In addition to learning how to synchronize your body and mind with the right practice techniques, shot selection in the “scoring zone” is very important for lower scores. You have to learn how to play the right shot at the right time. This is what differentiates the top players. And it’s all part of the mental game. European Tour Coach, Denis Pugh, talks us through some very effective shot choices to improve your confidence around the green.

Technorati Tags: creative shot making

Learning how to practice the inner game is the key to playing better golf. Afterall, it’s your mind that controls your preparation and your swing, and it’s your mind that has to process the outcome of a shot.

Good golf is about learning positive visualization and feel, and responding correctly to results, whatever they are. Being able to do this has a massive impact on our performance, whatever our handicap. This is easy to say, but how to we learn it?

The first part is simple. Make your practice more about being creative, rather than learning new techniques and hitting to the same target. Learn to heighten your senses and make a complete variety of golf shots part of your instinct. Introduce different shot shapes to your mind and make your body work to produce them. This will act to increase your power of visualization and ingrain those swings in your long-term muscle memory. Gary Player (arguably the most diligent golfer ever) said that practice should involve hitting as many shots as possible to different targets – hooks, slices, fades, draws, low and high shots. This is what I teach my students through my coaching and mental game audio session.

Enjoy the adventure of being creative. Tiger Woods says that creativity is the 15th club in his bag, and anyone that has seen him play knows this to be true. This is because he continually learns and practices positive visualization and feel, through hitting different shots. Most amateur golfers think they have mastered the game on the range, because they see the ball flying to the same target shot after shot. This is not the most effective way to practice. Your body puts that same shot in its short-term muscle memory and its repetition becomes subconscious.

We need to use our minds to keep our body learning the feel of new shot shapes. This is what will make you a better player. On the golf course you are not going to be faced with same shot on a level lie, time after time. Every shot is different. Using the driving range to ingrain a variety of shots into your subconscious mind is the most effective way to practice and get closer to your best golf. Better players simply see and have more shots.

Don’t be afraid to experiment – it will sharpen your senses and make you a better player.

This is the first part of a Mental Game Teaching series from
www.golfstateofmind.com. The next part will explain how a disciplined shot routine will take you into the correct Golf State of Mind for each shot, reducing negative interferences and increasing positive outcomes.

Technorati Tags: creative shot making, synchronizing body and mind, visualization and feel