Andrew Fogg - The Golf Hypnotist

Andrew Fogg

Visualise your Golf Shots and Mental Golf Practice in 3D for Better Golf Hypnosis

Effective visualisation is one of the key golf psychology tools for improving your golf score and your enjoyment of the game. It's also one of the secrets of hypnotic golf. However, for most people, including me until recently, that visualisation tends to be two dimensional, a bit like looking through the viewfinder of a camera or at a picture on a television screen. Yes, I know that I could imagine some depth perspective, but what if I couldn't actually see the bottom of the pin over that high lip of the bunker at the front of the green. That meant that I was looking at the lip of the bunker in my minds eye and then having to mentally add some more for the distance between the lip and flag. That's too complicated for my golf mind!

You may remember my recent article about mental foursomes practice with golf hypnosis the other week. Now shortly after writing that I was watching a rerun on television of a recent US PGA Tour event and enjoying the overhead pictures from the blimp, when I had a sudden flash of inspiration. Why not visualise my shots in 3D and incorporate an overhead shot of how I visualised the shot I was about to play. It sounded difficult until I realised that if I can see it on TV, then surely I can visualise it. After all, I already had the overhead view on the course planner, so why couldn't I incorporate it in my pre-shot routine visualisation and mental golf practice.

So, later that evening I took myself into a light trance using self-hypnosis and played an imaginary round of golf at Beaconsfield, my home course. I visualised playing every hole and every shot in 3D, even the putts. It worked great and I couldn't wait to take the idea to the course. That Friday, I got the chance to use it in my pre-shot visualisation on the real course and it worked amazingly well. Initially I found that I got the best results from visualising the shot normally, as a picture in 2D, and then "seeing" it again as if from a blimp, just as I stepped into the shot. By the time I'd played a few holes, visualising the shot in 3D just became a natural part of my routine.

What surprised me most was that it gives me so much more confidence, especially when hitting over a hazard or trees to my target. Instead of seeing the trees or hazards and estimating how far to hit past them, I'm finding myself seeing the whole shot from above. I'm getting a much clearer idea of the shot I'm playing and that's taking away a lot of the normal doubt I normally have when playing these shots.

Vivid visualisation, using all the senses, is an essential part of the pre-shot routine you should be using when physically playing golf. I'm sure I don't need to remind you about what Jack Nicklaus says about how he never played a shot without having first watched himself execute the swing perfectly and seen the ball flying or rolling to his target before finishing up, "sitting there and shining white on the bright green grass."

So try this out when you're next out playing on the course and on the practice ground, especially when you're practicing your golf in your minds eye. Maybe you'll see a new low score up on the leader board - in 3D.

Andrew Fogg, the Golf Hypnotist, is an enthusiastic golfer, hypnotherapist and NLP Master Practitioner. He is a practicing golf psychologist and author of a soon to be published book "The Secrets of Hypnotic Golf'and a series of golf hypnosis MP3 programmes.

Visit his website www.golf-hypnotist.com for information on how to get the most success, pleasure and enjoyment from the wonderful game of golf. More specifically, it's about how to improve your golf by working on the 90 percent of the game that's played in the 6 inches between your ears.'

Sign up for the free Golf Hypnotist ezine at www.golf-hypnotist.com and get your free 25-minute "Your Own Virtual Caddy" golf hypnosis MP3 programme.

Trust your Unconscious Golf Mind to Align Your Club for a Better Pre-Shot Routine

How much is the accuracy of your golf shot influenced by club alignment at address and how much is down to your instinctive or unconscious golf ability? Now I'm not talking here about the complexity of aligning the various parts of your body when you address the ball. That's a subject for your golf pro, not your golf psychologist. All I'm interested in here is the alignment of your club face at address.

I've been writing a lot recently about the importance, in golf psychology terms, of a quick transition from the conscious processes of planning your golf shot and selecting the right club and the unconscious process of taking your stance and hitting the ball. What concerns me most is that while the best golfers seem to take as little as 11 seconds to complete this transition the average golfer seems to take that long just to align their stance and the clubface.

Now, I don't want you to go straight out and time how long you take, as that would introduce an unnecessary conscious activity into what should be an unconscious process and I don't want you blaming me for making you play worse. You probably already know whether you are quick or slow in this area and if you don't, just ask a golfing friend to tell you.

How accurately can you consciously aim your club face? Well, let's look at a few technical facts. A typical club head is about 3 inches long from heel to toe and the hitting area is less than 2 inches wide. With a mid-iron, those two inches sit on the ground about 4-5 feet from your eyes, depending on your height and style.

And how precise can you be with the alignment of that clubhead from that distance? If you were an eight of an inch out with the face alignment, then your club would be facing about 10 yards wide of your target 160 yards away - the difference between hitting or missing an average green. Now, I know that the path the club head takes at impact has more affect on the direction the ball starts flying than the alignment of the clubface, but that's more than compensated for by the slice or draw swing created and the tendency for us golfers to swing square to our clubface.

So, how do the better golfers maintain their accuracy if it's so difficult to align the clubface accurately? Well, let's look at other sports where the action is so rapid that we don't have time to think consciously about alignment. How often have you seen a top-class cricket fielder throw the ball from maybe 40 yards more than a yard either side of the wicket-keeper? That's despite having to run some way for the ball, pick it up, turn and throw it back as quickly as possible. I suspect that something similar happens in baseball. Now, do they spend any time aligning themselves consciously before they throw the ball? I don't think so, they just turn and throw the ball and trust their amazing bodies and unconscious mind to assess all the variables and let fly.

