Britain´s Big Three of Golf. 1998 was a key year

And, who are Britain´s Big Three of Golf ?

In my opinion none other than Rory McIlroy, Luke Donald and Justin Rose. Number one, two and four in the latest Official World Ranking published today.

The three of them are great golfers and great individuals.

Donald y McIlroy en Dubai 2012

Curiously, the three of them must look at 1998 as a significant year in their golf careers, since they achieved big wins and/or great performances, then, and that without a doubt marked their future in golf.

And I happened to be a witness of one of them, here, in my home country of Chile.

It was year end 1998 and we were hosting the World Amateur Championships. On the men´s side it´s the Eisenhower Trophy.

And, in a great come from behind victory, Great Britain and Ireland were the winners, with a very strong performance from Luke Donald. I was there that final day in Club de Golf Los Leones, and as a Chilean of British descent, I celebrated in true form.

It was a great year for Donald, who was at College in the USA, since he had recently won the NCAA Individual Championship and had been voted as College Player of the year.

Earlier that same year, at the British Open at Royal Birkdale, a 17 year old amateur by the name of Justin Rose, holed out a wedge shot on his final hole to capture fourth place, and to thrill the golfing world.

Justin Rose

Also, in 1998, a boy from Northern Ireland named Rory McIlroy, only nine years of age, travelled to Miami, Florida, to win his age braquet and his first international golf tournament at the Doral Junior Publix Chamionship.

That same year the BBC interviewed the young phenomenon and his swing instructor, Mike Bannon, who now travells the world full time with McIlroy. At that tender age, the young lad had clear in his mind that he would be a golf pro and that he would win Majors.

Fourteen long years have gone by and these three Champions are at the pinacle of World Golf. And it seems to me that they will be up there fore a long time. That´s why I call them the British Big Three of Golf, a bit of a reminder of the other "Big Three" of the sixties: Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player.

Some could say........Not so fast !!!!! The old guys had won a bunch of Majors and two of your boys have won none. But, still, my response would be that it´s a different era, there is much more competition at the Majors now, and, carefull !!!!!.....my boys are still very young.

Anyway we look at it, McIlroy, Donald and Rose have had an impressive couple of years. They have between them won some 20 tournaments worldwide and McIlroy (2012) and Donald (2011) have, in the same year, won both money titles, on the PGA and European Tours, something never achieved before. They are, respectively number one and number two in the world, and McIlroy has won two Majors at the tender age of 22.

Rose is now number four in the world (Tiger Woods is number three) and was the hero of Europe´s amazing Ryder Cup win when he lead the charge and beat Phil Mickelson in spectacular fashion. He followed that up by beating Tiger and company at the Turkish Airlines World Golf Final and then was second to McIlroy at the European season finale in Dubai, closing with a course record 62.

For those of us who closely watch the Mental side of the game it´s a probable fact that these three Champions have a brilliant future, because, each one of them, in their own way, have made a big effort to strengthen their Minds.

McIlroy and his successfull work with putting Guru, Dave Stockton. Donald and his interesting practice drills with Performance Coach, Dave Alred, who comes from the world of place kicking in Rugby. And, Justin Rose, has now worked for years with the excellent Mental Golf Coach, Gio Valiante.

I wouldn´t be surprised if the British Big Three win a bunch of Majors in the next few years.

Improving my golf for 2013

Year end is just around the corner. A good time to asses my 2012 golf, and a good time to make some adjustments for 2013.

There is an objective fact that I´m very proud of. At the age of 62, I happen to be playing the best golf of my life.

My average handicap index for this year is below one, something I never achieved before. And I can assure you that it´s for real, as I submit 100 % of my scores.

I owe this to my Mental Method.

I started using it some five years ago, and in 2012 I feel I was able to reach a pretty high level of effectiveness in the use of the techniques and behaviors that allow me to be better synchronized in body and mind for great shot making.

Chilean National Seniors Champ 2012

During the year, I was able to win a number of important tournaments, and when I didn´t win I was almost always in contention.

I won the Chilean National Seniors Championship against a pretty strong field, and three other Open Tournaments (one of them competing against the over 40 crowd and the other two in the Senior category).

In Lima, Peru, in this years´ South American Seniors Championship, I was third in the overall individuals, and won my age bracket (60 to 64 years of age). And I was able to contribute to Chile´s team win, our third in a row.

I also won a couple of other team tournaments during the year.

But, even so, and considering that 2012 has been an excellent golfing year for me, I know that there is a Mental aspect of my game that needs improvement for next year.

In two or three tournaments I had trouble closing out rounds that started incredibly well, and I "folded" a couple of times when in the lead and with just a few holes to go. Now, I compete a lot, and in golf this will tend to happen, and it´s normal, but I feel it happened to me just a little too often.

It happened to me in a recent Senior´s tournament that I was leading comfortably in par, with eight holes to go, until I "lost it", with a run of over par holes, to end up third. And it happened a couple of times in the Southamerican Team qualifying events and it meant some "unnecessary personal suffering" in order to make the Team.

But, fortunately there are effective psychological techniques that allow for the "re programing" of the mind in order to overcome weaknesses like the one I have described.

And, it so happens that in my role as a Mental Golf Coach, I teach my clients techniques to precisely avoid the pitfalls of dwelling on the past, or catastrophizing over the future, when few holes remain in a pressure packed round of golf.

Many of these techniques require work outside of the golf course.

It´s what I call Mental Gym. Golf will hit us hard, and many times will hit us "when we are down". And just as we need to go to the gym to avoid our body getting flabby and out of shape, it is also key that we permanently exercise the Mind, to keep it strong and confident.

What we are trying to accomplish with this is to always be able to think positively, and with confidence and optimism on the golf course.

In assessing my year 2012, I realized that I had not done enough work in the key area of  "staying in the present" in those key final moments in the round, when I´m in the lead and the rubber hits the road.

The good news is that a Mental Gym program is much simpler to do than a physical fitness program required for an effective work out.

Mental exercises require less time, but it´s essential that they are done properly and in a very disciplined manner for them to be effective.

I have been doing Mental Gym exercises for some four years, now, and they have been extremely positive for me in many, many aspects.

But I realized that I had never focused them with enough decision on "staying in the present" in the key pressure moments of a round of golf.

I have recently modified my mental exercises in order to prioritize this key aspect of my Mental game.

It´s going to be very interesting to see the results of this new approach in the 2013 tournaments.

Golf My Way by Nicklaus. The Mental lessons

I have just finished reading an updated version of Jack Nicklaus´ excellent book, Golf My Way.

