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Dan Abrahams has spent almost 30 years in high performance sport, and he knows a thing or two about the mental mistakes golfers make.
A former professional, Abrahams completed his master’s degree in sports psychology and became a registered and qualified sports psychologist.
Since then, the Englishman has worked with the men’s England rugby team, F1 franchise Aston Martin and several tour pros, including DP World Tour winner Marco Penge.
Now, he’s told bunkered.co.uk how you can shoot lower scores with these six mental fixes.
• I increased my swing speed by ten miles per hour. Here’s how.
• Copy this major winner’s classic swing for straighter drives
Pay attention when practicing
The quality of somebody’s practise sessions really matters, because their focus tends to be a bit dispersed; they become disconnected from the swing that they’re working on. They become a bit distracted, they get heavily emotionally involved in where the ball is going, rather than focussing on the swing movements that they are working on. For example, if I’m working on my shoulder turn, I start to see a lot of bad shots, I have an emotional reaction, I tighten up and get tense, and so subsequently, I stop being able to rotate my body.
Introduce a pre-shot routine
First tee nerves are generally a result of golfers not having any kind of routine. When they think about a pre-shot routine, they think you have to do the same physical aspects every single time, but it’s really about getting yourself mentally set up for the swing, especially under pressure. The best thing that golfers can do is to build confidence by using your senses. Feel a confident practice swing, feel a great strike as you’re swinging through an imaginary ball, and then see the shot.
Keep your emotions in check? Rubbish!
Golfers think they need to keep their emotions completely in check. They absolutely don’t have to, but they certainly need to manage their emotions at some point. The first emotional response can be authentic, you can be angry, that’s okay, but then it’s about doing something with that emotion. So, it might be expressing the emotion but then taking control of yourself by using your body by slowing down, or holding yourself in a certain way, or to breathe, or to just take your mind away from the shot onto something else by scanning the course.
• Rory McIlroy: This is how I hit 330 yard drives
• This crafty training aid helped me boost my swing speed
Dream about the low scores
People talk about staying in the present moment, well, that’s absolute nonsense, you just can’t do that. That’s not the way our brain works. Accept that your thoughts, emotions, feelings are going to go off on a flight of fancy about the score, if you’re doing well, about not messing up. After you have those feelings and sensations, execute your routines, take control of yourself, and give yourself the best chance to shoot the lowest possible score.
Take advantage of your options
When I work with golfers, I think that it’s really significant to help them understand they have options. You can choose where you want to direct your brain, you can allow thoughts, emotions, feelings to happen to you, they’re not necessarily going to impact your golf. So, in between shots you can chat with your playing partners, you can allow your thoughts, emotions, feelings to go wild, it doesn’t matter. Similarly, you can choose to tighten your focus and concentration and direct your mind onto something that’s important to you, or you can remind yourself of your routines.
Know that the range and the course aren’t the same
There are three reasons why it’s hard to take your game from the range to the golf course. Firstly, importance. On a golf course, it feels more important to you, because you want to play well, you want to shoot a good score. The same goes for experiencing anxiety, stress, nerves in competition or even in the workplace. Whereas at the range, it’s of low importance. Second, uncertainty. Everything is uncertain on the golf course, the conditions, how I’m going to play, how things are going to feel, the conditions, luck or lack of, how my playing partners play. That leads to anxiety, stress, worries, doubts, that can impact your game. Finally, insecurity. As human beings we’re designed to care about what others think of us, prove that we’re better than others, so that really plays on our feelings of security which creates negative thoughts, emotions, and feelings.
You can learn more about Dan’s work and purchase his books here.
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