How Can We Enjoy A Game Full of Ups & Downs
How Can We Enjoy A Game Full of Ups & Downs
“Golf is the closest game to the game we call life. You get bad breaks from good shots; you get good breaks from bad shots – but you have to play the ball where it lies.”- Bobby Jones
How can we enjoy a game that is full of ups and downs? How can we focus our attention to play where the ball lies and not be distracted with the external factors that can affect our golf game?
Here are some of the techniques that you can use to enjoy the experience of playing the game that you love:
Focus on the present
“There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called yesterday and the other is called tomorrow, so today is the right day to love, believe, do and mostly live”- Dalai Lama. We can’t change what happened in the past. Most often than not, people tend to fixate on a bad shot that they just made, which consequently affects their next shot. “Your reactions build your future actions”. Learn to let go of your bad shots and focus on your next shot!
Breathing
One of the ways to bring yourself back to the present is through breathing. It is also one of the techniques that most golfers use to control their nerves, and lower anxiety. Proper breathing involves using the entire capacity of your lungs with deep diaphragmatic breaths. Go ahead, find a good rhythm to breathing that will help you relax.
Avoid saying the word DON’T
Have you ever told yourself “Don’t hit the ball in the water?”, and that is exactly where your ball landed? The mind doesn’t know the word don’t. It remembers what you are focusing on. Try reframing your thoughts by focusing on where you want it to land rather than what you want to avoid.
Body Language
Our thoughts and feelings play a significant role in our behavior, and we communicate them to the outside world through our body language. If we change our body language, we can also change the way we feel and think. Did you know that placing your hands on your hips just like Superman for two minutes will positively charge your neuro-endocrine levels? A powerful posture increases testosterone (your dominance hormone) and decreases cortisol (your stress hormone). Go ahead, give it a try!
Smile
Have you ever tried to place a pencil between your lips? What happened when you did it? Were you smiling? This simple action gives us the same happiness that exercising brings in terms of how our brain responds. Smiling also diminishes the stress that we feel, and produces more positive emotions within you.
Three things that you did good
Confidence is not something that people are born with. It needs fuel so that it can help you perform better. Some of the factors that fuel confidence are optimism and positive self-talk. By actively looking for and being more aware of the positives, we are going against the brain’s natural tendency to scan and spot the negatives. We have around 48 thoughts per minute and based on what was mentioned above, we need to be aware of these thoughts because they can affect our behavior. So go ahead, support yourself and be your number one fan!
Be better!
All great athletes have the drive to become better. Jason Day did not quit when he was having difficulty winning his first major and neither should you! Research has proven that superior performance of experts is acquired through experience and a big part of this experience involves the effect of deliberate practice. They even say that elite performers require around 10 years of deliberate practice to obtain the skills that are needed to perform at higher level. Remember, you can always be better!
Try any one of these tips, and let us know how it went!
“The mind is your greatest weapon. It’s the greatest club in your bag. It’s also your Achilles’ heel.” – Steve Elkington, 1995 PGA Champion