I had wanted to read it for some time, now. It´s essentially a book about swing technique, but I have always been aware that Nicklaus was also a master of Mental behavior and Mental techniques.

And I wasn´t wrong.

I found four very relevant themes that I would like to share:


1. The danger of major swing changes

The Foreword was written by none other than Jack Grout, Nicklaus´ long time teacher and swing coach. Grout emphasizes a fundamental point about the golf swing, something that has huge consequences from the angle of Mental Golf.

Grout points out that Jack maintained the same golf swing for the most part of his career, and that as a youngster nobody worked harder than Jack at mastering the proper fundamentals.

Grout explains that this is key as "the golf swing is the least natural movement in all of sports. It is, as a consequence, extremely difficult to teach and even harder to learn".

My comment:

One of the most difficult things in golf is to make a major swing change.

Precisely due to the difficulty mentioned by Jack Grout an enormous effort is needed involving the limited conscious mind and that requires thousands of swing repetitions, in order to achieve the necessary automatization that will allow us to play intuitive golf again. The kind of great golf we can only play with our powerful unconscious mind.

As opposed to Tiger, Nicklaus avoided  modifying a swing he had learned so well as a youngster "like the plague". And, in my view, this had a lot to do with Jack going on to win a colossal 18 Major Championships and a spectacular 19 runner ups in these big tournaments. He only went back to Grout at the beginning of a season for "fine tuning" sessions.

It is very possible that the three swing changes Tiger has endured, during his pro career, could cost him dearly. Falling short of Jack´s 18 Major win record would be a painful defeat for Tiger. Time will tell.

2. Visualization, proper alignement and aiming.

Nicklaus tells us that, in his opinion, hitting the ball to a "selected place and with the desired trajectory" requires:

Mental picture                                                               50%
Proper alignment                                                           40%
Swing                                                                            10%

My comment:

Jack´s comment makes all the sense in the world to me:

Jack talks to us about "going to the movies" because he was a master at properly using the technique of golf shot visualization. He would "imagine" the trajectory and the type of shot he wanted to hit. Together with allowing for enough time for proper alignment and precise aiming at the target, visualization helps the golfer achieve two key objectives:

A. It increases the probability of the ball going where we want it to go since we are aiming properly.

B. The above, together with the proper use of shot visualization, allows us an "easier entrance" to the intuitive mode and the "present moment". This, in turn, ensures a better chance at mind/body synchronization for great ball striking and great golf shots.

3. The three tension "relievers".

Nicklaus talks about the three "tension relievers". According to Jack they are the following: Confidence, concentration and the intense focus on aiming and alignment.

My comment:

I totally agree. Confidence is vital in golf.

One of Bob Rotella´s more recent books is The 15th Club. Well, Rotella´s 15th club is none other than confidence. Today, many Mental Golf Coaches insist that their pupils utilize certain techniques, outside the golf course, designed to strengthen the mind and strengthen confidence.  Like many of us go to the gym in order to strengthen our bodies, the golfer must do "mental gym" to strengthen the mind.

On the other hand, an intense focus on aiming and on concentration are tension relievers because they keep us in the "present moment", well away from ruminating about recent poor shots, and away from catastrophizing about future shots, or potential disasters.

4. Good "Golf Course Management" is key.

In this book, Jack Nicklaus reaffirms his great emphasis on sound "golf course management". Specially on complicated holes with dangerous obstacles or hazards.

My Comment:

I am in total agreement for two reasons:


A. Standard golf courses are simply full of hazards, water, out of bounds and countless other obstacles and
as 100% of our shots count (99% of the time we compete in the stroke, or, medal play format), it is absolutely vital that we plan all shots in a very rigorous and conservative manner.

B. If we make dumb or stupid shot planning errors, we not only pay the price in wasted shots, but we will, more than likely than not, get mad at ourselves, and this will "take us out" of the automatic, unconscious or intuitive mode, and we will start to play with our inefficient conscious mind, outside of the present moment, and not synchronized in body and mind.

On reading Nicklaus´ excellent book from the Mental angle, it became clear to me that Tiger has several weaknesses that Jack never had, and he doesn´t have it easy in his quest to surpass Jack´s Major tournament achievements in order to be considered  the best golfer that ever lived.

Golf course.......Or, obstacle course ???????

I´m pretty sure about where I stand on this.

One of the great challenges of golf is to overcome the enormous quantity of obstacles that we face on every golf course and that affect every single shot we hit.

Let´s think about it a bit. We face trees, bunkers, tall and complicated grass (rough), water, out of bounds, very fast and complicated greens and, normally slopes of all types and kinds......and other obstacles such as wind, heat and humidity.

And what complicates matters even more is that 99% of the time we play "stroke", or "medal", play, where absolutely all the shots that we hit count and add up to our score.

This is so different to tennis, for example. In tennis one can lose a few games and win the set. Or one loses a set and wins the match.

Not so in golf. Every single shot is crucial and, therefore, two things become absolutely essential :

1. One has to have the capacity to hit the ball where we want it to go.

2. One has to have the capacity to "get around", or successfully overcome, the multiple obstacles we constantly face on the golf course with skill and a lot of physical and mental talent.

Jack Nicklaus, the best "golf course manager" that ever played the game put it very well:

Jack suggests that there is an enormous amount of quality teaching regarding the first point. There is, for sure, excellent quality instruction and tens of thousands of capable instructors all over the world.

But quality teaching about how to effectively plan one´s way around the golf course and how to manage the mind, is very scarce, indeed.
It has a lot to do with our frame of mind on the course and how we think.

In this respect I happen to be a great admirer of Jack Nicklaus.

Nicklaus tells us that the reason many consider him the best golfer that ever played the game has a lot to do with his realization, at a very young age, that the key to golf is the conservative and rigorous planning of ALL his shots.

Jack never, ever, hit a shot without knowing the area where he wanted the ball to go to.......and, with the knowledge that even if he didn´t hit a very good shot, he was sure to be in an acceptable position for the following one.

Nicklaus never directly shot at a dangerous or risky corner flag stick. He preferred to aim at the middle of the green where he could guarantee his par and have a chance at a birdie without any risk.

I have said it before and I will say it many times.

A key element of any on course Mental Method to assist us when pressure hits, is the strict, rigorous and conservative planning of all golf shots.

When we plan shots badly or we take on too much risk, the price to pay can me ferocious.

Not only because of the unnecessary additional shots we add to our scorecard, but also because of the negative impact to our mind.

A dumb planning error will "take us out" of the unconscious, intuitive or automatic mode, that is so essential for the mind/ body synchronization that allows us to hit our best golf shots.

Therefore, rigorous and conservative planning of ALL golf shots in a round of golf is essential.

