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Archive for the ‘ Strategy ’ Category

When you run into slow play on the course

It’s going to happen at some time in your future.  You are cruising along a course and in a rhythm and feeling like your game is coming together.  All of a sudden, you catch up to a slow group in front of you, and the pace comes to a screeching halt.  Everybody in your group complains and gets frustrated.  You lose your game and your score takes a nosedive for the rest of the round.

As with everything I teach, the time to fix these things is BEFORE you go out to the course. Too many golfers ask me questions in this format:  “Craig, what do I do when…..(bad thing happens)?”

The better question should be something like:  “Craig, how can I be prepared so that when I run into slow play, it doesn’t affect me negatively?”

Below is a 12 min. coaching call I did with a golfer to address this issue.  This should never be a problem ever again for you after listening to this.

By the way, my student in the audio went on to her club championship, took my advice and she played awesome through the slow play that she expected.

 

Greens and Fairways,

Craig

Learn From The Pros Playing Styles To Maximize Your Game

By Wade Pearse

 

Download Playing Styles report

Take a look at a few players at the PGA Championship this weekend. There are various playing styles. Yet something interesting is happening on tour due to the equipment.

Swings have changed over the years but never as much as the modern swing has due to the new drivers. They swing as hard as possible to hit it as far as possible since the drivers and ball combinations have allowed this. So what does this mean to playing styles? OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Well, for one there are less true Magicians left in the game. Players have naturally evolved into would-be conquerors. Yet many players don’t suit that at all but still mindless try to become one. Because the game promotes that style of play nowadays. Don’t get caught in that trap! Be who YOU are and play to your strength. You will always, always, always score better when you know your playing style and manage your round based on this.

Special 50% off Deal on Wade’s Golf Whole Mind Mastery Course- Click Here

By the way, diff I say “always” enough?! Ok, now let’s look at Tom Watson. His evolution is more natural and not driven by equipment. He was definitely a magician for the majority of his playing career but now he has become more of a Strategist. Never attempting to overpower the course or over swing for a few measly extra yards. No, his wisdom is in knowing the natural evolution of his playing style. Just think, he almost won the British Open in his late 60’s! We’ll likely never see that happen again. That’s the power of knowing your game.

Rory is now a true Conqueror. Unbelievably string with his driver he just smashes his drives long and straight and overpowers a golf course.

Tiger is stuck in no-man’s land. He must know, even if only at a subconscious level, that his game doesn’t allow for him to play as a Conqueror anymore. Those days are behind him. Yet he’s stuck in being a technician which is really hurting his natural feel and gifts. Watch him and you can almost sense he’s thinking about his swing as opposed to thinking about his target. When he can trust being a true Strategist and connect his gifts to a more strategic approach he will attain a high level of performance once again. A man with that many wins has a reservoir of excellence inside and imagery of wins that no-one else on the planet has. He will find a way to win.

Take the underdog attitude to be a dangerous golf competitor

In competitive golf, expectations are one of the killers of a good golf swing and putting stroke. If you go out there on the course with a mindset that you HAVE to protect your reputation or standing as a favorite, well, that can be a huge liability.

Whether you are or are not the favorite, you can take the attitude that YOU are the underdog. That you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

This is a powerful mental strategy that can pay off big time when you get good at it. Remember, reality is whatever you want it to be. It doesn’t matter one bit if you really are the favorite or not in order for you to get the benefits. Watch the video and tell me what you think in the comments.

Greens and fairways,

Craig

 

Win with an underdog mental attitude

Have you ever noticed that it’s easier to play loose and free in heavy competition when you’re
the underdog? When you don’t expect to win? When everyone thinks your opponent is better? It’s a sports cliche even in top pro sports that the competitor with “nothing to lose” is the most dangerous to play. Especially when playing at home. In the sport of golf, they take it a little further and actually say to look out for the golfer who has a cold or a sore throat.

10932041_xxlGolf being such a mental game that if you have this underdog mental attitude from being sick, you actually have an advantage!! Think about this for a second. That “underdog” attitude is all made up in our heads. It’s not real. Nothing we “think” about is actually real. We can think anything we want and nobody can do anything about it if we don’t want them to. What if you were to go out there in every competition “pretending” that you are the underdog.

