Golf Psychology Online

Last year we recommended a great new product called Golf Mission to you all, it seems we were not alone in endorsing this innovative method of improving your game and having fun at the same time. We are pleased to write that Golf Mission has been awarded the Golf Europe Best Training Aid Product of the year, and the product line just got bigger and better.

New for 2011 are 5 new games ideal for every level of golfer:

Designed for juniors, beginners or handicaps of 19 and above, the StarterPack is a less challenging version of the original award-winning game with 2 9 hole and 2 18 hole games cards.

The PowerPack sets you recordable drills on the three practice areas to hone technique while a MatchPlay card takes you out onto the course with a mission to achieve on every hole. Ideal for a solo practice round or a competitive team game. Suitable for all abilities.

The StarterPack and PowerPack work in unison to progress golfers and makes an excellent tool for the Coach or Pro to prepare players technically and mentally. These two resources are now endorsed by the Golf Foundation and used in their national learning program. A donation is made to the Golf Foundation for every game sold.

Once your handicap begins to drop you can step up the challenge on the course with the Original Game and also begin using Point Practice to hone technical skills with meaningful drills that give every ball a value.

Competitive Practice accustoms you to playing under competition pressure and one-on-one real play situations as you compete against opponents both on the practice area and on-course events.

MatchPractice drills creates focus on the practice ground as players compete to win drills and the on-course MatchPlay game really stretches you with challenges on every hole. It also makes a great focus tool for solo practice rounds keeping you mentally ‘in the game’ right up to the 18th.

GolfMission is a highly effective improvement program to use alone or with the help of your pro or coach.

Golf Mission lends itself perfectly to corporate branding and provides a lasting reminder to your clients of your golf day or event.
We are not the only people to think this is a great product, just look at some of the testimonials below:

“I liked the cards from a number of perspectives. Firstly it gave me a number of different goals outside of just my score or how I was doing in the match. It also helped focus my mind more when I came to a hole that was one of my specific goals. A third benefit was that even if I was out of the hole or match or competition I still had something to help give pressure. An example was that one task was to have no more than two putts at any par five. I had a disaster on one of them and reached the green in five. Normally the putts would have been meaningless, but my mission still had to be completed and so the three footer to finish it actually meant something.”
Kyle Phillpots
Director of Training & Education
PGA of Great Britain

“One of the challenges in golf is to find process goals that can help you focus while playing, in practice or competitively, in order to maximize your performance. Golf-Mission sets you simple targets during the round that will both increase your enjoyment and lower your score.”
Peter Mattsson
Director of Coaching
English Golf Union

“For so long in the game of golf we have missed the point that it is how we practice that keeps so many golfers stuck in the mire of mediocrity. Finally we are beginning to wake up and understand that we need to practice differently to get different results. Golf Mission provides you with a unique opportunity to take your game to a new level by practicing in a completely different way than you have done before. It will be your loss if you do not start to utilize these brilliant games to elevate your game”
Karl Morris
Europe’s Top Mental Coach
Clients include recent Majors winners Graeme McDowell and Louis Oosthuizen

“GolfMission is exactly what we look for in golf promotional items and struggle to find – something novel which is fun and yet helps improve the game and which we can easily brand.”
Geoff Riddell
Chairman of Global Corporate & CEO of Asia Pacific & Middle East
Zurich Financial Services

“After playing this wonderful game for more than 45 years, I thought I’d played every imaginable variation possible, GolfMission proved me wrong. It really was a refreshing change, adding a new dimension to a normal friendly game of golf. The endless variations to the tasks keep you totally focused throughout the game. I enjoyed the challenge and feel that GolfMission can be played and enjoyed by golfers of any standard. ”
Parnell E Reilly
Immediate Past Captain of the PGA

“GolfMission creates another opportunity for golfers of all abilities to become enthused by all aspects of the game. It also provides a tool for coaches to use with their players by providing structured practice and challenges in between coaching sessions, enabling golfers to reach their maximum potential.”
Justyn Branton BSc (Hons)
AA Class PGA Golf Professional
Regional Coaching Development Officer (South West & West England)

“GolfMission is not only a great game, it is also a great coaching aid that gets golfers to focus their mind ”
Lee-Jay Barnes
Head Golf Professional
The Celtic Manor Resort (Ryder Cup 2010)

For full details about Golf Mission click on the banner below.

Golf Sense by Roy Palmer

Some years ago I picked up a book on “The Alexander Technique” the technique takes its name from F. Matthias Alexander a 19^th century Shakespearean actor who developed vocal problems for which his physician could find no physical cause. Alexander discovered, from observing himself in multiple mirrors, that, he was needlessly stiffening his muscles in preparation to speak and this was the sole cause of his vocal problem. The book I read approached the technique very much from a thespian’s view point but I did feel there were benefits that could be applied to golf but for whatever reason I forgot about it and took it no further, until now.

Thanks to Roy Palmer’s book, “Golf Sense, Practical Tips On How To Play Golf In The Zone” I now very much understand how the technique can be applied to golf, and just about every other sport.

How often do we hear golf commentators use that trite statement “he just needs to stay in the present”, easy to say but one of the hardest things to do, especially when faced with an 8 foot left to right downhill slider for victory. In the work I do with players and in the workshops I present I provide tools to help quieten the mind to give people a better chance of “staying in the present” Roy’s book is crammed with practical exercises and tools to help you achieve just this state.

The quickest way to change how you feel is undoubtedly through the body, we really need to learn to listen to the wisdom of our bodies, Fritz Perls said “we need to stop thinking and come to our senses”. But to do this we need to tune into our body first and understand what is really going on, what we think we do and what we are actually doing are usually 2 very different things. In his book Roy provides many exercises that will allow you to become much more in tune with yourself and get you self-observing your behaviour, if you want to change your behaviour, first you must observe it. The great Australian bowler Shane Warne said that the single biggest benefit to his career from his time at the Australian Institute of Sport was learning to take control of his body language. With the tools provided in “Golf Sense” you will definitely find yourself able to take more control of yours.

During a round of golf you are actually playing the game for no more than 15% of the time, do you think that 85% of the time can have an influence on that 15%? Of course it can, and does, using the exercises in Roy’s book you will discover the tools to enable you to switch off and on to the moment much more easily. In 2000 having played some of the greatest golf of his career Tiger Woods said that having realised that it was not possible to concentrate for 5 hours the greatest skill he had learnt was the ability to switch off and on between shots.

Roy also maintains an excellent website full of useful resources articles and tips. I highly recommend this book, follow the exercises explained by Roy and you will find yourself walking taller, getting to the “zone” more often and definitely enjoying your golf a whole lot more.

You can find Roy’s book HERE (USA)

HERE (UK)

About Roy Palmer

Roy is a teacher of The Alexander Technique. He has over thirty years experience of competitive sport and has spent the last fifteen coaching golfers, tennis players, athletes, footballers and people from many sports on how to achieve a peak performance. Roy’s approach combines the mind and body using practical techniques to help players get into the right state of mind to perform at their best.