This can be seen clearly if we examine the scorecards of pro golfers.

Almost all of them can produce the same amount of multiple birdies and occasional eagles in any given tournament. But the difference between winners and losers is the capacity of champions to limit bogies and the dreaded "others" (doubles, triples, etc.) to a minimum.

The conclusion is simple but fundamental.

The rigorous and conservative planning of all shots, including putts, is key to success on the golf course, or, better put, on the obstacle course.

Why USA lost the RYDER CUP 2012

At the start of Sunday morning very few people thought that the USA could lose this year´s version of the Ryder Cup.

A 10 to 6 point lead, after the Friday and Saturday foursome and fourballs, seemed impossible for Europe to turn around.

To win, Team USA needed to reach fourteen and a half points (of a total of 28), so they had to win only 4 and a half of the 12 up for grabs in the Sunday individual matches.

So, what happened ???????

Typically, when the best golfers in the world go head to head in match play, about half the matches are won comfortably by either of the contestants, and the other half of the matches tend to be very disputed and go down to the wire.

And this Ryder Cup proved to be no exception.

Europe won four matches with ease:

Donald beat Watson, McIlroy beat Bradley, Laurie beat Snedeker and Westwood beat Kuchar.

And the USA won three matches without a problem.

D. Johnson beat Colsaerts, Z. Johnson beat McDowall and Dufner beat Hanson.

Up to this point a normal Ryder Cup scenario that does not explain the American team´s disaster.

But when we look at the five "disputed" matches, those that were won or lost on the final hole, the USA players won none of them.

In fact, they lost four of them and only tied one. And, worse still, with two holes to go the USA was winning two of them and was tied in the other three.

Let´s see what happened:

Poulter and Simpson were tied after 16: Result: Poulter won the final two holes with a par and a birdie.


Rose and Poulter

Mickelson was one up on Rose after 16. Result: Rose finished with spectacular birdies on 17 and 18 to win by one.

Furyk was leading García by one going into 17. Result: Furyk made bogey-bogey versus Garcia´s par-par to lose by one.

Kaymer and Stricker were even after 16. Result: Kaymer makes a par-par finish versus Stricker´s bogey par and the USA loses another point.

Tiger and Molinare were also even after 16. Tiger wins 17 with par and, when Europe had already reached 14 points and retained the Cup, he loses the 18' th with a bogey to tie his match.

So, of the five "disputed" matches, USA was leading two and in a tie for the rest of them with two holes to go, and only was able to add half a point to their total. The European´s managed a spectacular four and a half points to accomplish a fantastic feat.

If we consider the scores of the ten players involved in these five "disputed" matches that went down to the final two holes, the result for the Americans is catastrophic.

The five European players were, in total, two under par on holes 17 and 18, compared to the American players that could only manage a miserable 5 over.

What on earth happened ?. European strength under pressure?. Mental weakness and poor shot planning by the Americans ?.

A bit of everything.......let´s see.

Poulter won due to his mental strength and his renown fighting spirit. He is a great match play golfer and when he faces big time pressure he rarely folds. Europe had practically lost the Saturday afternoon fourball until Poulter reeled off six straight birdies and turned around the match.

Rose, who works the mental side with the excellent Dr. Gio Valiante, was simply brilliant with his birdie-birdie-finish. Mickelson could only watch and congratulate Rose.

Furyk, unfortunately, choked as he has all year, when close to victory.

Simply put, he seems to know he will make mistakes in the final holes, as he did in this year´s US Open and more recently in one of the playoff Championships. I didn´t like his untimely celebration on the 16´th green, when he thought his birdie putt, to go two up, was going in, but just lipped out. He seemed devastated that it didn´t drop, a very bad and not recommended reaction from the mental point of view.

García did his job with a couple of solid pars on 17 and 18, but, once again, a disastrous bogey-bogey finish for Furyk to give the match away by one..

Stricker and Kaymer were tied going into the final two holes.

In my opinion, a catastrophic planning error by Stricker on the green at 17.

He was slightly over the green about 15 yards from the hole in some short grass. Kaymer already had made his two putts for par. A half a point would probably give the Cup to the USA because Molinare was very nervous and Tiger had the best chance to win that match.

Stricker´s decision to putt or to chip was absolutely key at this stage. The matches were tied at 13. The USA needed 14 and a half points to win (a tie at 14 would mean Europe retained). Only two matches were left.

The safe play was to putt. This would eliminate any risk of a "chunk" or a "bladed" shot.

Stricker made the wrong decision. His chip was slightly bladed and it went by the hole some twelve feet. He missed coming back. He was one down and now probably needed a birdie to tie the match.


Stricker, D. Johnson and Stricker

Tiger, as expected won the 17´th over the nervous and inexperienced Molinari and went one up, going into the final hole.

But, it was over. Striker didn´t make birdie and gave Europe the point they needed to retain.

And when Tiger missed a short putt to give Molinari the tie, it was irrelevant and the Europeans were already celebrating.

So, if somebody asks me why the USA lost this Ryder Cup, I think I have a very clear answer in my mind.

The Mental strength of Rose and Poulter, the Mental weakness of Furyk and the catastrophic planning error by Stricker on the 17´th green.

How Brandt Snedeker won U$ 11.5 million

There is no question about it. Brandt Snedeker, at 31, is a great golfer with a fantastic putting stroke.

There is nobody better than Snedeker, on the PGA Tour, when he gets on the green, in regulation numbers.

But, as Justin Rose, second to Brandt yesterday in the closing Tour Championship,  put it : " He's mentally tough, Brandt".

And that is the truth, plain and unvarnished. His mental toughness, his short game and his putter, made him the brilliant winner of this weekend´s  Tour Championship, reserved for the year´s best 30 golfers, and the winner of the FEDEX Series U$ 10 million bonus award.

And in his triumphant press conference he told the world how he did it:

He spoke about what he, and his team, did, when they met after his disastrous play, at the PGA Champinship, in mid August.

And here comes the surprising part, that reflects on Brandt Snedeker´s great maturity and mental fortitude:

He realized that no changes were needed. Only a great deal of patience and an even stronger belief in what he was doing.

Snedeker tells how he and his team reviewed, at length, his on course performance statistics, and they concluded that they were so good that with confidence and self belief he could beat the best golfers in the world. Specially on difficult courses, like the ones he was to face in the Fedex Cup Playoff season, where his outstanding short game and putter would be a significant advantage.

And his focus in self belief and self confidence started paying off big time.