The same goes for tennis where there's little or no time for alignment. Timothy Gallwey's original Inner Game book made similar arguments for the capabilities of the unconscious mind in the game of tennis. When he talked about Self 1 and Self 2 he was talking about what I describe as the conscious and unconscious minds. Even with the dynamic nature of tennis, he found a need for a distraction to stop the conscious mind interfering with the shot - calling out "Bounce" and "Hit" when the ball bounced or you hit it with the racket.

Now, what are you suggesting I should do to shorten my alignment time, Andrew? Well, all I'm saying is to think about taking less time with your club alignment when you're setting up to play your shots and trust your unconscious to hit the shot where you want it to go. Work on it on the practice ground and in your mental practice until it becomes second nature and you know it works well for you. Then take it to the course and enjoy the results.

Andrew Fogg, the Golf Hypnotist, is an enthusiastic golfer, hypnotherapist and NLP Master Practitioner. He is a practicing golf psychologist and author of a soon to be published book "The Secrets of Hypnotic Golf'and a series of golf hypnosis MP3 programmes.

Visit his website www.golf-hypnotist.com for information on how to get the most success, pleasure and enjoyment from the wonderful game of golf. More specifically, it's about how to improve your golf by working on the 90 percent of the game that's played in the 6 inches between your ears.'

Sign up for the free Golf Hypnotist ezine at www.golf-hypnotist.com and get your free 25-minute "Your Own Virtual Caddy" golf hypnosis MP3 programme.

Speed Up your Pre-Shot Routine Transition for Better Golf Psychology

Golf instructors often talk about the transition in the golf swing as that pause between completing the backswing and starting the downswing. They often suggest that slowing down the transition is one of the most important keys to hitting a good shot.

Well, I'm not qualified to comment on the technicalities of the golf swing. However, I am qualified to comment on what for me is an even more important transition in golf psychology. It's the transition from the conscious analytical planning phase of your pre-shot routine to the unconscious instinctive phase of actually hitting the ball. Unlike the pause at the top of the backswing, the faster you can comfortably make this transition, the better and more consistently you'll find yourself striking the ball or rolling the putt.

If you watch the top players in the world, like Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods, you'll notice that they take very little time between taking their chosen club out of the bag and hitting the ball. A recent study suggested that Tiger and Phil consistently take around 11 to 12 seconds to do this and they are very consistent with the timing. If they took any longer, they often hit a less than good shot - these guys don't hit many downright bad shots.

So what do they do in those 11 to 12 seconds? Well, every player has his own idiosyncrasies, including re-gripping, waggling, breathing, blinking and countless other rituals. However, they all seem to

1. take one or two practice swings to get the feel of the shot they visualise playing
2. step forward to the ball and take their stance
3. align their body and clubface
4. take a final look at their target
5. finally, hit the "start button" and swing the club or putter.

What's interesting is that they don't seem at all rushed in fitting all that into such an apparently short time. They certainly don't have any spare time for self doubt and that little voice in their head telling them they're doing it all wrong! In fact, they complete the process like they're in some sort of trance and that means that they are leaving the whole process to their unconscious golf mind, just like driving a car or riding a bike.

Now some of the players you watch on TV or out on the course take a lot longer to make this transition and the time they take is less consistent. How well did you see them play? If you watched Sergio Garcia playing golf a few years ago, you'd have often seen him take an inordinately long time to hit the ball. He had a pained expression on his face that suggested he was experiencing a lot of negative self-talk and he seemed to be wringing the life out of the club as he repeatedly re-gripped his hands. It's no surprise that his golf was inconsistent at best and he certainly didn't seem to be enjoying his golf.

So how do I speed up my transition from taking my club out to hitting the ball, I hear you say. Well one way is to make the whole process an instinctive or unconscious activity. Streamline your own transition process and use it every time you hit a shot on the golf course, at the driving range, on the practice putting green and in your mental golf practice. You do practice and play golf in your mind, now don't you?

Andrew Fogg, the Golf Hypnotist, is an enthusiastic golfer, hypnotherapist and NLP Master Practitioner. He is a practicing golf psychologist and author of a soon to be published book "The Secrets of Hypnotic Golf'and a series of golf hypnosis MP3 programmes.

Visit his website www.golf-hypnotist.com for information on how to get the most success, pleasure and enjoyment from the wonderful game of golf. More specifically, it's about how to improve your golf by working on the 90 percent of the game that's played in the 6 inches between your ears.'

Sign up for the free Golf Hypnotist ezine at www.golf-hypnotist.com and get your free 25-minute "Your Own Virtual Caddy" golf hypnosis MP3 programme.

• Previous Posts:

• Visualise your Golf Shots and Mental Golf Practice in 3D for Better Golf Hypnosis
• Trust your Unconscious Golf Mind to Align Your Club for a Better Pre-Shot Routine
• Speed Up your Pre-Shot Routine Transition for Better Golf Psychology
• The Golf Psychology of Going on a Pre-Shot Routine Journey with your Right and Left Brain
• Mental Foursomes Practice with Golf Hypnosis for Better Golf in your Mind's Eye
• Hit the Reset Button for a Winning Golf Hypnosis Metaphor
• See Yourself Putting Better and Enjoying Golf More with Golf Psychology
• Play Better Golf Psychology In The Now and One Shot at a Time

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