Mental toughness in Golf 1-10 Series

1 of 10 Course Management Written by Professor Aidan Moran. Aidan is Director of the Psychology Research Laboratory in University College, Dublin. Aidan’s work for the last twenty years has included one to one coaching on mental toughness with top players including Major winners. Narrated by Sara Dylan There are 10 audio recordings in this series including: Concentration, course management, developing mental toughness, enjoying your golf, first tee nerves, handling mistakes and setbacks, increasing your confidence, performing under pressure, pre-shot routines, and putting well. One of the best ways to improve your game—apart from practicing technical drills and swing mechanics—is to work on “course management”—a strategic aspect of the game that involves thinking clearly and playing the right shot at the right time as you navigate your way around the course in all weather conditions. Effective course management involves making the smart shot choice each time you stand over the ball. Contains nine special tips to improve this strategic aspect of your game, and a short visualization exercise.

2 of 10 Pre-shot Routines Have you ever wondered why golfers like to prepare for every shot in the same methodical way? For example, they always line up their target and set-up their shots in a consistent manner and they take the same number of practice swings each time. In golf, this preferred sequence of preparatory thoughts and actions is called a “pre-shot routine”. Its main objective is to help players to clear their minds and warm-up their bodies so that they can focus completely on producing a comfortable and consistent swing. Such consistency is crucial for success in golf. As Gary Player, a 9-times Major winner, remarked: “the most important thing in golf is to have the same swing every time”. Contains instruction on pre-shot routines, pre-match routines, post mistake routines and a short visualisation exercise. Written by Professor Aidan Moran. Aidan is Director of the Psychology Research Laboratory in University College, Dublin. Aidan’s work for the last twenty years has included one to one coaching on mental toughness with top players including Major winners. Narrated by Sara Dylan

Mental toughness in Golf 3 of 10 Concentration Concentration, or the ability to focus on the task at hand while ignoring distractions, is crucial for success in golf. This is true because golf is a “stop-start” game in which at least 90% of your time on the course is spent doing something other than hitting the ball. And because there is a lot of walking and mental “down time” between your shots, a multitude of distractions can arise and divert your focus from the present moment. For example, a sudden noise or movement from a playing partner could upset your swing or you may find yourself thinking too far ahead as you face a putt. And like most players, you probably find it difficult to forget about a missed opportunity that occurred several holes back. Unfortunately, each of these distractions could prove costly to your score. Contains 6 special tips to improve concentration in your game, and a short visualisation exercise involving a short putt. Written by Professor Aidan Moran. Aidan is Director of the Psychology Research Laboratory in University College, Dublin. Aidan’s work for the last twenty years has included one to one coaching on mental toughness with top players including Major winners. Narrated by Sara Dylan

5 of 10 Enjoying your Golf According to Mark Twain, golf is a long walk punctuated by many disappointments! If this description matches your experience at present, then maybe it’s time to re-discover your enjoyment of the game - that sense of excitement and fun that you had when you started to play golf. Unfortunately, the “many disappointments” that we encounter in golf can sometimes cause us to develop a bad attitude to the game - one that involves exessive self-criticism and negative, “all or nothing” thinking. This short audiobook will give you tips on enjoying your Golf and also includes a visualisation exercise to reinforce your development of mental toughness. Written by Professor Aidan Moran. Aidan is Director of the Psychology Research Laboratory in University College, Dublin. Aidan’s work for the last twenty years has included one to one coaching on mental toughness with top players including Major winners. Narrated by Sara Dylan

4 of 10 Developing Mental Toughness Although sport is played with the body, it’s won mainly in the mind. That’s why mental toughness, or the ability to enjoy and thrive under pressure situations, is the key to sporting success. So, as a golfer, how can you develop mental toughness? How can you prepare your mind to enable you to play consistently to the best of your ability? In this section, we introduce you to the mental side of golf – and give you some practical tips on developing mental toughness. Written by Professor Aidan Moran. Aidan is Director of the Psychology Research Laboratory in University College, Dublin. Aidan’s work for the last twenty years has included one to one coaching on mental toughness with top players including Major winners. Narrated by Sar Dylan

8 of 10 Increasing your Confidence Golf is often described as a “confidence” game because in order to play to to the best of your ability, you need to believe that you can execute key skills such as driving, chipping and putting accuratey when it really matters. Unfortunately, if you’re like most golfers, it’s all too easy for your mind to dwell on the flaws in your game and what you did wrong rather than on what you enjoyed or did well on the course. However, by keeping track of small and gradual improvements in your game, your self-belief will grow and build resilience in the face of pressure. That’s why Jack Nicklaus claimed that confidence is the golfer’s “primary weapon” on the course. And he should know. After all, he has won more Majors than any other player in history. In the last of these victories, at the 1986 US Masters in Augusta when Nicklaus was 46 years old, he birdied 6 of the last 9 holes to win the tournament by one stroke. Subsequently, in his autobiography, he said that “a genuine belief in yourself is the top requirement for winning golf tournaments”. Not surprisingly, this observation applies to players of all levels. For example, sinking a difficult putt early in a round can generate a psychological momentum which carries you through later holes – perhaps even until the final green. By contrast, missing a short putt can sow the seeds of self-doubt in your mind – and erode your confidence on the green for many holes afterwards. Clearly, it’s not just your skills that are tested in competitive golf … your belief in those skills is also challenged. Written by Professor Aidan Moran. Aidan is Director of the Psychology Research Laboratory in University College, Dublin. Aidan’s work for the last twenty years has included one to one coaching on mental toughness with top players including Major winners. Narrated by Sara Dylan