Let´s not forget that Snedeker led this year´s British Open after two days, and finished in an excellent tie for third. But now he elevated his game to an even higher level. A second place at the Barclay´s and a sixth place at the Deutsche Bank put him into fifth place in the Fedex Cup points going in to the season ending Tour Championship in Atlanta.

This meant that he "controlled his destiny", together with points leader McIlroy, Tiger, Mickelson and Whatney. In other words, by winning the Tour Championship he automatically would win the FEDEX Cup.

In his press conference Brandt Snedeker mentions several Mental Golf techniques that helped him win:

1. His confidence was enormous. He believed in his game one hundred percent. He expected to win.

2. He was patient at all times, including when he hit a couple of punishing shots on the front nine of the final round.

3. He "stayed" in the Present Moment.

He tells that on the 15th, with four holes to go, after he hit a drive straight down the middle, he "went to the future", thinking about the Fedex Cup and what it would mean. He says he almost hit himself in the face, and got back into the Present, reminding himself that there was still a lot of work and golf to be played.

4. He didn´t ever look at leaderboards. This technique contributes to ensure one "stays" in the Present Moment.

Brandt explained it as follows:

"No good comes out of me looking at the leaderboard. I get too amped up. I get too complacent if I'm ahead, or trying to push too much if I'm behind. So I try to play the same way I would if I had a five-shot lead or a five shot deficit".

In my view Brandt Snedeker has reached the top of golf due to his mental fortitude and his exceptional short game and putter.

A personal comment:

Just how important is intense and intelligent practice of the short game and putting ?????

IT´S PROBABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WE CAN DO IN GOLF.........probably 60% of the game.....and we never do enough of it.

And another season comes to an end, and a great one for the top players that play on the PGA Tour.

The recent great form showed by Tiger, Rory, Donald, Phil, Sergio García, Rose and others like Whatney, Dufner, Kuchar, both Johnsons (Zach y Dustin), Bubba, Simpson, Mahan, Van Pelt and Westwood, assures a fascinating and competitive scenario for the months to come.

Kuchar, Rose and McIlroy by Dr. Gio Valiante

I highly recommend that you subscribe to  Dr. Gio Valiante.´s monthly Newsletter.


Gio Valiante con Matt Kuchar

In the September version Dr. Gio has written an interesting article about the mental strengths of two of his clients, Matt Kuchar and Justin Rose, and the world N° 1 Rory McIlroy. All of them will be playing the FEDEX CUP finals at the Tour Championship next week.

One of the key strengths he underlines is Kuchar and Rose´s on course composure, that allows them to rarely lose their cool and quickly "turn the page" when faced with bad shots, bad breaks or mediocre rounds.

He says the same for McIlroy who "bounced back" after his Masters 2011 final round disaster, to win two Majors and several other big tournaments in recent months.

Composure is a key Mental Golf attribute, as anger or frustration on the course will only anchor us to the past. And if we are anchored to the past it only means we are "operating" with our conscious mind, the mind that is bad for playing golf, as it does not allow for the essential mind/body synchronization, key to producing great golf shots.

This is the reason why we will rarely see McIlroy, Rose and Kuchar lose their cool or composure on the golf course.

McIlroy "the next Tiger" is already here

Rory McIlroy won, yesterday, his second playoff  Tournament in a row with a magnificent 20 under par at the BMW Championship, at the famous Crooked Stick links in Indiana.

"Boy Wonder" has won three important tournaments in less than a month (PGA Championship, Deutsche Bank and this BMW) and, in my opinion, only confirms he is "the next Tiger", but that he has also arrived.

What McIlroy said in his press conference yesterday evening is very interesting, and I am convinced he will be unstoppable in the years to come.

He spoke of six key aspects of his game, things that are fundamental to a strong Mental Game.

Let´s see what I mean:

1. He has a magnificent swing that he understands very well:

Everybody knows that his golf swing is near perfect. But he knows how to fix it quickly when it goes wrong.

His words testify to this point:  "I went and did some great work on the range last night after I played, figured a couple things out. My driving yesterday was horrendous, and today I think I only missed one fairway".

A great swing that has changed very little since he was a boy, and that he can self fix very quickly are key to big success.

2. He knows how to win:

One of Mental Golf´s fundamentals is that one has to go through a learning curve to win big Championships. To a certain point this can be overcome by mental rehearsals and visualization, but having gone through the experience of winning, and losing, under severe pressure, is key.

McIlroy lost the 2011 Masters and was smart enough to learn from his disaster. At only 22 years of age, he blew away the field three months later at the US Open and he won easily at this years PGA Championship, and now he has won two big playoff tournaments in a row.
He is now totally comfortable with competing under pressure in the biggest of tournaments, despite his young age.

3. His confidence level is supreme:

In his press conference yesterday he said:

"I sort of picked up where I left off in Boston, shot 64 the first day here, and just playing with a lot of confidence right now. I'm confident in my ability and confident with the shots that I'm hitting and confident on the greens".

It reminded me of Bob Rotella´s book "Your 15´th Club. Rotella´s 15´th club is none other than confidence.....plain and unvarnished as he says. It is the essential piece of any solid Mental Method for golf, and Rory McIlroy has it, and this enables him to frequently enter "the zone" and to play near perfect golf.

4. His on course management is outstanding:

Knowing when to play aggressively or conservatively is key in Mental Golf. And McIlroy pointed out yesterday that he feels he is doing a great job in this area. Jack Nicklaus was a master at golf course management and he is still the best golfer that ever lived.

The reason rigorous and conservative planning is so key to Mental Golf is because, if you do it well, it helps you "stay" in the automatic or unconscious mode, the mode that helps you play great golf.

5. His short game and putting is superb:
When asked for his thoughts on the common denominator of his last three wins he replied:

"I think my ability to save par, the ability to limit the mistakes on my card. You know, I played -- I think I had 47 putts the weekend at Kiawah; Boston last week was something similar; and here this week, again, I said my -- a few really crucial up-and-downs yesterday afternoon kept me in this tournament and gave me the opportunity and the chance to go out there today and shoot a good number to win".

There is nothing more important in golf than the short game and putting. And McIlroy and his team have acted accordingly. After last year´s Masters disaster they concluded that McIlroy´s weakness was his putting, and they did not hesitate to get help from the world´s leading putting Guru, Dave Stockton.

And McIlroy´s putting, thereafter, has been simply fabulous, and Stockton´s remarks about his pupil  very interesting: "I have never come across another 23 year old capable of absorbing my concepts so quickly and thoroughly".

6. This year has taught him something vital: patience:

McIlroy mentioned yesterday that he learned a lesson of patience midyear when things didn´t go his way.

This is another key concept in Mental Golf.