Pretending is just a thought like any other thought. What if you were to take a few moments before going out there and just talk yourself into a place where could play loose and free because there were no expectations on you to win? You can!

This takes some practice and I would recommend that every night before you go to bed before your next game or competition, you imagine yourself showing up to the competition with that mental attitude as the underdog. How would you stand and walk as the underdog? How would you talk differently?

Let me leave you with this one thought about this topic today… can you now see how your imagination can be a potent weapon of yours to help you play your best? Winners know how to direct their thoughts. Winners win in advance.
IMG_20112013_100701-150x150I’m Craig Sigl

Change Your Beliefs About Your Golf Game

How many times have you thought you had a great round going and then you fell apart? This happens to every golfer from beginner to world-class pro.

Too many golfers think that the solution to the problem is to go out there and hit more balls and tweak their swing and then they find out that this only gets you so far and you keep choking under pressure.

In today’s video, I’ve got an eye-opener that you may not want to hear but is probably your truth, to some degree.

What you don’t know can hurt you.
**********************

Links from the video:

Consistent Golf

GolfSelfhypnosis.com

 

Your Beliefs Determine Your Score

What do you believe about yourself as a golfer? What score do you believe you have the ability to shoot? Haven’t you had a par on many par 3s, 4s, and 5s already?

Then why can’t we do it consistently and shoot low 70’s?

One of the reasons and it may be your biggest, is that you truly don’t believe you can. You have a mental ceiling on how well you can play. You know from following me that it’s your inner mind that guides your swing and putting stroke. It’s your unconscious mind that will literally cause you to break down if you start scoring better than you believe you can.

IMG_1403Let’s say you have a belief that you are a 90’s golfer. If you start having a run of pars that threaten that belief, well then, your unconscious mind will kick into gear and make you nervous so that you have trouble playing. It does this to make sure that your belief that you’re a 90’s shooter isn’t violated.

Yep, it’s true and this happens every day to us golfers.

What am I talking about when I say the word “belief?”

What that is is a network of thoughts, neural connections, that become activated in certain contexts and perceptions in your world. That’s the technical description but here’s another example outside of golf.

Did you know that a huge percent of lottery winners end up broke within 10 years of winning? It’s because they have a belief that having money is not good. Maybe that money is evil or that rich people are bad. So what happens in reality is that we make decisions based on emotion…which is controlled by your
unconscious mind, emotions that is.

So when an opportunity presents itself to invest or spend some of that money, the unconscious mind generates a feeling to get the person to spend the money on the very thing that will make sure to get rid of that money!! This system is all very subtle and golfers, and most people, are completely unaware of this process going on every day in their lives but rest assured, if you are human, you most likely have some beliefs that get triggered to make sure you don’t break your scoring barrier.

What’s the solution? Communicate to the unconscious mind and correct the beliefs holding you back.

IMG_20112013_100701My “Shortcut Secrets To Consistent Golf” program or my golfselfhypnosis.com membership site are designed to do just that.

Without these desructive beliefs, Your swing is good enough to go low. I’m Craig Sigl

4 ­Step Mental Practice

Every Golf instructor out there preaches visualization and if you’ve been with me for awhile, you know that you don’t actually have to “see” anything in order to work on your game in your mind. In other words, a better term than “visualize” is to “mentally practice.”

This allows the golfer to do it his way. Having said that, I keep hearing from golfers who struggle with this whole concept no matter what it’s called. They can’t seem to imagine themselves swinging correctly even if they can do it on the range or a practice swing. This video is going to help you by breaking it down into 4 steps so you can really get some mental practice benefits now to improve your swing…or any other part of your game.

 

4-step mental practice

In today’s video, you are going to learn another advanced technique for doing turbo-mental practice. It’s long been proven that mental practice can be just as good, and sometimes better than real practice…especially if you’re practicing bad habits.

Often, golfers tell me that they have trouble seeing or imagining themselves swinging correctly or that they can’t see anything at all.

golf swingHere’s what you do: Let’s say you swing just fine on the range and maybe even in your practice swing but when it comes to actually hitting a ball, your like a totally different person.

Well, at some point, from the address until the end of your swing, it changes…or it breaks down in some way right?

Now this is going to take a little self awareness or observation from an instructor to find that point, but let’s say you’ve figured out that your swing breaks down right here at the beginning of the downswing. Maybe you speed up or drop your shoulder or crunch up or something like that that you don’t do in your practice swing.

