GolfJointVenture.com

Article Resources "Without Practice"

Your Score is Determined by How You Feel!
Your Golf Swing is Good Enough
Intro to the Mental Game of Golf
Golf Practice in the Unconscious Mind - part 1
Golf Practice in the Unconscious Mind - part 2
Hypnosis for Golf
More Golf Hypnosis
The Power of Intention
Without Practice Golf Lessons!
Play Golf With Your Consistent Mind
Accelerated Learning For Golf
Too much golf instruction only confuses you
Golf Hypnosis
15 Hot Golf Tips That Don't Require Practice
NLP for golf...the new technology for performance
Quantum Golf?

Your Score is Determinded by How You Feel!

Today, let's get down and dirty about the word "feel" and how I apply it to golf the "Without Practice" way so you can shave some strokes effortlessly this weekend. You know deep down if not at the top of your head, that when you feel good, you will perform or act your best in anything right? Most of us struggle with our feelings because we just let them occur based on whatever is happening in our lives at the time.

For instance, if you just get news that you got a raise at work, you are going to have a great feeling for some time after correct? This is a great time to get out on the course as your bio-computer (brain) is now in the optimum conditon for performance. Nobody denies this and yet we go out on the course and choose to say and do things that destroy our optimum performance potential.

I am becoming more and more convinced the longer I play this game that how we "feel" during our round determines the variation from our average score more than anything else. What I mean by feel is our STATE. Remember that word STATE from CD3? STATE is physiology plus internal representation. It's short for "state of being." So what if we can do things to affect our state just the same as receiving the news that we got a raise at work? We can!

Recently, I shot my best round of the year at 1 under par. As I teach people to really dig into how they "felt" when they played a great round, I took notes and after the round really went over the things I was thinking, how my body was responding, what did I eat, what were my eyes seeing, etc. You need this information to help build your optimal state. Once built, you can rebuild it in the future since you now have the blueprint or instructions. WE need to pay far more attention to when we play well than when we don't!

Many golfers completely dissect their rounds afterward replaying their bad shots over and over in their minds trying to figure out what went wrong. This only serves to implant suggestions in our unconscious mind that that is how we play. Not good for future rounds. Remember: "as a man thinketh, so shall he become" and other quotes like that? It all stems from the concept of the duality of our mind; the subconscious and the conscious functions. Once we get this, we can do a lot toward the mental side of our game to reach our potential.

I used to take advice from the magazines that say you have to keep track of your Greens in regulation, how many putts you had, how many sand saves etc. and then "identify" my weaknesses. Again, not good since putting the focus on the negatives only gives them power and the repetition of thinking about them starts to solidify in your unconscious. REmember that your unconscious doesn't know the difference between a positive or negative thought, it just accepts that which it is most convinced of by repetitive thought or action. And besides, I don't need a scorecard to remind me of my weaknesses on a given round. I know what they are after every round and I can usually pin it down to something I did or didn't do prior to hitting the ball in my pre-shot routine. (I discuss the crucial elements on CD 1)

What you need to start doing right now, next round, is really zero in on the things that go well. Make little celebrations in your mind (be humble with your partners) when you hit a great shot. Turn on the positive emotions and show a big smile when you sink that long putt! Take mental, if not paper and pen, notes on anything worth remembering when you do anything that puts you into that "feel good" state. CReate an anchor that you do every time you hit a shot exactly the way you planned it just like the ringing buzzer that Pavlov's dogs were trained to salivate to.

When you have bad shots, immediately analyze it afterward, see what you can learn from it and then FORGET IT! It will do you no good whatsoever to hold onto it. You know that your swing is different from day to day as all the pros also complain about. So what benefit can be gained from going over bad shots that could be gone the next day without even trying? Save the analyzing for the range if you do have time to practice. If not, then just keep pounding your subconscious with images of you accomplishing the little things you had trouble with until your next round. That is the "Without Practice" way.

Greens and fairways!

Craig

Your Golf Swing is Good Enough

If you watch the Golf Channel or read any of the magazines and books on golf, it will be very hard for you to miss the basic theme that  "There is a perfect swing and you will do the most for your game by trying to get it". Even when you watch a tournament on TV, you see the commentators participate in this conspiracy by showing us frame-by-frame analysis of the pro and critiquing his/her every move. Now, maybe we can give the TV guys a break because they are just trying for some entertainment value and let's face it, most of us are interested in the details of the swing because we've been brainwashed by years of this theme.

For many years, I too was a "swing zombie" in my quest to improve my golf game. I even participated with a group of golfers that   all had our swings videotaped and then we critiqued each other in a classroom setting. The feedback I received from all of us watching my swing ran from "very smooth" to "way off-kilter". Everybody had a differing opinion of many of the swings that we watched and at least for me, it only confused me more.

In my younger years, I had a typical amateur slice swing that obviously came out of my years of playing baseball and softball. In those days, I would just aim for the left edge of any fairway and I could count on the ball moving left to right, at worst ending up in the right rough but usually hitting the fairway.  I enjoyed playing golf those days but I always felt that something was missing. So when I could finally afford it,I decided to take a set of lessons from a pro. Of course I told him that I wanted to get rid of my slice swing and he asked me back "are you sure?". This answer kind of shocked me but he was a very good instructor and by the end of the lessons, I was able to hit the ball out of bounds both ways, left and right. I figured that it would just be a matter of time until I "dialed" in to hitting it straight. To make the story short, 5 years later and I was still "dialing" and getting wrong numbers (ob, jail, water,no score improvement, etc.).

Looking back, I honestly believe now that if I had stuck with my old left to right swing and just used the rest of what I learned from the pro, that I would have improved significantly. Why? Because I was a typical golfer and not a 12 handicapper trying to become a single-digiter (a good golfer trying to become a great one). Studies have shown that the overwhelming majority of amateur golfers shoot in the 90's or above for men and it's over 100 for women. If you are in that group, then you really should be working on parts of your game that will give you far more efficient score improvement for the time and effort spent. This would primarily be in the area of the short game and the mental game.

This is absolutely true for the average golfer but it may be true for all golfers as well. There is loads of evidence on the pro tours that the ones making the money are those best at chipping and putting. The golf research guru himself, Dave Pelz, actually followed tour players around for years taking detailed statistics and he proved it (see his book, My Short Game Bible). In addition to that, there are too many pros to list that admit that their swing is not "technically correct" or maybe not even very good...BUT THEY WIN TOURNAMENTS!  Look at Jim Furyk, 2003 U.S. Open winner. He actually has a big loop in his backswing. Lee Trevino always told people that they should not copy his swing. Even Jack Nicklaus says in his books that he wasn't a very good ball striker. Bruce Lietzke has won tournaments on the PGA and Senior tours playing his left-to-right shot his whole career - And he says he rarely practices! On top of that, the tours are littered with past champions that totally lost their game AFTER they tried to change it for the better.  And now they are begging their sports psychologist to help them "find" their old swing.