Golf is an extremely complex game and it´s very easy to get frustrated. But it can turn extremely quickly.

It is vital to understand that usually "slumps" are normal and that most times the solution is not with technical, club or swing changes. Simply one has to stay patient on and off the course, and things will turn.

I stand firm with what I´ve said in my recent articles (English and Spanish language Blogs). Rory McIlroy is "the next Tiger", but, now, he is already here.

Rehearsal Controls Pressure

I have just finished reading WITH WINNING IN MIND, an excellent book by World and Olympic Shooting Champion, Larry Bassham.

Bassham is the founder and President of MENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS, an international consulting firm in Mental Management.

In his book he defines pressure and explains why mental rehearsals are the best way to conquer pressure in highly competitive situations.

But first let´s see how Bassham defines pressure.

Pressure can be divided in two parts: ANXIETY and AROUSAL.

Anxiety is fear, and, fear, Bassham says, can be controlled. Fear in itself is not necessarily bad. In golf, it allows us to plan our shots conservatively. One way of controlling excessive anxiety or fear, is simple experience. Once we have been in a similar pressure situation several times, the negative characteristics of fear are reduced.

The second part of pressure is arousal. Arousal is our level of excitement. The lowest level of arousal is deep relaxation. There is a point between arousal (excitement) and relaxation where our mental performance is maximized.

Mentally rehearsing a performance is key to achieving the appropriate balance between excitement and relaxation. Rehearsing your desired performance moments before we begin a golf game will help center our concentration and move us toward our optimum mental level.

Rehearsing that we are playing great golf will tend to relax us when we are facing a pressure competitive situation and help us get to this optimum mental level.

When anxiety and fear are bound to hit in a pressure packed competitive situation, rehearsal can also help by giving us mental experience, leading us to the optimal level when the time comes for real performance.

Larry Bassham tells us that he competed in the Olympic Games twice physically, but thousands of times mentally. When his day came to compete he was appropriately relaxed and won a gold and a silver medal.

In my opinion, the concept of rehearsal, as defined by Lanny Bassham, can also be used very effectively in golf.

García returns to the top with a great win at the Wyndham

What a great win by Sergio Garcia at the rain delayed  Wyndham Championship, that finalized this Monday morning. In the end he won comfortably by two, after a string of birdies on the second nine opened up a four shot lead.

And Sergio´s win makes it even more interesting at the top of world golf, considering the Fedex Cup playoffs, and Sergio´s almost sure participation in the upcoming Ryder Cup, all to be played in the next five weeks.

Is it the time for Sergio Garcia´s long awaited comeback, so many times delayed due to poor putting and a suspect mental attitude when faced with pressure?

All of us who admire his fantastic golfing ability and superb shot making certainly hope so.

The truth is that there have been many encouraging signs in the last few months. After a severe slump last year and a very real possibility of not making the 2011 British Open field, Sergio made the playoff in the BMW German Championship, and his second place earned him one of the last spots in the field. Afterwards came two excellent year end wins on the European Tour.

And during the first part of this year, his name has been on top of the leader boards frequently.

Interestingly enough, García has been talking very positively about his golf all year, with the unfortunate exception, of course, of the Masters, where he stated that he thought that he didn´t have the necessary ability to win a Major.

As far as we know, Sergio doesn´t really believe in working with a Mental Coach, but recently he speaks as if he indeed was working with one.

A couple of examples:

For the last few months, García stopped hitting full practice shots on the range before competitive rounds ( he would always practice the short game and putting, though). He explains his thinking in an video interview to a Spanish journalist ( entrevista) and feels that it has the benefit of starting play "fresh", without the mental burden of potentialy poor full swing practice shots on his mind.

The second example comes from his victory press conference this morning, when he was asked if his local "non professional" caddie had helped him in his great play. (García recently broke off with his long term caddie and plans not to make a final decision until the end of the year).

His reply, explaining that he took no advice from his caddie this week, is very interesting from the mental angle:

"Caddies are great, but sometimes I feel like I depend too much on them," Garcia said. "Instead of making a decision myself, I would wait for the caddie to make a decision for me and then maybe I don't feel comfortable with that and still try to do it. I wanted to start making decisions for myself, right and wrong," Garcia said. "Not all my decisions were good this week. Obviously misread some putts. I hit a couple wrong clubs here and there. But at least I was pretty much a hundred percent committed to most of my decisions and that was nice to see."

Not allowing doubts about our swing when starting play, and never, never hitting a shot without a full commitment, are key elements of any sound on course Mental Method.

Good on "el Niño", Sergio García.

At 32 years of age he isn´t a kid anymore, but has plenty of time to fulfill his great potential, and to win several Majors.

UNCONSCIOUS PUTTING, the excellent book by Dave Stockton

I have just finished reading this very interesting book by  Dave Stockton, currently considered the number one teacher of putting and the short game in the world.

Unconscious Putting is quite a new book as it was recently published, for the first time, in September of 2011.

Stockton´s list of clients is, indeed, very impressive, and includes notables such as: Phil Mickelson, whom wrote the foreword, Rory McIlroy, Annika Sorenstam, Yani Tseng, Justin Rose, Matt Kuchar, JB Holmes, Martin Laird, Hunter Mahan, Adam Scott, Michelle Wie, Morgan Pressel, among many others.

Dave Stockton, together with his two sons, Dave Jr. and Ron, have continued a longstanding family tradition of teaching golf´s short game, that was started by Dave´s father, Gail.

In must be mentioned that Dave Stockton, now aged 70, was a magnificent player on the PGA Tour and on the Champions Tour.

He won two Majors on the regular tour (the 1970 and 1976 PGA Championships) as well as nine other regular PGA Tour tournaments. On the CHAMPIONS tour he won a total of 14 tournaments, including three Majors (a US Senior Open and two Senior Player Championships).

To me, a firm believer in the value of controlling the mind on the golf course, the Stockton Method just made all the sense in the world . My putting has improved impressively using his techniques, and is for sure the reason that, for the first time in my life, y am playing off a + 1 handicap (-0.6 slope index).

Unconscious putting, or putting from the unconscious mind, teaches us that the putting stroke is a small and simple stroke, that depends almost entirely on the sensation of "feel". Stockton tells us that when the golfer is concentrating on technique or mechanical thoughts, the necessary sensation of "feel", that is so fundamental for a solid stroke, is alienated.

Instead of being trapped in the mechanics and positions for hitting putts, or thinking about the stroke, the golfer should only be concerned about focusing on the line and rolling the ball to the hole.

Dave Stockton

Stockton says: " The key is to transform each putt in an unconscious act, just as we do when we sign our name to a document".

