You are a CREDIT to this FORUM! For your dedication and service to our great country I am truly grateful. Doesn't matter if you stand on your head with your pants down on the first tee . . . YOU ARE A HERO!!!!

The heck with those young bucks! The ball don't care how you look when you hit. Homer gave us the Imperatives. You have given us MUCH MUCH more . . .

And for that thank you!

Bucket

Fear and Worry - reprise
 

Thank you for your kind words. However, I was not a hero, but I served with many.



WRT standing on my head with my pants down on the first tee, do you think that would help?????????? I'm kinda new to this TGM thing......:D

Obi WunPutt

Depends on what you had for breakfast . . .:rolleyes:

THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!!!!

For being Honest and sharing your experiences, failures, triumphs and hopes....

Me? I have what I have identified as an anxiety issue. I am a perfectionist. When I get mad, I fear nothing. But....

I sure as hell fear hitting a bad shot - even by myself on the range. No one watching. Just me. Only me. Shank. I suck. Dont do it again. Dammit, dont! Release!!!!! Shank. Push. Pull. Fade. Hook. Top. Fat, Thin.

Point is...I can tell myself to stay in the moment as much as I want. But you, as well as I, know....especially in a tournament...my worst nightmare...isnt topping it. Its worrying.

So....how do we conquer it?

I have the answer. Anyone else?

And lastly - fo FRED. Thank you. My father was in Nam, as my cousin in Baghdad (recon). I appreciate all you have done - no - sacrificed. I truely do. I hope one day we can meet - only for me to say thank you - and a quick hug. And I am not messing. Anytime you want to talk - 302-299-9466. Anytime - night, day, whenever. My name is Patrick, and I owe you -and gentlemen like you - my freedom. Thank you sir. Sincerely.

Worrying
 

Hi Patrick,
Thanks for the thanks. You are WELCOME.

Now, on to the rest. It is CRITICAL that you read Pia Lindstrom's Every Shot Must Have a Purpose. It is also critical that you understand the source of your worry. I suggest (I am not a shrink), that your issue is one of self-image. You are perhaps attaching too much importance to your performance on the golf course or the range. Performance anxiety can cause you to wilt under pressure (sorry couldn't resist)...:cool:

Anyway, If you continue to associate your self worth with whether or not you made a good shot or a bad shot, it isn't going to get any better. You need to practice this, and perhaps the way to practice is to practice NOT CARING. Go to the range with a large bucket and play your favorite course in your mind. Hit each shot with full attention and then forget it. Go to a golf course and play 18 holes without every writing down a score. Go to the putting green and hit putts at imaginary holes and don't pay anything more than the slightest attention to whether you even got close or not,.

You are NOT playing for the freedom of the Western World. :D A week from now no one, including you will ever care what you shot today, or whether you hit one in the water on 15 or whether you topped two drives in a row last Saturday to lose the match by one stroke. NO ONE GIVES A DARN, so why should you?

THE GREAT PLAYERS NEVER WORRY ABOUT WHAT OTHERS THINK OF THEM, THEIR GOLF SWING OR THEIR SCORE. That is the truth of the matter.

YOU ARE NOT YOUR GOLF SWING, AND YOU ARE NOT YOUR GOLF SCORE. You are a human being with feelings and value far beyond whatever happens with that damn little white ball.

Try hitting balls blindfolded. Have a friend tee them up for you on a mat (so there is some consistency of set up) and hit a large bucket without ever getting to look where the ball goes. Get yourself to the point that you not only can't look at it, but can't possibly be concerned with how it looks, because you aren't going to get to look at it anyway. If you can do that for an hour without ever asking where it went, or taking off the blindfold, you will be on your way to getting past this.

EVERYONE, and I mean EVERYONE hits it sideways once in a while. I stood at the 17th green at Pebble Beach and watched Jack Nicklaus hit two chip shots from 5 feet off the green because he muffed the first one so badly it barely left its spot. It wasn't a tough shot, he just screwed it up. Walter Hagen (the BEST match play player EVER) said he expected to hit 7 bad shots in every round. So when he hit one, it was just one of those 7.

