For the next two weeks the PGA TOUR is in town so golfers will have the opportunity to
observe top ranked players in action. Outside of watching them play and trying to emulate
their swings use this time wisely to see how they handle adversity which is going to happen
especially on the weekend coming down the stretch trying to win. The best players in any
sport know how to handle being cool in situations where everyone else in self-destucting.
Actually losing your cool can be good because it can help you let off some steam and help
you refocus on the task at hand. Often, as all golfers know we keep it bottled up which
can impair our performances for the rest of the round. The key is to allow yourself to
completely vent, then refocus again immediately. By venting I don't mean throwing or
breaking clubs, or cursing. The skill of refocusing is what is the most important element
to master. How does a person learn to regain composure after losing it?Just remember
that losing your cool is nothing more than focusing on what went wrong, and allowing
yourself to get frustrated, angry, ticked off, etc. Think about how you respond when
your angry. . . you breathe faster, body tigthens up, heart rate increases and so on.
These stress messages your sending to your brain only make your body tighten up
more sabotaging your abilities to perform properly. This unfortunate cycle will
continue until you learn to break this broken record set on self-destruct. In a
tense situation the best way to regain your composure is to work in the opposite
direction, to get your body to calm down, this in turn will allow your mind to
calm down by taking several deep breathes, and by pushing away any negative thoughts.
There's a good method called "Treeing" which seems appropriate since your on the
golf course with plenty of trees. What you do is take your emotions in this case
negative thoughts and put them onto something else. Some older cultures throughout
the world have used this technique for centuries. They learned to pass their bad
feelings or negative emotions to a tree, hence the name. So next time when your
on the golf course and your losing your cool find a tree and push or touch it
physically releasing your pressure that your feeling into the object and leave
it there. After you have dealt with the past it's time to move on to the future
which in this case is a new hole, or shot at hand. Remember you can't change the
past, but you can profoundly effect your future with the proper mind set. There's
no longer a reason to carry all this emotional baggage to the next hole so let it
go. So next time you see a player in the woods alot during a round maybe their
just getting rid of some issues that are bothering them.
This is all easier said than done, but like all things with a little practice and
some discipline you'll be recovering from poor shots quicker and salvaging your
round instead of going from bad to worse. The best players in the world all have
their own particular methods for staying cool, so watch how they handle poor shots
while they are in town. It's traits like staying cool when everyone else is losing
their heads that make the difference from being a good player to becoming a great player.
