Play golf with your automatic mind

By: Craig Sigl

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 ok? 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 heart rate, 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!

Article Source: http://www.bettergolfarticles.com

Craig Sigl - The golf Anti-practice Expert - is a Master Practitioner and Trainer of Hypnosis, NLP, and Timeline techniques. Visit his website: Break80golf.com for a free ebook "How You Can Play Better Golf Using Self-hypnosis" and free ecourse "Without Practice" to discover what he teaches golfers worldwide.

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