Finding that point is helpful but not necessary. You could just start this process anywhere near the beginning of the swing and work your way through the whole swing using these steps.

Anyway. If you are having trouble mentally practicing a full correct swing, Step 1. take your club in slow motion and get to that point where your swing breaks down. Maybe you get to the top and then you rush it down and you get all out of whack right there. Stop at that crucial point where it would go out of whack.

Feel it, see it.

Step 2. Slow motion your way through that point but don’t finish the swing. Just focus on that small area of movement.

Step 3. Now, do the same thing with your eyes closed and imagine you’re still able to look at where your body parts should be. Do this a bunch of times.

Step 4. Put the club down, close your eyes or stare at a wall or something and imagine doing it again just like step 3

The key here is to create a new habit of getting through that breakdown point and only focusing on that in your mental practice….not the whole swing. It’s much easier to do and actually more effective to break it down that way.

Once you can do step 4, do it all day, everywhere until you’ve got the move down. Fall asleep thinking it, wake up thinking it, day dream about it. This is truly my biggest secret for how I first broke 80.

IMG_20112013_100701I’m Craig Sigl and

your swing is good enough to go low

Golf Score Improvement Plan

If you’ve looked at golf instruction online for any amount of time, you no doubt have experienced that dreaded issue: “Golf instruction confusion.”

I’ve said it many times before that I fully recommend that you pick your swing and physical game instructor and you commit to him/her teaching. That means you have to ignore other advice while following those instructions.

It’s the same thing with the mental side of the game which is why you are here. In this next video, I’m going to make it really simple for you as I answer one of my followers who is in the midst of some confusion on how to use my teachings.

Go here to watch

Greens and fairways,

Craig

 

 

80/20 Improvement Plan

Hello Craig,

I joined as a gold member and purchased the CD’s 3 weeks ago. I have over the past 3 rounds improved with some really great shots in particular my irons. getting 3 or 4 pars a round.

My problem is this: I have so much stuff that I want to listen to it becomes over whelming. Can you suggest a plan that I can follow on a daily basis that will help me get some focus and direction. I am a qualified NLP practitioner and hypnosis as well so I know this stuff works. I am probably putting to much expectations on myself.

A plan to follow would be great with the things that I should focus
on first the the next then the next…………………… etc,

thanks, Tony

Hi Tony,

Thanks for being a customer!

preshot-routine-down-pat1. The first thing you need to do is get your preshot routine down pat. Go over the elements of the preshot routine that I teach and make sure you incorporate them all and do them religiously. The point of that is to train your unconscious mind to take over once you begin the swing or putting stroke. Most important!

2. Once a day, break out your favorite wedge and chip for 5-10 min if you can. Into a bucket in your backyard is fine. If weather is bad, chip into a couch or sofa inside.

3. Listen to a favorite song on your way to the course that has your special golf rhythm that you will hear in your head while on the course. You will sing this song while swinging.

4. During warmup on the range before a round, do everything you can to simulate that you are playing a hole. Do not go from Wedge up to driver like everyone else does.

5. Just before going to bed at night, for now, do just one of the golf hypnosis sessions that for the area of the game that you believe will give you the most bang for your buck. Do that session for one week or so and then move to the next one for another week, and so on. Don’t try to go into all the sessions at once and mix them up. Pound into your unconscious mind the concepts that you know will give you some stroke savings now. You need to get some confidence that you can affect your game through the mental game as soon as possible and then you can build on that.

This is 80/20 golf improvement and the secret to lower scores faster.

Greens and fairways, Your swing is…

Golf tips: Stop battling your golf swing

I’ve decided to do a regular series of videos where I answer questions that come to me in email and blog posts from golfers.

This one below comes from a golfer who more than just struggles to find his swing but has been learning from me how to connect with his inner perfect golfer self.

I give you a simple step-by-step progression bridge the gap between a tense swing and an energized, yet relaxed swing.

I’d really love to hear your comments below the video.

Battling your golf swing

Title: Golf tips: Stop battling your golf swing

Dear Craig,
I feel like every full swing is a battle. I tend to think of the swing while making a swing. I have also
tried thinking of nothing, humming, & focussing on the target all with the same result. besides your other
suggestions have you any comments that would help. John.

