What Does The US Open Have To Do With Your Game?

So you may be wandering just what does the US Open Golf Tournament have to do with my game? Well, if you want to play well under pressure it should have everything to do with it. When you practice simply focusing on your swing and blasting balls at the range it's only one small aspect to true practice. This is what is called the practise makes perfect method. Yet if you've golfed for any length of time you know this simply isn't true: practice doesn't make perfect. Practice makes permanent. So practice what is really necessary to play at your peak. Your inner game of golf requires the same attention .

In order to play well with the anxiety of stress you need to practise under the same conditions. When the chips are down and you need to hit the shot of your life, the self imposed pressure felt increases 10 fold for most golfers. The trial by fire approach to improving your mental game of golf toughness and performing under pressure is a haphazard method. Yet this is all most people know.

By entering more competitions and tournaments they have the false impression that this is going to improve their mental game and concentration skills. Unfortunately it just doesn't work that way. What do you see happen most of the time with this typical approach ? Yes you guessed it; the vast majority of players never perform up to their own potential because they lack mental game preparedness.

Inevitably when they fail it's chalked up to experience and they simply hope to be in a position to win again. They call this strategy the natural way. Just get in contention enough times and you're bound to win. It's a very haphazard mental game approach. Although the odds are if you are in position enough times sooner or later you are going to win.

My belief is that the more times your put yourself in the position to win and fail, in actual fact what you are doing is increasing the likelihood that you will fail. It doesn't make winning any easier! Why is this, lack of mental game training? You have built a mindset of losing in your unconscious mind around not performing well under pressure. It will drive your behaviour (your thought processes and the swings you make under pressure ). You will unconsciously duplicate the experience of losing that you are accustomed to.

It certainly is a hard pill to swallow but if you ever want to become more than just a mediocre golfer then mental game training can save you months, and even years for some people , of pointless inner chaos around pressure, performance anxiety, competitive stress and its influence on your game . So what if you could replicate the US Open tournament pressure when you practise and then were able to take that mindset out to the course when you play?

Now let's say you have a mental game visualization routine that is filled with every imaginable pressure situation you could encounter. Do you think it would be safe to say that you are a few steps ahead of your competition? You most certainly would.

By feeling with your mind's eye, not simply seeing, you can undergo the exact pressure you'll face in competition. Your subconscious mind will absorb these sessions and add them to your mental game collection and integrate them into your golfing self image. They become real situations in your subconscious. This technique provides the body and mind with sensory specific information of what pressure is and how you need to perform when it's present.

You are, in fact preparing your mind and body to act and perform in a desired way when under pressure. Practise your mental game by imagining you are in the US Open and at the range hitting balls. Give yourself only one shot to hit your desired target. Establish a scoring system to examine how well you perform this way. Increase the pressure by taking only one drive, then one iron, then a chip shot if you miss your target with your approach shot. Try to pay very close attention to how your perform when using this technique.

If you want to accelerate your mental game progress and begin to play well under pressure then it's vital you simulate pressure in your practice sessions . What other way is there to get ready to face the inevitable? Do you honestly want to rely on the time worn routine of entering more and more tournaments and matches with the hopes of getting used to it? How much time money are you prepared to lose before you make the changes necessary ?

Grab a hold of your potential and start to develop a dependable mental game. Your overall mindset on the course, your Mental Game toughness, your sense of clarity and inner confidence under the gun, and a list of other benefits will enter your game. Not just occasionally but for a lifetime. You will be absolutely amazed at how all the little distractions and rubs of the green that used to get under your skin and derail you don't even enter your mind anymore.