7 of 10 Handling Mistakes and Setbacks Every day, golfers experience frustration, anger and embarrassment on the course as a result of the missed opportunities, mistakes and other misfortunes that they encounter on the course. For example, on any given hole, you could miss-hit a tee shot, find a bad lie in the rough, or miss a short putt – getting one bad break after another and saying “poor me, it’s just not my day!” If you’ve had similar experiences, then here’s a simple question. Do you currently have any practical techniques for responding to mistakes and setbacks in golf? If not, how can you expect to play well? Remember - it’s not what happens to you on the course that matters, it’s how you react to it that counts. Research shows that in order to achieve success in golf, you must be able to learn from your mistakes and setbacks and be able to put them behind you quickly and efficiently so that you get on with the job at hand. If you don’t do this, one of these misfortunes could trigger a negative spiral in your mind whereby your mistakes lead to frustration … which, in turn, leads to more mistakes, more frustration and ultimately, a very disappointing round. Written by Professor Aidan Moran. Aidan is Director of the Psychology Research Laboratory in University College, Dublin. Aidan’s work for the last twenty years has included one to one coaching on mental toughness with top players including Major winners. Narrated by Sara Dylan.

6 of 10 First Tee Nerves Standing on the first tee of a competition can make even the most experienced of golfers feel nervous. For example, Justin Rose, a Major winner who has represented Europe in three Ryder Cup teams since 2008, admitted that he gets anxious every time he stands on the first tee of Ryder cup matches. As he said: “you never get accustomed to it. You don’t do it often enough to get comfortable”. This idea applies to all golfers – regardless of their ability level. Clearly, one reason why we feel nervous before our first shot in a competition is because we don’t play often enough in that situation. And because we want to get off the first tee as quickly as possible, we tend to swing too fast, which may produce the bad drive that we had feared. But take heart, almost every player feels anxious before a competition. And there are a number of practical steps outlined in this short audiobook which you can take to overcome this problem. Written by Professor Aidan Moran. Aidan is Director of the Psychology Research Laboratory in University College, Dublin. Aidan’s work for the last twenty years has included one to one coaching on mental toughness with top players including Major winners. Narrated by Sara Dylan. Contains nine special tips to improve this strategic aspect of your game, and a short visualisation exercise.

10 of 10 Putting Well Written by Professor Aidan Moran. Aidan is Director of the Psychology Research Laboratory in University College, Dublin. Aidan’s work for the last twenty years has included one to one coaching on mental toughness with top players including Major winners. Narrated by Sara Dylan. Putting is one of the most important, difficult and frustrating skills in golf. Let’s consider each of these points in turn. Firstly, it’s important because it accounts for at least 40% of all your strokes on the course and also because successful putting can boost your confidence and generate momentum. For example, sinking a 15 foot putt on the first green makes you look forward to tackling the second hole – whereas missing a two foot putt usually has the opposite effect. And remember – a two inch putt counts as much on your card as a 200 yard drive. Secondly, putting is difficult because it requires a combination of technical and mental strengths. That’s why, although putting looks easy – it’s hard to do well. For example, to be a good putter, you need good eye-hand coordination, solid technique and, above all, precise perceptual judgment. Judgment is necessary in order to gauge the line or path of your putt – a task which is made harder by the fact that golf greens contain lots of slopes and undulations, many of which are subtle or disguised. So, to be good on the green, you must be able to assess the “break” or degree of swing in a putt across uneven greens. Thirdly, as well as being important and difficult, putting is frustrating because a mistake here it can undo all your good shots on the way to the green. For example, how often have you had the experience of landing on the green after several good shots only to ruin your score by three-putting … or even worse?

9 of 10 Performing under Pressure What does the word “pressure” mean to you? If you’re like most players, you associate it with feeling nervous or apprehensive about something, having negative thoughts, and experiencing a variety of unpleasant sensations like rapid breathing, a pounding heart, butterflies in your stomach and trembling hands. And that’s just on the first teebox! But joking apart, what do you really know about performing under pressure in golf? Well, many players believe both that pressure is inevitable in golf and that there is very little you can do to overcome it. But both of these beliefs are wrong. Firstly, there is an important difference between pressure situations and pressure reactions. To clarify, although pressure situations – like facing a 6-foot downhill putt to halve a hole in matchplay - are inevitable in golf, your anxious response to them is not inevitable. In this audio presentation, Sara is going to explain the secret of performing well under pressure - how to do our best when it matters most. In the first part, she will explore what anxiety or nervousness is, where it comes from, and how it affects your performance in golf. After that, she will provide some practical tips on how to control it so that you can perform well in pressure situations. Written by Professor Aidan Moran. Aidan is Director of the Psychology Research Laboratory in University College, Dublin. Aidan’s work for the last twenty years has included one to one coaching on mental toughness with top players including Major winners. Narrated by Sara Dylan.

Written by Professor Aidan Moran. Aidan is Director of the Psychology Research Laboratory in University College, Dublin. Aidan’s work for the last twenty years has included one to one coaching on mental toughness with top players including Major winners. Narrated by Sara Dylan There are 10 audio recordings in this set including: Concentration; Course management; Developing mental toughness; Enjoying your golf; First tee nerves; Handling mistakes and setbacks; Increasing your confidence; Performing well under pressure; Pre-shot routines; and Putting well. Padraig Harrington: "This is mental toughness put in simple terms"