I have talked to PGA golf instructors that say it's their clients that want the swing advice (just like I did) even when they recommend working some other part of their game first. So maybe it's our own fault in creating the current situation where average scores of amateurs have not dropped one stroke in the last 50 years despite the advances in equipment technology. Now don't get me wrong, if you are a total beginner, maybe you should start out with learning the basics of the golf swing with a lesson. But if you're hitting it solid most of the time,  you are good to go for a real scoring quest as more swing advice is not the quickest way for you to drop your score. There is just so much more that you can do, on and off the course, that will pay you back in saved strokes for far less time spent than "fixing" your swing. Most of us have precious little free time that we can work to improve our games so why not work on that which will give us the greatest bang for our (time) buck?
 
And so, let me be the first to make a pledge to the golf spirit inside me (I always thought that golf is like religion):
"I for one, do solemnly swear that I will not pay attention to any swing advice of any sort until I can score in the 70's consistently with the swing I have (and maybe not even then)".

Greens and fairways!

Craig

Intro to the Mental Game of Golf

The quality of your golf game is equal to the quality of your communication?with yourself!

In this article, we are going to begin the process of learning how we can use our mind better for our game. You shouldn't need to be convinced of the paybacks we can get

in this area for cutting your score right?  Developing your mental game is definitely using the Pareto Principle as we can spend so little time and energy here and gain big efficiencies toward reducing our score. And especially getting everything we can out of ourselves and not just for our golf but for the rest of our lives as well, this info is actually applicable to just about anything we want to achieve in our lives.

It's very exciting and again, the beauty of it all is that what I'm going to tell you does not take much time. We've got spare in between moments throughout our regular day and we can take advantage of them because we are just working with our brain. A club in the hand isn't even necessary! And you can work these concepts into your game anywhere, at home, at the office, even while driving!

If you would have asked Sam Snead, or Byron Nelson who their mental coach or golf psychologist is when they were playing, they would have looked at you with a blank stare and said "what are you talking about?" Up until recently, there were none.

The 1st time I?d heard about mental coaches for golf was when I was listening to an interview on sports radio while I was living in Portland, Oregon in 1995. PGA pro Peter Jacobsen, who is from that area, had just won at Pebble Beach and Buick Invitational after a long period where he didn't win anything.  He was asked what happened, what he did to so dramatically improve his game to be at the top of the tour again after a long dry spell. He said he had spent time with a sports psychologist. In those wins and his other top finishes that year, he putted unbelievably well, even by tour standards. One of the things he said that the psychologist had him do was to practice his putting, for an hour a day without a ball. Wow, do you have the discipline to do that? I don't know if I do either.

We all know that we use only a fraction of our brainpower. What if we could use more? We can

Golf Brain

We're going to have a lot of fun with this and it's where I give the greatest credit to my getting into the 70's and my client's scoring improvements. I mean imagine, I go 25 years or so of hacking up courses, spraying shot everywhere, shooting in the 90's. I even took lessons and that still didn't do it and then I read a couple of books that aren't even about golf that jumped me to the next level.

Now, you may hear or read about some golf psychologist or teaching pro saying that they don't believe you can just read a book, not practice "correct" mechanics and then get that much better at sports performance, but I 'm here to tell you I and many others have done it, and I had no help from anyone. So I KNOW you can too because of your human potential. You are human right? That's the only pre-requisite here.

So how did I start all this? In my teens, I took a course in college called "interpersonal communications" and was introduced to a couple of psychology books. This info has been around for a while folks but it's just as valid today as then. Some of it even refers to concepts learned centuries ago from some of the great philosophers. I'm reading them thinking: "where have I been that I 've never seen this before?"  Well, looking back, I'd say I was stuck in the typical golfer rut of getting as much mechanical instruction as I could get and then I had to practice it regularly to get better. Except, that didn't work!

Anyway, our project in that class was to try to change something in our life using what we learned. I was extremely shy about speaking in public like many people and so I attempted to use the concepts but I didn't stick with it! I gave it a quick try and proclaimed it to be a failure like many of us do when discovering a new concept. I then forgot all about it until years later when I had that "meltdown" round of 112 and started to look for something different otherwise I'd still consider myself insane by Albert Einstein's criteria right?  So I picked up those books again and gave it a real try this time and like magic, it did wonders for my game! I was as shocked about it as anyone.

All of psychology agrees that it typically takes 21 days to change a habit and that's for minor changes. It can take longer if you're going to do any major reprogramming. But, the key is consistency. You have to do these exercises every day. Missing days will just prolong the results you're looking for. Now don't worry, these "exercises" I'm talking about are very easy and fun.

I know you've all heard the old saying that we only use 10% of our brainpower. I'm not so sure that number is true but it is a fact that we have untapped potential up there. Some of the top Olympic competitors and professional athletes are finding out how to tap into this. They've done it, they've put the concepts to use?What if we could grab some of that too? What of the possibilities?

That's the main reason why sport records keep getting broken, it's because we keep finding new ways to use our mind to make our body perform better and this is part of it.

Since those first 2 books, I've studied many more and found that there are recurrent themes running throughout all of them and the biggest one is that we want to develop rapport with our unconscious mind. When we do that, we can play golf with our unconscious mind that is far more consistent than the conscious.

How do we do that?

Well, there's more than a few opinions and modalities developed to do just that and I've explored and am continuing to research them. I've already mentioned Hypnosis, NLP, and also Accelerated Learning techniques. I'll write more on each of these in coming articles too but before that, you need to understand first how our mind operates. Stay tuned...

Craig

Golf Practice in Unconcious Mind - Part 1

You might be sitting down at your computer at your home or at your office. You may have caught a few minutes of the Golf Channel or a pro tournament on T.V. Your mind starts gearing up for golf! Yes, you haven't played a round in what, a week has it been already?

Your last round didn't go so well and you almost vowed to give up the game. You could feel those arm muscles twitching as you walked by the last water hazard and that little voice inside your head said "go ahead, do it, throw 'em in there, you know you want to."

But, you resisted, and we're glad you did because you know that those feelings always go away and you'll be driven like some magnetic force to that great green playground we call a golf course.  But wait! You surely don't want to repeat last week's fiasco and so you start calculating what you need to do to avoid that embarrassing score again. Your mind immediately comes up with the solution to get your butt down to the range and start hitting some balls and work those problems out there until your hands bleed. Yeah, that's it! If it worked for Ben Hogan, it'll work for me. At least that's what we're told. But then you start looking through your appointment book or planner to find some time and it's filled. There just isn't a free hour anywhere. What to do now? You surely don't want to go out there and just die again in front of everyone.

The answer is Golf Practice in your head!

When big time pros like Phil Mickelson can come back from an injury and win a tournament when he spent hardly any time practicing before it, you know there's something to it. Even when they ARE able to practice, they supplement it with golf practice in their head as much or more than on the range. Before we go into this, I need to expound on what you learned in lesson #2 about your unconscious mind.

brain scale

First off, you may have noticed that I use the terms "unconscious" and "subconscious" interchangeably. Yes, those terms mean exactly the same thing. I prefer "unconscious" but no matter.

