The drills and applied exercises below will assist you in using these concepts on the course.
- Fail Forward.
Write down five bad decisions you made on the course. Then write down one thing you learned from each bad decision. You should have 5 items you learned. In this way, you will see mistakes as a positive and not be afraid of making mistakes.
- Relax with a word.
You must train yourself to relax to help with those butterflies. After a warm shower, sit in your comfy chair. Now close your eyes and start relaxing your toes, then your calves, then your stomach, then your chest, your arms, hands, neck, jaw and moving to the top of your head. This should take about 5 minutes to move from your toes to your head.
After you are in a relaxed state, you need to say your word (in your mind) every time you breathe out. This word relates to a feeling when you are totally relaxed such as “cool” or “calm”. Do this for 5 minutes.
Now this word gets associated with this relaxed state. This is called classical conditioning.
Do this exercise 4 times a week and within 3 weeks you will see a difference in your anxiety.
Use this word in pre-shot routine or anytime you feel you are getting nervous on the course.
3.Don’t Keep Score.
This is an essential mental game process to mastering your emotions. Instead of thinking about how much over par you might be, which leads to frustration, or how many under par you are, which leads to anxiety, just write the numbers on your card. Then at the end of the round, think about how your score relates to par. This process will help you to keep your emotions under control and help you to stay engaged in every shot. This is very difficult, as we all want to know our score, but with practice you will be able to master this essential skill and you will then be able to master your mental game.
4. Shrug off the Anxiety
At the start of your pre-shot routine, shrug your shoulders 3 times. That will release any tension you may have in your shoulders. You may get tension from just carrying your bag. Also, if you have tension in your shoulders it will prohibit making a full turn. So shrug off the anxiety at the start of your routine for your best scores.