The book isn´t very long, some ninety pages, but a fascinating read for golfers of all handicaps, specially those who frequently putt in pressure situations.

Not surprising at all are Rory McIlroy´s comments, after his great win in the 2012 PGA Championship, crediting Dave Stockton for his magnificent putting performance. 

McIlroy wins the PGA Championship with a little help from Dave Stockton

What a great performance by Rory McIlroy to win the 2012 PGA Championship, at the difficult Kiawah Island links golf course in South Carolina.

And the highlight of McIlroy´s game was an absolutely superb putter, all week long. In the end he was no match for the world´s best golfers and won by an amazing eight strokes.

For me, a big believer in Mental Golf, and the importance of  controlling the mind in competitive situations, I was fascinated by Rory McIlroy´s post round press conference last Thursday.

One of the journalists present asked Rory the following question:

Q.  Talking to Dave Stockton the other day, he reckoned you're the oldest 23 year old he's ever known; the sparkle you've got in your game since seeing Dave last week and this week, how beneficial has he been?

RORY McILROY:  It's been great.  I worked with Dave a little bit in Akron last week.  I know we made a slight adjustment to my routine and my stroke, and it made a huge difference last week.  I felt so much better on the greens than I did at The Open.

He sort of just said to me, "You know, just go out there and have fun and enjoy it and smile."  That's something that I've really tried to do the last two weeks, and it's definitely helped.

This last bit of advice from Dave Stockton is pretty common coming from golf Mental Coaches.

The objective is to get the slightly frustrated golfer, who is having a bit of trouble getting to the top of his game, to relax and become a little more positive, to be able to play  more with his unconscious mind, the mind that has the power to help us hit great golf shots.

Dave Stockton is, today, the number one teacher of the putter and the short game in the world. His recent book (published last September) is called Unconscious Putting, is excellent,  and is a must read for any golfer in search of improving his game on the green.

I read this great book last January and  since then I have personally applied some of Stockton´s techniques with a great deal of success. In fact my handicap index is at an all time low right now, +0.6, and my putting has been key in acheiving it. 

Stockton suggests we putt with the unconscious mind, using the visualization technique to "see" the line of the ball rolling to the hole and dropping in.

With this superb win, Rory McIlroy moves back to number one in the world confirming, in my opinion, a spanish language article I wrote last June, after his US Open win : "El Porqué Rory es el próximo Tiger" ("Why Rory is the next Tiger").

It´s just that if we consider that Rory McIlroy has a near perfect golf swing, that he possesses an incredibly strong  mind for a 23 year old, and that when he faced a problem in his putting stroke, he did not hesitate to seek help from the best (Dave Stockton), there is no question in my mind that he is a golfer that can make a run at Jack Nicklaus´ 18 Major titles.

Keegan Bradley wins the Bridgestone Invitational (and the long Rotella/ Bradley relationship)

Keegan Bradley won the Bridgestone Invitational of the World Golf Series, played at the Firestone Country Club, in spectacular fashion on the seventy second hole.


Keegan Bradley

Bradley shot a brilliant 64 in his final round, and  a superb 31 in his final nine holes.

His putter worked like a dream (26 putts, today) and was the key reason for his win.

This reminded me of a couple of stories about the Bradley family that can be read in Bob Rotella´s most recent and excellent book, The Unstoppable Golfer. In this book, Rotella, the famed Mental Golf coach, underlines the key value of the short game and putting.

It so happens that one of Rotella´s first clients, some thirty years ago, was the great Pat Bradley, Keegan´s aunt, a winner of 31 regular LPGA events and 6 Majors.

Rotella tells the story of a very intense Pat Bradley that took too much time when reading putts. Rotella suggested she cut down her putting routine and simplify the process by just trusting her first impression, her "unconscious" read. Together with this he suggested that Pat use the visualization technique and to "see" the ball rolling toward and into the hole before initiating the stroke.

In the years that followed, Pat Bradley won it all with her new putting routine, and became an LPGA legend.

Her new expertise on the putting surface was key as she was never a long hitter of the golf ball, but she was smart enough to understand that golf tournaments were won on the green.

A few years ago, Pat Bradley suggested to nephew Keegan that he work with Rotella.

Soon after, Rotella told Keegan the story about how Pat had vastly improved her putting through the visualization technique, and "seeing" the ball´s trajectory and "seeing" it drop into the hole.

And the young Bradley thought it made all the sense in the world.

Since then, Keegan Bradley uses the same visualization Method on the green, a technique that is based on the power of the unconscious mind, with such success that in just a few months he transitioned from the Nationwide Tour (now the WEB.COM Tour), to his win at the 2011 PGA Championship and this huge win at the Bridgestone Invitational yesterday.
In his victorious press conference yesterday, Keegan Bradley stressed, over and over again, how much fun he is having, and how much he enjoys being in position to win a golf tournament.

Well, it so happens that this positive attitude is no coincidence. In his The Unstoppable Golfer, Rotella tells the story of when he asked Keegan to have dinner with him and an up and coming young college golfer. Rotella then asked Bradley to tell the young player what he had learnt from working with him.

Keegan Bradley said:  "I´ll tell you what I have learnt from Doc: to have more fun at golf, to let go of doubt, to let go of fear, and be into your target".

As a Mental Golf coach all I can say is that Keegan Bradley´s success is no surprise to me. There is no question that Rotella´s wise lessons have been learnt well by this great young American golfer.

To be happy and have fun on the golf course, to let go of doubt and fear, to be "into the target" and to visualize putts going into the hole are techniques that help the golfer to better cope with competitive pressure with the help of the powerful unconscious mind.

A very popular Fred Couples wins the Senior British Open

Thanks to a great performance in the final holes, including a birdie-birdie finish, Freddie Couples won the British Senior Open at Turnberry, Scotland, by two strokes.

Everybody admires this great golfer for his great swing, so relaxed and loose, for being such a nice guy, and yes, also for his Hollywood  type good looks !!!!!!

When living in Florida in the eighties I was lucky enough to see Couples play, several times and up close. What a super swing. Elegant, relaxed and loose, that gave him great distance and the nickname "Boom-Boom".

But also, a great and intense competitor.

From the Mental Golf angle, I have learnt a couple of very good lessons from Fred Couples.

The first is that it is never necessary to force in order to hit a longer ball. On the contrary. Couples shows us that  a relaxed, easy and loose swing allows us to hit it longer.........and, obviously,with much better control and less risk.

The second lesson is one I picked up from a Golf Digest interview. Couples was asked what he was thinking about when hitting an important shot. Freddie´s answer.......just perfect from the Mental Golf point of view:

" I don´t think of anything. I just remember a great shot I hit in similar circumstances and shoot".