Bandler and Grinder, the originators of NLP, said: "the part of your functioning which is responsible for about 95% of your learning and skill is called your unconscious mind.

Once the unconscious mind can accept an idea it begins to execute it, good and bad alike, it doesn't matter what you put into it, if it accepts it, it will act on it and execute what you tell it to do."

So you have to watch what you think and say especially to yourself. Never use negatives like: "I'm a lousy putter". Your unconscious mind will believe it and act on it.

This is one of the most important ideas on how our unconscious mind works and it's directly related to golf. Here's some more:

1. It's prime directive is to preserve the body ie survive and thrive. 2.Stores all memories and organizes them in a time order. 3. It is symbolic. It uses and reacts to symbols.

4. It always chooses the path of least resistance. This usually means, unfortunately for us, that it will choose to do it what it has always done that has given you comfort and no stress. Again, this is not all bad so long as we understand this, we can give our unconscious mind orders where the easiest choice for it to make will benefit us. 5. It needs repetition until a habit is installed. 6. It enjoys serving but must have crystal clear orders to follow.

8. Is the domain of all of our emotions. Wow, can you see the power here in learning how to work with our unconscious mind for golf in controlling our emotions? 9. It runs the body.

10. It contains the ability to transfer learned skills from one part of our body or mind to another. Here's the big kicker concept for Mental Practice. This idea supports the contention that it is not 100% necessary to practice based on the old model of the brain that we "hard-wire" these abilities in our nervous system. That old model says that we "store" muscle memory and that it is only gained after repetitive learning has caused the proper neural connections to become established between brain cells.

thinking

To understand what I'm talking about here, take your non-dominant elbow, if you're right-handed, use your left and vice versa. And write your first name in the air in front of you with the point of that elbow. You've probably never done this before in your entire life but you were able to do this very easily the first time! So it can be with learning how to play good golf in our mind, as we will see.

Ok, we'll continue with this idea the next time. It was necessary for us to cover this "why" area before getting into some details about the "how."  You see, Belief is the cornerstone of achievement. And that's a whole section in itself that we'll save for another article.

Greens and fairways,

Craig

Golf Practice in Unconcious Mind - Part 2

Play Golf in your head!

Ok. I left you last time convinced that we can do things in our mind only that will translate into correct physical action.  You were able to transfer the ability to write your name in the air with your elbow that you never use that way!

I do feel it necessary to state, however, that what we call "the mind" is not necessarily only located in the brain. Yes, it's probably the biggest part and we're not going to go into the science of this but you intuitively know it to be true. You've all heard such sayings as:  "gut feelings" or "from the heart", or "my body is telling me something" etc.  Just keep this thought in mind as we go.

I want to now give you some more help and detail on how to do "imagination practice" or "mental golf practice" as opposed to real golf practice.

thinking2

A scientist, R.A. Vandell did a study on mental performance practicing. He had his subjects standing in front of a real dartboard and throwing imaginary darts. At the end of the study, these people showed the same gain in proficiency at dart throwing as a control group who spent the same amount of time practicing with real darts!

Another example of this reported on by Research Quarterly, tested sinking free throw shots in basketball. There were 3 groups in the study. One group did no practice whatsoever as a control. The 2nd group practiced 20 min/day for 20 days actually shooting shots from the free throw line. A 3rd group just stood at the line and did imagination practice for 20 min/day for the 20 days.

At the end of the 20 days, the group who did no practicing had no improvement, obviously, The group that actually shot baskets returned improvement of 24% more shots made. And the group that did imagination practice resulted in a 23% improvement not actually having sunk any balls in reality during that 20 days.

Mental practice acts as the target instructions or guidance programming for your cybernetic mechanism.

So let's get right down to the necessaries for golf practice using only our mind:

Get yourself as relaxed as possible without falling asleep. Imagine a place that you know that always makes you peaceful. Slow down your breathing and make it deeper. Squeeze, hold and then release each of your muscle groups. Talk yourself into a calm state.

You want to see yourself through your own eyes, not somebody else's. If you can see the back of your head, you're not doing it right.

Get as specific as possible. If you know that you have a major fault that if you got rid of it, would clear up a big one big problem for instance, then do your mental practice while focusing on doing that one item correctly, over and over.

Only picture yourself playing the golf shot perfectly, every time. Sinking the putt, landing approaches inside 2 feet, striping drives right down the middle

Inject feelings and emotions into everything you see

Conjure up details of the golf course environment. Use your favorite course

Be consistent. Do this regularly.

Hypnosis, Accelerated Learning techniques, Guided visualizations are all forms of this that can enhance the effectiveness. Stay tuned for more golf information coming your way. Until next time,

Greens and fairways,duck bye

Craig

Hypnosis for Golf

I introduced you to the concept of hypnosis for golf in the original Mini-course.

Today, I'd like to give you more detail and instruction on how you can use this for your own golf game. For starters, let me just state that I understand that the word "hypnosis" has all sorts of negative attachments. Most folks get their idea of what it is from stage shows. They see people acting like they normally wouldn't and so it is assumed that the hypnotist has some sort of "control" over them.

This couldn't be further from the truth. There is absolutely nothing to be afraid of with a hypnosis session whether you do it for yourself or with help from a professional.

I recently attended the American Board of Hypnotherapy annual conference. I met and learned from some amazing people who all genuinely have only the best interests for their clients' in mind for everything they do. Integrity and ethics are strongly pushed in all seminars and classes.

Milton Erickson, the father of modern hypnosis says that hypnosis is: "concentrating on your thoughts, values, memories and about life. Hypnosis is enhanced suggestibility and it's most effective through imagery.  The Amazing Kreskin, famous mentalist had a longstanding offer to pay $10,000 to anyone who could prove that there was a trance-like state during hypnosis  and no one ever took him up on it. The point in bringing that up is to assure you that there is absolutely nothing to be fearful of from hypnosis.

Ok, enough with that. Let's get on with how this study can help your game.

What I really learned from some very sharp, experienced hypnotherapists is that it isn't always even necessary to induce a relaxed state in order to effect change. What we want to accomplish for golf, off the course, is to find ways to go inside (I mean to go inside our mind with our thoughts). This causes our critical thinking faculty to release it's grip on filtering out things that we want to become part of our way of thinking to grow or improve as a human being.

I'd like you to do an exercise that I know you will benefit from. Read the following questions and pause and think a little between each of them. Read them slowly, one at a time, take your time and let your mind ruminate on the possiblities for your game. Let yourself  "go inside."

In between each question, stare at the spot below or a spot on the wall or close your eyes if you like. Imagine a person you like or admire is reading these questions to you in a pleasing, slow voice. The human voice is a powerful thing.

How is my golf game, now?

Why do I like golf so much?

