Playing Golf Confidently
Competitive golf brings out both excitement and stress which elevates the body's ability to perform at a peak level. Players must first learn to acknowledge and then to accept these excited feelings allowing them to keep confident while pressured. Stress can be a very good thing during a competition. It can help you to perform at your peak by motivating you to try harder, however stress out of control can get in the way, preventing automatic smooth flowing golf swings. Additionally stress run a muck breaks concentration and focus making it difficult to perform your best.
Successful competitors must learn to be in the drivers seat when it comes to anxiety. The emotional demands of competition on the course can be managed by learning a number of skills. One of the more useful and easily learned are relaxation techniques. Learning and using relaxation skills will give you the ability to identify and control anxieties' detrimental effects. Learning to utilize relaxation techniques which elicit the "relaxation response" is beneficial for golfers wanting to perform their best and enjoy their game. The learned response to the fight or flight response will be the relaxation response. It occurs when the body no longer perceives danger, and the autonomic nervous systems functioning returns to normal -- unwanted muscular tension decreases and the mind calms toward a desired focus.
PGA Master Professional Dave Cahill recommends golf students who experience the negative effects of competition on the golf course first learn progressive muscle relaxation and then using Applied Relaxation Training, progress to a cue controlled rapid relaxation. You can elicit the relaxation response on the course while playing in as little as 30 seconds allowing you to use this skill at any location and at any time. Dave suggests golfers follow stress reduction methods and strategies outlined in The Relaxation & Stress Reduction Workbook. Step-by-step techniques, based upon the most recent research, are detailed in the easy to read book. Having benefited from Applied Relaxation Training himself Dave frequently advocates the training for students who compete in high pressure situations. Dave notes that students who have learned rapid relaxation methods quickly improve both their skills and their enjoyment of the game.. In addition to the benefits of an improved golf game learning these relaxation techniques have benifted players in other parts of their lives too. These relaxation techniques can be learned in a matter of weeks but will show initial bebefits immediately.
About the Author
You can read all of the game improvement articles by Michael Cahill at http://www.cahillgolf.com . Michael Cahill and PGA maser Professional Dave Cahill teach at their golf school at Cimarron Golf Resort in Palm Springs CA and The Classic at Maddens in Minnesota
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