What Couples does is utilize a very recommended mental technique.

Visualization.

There are two ways to make use of this technique just before hitting the ball. Visualize a perfect shot in detail, or, like Freddie, recall a similar great shot we have hit in similar circumstances.

With this great win Fred Couples now has three Majors to his credit: One Masters, one Senior Player´s Championship (earlier this year) and this British Senior Open, that gives him a spot in the British Open field in Muirfield 2013.

Can we dream of Freddie winning  another Major ????. Something that Tom Watson missed out on by, just, millimeters in 2010 ?.

To win a British Open as a Senior would indeed be a crowning moment to Fred Couples´outstanding golfing career.

The eye doctor who helped Ernie Els win the British Open

One of the highlights of Ernie Els´ victory speech last Sunday at Royal Lythams, was his special thank you to fellow Southafrican doctor Sherylle Calder, who has been key in his short game and putting turnaround this year.

According to Sherylle Calder´s web page, she teaches a "visualization" program called  Eye Gym, and she is very well known in South Africa and in Great Britain for helping a host of elite sportsmen and women, and teams, from Rugby, Hockey and Soccer, to cannoeing, shooting and, of course, golf, among others.

What doctor Calder does, some call it visualization, in principle, does not have too much to do with the mind. Basically she teaches a program that trains the player to effectively use his/her vision and to appropriately use the eyes.

EyeGym is basically a computer based software program that teaches visual training. The technology involved is last generation high tech, and the training drills are the result of years of experience in coaching visual performance skills on a worldwide basis. It is a one in a kind training program, second to none, according to doctor Calder and her many loyal and satisfied clients.


Sherylle Calder

 Some of the benefits are the effective use of both eyes with maximum coordination, better timing when striking a ball, better spacial awareness, a more efficient and longer decision making process and a higher capacity for focus during extensive periods.

Very interesting to me as a Mental Coach is Calder´s claim that through better eye and vision training, more accurate messages are sent to the brain.

Some feel that Els´ British Open win is almost miraculous. After all he tried everything for ten years without results.And he now is back at the top, thanks to this great win and his close relationship to the extraordinary doctor Sherylle Calder.

Adam Scott: Open collapse is the result of a weak (or non existant) Mental Method

How can it be possible that a great golfer like Adam Scott, who was playing superbly at the British Open, bogeys the last four holes and gives away the Championship by one ??????

But, is it really such a surprise ?.

Not really, we have seen it happen dozens of times at the top level in world golf.

Van de Velde at the Open in 1999, Norman at the 1996 Masters, Dustin Johnson at Pebble Beach at the 2010 US Open, Kyle Stanley earlier this year, and so many others.

Let me try and go through Scott´s collapse from the mental angle. What occurred on those last four holes was a mind/ body desinchronization that is quite easily explained from the psychological point of view.

Until well into the second nine nobody made a run at Scott, and he continued  his great play. He was relaxed, under control and hitting great irons and woods. He was playing in "automatic mode" like he had done all week. He wasn´t holing much, but was rolling his long putts very well.

But on the 15´th tee he realized that Ernie Els was making a run at him. And instead of just playing the golf course, he started playing to beat Ernie Els.

In order to do this, Scott, for the first time in the week, pulled out his mental calculator. He might of even told Steve Williams: "with two bogeys we cant lose".

Fatal mistake for the following reasons:

1. The only way we can speculate about the result, or an outcome, in golf is by using the conscious mind.

And as a result, in this tremendously high pressure situation, Scott immediately lost his mind/body synchronization.

Let´s not forget that excellent, fluid, and great golf shots that happen in the "automatic" mode are always a result of the body (our swing) being perfectly synchronized with the unconscious mind.

But Adam Scott went conscious in trying to calculate what he had to do to keep in front of Els, and started to hit bad golf shots and bad putts.

2. The second effect is due to the fatal message: "with two bogeys we cant lose".

When this conscious message reaches the unconscious mind it is interpreted in a very different way to the one intended by Scott.

The unconscious mind does not posses the critical ability of our conscious mind to interpret what we really mean to say, and most likely it understood that Scott wanted to shoot bogeys. Period.

It sounds a bit crazy, but in all probability that´s exactly what happened. His powerful unconscious mind, that controls his depth perception, target awareness and his body movement (the golf swing), potentially, now, with even more intensity considering the emotion of the moment, just did it´s utmost to shoot bogeys.

3. Last but not least, Scott´s shot planning on the last four holes was pretty lousy. But, in my view, what killed him was his bogey on the 16´th.

He was in the middle of the fairway and only 100 yards away from the pin. He hit his wedge shot past the hole, and three putted like a beginner.

He needed to be supremely conservative with his approach and careful with his first putt.

In my view, if he had parred or birdied the hole it was over and it was his Championship. He would have regained his confidence and composure, resynchronized and remained at 9 under par, three away from Els at the time, and most probably would have parred both final holes to win by two.

I´m not exactly sure if Adam Scott is into Mental Golf or not. But my bet would be that he´s not, because it´s clear to me that he lacked an effective Mental Method when Els started closing in, and the big time pressure hit.

A solid Mental Method includes some very effective and proven techniques and behaviors that help the golfer face these types of pressure packed situations. There are pupils of good mental coaches that make a point of not looking at leader boards on the course, precisely to avoid thinking about the outcome. Bill Haas won the playoff at the 2010 Tour Championship without knowing that he had the U$ 10 million Fedex Cup bonus on the line. He didn´t want to know.

Pía Nilsson y Lynn Marriott (Vision 54) taught Yani Tseng, who became N° 1 in the world, to sing favorite songs (silently) in order not to think too much and avoid getting ahead of herself.

At any rate, there are many techniques and behaviors that help a golfer under pressure avoid going into the future. Judging by the result it seems that Adam Scott didn´t use any of them when he got "hit" by Ernie Els´ pressure.

Something else about the value of rigorous and conservative shot planning. Especially when we are under big pressure. Even if we are not synchronized as we should be, good planning can help us avoid bogeys and help us regain confidence and body/mind synchronization.

On the other hand, if we plan badly, like Adam Scott did in his last four holes, we tend to become frustrated and angry, and we get "stuck" in the past (conscious mind) and we continue incapable of synchronizing.

I´m sorry for Adam Scott. A great golfer who played superbly for 68 holes.

Unfortunately the lack of a solid Mental Method, or the sound application of one, prevented Adam Scott from winning the most important championship of his career.