Why do I really want to improve?

I know I possess the ability to reach my scoring goal, don't I?

Where will I find what I need inside myself to score well on my next round?

Do I really want to score lower or do I just want to look good out on the course?

Is it possible that I could gain full control over my emotional states?

Milton Erickson, considered the father of hypnosis and credited with getting the American Medical Association to accept it was famous for helping folks without ever using any props or music or relaxation techniques. He would just tell stories and ask questions You can do this for yourself. When you read a golf article or book, let yourself go "inside" and relate what you are learning to yourself. You see, the object of the game here is to let the information sink down into your unconscious and then come back out when you play. Don't try to analyze everything (that's what I used to do). Just let it go in if you know it's good.

Begin to develop your whole brain by taking in golf information this way. Whether it's from reading or listening to my CD's, or just watching a good golfer on T.V. or at the course.

Many of us, especially men, are very left-brain oriented. That is, logical, rational etc. When we bring in our weaker hemishpere of our brain, more information gets integrated and is retrieved easier later. This is some of what hypnosis is all about. I'll give you more next time.

Keep thinking...and using your whole mind...to allow your strengths to emerge...and manifest on the course.....what you know to be true....about you....

Greens and fairways,

Craig

More Golf Hypnosis

To continue with the last article, I was discussing becoming more "whole-minded"...

On being analytical like most men... I hear you loud and clear. I used to be totally that way. The good news is that you can turn this around if you want, it's very easy. For starters, I would definitely find some Baroque music and listen to it. Check out this page on my site to become more convinced:
http://www.break80golf.com/musiceffects.html

Before I learned hypnosis, I listened to a Baroque tape every night while falling asleep and did golf visualizations with it in the background. You can do this for anything - like becoming motivated (conquering procrastination).

You might try to participate in more activities that strenthen your weaker side of your brain. If you're a logical, analytical type,  do something in the arts. Push yourself to do things that you normally wouldn't do like watch emotional movies. Listen, really listen to people who are creative and intuitive and get inside their mind from conversations with them, it will rub off.

If you are already a very creative, emotional person, then you could do things like crossword puzzles, read a book about the fundamentals of the swing or course management. Those type of left-brain ideas will help develop your whole golf mind.

To begin to be a whole-mind person, the first step is to really tell yourself that that is what you want to do. Put your full INTENTION into it. Just the thought itself will begin the process. There are many rewards throughout your life to becoming more mind-balanced, you'll see.

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Lately, I've been answering some questions about the difference between using a golf hypnosis tape or recording vs. going to a hypnotist in person.

There's a few things that play into that and whether or not you achieve the outcome you want. First, in person can be much better because the hypnotist interviews you and finds out exactly what it is you need to achieve your goal. Second, something happens inside your mind when you make the effort to seek out a hypnotist in person. YOU Are the one that actually gives more power to having done it in person.

It's our belief, maybe unconsciously, that going to an office and believing that the hypnotherapist has some magic for you that actually activates your mind for change. As a hypnotherapist, we are trained to maximize this effect with all sorts of impressions, language, appearance, image etc. It's all designed to help you help yourself. You see, really truly, the client does all the change work. A hypnotist only helps guide them. It's like climbing Mount Everest. You have to do the climbing but you may need a Sherpa guide to help you find the best way. You may find your way on your own but a guide will definitely help.

All sorts of things are happening inside of us at our unconscious level that we're not aware of. This is what a hypnotist studies and tries to help activate for positive change for a client.

If you just buy a tape, it was not created with YOU in mind. There may be suggestions that are totally useless, maybe even harmful to your golf game. This is why I haven't created such a generic recording as of yet. I am now testing the idea of creating personalized recordings from what golfers tell me in an email interview. Some of my members are participating in that and so far are returning very good results.

For now, the best product on the market in this area, especially for golf is made by Subconscious Training Corp. This is because it has multiple modules that you can choose from depending on what you know you need for your game. I highly recommend it.

It is my intention to make hypnosis a part of every golfer's learning experience as part of their lessons with a pro. I am putting together a business plan to teach golf pros how to incorporate this into their business for the average golfer. If you are a pro and are interested, let me know.

As always, you can reply to any email I send you. I'd love to hear your comments on this topic.

Greens and fairways,

Craig

The Power of Intention

I just got back to playing once a week after having a 3-month layoff.  I was wondering what it would be like after not having struck a golf ball or not even thinking about my own game much over that time. Yes, I've been working with others on their games and issues but my own got sort of left in the dust as I used my spare time to research further into the workings of the mind and how it can benefit us busy folks.

I went out to my local home course and was surprised to find that my swing was pretty much where I left it! I used my go-to shot off the tee not even thinking about distance and took out more club on approaches than I would have when I was warmed up and playing my best before the layoff. This proved a good formula as I kept the ball in play the whole time. I will admit to a few topped and fat shots but overall, I couldn't complain.

Did I have a great score? No, but what did I do? I took what was working and forgot about the rest. And then worked my mental magic on what was working until my next round. It's a simple formula yes, but it does take one word that is quickly becoming my favorite word: intention.

Intention? What the heck is that?

Some of you may call it effort but I don't. Some may call it work but that doesn't have to be it either. Is it focus, or concentration? Nope.

It's a blend of belief, imagination, direction and utilization between your conscious and unconscious mind functions. What's really intriguing is that it does not require willpower. That's right, according to Maxwell Maltz in Psychocybernetics, willpower actually implies putting up blockages to achievement. A better way to describe how to find your best game, your best shots is to "let them happen"

I know, I know, this sounds kind of spacey right? Especially in light of all the traditional teaching you've been exposed to that says you need a swing instructor and you must practice what you've learned until your body aches and your hands blister.

I just read in the May 06 an article by Tiger Woods called "I did it. So can you" In it, he basically writes about how he made changes to his swing and then worked his tail off to make them work. He says that you need a strong will. In making his first swing change in 1997, he can remember practicing a single move "swinging the club halfway down - keeping my arms in front of my body - for more than an hour without hitting a ball. I felt like my arms were going to fall off"

Give me a break. Tiger is the greatest golfer in the world, no doubt, but he is on another planet if he thinks average golfers are going to do that for every small part of their swing even if they do have access to a top instructor who can break it down like that and monitor their progress and prescribe that kind of detailed help. For a pro, yes, that's great advice, for you and me, it's not realistic at all.

Given the realities of our normal life we need another way. This is what I talk about in my program "Without Practice"

The Online Golf Classics library has all the fundamentals you need, your mind already has INTENTION waiting for you to use it.

Greens and fairways,

Craig

Without Practice Golf Lessons!

Let me introduce myself to you. I'm Craig Sigl.

I pronounce my last name like the word "wiggle" except with an "s." I was born in 1963 and I've been playing golf since I was 11 years old. To make this short, for years I was so frustrated with this game and could not improve to save my life. I had taken lessons and practiced for years at the range for days on end with no results. At one point, I actually gave up trying to get better as I reached my mid-30's and started a family and a very demanding job. Everything changed for the better for my game when I discovered what I'm about to reveal to you in this series of emails.

