Golf is a very focused sport, you not only have to be in top physical condition you have to be mentally fit as well. Hypnotherapy has helped sports people for many years now, hypnotherapy can help you stay focused on your golf game, meaning you play a much better round. Tiger Woods often uses hypnotherapy to help him stay focused and to help him mentally prepare for tournaments.

When you are on the golf course there can be many distractions, meaning your focus changes from your game to other things. When you don’t fully focus on your game self doubt and confidence can creep in, ruining your shot and then your game. Being able to control negative thoughts and feelings is the basis for sports psychology, hypnotherapy engages with a golfers mind and helps them focus on their goals and helps them to achieve them.

Hypnotherapy can help you relax, taking away any anxiety and self doubt. Most golfers that use hypnotherapy find it helps them maintain their composure, overcome their fears and any distractions which leads to an improved game.

For more information on hypnotherapy and how it could improve your golf visit ww.hypnotherapy-directory.org.uk/articles/sportsperformance.htm useful. The site lists hypnotherapists in the UK. Each hypnotherapist listed on the site is fully qualified and insured. You can find your local hypnotherapist by searching via postcode, town or county. The site also has lots of information on what areas and issues hypnotherapy can help with. To start improving your game why not visit ww.hypnotherapy-directory.org.uk/

Every year Golf World publishes its list of the top 100 courses in Great Britain and a few years ago I decided to see how many of these courses that I have played throughout my golfing journeys. So I counted these up and found that I had played 21 of these courses. Which I thought was pretty good but I thought I should have played some more of them. So these last six months I have made a conscious effort of play a lot more of these courses. There are some fantastic courses to play all around the country. If you have a look at www.top100golfcourses.co.uk you can have a look and see how many of them you have played. I have recently played Hankley Common and the Addington. Which are both great courses. I hope this inspires you to seek out some great days on the links.

It has been the worst winter for 25 years and if you are anything like me then you are one frustrated golfer. The thought of playing a round in short sleeves seems a million miles away and all you can do is wait for the temperatures to rise above freezing and the grass to change back from white to green. But don’t despair, there are a number of things you can do that will benefit your golf and get you prepared for the new season.

This time of year is a great chance to work on your technique, improve you golf fitness and get your equipment right, so that when it is time to play you will have trained your body and swing ready to focus on getting the ball around the course. Here are some ideas that you can be working on.

Technique
Now is a great time to work on weaknesses in your swing as this requires you to focus on improving a specific movement. Firstly, identify which parts of your swing are the weakest and learn how to correct them properly by having a lesson. Then rehearse the correct movement slowly and in front of a mirror to get feedback on how well you’re actually performing it. Also, practice any drills you have been prescribed. Keep rehearsing it for about 5 to 10 minutes at a time and you will eventually reprogram yourself to perform that movement without having to specifically think about it. Then when the sun comes out you can focus on your target and not your swing. This applies to your putting stroke as well.

Golf Fitness
As with many other people, this time of year is the kick start to thinking about getting fit, but for golf the first thing you need to think about is your flexibility. Being flexible makes it much easier to get the swing you want. The first thing to do is to identify which parts of your body are tight and the best way to do this is to have a screening with a fitness professional. For golf it is important to have good hamstring flexibility, a flexible chest and lats and be able to separate your upper body from your lower body.

Equipment
Now is also a perfect time to get your equipment organised for the upcoming year. Firstly, check your grips to see that they have enough grip left on them and also that they are of the correct thickness. If they get too slick it will mean that you have to grip tighter which is not good and will affect your play. Tests have shown that bad grips can cost you 4 to 6 shots a round. If you play twice a week you should be changing your grips once a year.

Next you should get the loft and lies of your clubs checked. You want to strike the ball with the sole of the club flat on the ground at impact. If this is just 1 degree out it can cause you 2 to 4 yards of accuracy and I have seen many people’s clubs be 3 or 4 degrees out which is the difference between being on the green and in the water. These settings can gradually change through hitting balls and general play so they need to be checked. Hopefully you had your clubs fitted for you so they should also be of the correct length, shaft flex and set make up, if you are not sure then please let me know and I will give you a free no obligation assessment of your clubs. If you are looking to treat yourself and purchase some new clubs then this is the time to do it, it will give you a chance to get used to them before the season starts.

So don’t get bogged down in the winter blues, use this time wisely, follow some of the suggestions above and you will be fully prepared for some great golfing in 2010.

 In 1989 the average handicap was 16.1, in 2006 it was still 16. So why, with all the improvements, has it not come down???

In the last 20 years golf has made huge improvements in the areas of equipment and coaching but why has this not contributed to an improvements in scores.