A surprising Tiger/Foley practice session this evening at the Open

Tiger Woods shot a solid second 67 today at Royal Lytham & St Annes and puts himself in great position for the weekend.

Personally I have liked what Tiger has done up to now.

His on course management has been impeccable, planning each shot rigorously and conservatively.

It´s exactly what one has to do on a course full of pot bunkers and unplayable rough.

I have also liked his patience, a basic requisite in any Major venue where most pin positions tend to be very difficult. Tiger has also shown us that his short game is back to his best.

His golf swing seems to be well automatized, and all in all his long game looks solid and under control.

That´s why I was so surprised to watch what transpired on TV about an hour after Tiger Woods finished his play.

We were treated to a Tiger Woods/ Sean Foley (his swing coach) practice session on the driving range.

But more than a practice session, it looked  like a full fledged golf lesson. At one point we could see Foley snapping photographs from behind and showing them to Tiger emphasizing something. At another point he got Tiger to put a glove under his right shoulder and to hit balls. In the process Foley looked tremendously active, almost agitated, in making his points.

It doesn´t strike me to be the time or place for this type of detailed instruction when one´s pupil is in the hunt in a Major golf tournament,

I would have expected a very relaxed and easy going practice session. Just a little fine tuning and some practice of a couple of key shots.

 But, full fledged drills and photographs ??????. Very surprising.

I kind of liked what Francisco (Paco) Aleman, the excellent ESPN commentator in Spanish, said when he saw what was happening. He said something like: "No, let´s hope he leaves him alone" (Foley of Tiger).

The reason for avoiding any kind of  instruction that smells of swing change, in the middle of a tournament,  is because any changes necessarily have to be carried out with the conscious mind.

And to take to the course anything new in a Major when the pressure can be enormous is something that can be fatal.

We know that great golf shots are the product of a perfect mind body synchronization in the present moment, when the body, that obviously does not think, is perfectly synchronized with the automatic or unconscious mind, that also operates in the present mode.

If the golfer has to "recall" a technical aspect that was reinforced to him the evening before, he can only do this by utilizing his conscious mind, and that "magical" mind/ body synchronization becomes impossible.

For me it´s going to be a fascinating watching Tiger this weekend.

Hopefully it wont be a repetition of what happened to him on the weekend of the US Open at Olympic last month.

Zach Johnson, an expert in Mental Golf, wins the John Deere Classic

There is no question that Zach Johnson is a great golfer.

He has been on the PGA Tour for eight years, now, and he has won nine tournaments including the 2007 Masters and the John Deere Classic played this week, his second victory of the year, that has him at N° 2 in the Fedex race, only behind Tiger Woods.

Johnson came through the typical USA golf programs, but he was never number one in his teams in high school or college, and his huge success is a result of hard work and perseverance that took him from the mini tours, to the Nationwide Tour, where he was number one in the 2003 season, and to the PGA Tour.

He made it big time because he worked hard, because of his Christian Faith and because he assembled a great team. A great permanent swing coach, a successful personal fitness trainer and an expert mental coach. I enjoyed reading Johnson´s web page with details of his team, his personal story and his charity foundation  (http://www.zachjohnsongolf.com/ContentPages/Home.aspx). Zach Johnson comes across, not only as a great golf professional, but, also, as a great human being.

But what I like best about Johnson is his commitment to his on course Mental Method.

Johnson is a pupil of Doctor Morris (Mo) Pickens a respected sports psychologist from the University of Virginia where he studied under doctor Bob Rotella, then head of the sports psychology program.

In all Zach Johnson´s interviews including his victorious one as winner of yesterday´s John Deere Classic, one can perceive the influence of powerful Mental Golf concepts, including the value of patience, the importance of not getting too caught up in the highs and lows of golf results, techniques for facing high pressure situations and the need to not get "ahead" of oneself.

The key for the Zach Johnson/ Mo Pickens team is to face pressure situations concentrating on the process of hitting great golf shots instead of being concerned about the outcome of the round or the golf tournament.

Johnson y Mo Pickens

Last but not least, I liked what Johnson said, yesterday, regarding his capacity to always remain serene.

Serene and very happy if he plays well under pressure and hits great golf shots to win a tournament. And equally serene if things don´t work out and he loses a tournament when in the hunt, because this serenity allows him to learn from the experience and allows him to be better prepared for the next time around.

No doubt we will have Zach Johnson around for a long time because he is one of the elite world class golfers that knows most about Mental Golf.

The psychology of choking

Many thanks to my dear friend Leslie Brackenridge whom sent me this excellent article published by BBC Sports, a few months ago, about "choking" in sports.

The Psychology of Choking describes with total clarity what happens when a player faces pressure and his brain circuits get "switched" over from the automatic, intuitive, unconscious mind over to the conscious or "beginners" mind.

And a very interesting final conclusion: As the famous NIKE slogan.......you JUST HAVE TO DO IT !!!!!!!!!

Roger Federer´s Mental Secret

We all admire Roger Federer´s magnificent tennis and his effortless flow. And it´s no surprise that he has now won Wimbledon for a seventh time and is back to N° 1 in the world.

However, in the year 2003, at 22 years of age, Roger Federer was very good at tennis but he could not beat the top players of the world.

And what occurred that transformed Federer into the dominant player of the last decade ?

Simple: A mental decision to believe in himself.

According to Federer he learnt to stay calm when he was down in a key match, or when he was under pressure.
He learned to be patient during the key points of a match and to never, never, give in.

In other words, Roger Federer, at that point in his career started to believe in himself, and to visualize himself as a true Champion. Popular belief has it that tournament wins make one believe in oneself. But, in reality, it´s the other way round: one has to see oneself as a Champion, and, only then, we start winning.

In an excellent article on Federer, written a few years ago by Craig Townsend, an expert on hypnosis and on the mind, Townsend states exactly that: first comes the belief that we are Champions and only then, come the wins.

And how do we achieve this belief ?

As with almost everything in life, through hard work. Some of Townsend´s suggestions are the following:

1. Through visualization. What we should do is regularly visualize (imagine) ourselves winning matches and tournaments. These images should be as vivid as possible, very detailed, and in them we should see ourselves playing brilliantly.....in all areas of our respective sport or game.

2. We should never "pull ourselves down". Our self talk must always be  positive and optimistic. We must never allow ourselves to think about negative things that happened to us, nor about fears we might have.

3. We must reinforce our belief in ourselves on a permanent basis, reminding ourselves over and over again about our wins, instead of forgetting them quickly.

4. We must apply the Federer Method and never, ever give up on a game or match. We must fight on till the end because, in all probability, something positive will happen for us.

After all, positive things always happen to Champions.