a golf course what would it be? Driver? Nope, you can drive with your 3 wood all day. Putter? Nope, plenty of folks have broken their putter in big-time tournaments and done allright, thank you very much, using their 3-iron or a wood. Focus? I don't think so. Focus is a good thing to have but many golfers report of being in the zone and playing their best doesn't include that word. It's

CONFIDENCE

Yep, that's it. If you have that, you can drive with your putter and chip with your driver. If you don't, you're sunk. Think about it now....take a minute here and let your mind wander with me.  Have you ever been in a situation where you needed to get something from someone. Maybe it was asking for a raise. Maybe it was asking a person for a date or to just approaching them. Or trying to close a sale? How well can you do it without confidence? Did you even attempt it without confidence? Let's delve a little deeper into it.

A dictionary definition for confidence is:
A feeling of assurance, especially of self-assurance.
The state or quality of being certain.

Acquiring confidence has been the eternal chase us humans have been on forever. It's one of the main reasons why drug abuse is prevalent. People on narcotic uppers such as cocaine have reported that they feel invincible under the influence. Others on downer drugs such as marijuana and even alcohol do it so that they can lose their inhibitions. Inhibitions they believe prevent them from doing the things they want to do. Inhibitions are a part of doubt and just the opposite of confidence. I can hear some of you saying "No, Craig, that's courage and not confidence." To which I would say "Can you have courage without confidence?" The answer is yes, but if you have courage and know you will be defeated and do it anyway, then there may be a bigger problem than golf improvement here but I'll leave that for a real psychologist.

My point is,I believe all success must begin with that word that describes our internal representation of a particular situation: Confidence  

Why is it so elusive? What prevents us from having confidence to go up to that important
person and start up a conversation with them?  Why do I feel like my next shot is nothing more than a result of the luck of the golf gods bestowed on me or not?
And, how do we get it? How do we manufacture it when it "just isn't there?" 

Here's one quick technique from Inner golf. Let's say you have a 4-5 foot putt (1 meter or so). This is the type of situation where we might have a serious lack of confidence and fear starts to set in. You've made putts before from that distance so there really is no reason for you not to have confidence that you can make it again. But, our conscious mind starts injecting all sorts of doubt into it all and so we find ourselves lacking confidence again.

The next time this happens, while you are awaiting your turn to putt. Close your eyes and visualize your ball is already in the hole.And your "task" is to walk up and grab the ball out of the hole. That's it, nothing more. Just to get your ball out of the hole.

Do you have confidence you could do this for real? Absolutely! Will you stumble and fall as you do it? Not a chance! Go through the motions in your mind of how easily and effortlessly you do this with the feelings of confidence that you will have at accomplishing this easy task. The better you communicate this to your unconscious mind, the more it will really "react" and put you in that confident mode, automatically. I can't say it too much, your unconscious mind is nothing more than automatic reactions to your thoughts and inputs, just like a robot.

Next week I will continue this discussion and give you some solid logic on developing more confidence for your game.

Greens and fairways,

Craig