Hi John,
Is there anything in your life that you do maybe for fun or pure enjoyment but that DON’T MATTER if you win or lose?

An example is playing cards with friends.  Or, playing a game or a round with a teenager or son or daughter. You know what it’s like when you are excited to put your mind to a fun task and have the great feelings of competition that come with doing it with someone you care BUT, there’s no downside. If you lose, no big deal (to most of us that is.)

Do some of these things, on purpose.  Connect with the thought and feeling of doing that as much as possible. Whether what I’m going to tell you next is going to work for you or not depends on how much energy and attention you put into this BEFORE you go out to the course.

  • 4507043_xxlReally pay attention to what it’s like doing these things.
  • Bring those thoughts and feelings over to your swing in the backyard (no ball).
  • Bring that over to swinging at a whiffle ball in the backyard
  • Bring that over to swinging at the range without a ball
  • Bring that over to swinging at the range with a ball
  • Bring that over to swinging on the course without a ball

…then to hitting a ball.
Through the whole process, you are focusing on the thoughts and feelings that you generated playing with your grandkids
or playing cards with friends.

Progress through the steps above and don’t move on to the next step until you get the one before it.
You want to get this new message into your entire being for why you play this game…and then the battle will be over.

What Can Sammy The Squirrel Teach Golfers?

Well, another President’s Cup is in the history books. The international team made a huge comeback on Day 3 but Tiger Woods provided the winning point at the end. The way these guys played in the rain was what impressed me the most,

except for one thing…

Sammy the Squirrel.

What?

It seems that a baby squirrel Davis Love III rescued stole the show for a day and was all in the news.

When I read or hear about things like this, my mind instantly goes to the psychology of what people think and how they act about such curiosities…and how it might affect a round.

I mean, this little squirrel wayyyy overshadowed the tournament for awhile.

I just had to do a video on it that I think you will enjoy and learn a little something for yourself for your game.

 

Title: What Can Sammy The Squirrel Teach Golfers?

Fix Your Golf Game, Fix Your Life

IMG_1403I started out on this journey to just Break 80 in the score of golf.

…and I did that

but golf has given me much more than I ever asked of it. The quest for a better score led me to fix my life.

Truly, I was a mess about 15 years ago. I hated my job, my marriage was a bust, my immune system was shot and I was sick all of the time, I abused alcohol, and even did a stint on anti-depressants.

…and my golf game was stuck in the 80’s

In the video below, I am going to answer a golfer who wrote to me about his personal traumas and how this relates to golf improvement just like myself.

It’s a little longer than my usual videos but I give him and you the key to my recovery in life and breakthrough in golf.

I’d really love to hear your comments below the video.

Greens and fairways,

Craig

Title: Fix Your Golf Game, Fix Your Life

GolferMike,

First off, I really sympathize with you. You’ve gone through multiple major life stressors that even just one of them could take a person down. The quick answer to your question is a resounding no…you don’t need to rectify your life for my work to help your golf game.

But I want to do better than that for you.  It’s awesome for me when I get emails from golfers worldwide telling me how their game has improved. But I don’t  just do this to lower golfer’s scores. 

In fact, I wouldn’t take the time to make all these videos and the years of writing posts and the technical headaches I go through daily to keep all these website functions working…unless I was making a difference in golfer’s lives OUTSIDE the course.

There’s a little bit of personal development help in everything I’ve ever created but my latest project: “From Range To Course” has my highest level teachings that help to change core beliefs at the unconscious level.

You mentioned “I can never do enough or be enough” as an example of a limiting belief that folks carry around with them their whole lives like a ball and chain.

13235606_xxlI get that. I used to carry around: “I don’t deserve” and “I’m small, so I don’t count” for many years. THAT is what held me back from scoring lower in golf…not my swing. When I cleared that, my scores went down.  I never changed my swing on the way to scoring in the 70’s.

AND, there’s definitely hope for everyone out there to clear your interference patterns (mental junk) and re-program some values that are more in line with your purpose for living the rest of your life here.

It all starts with understanding and mastering emotions. And the biggest one is FEAR. You need to understand that FEAR is your biggest hangup in golf and life. The reason you miss 3 foot putts in competition is FEAR.

