Question 180


I have benefited tremendously from all three of your videos--my putting and short game is vastly improved and when the snow clears I will work on the long game as well. Any systematic advice on the mental game?

The mental game consists of the focus on the target. If you have to negotiate walking between a chair and a wall and you haven't been drinking, then you see the boundaries that you must walk through. You always walk right in the middle. This is how you must see your shots; with constraints that you set up, not the ones your buddy tells you about.

I like playing courses that have trees through the fairways because you can see the outline of the trees and make the right edge and the left edge of the leaves the target. I then see the swing and the ball going through the middle of the two outside points, if that target is too far away I bring it closer in my mind. This is the whole concept of fluency building. You start with an area that you can hit only five of ten shots in between and you keep reducing the landing area smaller and smaller until you can no longer hit 50% of the balls in that area. You will be shocked as to how tight the area becomes in a short period of time. Once you know that area you can now comfortably find that larger area that will take all 10 shots. This takes pressure away from the slightest mistake and frees your mind to interact with the target area.

Now walk your way around the course just like you walked your way through the chair and the wall. The putter trainer is a tremendous tool for doing just that. You see the outside edges of the trainer and move right through the middle. Exactly how your mind is meant to react. With enough practice you will be able to see it when it is not there and still move through the middle. Now do this with your irons and woods to have a path to go through. This is why the club head blur and putter blur are so effective.



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