April’s Theme is Peak Sports Performance
How would you like to make perfect putts each time you play golf? If you answered yes to that question, then you need to know if you trust yourself to make them. How do you know whether or not you truly trust yourself? Take a look at your mindsets and the way you perceive situations, yourself, others and your golf game. How well do you putt? Your perceptions or mindsets affect your performance in your golf game (or whatever sport you’re involved in), and also in regular activities of your daily life.
In this blog post I am writing specifically about putting. After years of researching what each of my golf clients struggle with, I discovered the most consistent information and the best ways to putt, including how to hold the putter. I also identified what the pros suggest and recommend. I then pulled all of that together into a hypnosis audio, so you can have all of the information at your fingertips.
So how do you work towards making perfect putts? Consider the following suggestion, from my hypnosis product: “When I putt– I have perfectly light grip pressure, perfectly slight hinge in wrist, my head is perfectly still from start to finish, and my eyes and complete focus are straight down for my perfect putts– I trust myself and my line, and I let my putter release naturally”
In looking at the mental side of that suggestion: trusting yourself, your line and letting your putter release naturally, I felt like I had to lead up to that by going over the proper ways of putting. You need to know how to hold your putter, to focus straight down, and all of the other elements of the perfect putt, before you can trust yourself and let it go naturally. It’s kind of a build-up of information, so you can get to the point of trusting yourself and your line, to let your putter release naturally.
When you putt, you need to apply light-grip pressure to your putter. You don’t want to squeeze the heck out of it, or let it wobble around in your hand. You also need a perfectly light hinge in your wrist. You don’t want to be too stiff. Stiffness, from a mental perspective, usually comes as a reaction to fear and anxiety. You know when you feel stressed, fearful or anxious, how you tighten your shoulders or clench your jaw, teeth and hands. So it is important to recognize the mental influence on your grip, not only the mechanics of your putting, as you apply perfectly light pressure to your putter and a perfectly light hinge to your wrist.
Next, consider the importance of your head and eyes. Your head is perfectly still from start to finish. As a mental trainer, I know if you are looking all around, it is probably because you doubt something in your read or interpretation of the greens. You may be trying to figure out how to play the hole and whether or not you have all the information correct. You need to gather all of that information before you step-up to make your putt. Then, at that moment when you are ready to stroke your perfect putt, you are still. Your head is still, your focus is clear, your eyes and your focus are straight down – not looking around or wandering. You clearly know what you are about to do.
As evidence of this, you should observe others in every-day life. As you do, you will notice that when people are unsure of something or they lie, their eyes will shift all over the place. This is something people are trained to identify, like police officers or others trained in lie-detecting. There is a subconscious shift in the eyes that accompanies doubt. You can force your eyes to stay straight, but there are twitches or movements of your eyes that say different things. Even if you are unaware of it, when you are in fear in some way about your putt or reading of the green or your stroke, your eyes will move. It is the same kind of flinching that comes from doubt or insecurity, and it shows in your eyes.
To make a perfect putt, you need to have confidence and security, and your eyes in complete focus – looking straight down at your ball. You need to trust yourself and believe in your abilities in that moment. You need to trust in all of your practicing and progression; trust that you have come a long way, and be confident in the skills that you have. You must trust yourself and the line that you read, and how you want to play out your putt, and then let your putter release naturally. Do not force it. Try to ‘make it happen’ or make the putt go in. It should be a natural process for you. Anyone who has been ‘in the zone’ will say that it feels like it is intuitive and just happens. You want to play into that. You want to recognize that your performance excels tremendously when you are in that state, versus when you try to force things to happen.
This is great information for you to work on at a conscious level, and practice each time you are about to putt. If you want to put it into your subconscious mind more quickly, you can do that using my Perfect Putting hypnosis audio – I have gotten really great feedback about it. If you would like help beyond this article and the audio I mentioned, I am here for you. Please feel free to contact me.
I wish you much success as you practice all of the elements of putting, and see yourself improve. Just keep at it. Trust yourself, and you will make perfect putts. Thanks for reading. InJoy your day!