Am I going to tell you to stop practicing golf? NO If you have the time and energy to do it, by all means, do it! But only if you are going to do it correctly. By that I mean whatever your particular instructor or system prescribes to help with what you are learning. I would just like to offer some hope for the millions of golfers who just don't have the time. Also, for those that CAN PRACTICE, everything I write and teach about applies to you to and will only serve to speed up your improvement, you'll see. Over the next week, I'll going to give you these secrets that very few golfers know about and even less use for their game. I have helped golfers all over the world improve their scores with this information and I hope it does the same for you. After that, you'll get more great golf info once a week or better if you stay subscribed.

So let's get started with Lesson #1: First I want to clear up one misconception:

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS MUSCLE MEMORY!

I bet you're asking yourself, What is this nutball talking about? Of course, there is such a thing as muscle memory! Great golf instructors have been teaching this concept for years. Well, you're not wrong about those pros. For generations, golf instruction has always taught us that to become a better golfer, you must learn a "correct" swing and then practice it over and over until you can repeat it without thinking and minimal effort. That's all true and and it works, however, the memory of that "correct" swing that you spend countless hours perfecting does not reside in the muscles. Instead, it's in the mind.

Muscles cannot "store any memory." In fact, they can only do one thing: CONTRACT. (2 if you count growing as doing something).That's it, and no more. They do this from signals given by the nervous system which includes the brain. Is the brain the mind you say? Scientists are still figuring it out. But, everything our body does, from breathing to healing itself to playing games like golf, it accomplishes from coded instructions in our mind. And those instructions (example: to hit a golf ball solid and straight) are nothing more than a specific pattern of neuron (nerve cell) electrical firings and cellular communications. So if we can find ways to send the same or similar neuron firings, we can get some of the same benefits we get when we spend hours knocking balls on the range or working on our short game at the practice green. Really!

The study of our brain and mind and how we learn is called neuroscience and it has taken huge leaps in the last 50 years in understanding how we as humans operate. Scientists and psychologists have uncovered many techniques to enhance and improve learning, memory, and physical and mental performance on demand.

Jim Flick, one of the greatest golf teachers of our time said: "Golf is 90% mental...and the other 10% is mental too" From Arnold Palmer - "You probably have heard that playing good golf is mostly mental, and it is." And one of the greatest physical athletes of the 20th century, Michael Jordan, he said: "The mind comes into this game so much. It comes into basketball, too, but sometimes your skills can overcome the mind a little bit. But in golf, if your mind's not in it, then you can forget it."

In addition to this under-used resource for our game that you will read more about in coming emails, there are so many little things we can do that when all put together, add up to reducing strokes in our game without practicing. For instance, we all know that flexibility is a requirement for a good golf swing right? Well, how do you improve on that when you don't have the time to join a yoga class or a gym?

The next time you are driving to work, if it's safe to do so, take one of your hands and press the tops of your fingers slowly against the dashboard or a part of the steering wheel and hold it for 10 seconds. You will be working on your golf game by stretching some of the muscles and tendons that are used in your swing! Simple, easy and it takes no time. This is just one tiny example. You can work on your golf game no matter where you are and not just on the golf course! If you get anything from me, this is it! Stick with me and I'll write more on this later. My fingers are cramping from all this typing so I'll get with you tomorrow.

Greens and fairways!

Craig

Play Golf With Your Consistent Mind

In today's lesson #2, I want to tell you that to play good golf it is necessary to play it with your unconscious mind! What! Now what is this guy trying to tell me? That not using my mind is the way to go?

I hear you loud and clear but hang in there with me for a minute o.k? First off, it is absolutely necessary to understand that our mind operates in 2 different main ways. We will call these ways the unconscious and the conscious mind. The unconscious mind is the stored instructions for how to do things without trying to think about them. Like breathing, the correct heartrate, healing, dreaming, growing etc.

Our conscious mind is what we use to make decisions with, think with, take in information with. It's power is basically the difference between us and the animals. Most of us play golf with our conscious mind. We attack golf just like we operate at our job or vocation.

At our job, we are given a task to do. We have resources to put toward that task, and then we use our conscious mind to apply the resources to accomplish this task. In playing golf, we have a task (send the ball to a target). We have resources (clubs, knowledge of how to play, etc). And we use our conscious mind to apply the resources and direct our body to perform a specific set of movements. Unfortunately, this method doesn't work consistently for golf (you ever have a problem with consistency?) because our conscious mind cannot process too many things at once. It then starts injecting tension, tightness and nervousness when it is overloaded (all big swing killers).

Now, our unconscious mind, on the other hand,is VERY GOOD at doing complicated things consistently and with repeatability. Have you ever had the occasion when you got in your car to go to work or some other destination and when you get there, you don't even remember the trip? You didn't have to think about anything in order to get there? That was your unconscious doing the driving. And there is a lot to that! You see, it already had all the instructions it needed to get you there from past trips to that destination. You just told it to "go to work" and it did!

You unconscious also has all the instructions it needs to hit good shots if you've done it just once before! Now for some magic for our golf game... Many people are able to tell themselves that they want to wake up at certain time in the morning...AND THEY WAKE UP right at that time without fail! (This is always a good idea when relying on hotel wake-up service as a backup!) This is the power of your unconscious mind at work! All top golfers do this without exception.

When Sam Snead was asked what he thinks about when he swings he said: "Nothing." (as have many other top pros since then) So, you can do the same thing for your golf. On your next round, start telling yourself (your unconscious mind) to play this next shot the way it knows how. Tell it to hit the iron or wood you have in your hand the same way it was last successful with that club. Bring up the vision of the last time you hit that club perfectly so as to give your unconscious a clear picture of what you want just like when you had a mental picture of your work destination.

If you've hit a good shot with each of your clubs, there is absolutely no reason you cannot do it again, at will! In the next lessons, I'll write about ways for you to enhance this easily learned skill and bring out your consistent, unconscious skills.

Accelerated Learning For Golf

We are going to start getting into how you can actually start working on utilizing your unconscious mind a lot more to hit better shots more consistently. A little background first:

In the 1960's and through the 1970's, the then Soviet Union and East Germany Olympic teams dominated both the Winter and Summer Olympics. Do you know why? No, it wasn't because of steroids. It was because these and other Communist bloc countries were seriously deep into studying mental performance. They were way far ahead of any Western countries in applying these concepts to sports and they kept this knowledge secret for a long time thanks to the closed nature of their societies.

They first were using what they learned to teach people how to learn languages extremely fast. Normally, a student could learn about 50 words a day with standard methods. They were able to increase this to over 500 words a day by using a system that was centered on...are you ready for this...Specific Music and relaxed awareness!

