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Handling Tee Box Pressure In Golf
Edwin Shackleford
If you've played golf for any length of time, you have undoubtedly
encountered a situation or two which made you nervous. This
phenomena is called 'tee box pressure', or TBP for short.
Perhaps it's happened when you were getting ready to hit your
tee shot off #1 with a dozen people watching. Maybe it was
when you were paired with the top golfer in your club championship.
Whatever the situation, one thing is sure: every golfer will
find themselves dealing with TBP sooner or later!
WHY THE NERVES?
What is it about golf that gets us feeling this way in the
first place? After all, when you step onto the golf course,
there usually aren't any lives at stake. In addition, whether
you perform well or not on any given day, there are a billion
people in China who will not care!
This is a complicated question which will have different answers
for different people. Often times, we have too much of our
egos wrapped up in the game. The more we invest in something
(and we all know that golf can be all-consuming), the more
we expect in return. When the 'game is on', we fear failure.
With this fear in our mind, our muscles tighten. This, in
turn, makes it harder to have the free-flowing swing and effective
touch game that is needed to score well.
Here are a few tips which will help you the next time you
are getting ready to play a pressure round.
1. PREPARE MENTALLY
During the days leading up to the big game, prepare yourself
mentally for the atmosphere you will be facing. You know you
are going to be nervous. Being nervous, however, does not
mean you cannot hit good golf shots. Think of all the times
you have hit good shots under pressure before.
Picture yourself dealing with various situations that will
occur during the upcoming round. Think of the feeling as you
prepare to hit your first tee shot. Your heart is beating
out of control. Then, you swing under control, in good tempo,
and strike a solid one right down the middle of the fairway.
Next, imagine hitting one into trouble. You're confronted
with the options and weigh the risks of punching a miracle
shot through the trees. Instead, you calm yourself and 'take
your medicine' by chipping back out to the fairway. This type
of clear thinking will help you to avoid those double and
triple bogeys which ruin rounds.
2. CONSERVATIVE STRATEGY - CONFIDENT SWING
The term 'choke' is applied to people who don't perform well
under pressure. Who can forget poor Greg Norman losing that
6-shot lead to Nick Faldo at the Masters tournament? The main
reason people choke is simply because their thought processes
become illogical. They start thinking negatively as if they
have never hit a solid golf shot. Or, they start to take unnecessary
chances and over-swing in the process.
Before the round, make up your mind that you will not beat
yourself. Let the other players beat you. Hit shots that you
know you can hit. One top amateur player used this strategy
in the Minnesota State Amateur qualifying round at the Lake
City Golf Club. He wasn't playing very well on the front nine
and was tempted several times to 'go for broke'. On the eighth
hole, a par five, his second shot left him about 110 yards
out in some gnarly rough. He had a good angle at the pin,
but if the shot went long, it was obviously going down an
embankment leading to a difficult chip with little green to
work with. However, he felt like he needed a 'make something
happen'. So, he debated whether to try to finesse a full wedge,
or to take a full swing with his gap wedge. He had more confidence
in the gap wedge because he knew this club would never put
him in the big trouble which was over the green. He selected
the gap wedge (conservative strategy) and made a confident
swing which left the ball 30 feet below the hole. He two-putted
and took his par.
This strategy paid off as he made birdie on the next hole.
All of a sudden, his marginal round was heading in the right
direction! This may not have been possible if he had taken
the aggressive route on the previous hole and gone over the
green.
3. LET GO OF THE HANDLE BARS!
A player recently quipped, "You've got to let go of the handle
bars!" How descriptive of the golfer who, when under pressure,
holds onto the club as if it had "handle bars". Unlike riding
a bicycle, holding onto the handle bars is a bad thing in
golf!
In other words, you've got to let the club swing to be effective.
Holding on and trying to steer the ball down the fairway will
produce less distance and less accuracy. A golfer has to feel
like they are 'giving up control' of the swing. In other words,
the golfer must trust that what he has trained will work when
the pressure is on. This is called 'muscle memory'.
Giving up control gets progressively harder as the round progresses.
The tendency is to start counting your score as you try to
figure out how you're faring compared to everyone else. You
must counteract that tendency by consciously trying to swing
looser and freer as the round goes on. Stay focused on what
you're trying to do - forget about everyone else. You can't
control them anyway.
Keep the game simple. Pick your target, go through your pre-shot
routine and let your swing go! Stay within yourself and you
won't be a victim of that TBP!
Edwin Shackleford has been helping individuals improve
their golf game for years. Visit His Site Today www.improve-your-golf-game.com
Article Source:
http://www.articledashboard.com
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