EVERYONE plays BAD GOLF. Jimmy Demaret, when told that Jack Nicklaus played great golf said, "Don't be stupid, Jack just plays bad golf better than the rest of us."

Take care and quit attaching WHO you are to WHAT your last shot looks like.

Walk In Beauty,

Obi WunPutt

You are on to something here. I read you should "TRY EASY not TRY HARD." It is tough though to not give a crap. We end up WORKING the game instead of PLAYING.

To me getting out of your on way is huge . . . but how do you do it and do it more often?

I've read all the books man and I still get up in the fetal position like a little girl.

Another "solution" that I found interesting was . . . stand behind the shot and ask yourself "How many times out of 10 can I hit hit an acceptible shot in this situation?" Self answers "7 out of 10 times 70%." So why am I nervous about a shot I can execute at an acceptible level 70% of the time? Shouldn't I be just 30% nervous?

Bucket is full of chicken . . . among other stuff.

Worrying 30% is still worrying. In the world of shooting and in agility training (and soon skydiving) I teach a class called "The Art of Getting Out of Your Own Way". When you do that, the RESULT means NOTHING. |The PROCESS is everything. Furthermore, the very existance of worry is the absence of trust. I use "trust" as the swing trigger when I am playing well. Do I ALWAYS remember to do that? No, but when I do, the results are sometimes staggeringly beautiful.

A couple of "tricks" if you will. Have someone else keep score, announce your score to that person when you pick your ball out of the hole and then let it go. If you aren't sitting in a cart staring at the score card, it's easier to forget. Second, go out and play a round of golf from the forward tees with your 5 iron and your putter. There are certain things you simply CANNOT do with those two clubs (like hit is 275 over the lake off a hanging lie) so you don't try. You might find you have a LOT of fun doing this, and what's more, you will learn to trust your decision making process more, because you will HAVE to play by feel.

Obi WunPutt

Good point on the 30%!!!

Got any notes on the "Art of Getting Out of the Way Class?"

Hocus Focus
 

While I have not read Pia Lindstrom's book, the best book as it relates to the mental side of the game, I have come accross is Dr. Gio Valiante's book "Fearless Golf". It is a MUST read and I stress MUST. I will put it in my Top 10 Golf Books of All-Time (My golf library is well over a thousand books with quite a few on "the grey-matter"). Do yourself a favor and get a copy. You will never look at yourself the same way again.

I have done clinics with Bob Rotella and Robert Winters, but Dr. Valiante's book change more about the way I think then I ever thought possible. You will learn how to check you Ego at the door and overcome your fears through Self-Efficacy. Couple a strong mind with your Machine and who knows how far you can go.

The Art of Getting Out of Your Own Way
 

Yes, there is a book that goes with the agility class. I am not sure how easily one can relate it to golf, although I did, at one time, have a golf version thereof. When you are training to shoot rifles at extreme distances (1000+ yards) you learn to fire between your heartbeats because your pulse through the sling on your arm is enough to throw your aim off at that range. This becomes truly tested when others are shooting back at you. You learn to actually slow your heart rate consciously.

The one thing that I can "tip" to is this. When we are stressed, we say "Take a deep breath", but we breathe from our chest instead of our stomach. This does nothing to improve the exchange of oxygen and actually causes additional build up of CO2 in the bottom of your lungs, which is where the primary transfer of O2 to your blood stream takes place. The increase in CO2 causes your heart beat to rise, which causes you to breath faster in order to effect a better O2 transfer, which causes your heart to beat faster because, once again, you are not breathing properly. When you wish to relax you should take a breath that causes your stomach to expand as though you are swelling with pregnancy. Your chest doesn't move AT ALL. If you practice breathing like this, then a couple of these breaths go a LONG way to reducing the tension in your body.

More as time permits. I must go do my homework for school [-o<

Obi WunPutt