It's absolutely true. They found that if they were able to slow down the body's rhythms (mainly heartbeat which runs faster than the brain's) to match the brain's, and inject certain music, that it opened up whole new parts of the mind to the learning experience and allowed a far greater potential of information to be stored.

They also found that the stored information was much more easily retrieved in the future when needed! Starting to sound like something we can use for our golf? (hint: if you've hit a great shot with one of your clubs just once, you can do it again and again)

This began to evolve into numerous branch-offs but it all comes under the heading of "Accelerated Learning" techniques. One guy, a Dr.Raymond Abrezol from Switzerland, started to get in on this field of study and began to mentally train Swiss athletes for skiing. And the Swiss ski team started to win more medals than a country that size should ever be able to. From his experiences and studies, he created his own science he called "suggestopedia" and he specialized in sports performance.

So one day in my mid-30's, I stumble across a book about all of this that had been in my garage bookshelf for years from a college course I took called "interpersonal communications." Yes, I know, what a mouthful. Anyway, I re-read it and started to apply the principles to my golf game.

I didn't have any time to practice my lousy game anymore since I was working 2 jobs and we just had our second child. I still wanted to golf whenever I could squeeze out a few hours so I had nothing to lose by trying it out in my in-between times at home.

Well, lo and behold, the next new season after beginning this process, I broke 80! I didn't practice, I didn't work on my game at the range. And I stopped reading all those golf magazines.

There are many great works on the subject now, the most popular being: "Accelerated Learning" by Colin Rose. That was written 20 years ago and now there is so much more to Accelerated Learning for performance that it is now it's own science.

Most folks don't even know they have an unconscious mind. Many of those who know never make an effort to directly communicate with it. Of those that do, very few do it more than sporadically. It's so easy and pleasurable and it is the way to dipping into that reservoir of power and energy that all of us possess yet rarely use - that 90% untapped mindpower we hear so much about. It's this simple: When the mind is on board and in harmony, the body responds with every resource it has.

I have been doing this for years now with golf and other goals and it works! In additon to performance, it's a great way to relax, forget all your worries and troubles of the day, and supercharge your mind for whatever you want to enhance, especially your golf game!

Tomorrow, we'll talk about getting the most improvement for the least effort.

Too much golf instruction only confuses you

Right off the bat, I want to give you one of my best secrets to releasing your scoring potential.

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Not all golf instruction is good for your game!

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What? Yep, I'm not kidding. Once I fully realized this, it freed me up to begin to start playing my best. Not Tiger Woods best or Annika's best, but Craig's best. You see, I was a fanatical golf magazine reader and I was always asking for tips from playing partners to help me with parts of my swing when I'd hit a bad shot.

I was so twisted up in knots about golf advice that I never had a chance. In fact, it was when I literally gave up "trying" to improve that I made my biggest gains. I took every tip I saw or heard, work on it at the range for awhile, and then proclaim to myself that I have now found the answer to my golf swing troubles!

That would last for all of about 2 holes before I would give up on that idea as I continued to spray my shots. Were these bad golf tips? No, top pros created them and used them on their students in their lessons with much success. The problem for me was, I wasn't in these lessons! (By the way, if you have no idea how to swing a club, then a set of lessons or ONE and only ONE instruction program should be your first move).

You can't transplant a chicken leg to a one-legged human patient and expect the person to then walk! There are so many different theories on not only how to swing a golf club, but also in how to TEACH how to swing a club. Much of it actually contradicts or is completely opposite from one teacher to another. On top of that, we have all sorts of different body types, muscle strengths, flexibility levels and on and on that make for many different (and now here's the kicker) SUCCESSFUL golf swings!

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I am here to tell you, right now, in print, that for most of us: Your swing is good enough!

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Even one of the greatest golf teachers of our time, David Leadbetter stated that "there is no definitive method" to a golf swing. This leads me to the heart of today's lesson. And that is, The Pareto Principle. If you've never heard of it, it has also been called the 80/20 rule (or 90/10 rule) and it basically means that if you work on the 20% most important items first (for whatever you are trying to achieve), you will be 80% effective! In other words, you want to get the most results from the least efforts. Especially if you're a busy person with little time to work on your game.

You know that the whole golf industry is geared toward selling you new equipment each year and teaching you how to get "the perfect swing" (which doesn't exist anyway). Don't get me wrong, improving your swing is not a bad thing. But it is not necessary for you to get quick, time-efficient score-lowering gains. The proof of this lies in the fact that there are countless top professionals that win at the highest levels with unorthodox swings! Look at Jim Furyk, who won the U.S. Open. And he has a huge LOOP in his swing. Look at Allen Doyle on the Champions Tour, he looks like he's hitting a hockey puck! Lee Trevino always said that students should NOT try to copy his swing and we all know how successful he was. He was beating Jack Nicklaus in his prime! Spend some time watching the Champions Tour and you'll see all sorts of wacky swings.

Forget about the pros for a minute. How many times have you seen a senior at your local course hit the ball straight down the middle nearly every time without hardly making any turn in his swing. While you blast drives 60 yards by him he destroys you on the scorecard. Do I need to remind you that it's only the final score that matters in this game?

Stop working on your swing and start working on SCORING! There is no prize for the prettiest swing. Shoot, even though I am still tempted, I now actually force myself to ignore any swing instruction that I see in a magazine or book and just keep on with the basics of what I learned while striving for a REPEATING SWING, and not a perfect one. You can always work on your swing later after you tackle the 20% most important stuff. In my program, I tell you exactly what the top golf researchers have found to be that 20%, especially for us average golfers.

Tomorrow, I'll write you about another tool (hypnosis) that you probably already use, to help you work on your game when you can't make it to the range.

Greens and fairways!

Craig

Golf Hypnosis

O.k., I thought I was going to be the one to break this next secret to you but the cat has already been let out of the bag with the June 2005 issue of Golf Magazine. I'm sure it's been written about in other articles and golf books before but this was the first time I'd read one about a non-pro golfer using a hypnotist for his golf game.

I know, I know, now you really think I'm a loony bird right?

Well, in case you didn't know, Tiger Woods has been using hypnosis for his game for years as have many other top pros. This is starting to get big let me tell you. Especially for the weekend golfer.

So what the heck is hypnosis I'm sure you're asking? Well, what it isn't is a stage act where a guy in a black coat and spinning watch can "make" people do things they wouldn't ordinarily do while "under his power." This is all fun and games and good entertainment but it is not therapeutic hypnosis.

Dr. James Braid was the first to use the word "hypnosis." He later tried to change the name to Monoideism which means: "to focus on a single thought." That's really what hypnosis is.For practical purposes and for our golf, it can further be described as a state of heightened suggestibility. Remember when I wrote you about your unconscious mind and how you want to play golf using it? Well, that is what hypnosis can help you do.

I am a certified hypnotherapist and will be using some of these concepts for mine and my client's golf games. It's very exciting to think that we can actually get control of our thoughts and emotions on the course and direct them toward playing our best. I'll write more about that in future emails.

