Mental Game - Effective Practice Pocketshots
Karl Morris is one of Europe’s leading specific golf mind coaches, delivering cutting edge methods of peak performance and goal achievement to a range of clients across sports and business. From the world of golf, he has worked with players such as Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley, Graeme McDowell, Alison Nicholas and Trish Johnson to name a few. He has written and starred in the Pocketshot editions on the Mental side of the game.
This first lesson introduces you to the mental game and what in can do for your golf practice. The drills and exercises, tips and advice are all geared around helping you to practice your golf in a way that will have a lasting impact on your overall game. Here's just a selection of those tips:
Make the Target Smaller
Practice your putting to a tee.
How many tees would fit into a hole?
Putt to the tee at the back of the hole.
Focus on an imaginary tee on the course.
This will make the hole seem bigger when you are on the course and you will not feel bad if you miss the tee on the practice putting green before your round as the ball will still probably have dropped into a hole.
Increase Your Heart Rate
Do half a dozen push-ups or run/skip on the spot.
Increase your heart rate.
Give yourself a test.
40 foot putt, get down in two to win the tournament.
Tricky 4-foot putt.
Try a delicate pitch shot.
This helps you simulate game conditions in your practice.
Practising Mentally
Research is strong on the effectiveness of pre-event visualisation and imagery.
When your brain vividly imagines a situation in multi-sensory detail, you see, hear and feel things in your mind’s eye your body will react as if the event were actually happening. Practising mentally can give you a subtle edge if you have little time for actual range practice.
If you enjoyed this Pocketshots on the Mental Game, have a look at the Mental Game - On The Course Pocketshots or our Mental Game Pocketshots downloadable video.