In 1989 golfers were playing with wooden heads or small metal heads and now there are huge drivers that have had multimillions of pounds of research and development pumped into them. There are numerous shaft and head combinations to choose from so that you can squeeze the best out of them, they are easier to hit with and players can get fitted for them using launch monitors. The main difference between a wooden driver and all the new technology is the forgiveness, and if you get the chance to try out an old wooden driver you will quickly discover this is true. Also in the bag we now have lob wedges instead of a 56 sand wedge which makes lob shots much easier plus hybrid and rescue clubs which can replace long irons. This has meant that 1 and 2 irons have become obsolete and are very difficult to get hold of these days. This not necessarily a bad thing as they weren’t easy to use, especially on a cold winters morning. All together equipment is much easier to use now than it used to be and yet the scores remain the same.

Coaching has come a long way in the last 20 years; we now have readily available video cameras that record every movement and software that highlights the strong and weak areas. This is something that I and most other pros often use as a standard part of coaching. Sports Science has made great strides in understanding how the swing and body work together so that specific areas are understood and can be trained. Although this has been used at the top level of the game it is not necessarily something that the average golfer has bought into yet. A good place to find out more about this is the Titleist Performance Institute at www.mytpi.com. They can provide you with numerous exercises to benefit your golf but I would recommend working with a fitness pro before you start any exercise program so that you can get a screening to identify what areas of fitness you need to work on.

Sports Psychology has also developed rapidly with most of the top professionals now using a Sports Psychologist to aid their game. The most famous of these is Bob Rotella who has worked with numerous top pros including, most recently, Padraig Harrington.

All of this information is out there for people to access and use to lower their scores but for whatever reason it hasn’t been adopted in the way that it was intended which is to lower your scores.

I am constantly amazed by the difference in standard between the short game and the long game for club golfers. In theory it should be easier to hit the ball 20 yards rather than 200 but in reality most golfers aren’t as good at this as they should be. I think this is the main reason why handicaps haven’t come down and to illustrate this you can do a few tests to test the level of your short game to test this.

Test 1- Pitch 10 balls into a circle
Make a 6 foot diameter circle on the ground using a piece of rope or string. Then pitch 10 balls from 10 yards and 20 yards to see how many of them you can pitch into the circle, it’s where they first pitch and not where they land that counts. Be honest and it will give you a good indication of how good your short game is. Obviously, the more you get in, the better your short game.

Test 2 – Par 18
This is a great task to improve your short game. Go to the practice green with one ball, one club and your putter. Play 9 holes moving around the green by chipping and putting. Your goal is to complete each hole in 2 and after 9 holes it will give you an indication of how good your short game is.

If you do the above tests you will get an indication to how good your short game is and then you will be able to retake the tests to see how your game performance improves over time. You should be able to improve your overall performance which will mean more up and downs on the course. The short game is the quickest way for players to get their handicap down and the biggest reasons why the average handicap hasn’t changed over the last 20 years.

Have you looked into getting better at Golf and thought that you needed to research the game to get the correct and best information out there?  If so, you have probably read all the golf magazines, searched Amazon to buy and read numerous books, watched DVD’s and searched the internet.  Does that mean you have probably got all the answers that you need?? Or have you become overloaded and confused??  You have likely discovered that there are numerous and conflicting thoughts on how you should improve your golf; different swing theories and different training aids all promising you a sure fire way to getting better. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of great ideas out there but for each individual the question you have to ask yourself is this – ‘How does this apply to me right now?’ In my experience most players will go off on a tangent trying a new theory or have a new idea every week thinking they have made a big discovery to take their game to the next level.
 
If this is you and to quote both Padraig Harrington and Annika Sorenstam, the only secret is that there are no secrets or short cuts. If you stick to good fundamentals and develop a simple common sense plan by working with a PGA Golf Pro you will improve your game and save yourself a lot of time. Your plan should include regular lessons on all parts of your game, how much time you can commit to practicing and practicing efficiently, getting decent equipment and setting attainable goals. The first thing you should aim for is a good technique where you can strike the ball consistently, putt ok and chip well. Then you will have a good basis upon which to develop playing skills, some golf specific fitness and a good understanding of your strengths and weaknesses which will vary from player to player.  The next step in the process is to set about working on & improving your weaknesses one by one…Good Luck!

This where I’ll be writing about up coming events at South Essex Golf Centre, adding news and special offers and what’s on in and around the golf club.

I’ll also be writing golf articles including golf tips, and keep everyone up to date with tournaments and events that I’m involved in.

Come back soon to read more.