Golf Hypnosis

In case you're thinking that this hypnosis thing is a bunch of hippies on drugs or something crazy like that, I should tell you that both the American and British Medical Associations have recognized hypnosis as a valuable tool in medicine and psychology. You may have heard that people get hypnotized to lose weight or quit habits like smoking or chewing their fingernails. But did you know that it is used in surgical procedures and childbirth for pain instead of anesthesia? Yep, it's true, go check it out on the web, the info is all out there.

There is absolutely nothing to be afraid of with hypnosis. In fact, you or your kids experience it regularly while watching movies or t.v.

A couple of other things about hypnosis:

1. You cannot be "hypnotized" unless you want to be.
   2. You are never under anyone else's control
   3. You will always be able to become fully awake at any time, whenever you want.
   4. Most everyone has already been in some form of hypnotic state. A good example is when you stare at something for no apparent reason and your mind just kind of stops thinkingfor a short time.

Bottom line here for hypnosis for golf...

You can learn some very good concepts about how your mind works that can be put to use on the course for emotional management and playing golf with your automatic subconscious mind. Here is my recommendation for products that are specifically designed for golf using hypnotic principles:

Mental Toughness software - http://www.directyourmind.com/scripts/golfmind.php

Putting genius software - http://www.directyourmind.com/scripts/golfmind2.php

In case you missed it, I am going to give you my free ebook: "How you can play better golf using self-hypnosis". Go to: http://www.break80golf.com/self-hypnosis-golf-cd.html for the download page.

O.k., I think I've blown your mind enough for today. The next lesson we'll come back down to earth a bit and I'll give you some solid, quick-hitting tips to cut your score on your next round.

Greens and fairways!

Craig

15 Hot Golf Tips That Don't Require Practice

We're going to lighten things up a bit here and I'll just rattle off a bunch of tips one after another for your use on the course YOUR NEXT ROUND that don't require any practicing! Break 80 Without Practice is all about this and has many more and they are very easy to do.

Or, would you rather continue playing the game you've always been playing with the excuse that you aren't getting better because you have no time or energy to take another set of confusing lessons and hit a thousand balls on the range?

1. Always always warm up by hitting some balls on the range before you start. Don't go through the usually-taught routine of starting with your wedges and working your way up to the driver. That's practicing. Just do some stretches and get a swing weight or use 2 clubs together to get your muscles going. Then, hit shots on the range like you will be playing on the course. Pretend you just got to the course with no time for warmup and have to go straight to the first tee. Get rid of those first few bad holes before you get to the first tee.

Start right off with the club you will use off the first tee, probably driver. Hit your next shot based on how well you hit your first shot and what the hole demands. SIMULATE ACTUAL PLAYING CONDITIONS on the range. This is what you would do if you showed up late right? And it takes a few holes before you get to scoring well right? Doing the old standard warmup routine of hitting 5 shots of each club is nothing like you will be doing on the course. But this will mentally prepare you to play!

2. Understand that you CAN hit the ball well while nervous. Those first tee jitters happen to even the best pros. Use some loosening movements, like shoulder shrugs, and then just tell yourself that you are going to accept your nervousness and still hit the ball well. Tommy Bolt said: "stomach butterflies are ok as long as they are flying in formation".

3. From here on out, you are done berating yourself for bad shots. If you were playing a best ball or scramble with partners, and they hit a bad shot, would you tell them: "that shot was sorry, boy you stink at this game"? NO you wouldn't because you know it would only hurt their confidence and their game and you need them to play well. So why in the world do we do that to ourselves when the same results come from talking bad to ourself?

4. Did you ever notice that you play better when you are on vacation? Or right after hearing some good news? This isn't a coincidence and you can put yourself back in that place at any time and get the same benefit. Just spend some moments during the round remembering some great events in your life. Force yourself to smile more often. You cannot have negative thoughts while honestly smiling.

5. Spend some time learning the rules! I guarantee you that you have left strokes out on the course because you didn't know about a rule that would have helped you. I'll be passing some good ideas for you in future emails about this.

6. Forget your score. Don't even look at the scorecard. Have a partner do all the scoring from now on unless of course you are in a tournament and you need to know for strategic reasons. But even then, you can turn that over to your caddy. All you're going to think about from now on is THIS NEXT SHOT!

7. Control anger and frustration. Turn it into FOCUSED ENERGY! Sam Snead talked of playing "Cool Mad". When something gets to you at work, you usually can't cuss and yell and so you are able to control it at work. Use that same skill you developed there on the course. Playing angry is like adding a stroke to every hole, and I know you've experienced that!

8. Whenever you are waiting to tee up, you should be chipping. It's perfectly within the rules. Chip to specific distances you have paced off. Pay attention to the lie you have and the reaction off the club for that lie. Get your 10 yard chip down COLD because you will use it this round and it WILL save you strokes.

9. Whenever nobody is behind you and you finish up a green, you should be putting a few more times to get the feel, speed and read of the greens of that round. Again, within the rules.

10. Drink more water! Yep, there is no easier way to reduce your score on any given round. Lack of water will simply make you tired and lethargic. You will lose focus. One moment of low concentration can equal one bad swing that can easily turn into a double, triple or worse bogey.

11. When in doubt, use more club. If you feel you are in between clubs, take the higher one and grip down a half inch. Keep the same swing and tempo, don't slow the swing down to adjust.

12. From here on out, once you decide on a club or a specific shot. Don't look back. Commit to it. Confidence is far more important according to all the golf psychologists than making the "correct choice." Brad Faxon said: "It's more important to be decisive than correct. As far as I'm concerned if you're decisive, you are correct. The closer to the hole, the more valuable that philosophy becomes"

13. Change your mindset from "How many pars and birdies can I make today" to: "I will have zero balloon score holes today". I know you've done this. You finish a round, go to the 19th hole, tally up your score and then kid yourself by saying "I played pretty well today except for that triple on #8 and double on #17". I hate to tell you this, but, those holes count too. When playing for zero balloon scores, you will be playing a lot smarter. More on this coming emails.

14. Forget that old school teaching that says you have to "identify your weaknesses." You know darn well what holds you back in your game. Start focusing this round, for every shot on what you do well. ON WHAT WENT RIGHT! Build a storage of good things you are capable of to come back to time and time again. When you do something bad, quickly analyze it for what can be learned AND THEN FORGET IT! FOREVER!

15. For putting, you can solve most of your problems with this one tip: Always hold your finish. Hold your putter in the air, pointing at the target after you stroke the ball. If you do this, it is necessary that you had to have had a smooth, controlled stroke and didn't jab at it. This is big and it works for every putting style. Do it!

Allright, I don't know what time it is where you live now, but I have to get to bed, I'm beat. I'll see you again in email tomorrow.

Greens and fairways!

