The key to enjoyable, stress-free golf

FOR the past seven issues I have taken you through my ‘7 Secrets of a Highly Successful Golfer’ which when combined make up my Confidence Caddie Programme. I decided that with this month’s article I would reflect on what my programme really means as a whole to anybody wanting to improve the mental side of their golf.

What I believe as a coach is that unless you truly understand who you are and what really makes you tick, it is impossible for you to deal effectively with any negativity that your mind and body will challenge you with while playing golf. That is where the Confidence Caddie Programme comes in – it helps you to understand yourself so that you can use that knowledge to get yourself into a positive frame of mind in order to play effortless and enjoyable golf.

Let me explain. I do not agree with people who think that to get on in life, or indeed golf, you need to struggle. So many of us believe that swimming against the tide is necessary in order to achieve what you want. We have become conditioned to life being hard work. Yes, of course you will eventually get to the other side if you swim hard enough; but why put yourself through it?

Have you noticed that when playing golf the harder you try the worse your play gets? Yet when we are playing well and our golf play is just flowing it is effortless! So surely this is the mental and physical state that we should be actively seeking to tap into on demand. I believe that for anything to work well it needs to come to you easily. If you are truly 
enjoying your golf and playing well it should be effortless!

Over the next few articles I am going to take a look at how you can get yourself into a physical and mental state that will help you to achieve playing really enjoyable and stress free golf. In the meantime here are FOUR aspects of the mental side of your game you can get to work on immediately: Awareness You firstly need to work on yourself.

Only by becoming aware of the negative beliefs you have created about your game of golf can you do something about changing them into positive beliefs. Self-Talk Start to listen to your self-talk and if you hear yourself being negative stop it straight away and make a conscious decision to think only positive thoughts. This will take practise but start NOW!

Goals Have you set yourself goals for your golf this year yet? If you keep doing what you did last year you will get the same results! Write down what you would like to achieve this year and start to think of the changes that need to happen to your golf in order for you to make that happen.

It could be regular lessons, more practise or simply to play more. The Zone I have written a great FREE REPORT this month which is only available to my Lady Golfer readers. It concentrates on getting YOU in ‘the zone’ by working on creating a 
consistent and effective pre-set up routine.

Every month I am going to write a FREE REPORT which will explore the subject matter of my article further because I only have limited space in the magazine in order to help and advise you. These reports will only be available to Lady Golfer readers at – www.confidencecaddie.com/ ladygolfer.

Just follow the instructions to download this month’s Report entitled: ‘Getting in the Zone – A Guide to Playing Effortless Golf’. I also want to hear from you about what is really challenging you where the mind side of your golf is concerned.

So please help me to address the issues most important to you by using the ‘Ask A Question’ which is on the Home Page at 
www.confidencecaddie.com. I will then be able to make sure that future articles will concentrate on getting to the heart and mind of your game of golf. Above all else, together we are going to get you playing your best golf ever in 2008!