How to Turn a Good Golf Shot into a Game Changing Habit

As human beings our sub-conscious works most effectively when behaviour is repeated. Our mind loves routine. Whether we repeat good habits or bad ones our mind will help support us when our behaviour is repeated.

A great place to start with repeating exactly the same actions to create consistence and confidence in your golf play is with your pre-shot routine.

To do this your need to have a positive trigger that will help you get in a positive frame of mind. This will help you to commit to the shot you are about to take without doubts. This will also allow you to instantly concentrate on the task at hand and swing with confidence!

Once you have a routine that helps you with all the elements you need to create a great golf swing, including commitment and trust in your ability, then the key is to repeat this routine. Your pre-shot routine needs to become as automatic as changing the gears on your car.

Repetition will allow you to learn how to concentrate on demand; something that many golfers can often find difficult.

In the study of the mind of winners it is their ability to concentrate and focus when it is needed the most that will make winners win.

How can you do that?

You can use the SAME MOVEMENTS in the SAME ORDER to help focus you into the optimum state to play the best shot. Your shot will then become an AUTOMATIC action.

Trusting yourself is such an integral part of playing consistently good golf. To ensure that you have that trust in your abilities then you need to practice. Humans are creatures of habit and under pressure will fall back to their most dominant thought. If that is one of negativity and a disbelief in one’s own ability; then this is the thought that will prevail.

It is really important that even when you are practising you ensure that the majority of the time you trust yourself in what you are doing.

The last place you want doubts and to start analysing and fixing your swing is whilst you are actually playing a competition round. The time to do this is when you have taken time to practice either at the range or during a practice round.

Even during practice time get into the habit of having a trusting mentality. This will help enormously with your confidence whilst playing. As I said earlier under pressure your mind will revert to its most dominant state. All the addition of doubt will do is help to contribute to you possibly making a poor shot. I cannot guarantee that trust and belief in yourself will turn you into Tiger Woods or Annika Sorenstam but playing golf full of doubt is 100% effective in ensuring you do not play as well as you could be.

So what can you do about it?

Triggers are like short cuts for the mind. Many activities we carry out during the day begin with a trigger to save your brain from having to think about every step of the action. For instance; as soon as you put your key in the ignition that will create a trigger you to check your mirror, indicate, press the clutch down and go into first gear – none of this will happen at a conscious level. The last time these movements would have been conscious was probably whilst learning to drive.

TIP: A trigger is a useful tool to help you to make taking a shot an automatic process.

I have mentioned your pre-shot routine in this article about repetition. A TRIGGER should be the first action in your pre-shot routine. For it to work you need to have anchored positive thoughts to the action so that the trigger will support and help you get into this positive state.

The following is a guide on how creating an anchor and applying a trigger will work for you – when you come up with one of your own trigger it is even more effective so feel free to create your own.

When you hit the ball well and you have a great feeling of euphoria afterwards this is the best time to anchor good feelings - take your thumb and middle finger and press them together firmly. (You may prefer a rubber band on your wrist to flick – anything that will attach a ‘trigger’ to the positive mood anchor you are creating).

Practise this anchor every-time something good happens to you on and off the golf course. When you next press your fingers together your subconscious will automatically react by putting you a great mood instantly.

Practise thinking about these positive images in your mind at quiet times of day so that the anchor becomes stronger and the trigger automatic.

Like any of the new skills I talk about in my newsletters and CD’s they all require REPETITION and COMMITMENT to the process. Triggers need to be developed so that they will move you into this automatic state of great shot making, where everything happens easily and effectively.

REMEMBER: You can use triggers to help your sub-conscious mind get ready to play your shot in your pre-set up routine. You can use your feel-good anchor to help get you into a great state of mind ready to play a relaxed and confident swing.