Craig

NLP for golf...the new technology for performance

Ian Woosnam is one of my favorite golfers. Why? Well, there's 2 reasons. One of them is because he is only 5 foot 4 inches tall and out drives most other pros. (See there's hope for us little guys!). But more importantly, in the beginning of his career, he won many big tournaments, including the Masters in 1991. But an interesting thing happened after that. His game then severely deteriorated for some years until he made a dramatic comeback. What happened to spark his comeback? He started working with a practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP for short)! If you've never heard of that before, you're probably thinking that I've now completely lost my cookies right?

Well, that's why I am telling you about a world-class pro who discovered it and uses these techniques even today to "bring back" the game he had in his early years when he won regularly.

So what the heck is this NLP stuff? NLP stands for Neuro-Linguistic Programming. It means using language to communicate with your mind to achieve an outcome. The best common-sense description I can give is this: a bunch of scientists spent a lot of time studying people who were very successful at different things including money, sport, psychology, and family therapy. They then found that these people had specific ways of thinking and running their brain that most people do not. They then took these "techniques" and taught them to average folks and found that they worked, better than expected and with very little effort on the subject's part.

This is obviously a simplification as many have spent years learning and applying what has been discovered in NLP since it's beginnings only a few decades ago. But, in case you missed it, I'll mention again that NLP has been used very successfully to increase performance in many sports. Is there a sport out there where you must use your brain more than golf? I don't think so and this is why Ian Woosnam and many others are now just "discovering" what NLP has to offer.

Here's the bottom line to how NLP can help you. We've all had good shots with each of our clubs before right? AND, on top of that, we've watched others have good shots with their clubs right? Well, certain things are happening to your body and mind when you are performing well, that's a fact. And if you know what to look for and pay attention, then the next time you want to accomplish the same thing, you must do EVERYTHING like you did that time you were successful. Most importantly is that you must take direction in running your brain instead of just being a like a leaf in the wind and having your emotions take you every which way as you sometimes struggle through a round.

Here's an excellent quick tip that is based on an NLP principle called "Anchoring" or "Associations". Try to remember back to the last time you had a great round or even a good string of holes. What was going on in your head? Did you have a pleasant thought running through your mind like maybe a song you like? Or maybe a dream about winning the lottery? Or maybe you just actually got a raise the day before. You can now "link" that thought or song to playing outstanding golf. Now, I wouldn't immediately go out every round and and try to always think that thought or sing that song to myself because you will not always play well while using that link and then it will slowly lose it's linkage to that great round you had. Instead, wait another time or two for when you play well, even if only a few good shots. And THEN bring that thought back up.

You see, what you will be doing is "CHARGING" that thought or song up with your optimum performance state. And when you really really need to release some of that "charge" and call up some good golf like in a pressure situation, it will be there for you and your body will respond just like Pavlov's dogs did to the dinner bell by salivating.

This is just one small example of how we can use NLP to help our game. Many books on NLP have been written and if you want to read one specifically for golf by Ian Woosnam's coach, it's called "Masterstroke, use the power of your mind to improve your golf with NLP" by Harry Alder.

I am always learning and studying NLP today and have completed certification courses as an NLP practitioner. In addition to NLP, In my training, I discovered what is called "Time Line Therapy' techniques" and found it to be extremely useful for sports performance. Some sports psychology coaches use nothing but Time Line Therapy techniques for their clients. Stay with me and I'll keep giving you some more of this mental magic in future emails. This is the official end of the 7-part series. I'd like to continue giving you more detail on what you've read so far and an avalanche of golf score improvement tips you've never seen anywhere before.

Go to Break 80 Without Practice now for your trial. It's guaranteed for a full year. You have nothing to lose except strokes off your score and digits off your handicap.

Quantum Golf?

Does that headline create some curiosity in you? Are you wondering what the heck this is going to be about. As I came up for the idea to write about this, I wasn't quite sure myself. But then I thought, let's just go first to a book called "Quantum Golf" by Kjell Enhager.

I first read this book a couple years ago, before I was trained in Neuro-linguistic Programming (I'm now a Master Practitioner). And to be honest, I didn't understand it at all. I even discussed it with my local pro and between the two of us, decided that it was a book that was better left to the psychology wizards.

Lately, I've been extremely fascinated with learning about what is called "Quantum Physics" (What does this have to do with golf? Don't worry, I'll get there). It seems that scientists have been studying about things that are smaller than atoms since the turn of the 20th century and that's what they call this science. Remember in high school or maybe before that, we were all taught that the building blocks of all matter are atoms? Well, it turns out it's not true.

The big "Aha" about Quantum Physics is that we create our reality through our observations and thoughts. And it's now been proven by physicists. These scientists were so baffled by this idea that some of them ended up turning to mystic religions and others went bonkers over it.

Fast forward to Quantum Golf. It's a fictional story about a man named Smith. He's from New York and a typical golfer who has taken numerous lessons and done everything under the sun in an attempt to improve his game (sound like anyone you know?). In desperation, he is told of this golf pro, St. Claire, who lives in the middle of nowhere in the farmlands of middle America.

Smith flies out to take lessons from him and at the end of the story, of course, he "gets it" and starts to play beyond what he thought was possible. He is taught about creating a "superfluid" swing. He learns to have "Q vision." St. Claire tells him about the difference between "classical golf" and "Quantum golf." Classical golf is about the conscious swing and has gotten him nowhere so far. He tells him that those who have mastered Quantum golf hit the ball perfectly straight!

St. Claire teaches him such ideas as: "The mind has its attention only on the surface level, and then what you're failing to take into consideration as your priority is the unchanging, reliable inner being of the individual who is swinging the club."

Starting to sound a little far out now? Ok, that's what I thought too the first time I read this book. But now, it all makes perfect sense to me. You see, classical physics teaches us about how everything is mechanical. About how you can trace back every cause to it's effect in a way that can be described or codified by mathematics and known laws of our planet such as gravity. This is so much like folks who think that the gateway to playing great golf is to consciously work on their golf swing until they somehow come to the idea in their own mind that it is now perfect...and THAT never happens!

Quantum golf and Quantum physics itself allows for the dynamic of the human mind to actually change reality. Yes, that's what I wrote...CHANGE REALITY. Now, I'm not going to get into a discussion about what is reality because I sometimes get dizzy thinking about that myself. However, too many great philosophers have said things like: "If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." Henry Ford.

or:

"Nothing is good or bad, except what thinking makes it so." William Shakespeare

In the past, I would have read this kind of great quote and thought to myself something like: "Oh that's nice" and went on my merry way of doing what I've always done and not getting what I wanted to get.

Today, when I hear or read such quotes I not only believe it in the deepest part of my golfing body and mind, but I can teach it with the backing of science behind me.

Once you really believe in the Quantum nature of your own mind, all sorts of good things happen to your golf game. Can you think of a time when you played with pure joy and exhilaration? Have you ever had a time when you stood over a putt...AND YOU KNEW you were going to make it !? Have you ever played with another golfer and just felt his or her attitude rub off on you? And then you played better because of it? I want you to have more of these experiences.

Greens and fairways,

Craig