It’s also why you can hit the ball great on the range and not on the course.  Now, there’s only 2 kinds of fear we experience.

1. Fear of physical harm to the body. and

2. Fear of emotions.

There’s nothing else. Fear of physical harm to the body is a good thing and it keeps us safe. But fear of emotions is what drives us daily. Why? Because we don’t know how to deal with difficult emotions like Boredom, Sadness, Loneliness, Inadequacy, Guilt, (which we bundle up into one word we call: STRESS) and so we go about our lives trying everything we can to avoid them at all costs.

8683767_xl

But, you can’t.  That’s a failing strategy because you are going to feel bad at times no matter what.  It’s much more empowering and fear-destroying to, instead, MASTER your emotions.  I go into more detail in my program “From Range To Course” which is all about eliminating fear and mastering emotions.

I’m going to say something that I think is really profound that sums up the basis for mastering your emotions and mental state that will help you with your golf game for sure, but more importantly, your life and here it is.

Pain, physical and emotional…are inevitable.

Suffering is optional.

Suffering comes from a resistance to “what is” or a resistance to reality.

AND, It makes it so much easier to stop resisting reality when you live your life with a purpose or meaning.

Read Victor Frankels book: Man’s search for meaning if you stuggle with that concept.

working with client

Every day I work with athletes in my office and via phone and Skype to help them live this way: purposeful…that’s the secret to performing to your potential. If you’re interested in that, just reply to any email I send you.

Mike, my golf products will not only help you with your game, but they will help you integrate your current reality with a perception about your reality that works for you…and that will generate more good feelings and keep out the fear…and your scores will go down as a by-product.

greens and fairways,
your swing is good enough to go low.

How To Quiet The Golf Mind – part 2

I’ve been asked many times how to turn off the constant negative mind chatter some of us have while playing (and in our daily lives).  I made a couple of videos to address this issue for you and today I have part 2 below.

If you missed part one, go to:  http://golfshortcutsecrets.com/quiet-golf-mind-part-1/

In part 2, I am going to give you one of my most efficient and powerful mind tactics to directly deal with this issue.  It also works really well in helping you fall asleep at night in addition to helping you control your thoughts.   I’d love for you to try it and let me know how it goes.

It might seem a bit silly at first but it flat out works.

Greens and fairways,
Craig

Transcript

Title: How To Quiet The Golf Mind – part 2
http://golfshortcutsecrets.com
Title: Quiet The Mind part 2

So in this video, let’s go over Technique #2 to get control of and quiet the mind from destructive thoughts.

What you want to do is to Become an observer of yourself and your thoughts. This is a little more fun for me and what I normally do. What this means is you pretend you are a third party, outside of yourself, hearing all the thoughts that come in to your mind…and you do a commentary on them.

This is what it might sound like when I do this:

“Hah Craig…you’re a pretty funny guy. Look at you thinking about the last 2 holes where you missed 3 foot putts thinking that has anything to do with your next putts.
(Pause, new negative thought comes in)
Huh…here comes another useless thought…wonder where that came from. Oh yeah, it was you…hahaha.. And now you’re walking faster than you usually do…could you slow down…can you start thinking about what your feet feel like as you take each step….This is interesting that you’re now talking to yourself and having a conversation with your worry wart self. Why don’t you have a conversation with your perfect golfer self right now instead of your worry golfer? That might be even more interesting. …and I can go on and on with this.”

..and sometimes I do…AND it’s very effective.

You could also do a variation of this and pretend you’re a sportscaster commenting on the thoughts that come up as you play.

Hey, it’s Johnny Miller here following Craig Sigl who just walked up to the 14th tee after running his putt 10 feet past the hole and 3-putting…..you gotta wonder about Craig’s mental state right now…can he put it behind him…etc etc. You can actually make yourself laugh with this one.

So what’s going on here with this mental tactic?
I’m here to tell you that there’s some magic about taking yourself out of yourself and observing yourself. You literally leave the box you built for yourself and expand into much higher-level thinking…perfect for playing in competition. Everyone can do this quiet easily. And it’s fun!

With either technique, the key is to DRIVE YOUR FERRARI mind. Get in the front seat and kick the autopilot out. You do this in other areas of your life, you can do it on the golf course.

Greens and Fairways,

Craig