Local hypnotherapist Dawn Grant of A New Dawn Hypnosis is helping about a dozen Professional Golf Association golfers improve their concentration, including Ted Purdy, Cameron Beckman and Will MacKenzie.
"Golf is 95 percent mental. Hypnotherapy is 100 percent mental," said Grant.
"Like any other behavior, habit, thought or belief - golf and a golfer's swing, their beliefs about their game, their success and their ability to play are all perceptions and programming within their subconscious mind," Grant said.
"Hypnosis is a wonderful tool to get to the root of any issue and to 'reprogram' a person's mind to a more beneficial pattern of thinking, behaving or perceiving."
Purdy sought Grant's help with his putting at the Players Championship in Ponte Vedra in May. Mark Winkley, Purdy's golf instructor for the past seven years, was truly amazed when he sat in on their session. "I think she's helped Ted with his whole game, really," he said.
"I've seen Ted work with sports psychologists and the difference with Dawn was that when she put him in the hypnotic state, she was able to go back to things that were really deep-rooted in his mind about his confidence level ... that's really where she focused."
"I think what Dawn's really brought to the table is finding the root of the problem mentally, you know, confidence-wise, and letting him go out and be able to perform at the best of his ability," Winkley said.
"She's helping him get to that level where he can keep his mind at peace and have confidence that his swing is where he wants it ... and taking that confidence to the course and maintaining it throughout a round ... and not only through a round but through an entire tournament."
Grant recently earned a credential from the PGA and has full access to the putting green, driving range, practice fields and clubhouse on any tournament while she is working with a player.
Contact Grant at (904) 753-0640 or visit www.anewdawnhypnosis.com.
Grant is busily assembling an impressive resume - especially in the discipline of putting. She has worked with top Professional Golf Association tour members like Vijah Singh on the mental aspects of the putting stroke and how to eliminate the yips.
She diagnoses the art of putting as part skill, and a big part mental. With Grant's influence, Singh's putting went from frigid cold to scorching hot, and carried him to the 2008 Fed Ex Cup championship. Singh sank a 30-foot putt on his way to claiming a $13 million purse.
Singh "was having some major blocks," says Grant, who worked with him at his Ponte Vedra Beach residence. "I helped him to see himself as the best putter in the world."
Since 2007, Grant has worked with 25 men's and women's professional tour golfers (and other world champion-caliber athletes). She has also attended major professional golf tournaments as sort of a coach on the sidelines.
Grant has assembled a duffle bag of accolades, testimonials and training techniques. She is innovatively transmitting her craft through the channels of social media like YouTube - while her website, www.dawngrant.com is a cutting-edge portrayal of her products.
A hypnotist by profession on Amelia Island, Grant saw an opportunity to correct the mind games prevalent in golf (especially with putting). Motivated by a relentless drive to help people, Grant has found her calling.
So she has been helping golfers. She is currently writing a book, 7 Strokes in 7 Days, a quick-fix resource to help golfers improve their game. She also provides complimentary golf training through www.BlogTalk Radio.com every Monday morning - and keeps archives of her sessions.
She does more than help with the mental aspects of putting. She also has applications to help a golfer's short game and confidence through the Apple App Store (downloadable onto an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch). She launched these new products while appearing at this past Master's Golf Tournament. And she has delivered mental-training workshops at the Hank Haney International Junior Golf Academy.
Grant offers hypnosis and meditation sessions right off her website, including a smoking-cessation course (and a comprehensive weight-loss course coming soon). She even sends out free emails that are inspirational and teeming with positive messages. In return, many of her satisfied clients provide resounding testimonials.
Local women's professional Laura Diaz says her work with Grant was "eye-opening and exciting."
"She taught me how to self-hypnotize and get into a place where I could perform my best," Diaz says. "I believe everyone can learn a lot about themselves from working with Dawn. I know that I did."
Grant uses hypnosis and meditation to get into a client's subconscious mind. In this way she can change their thoughts, particularly in a pressure-filled moment that athletes often encounter.
She was doing a motivational speaking circuit several years ago for a large corporate client when she met a contact with the PGA. Later, in Tampa, she was introduced to pro golfers through this arrangement. She caught Singh's attention then.
"He watches," Grant says. And learns. That is, when he has a good teacher and therapist and motivator at his side.
Steve Nicklas is a financial advisor with a major Wall Street firm who lives on Amelia Island. His columns appear in numerous newspapers in North Florida. He can be reached at 753-0236.
thenicklasteam2@msn.com
The concept of "It's 90% Mental" has created a bit of a stir in the shotgun sports industry over the last several years. As a mental trainer I have had a front row seat and been at the brunt of many of those comments and frustrations.
So, I'd like to take this opportunity to explain this concept and how I can have the audacity to actually say it's not just 90% mental, but It's 100% mental! A statement worthy of not only pissing off about 1/4 of the top shooters/instructors in the industry, but of also turning a few grandmothers over in their graves.
Let's start off with some basics. Your body is made up of cells, communities of cells to be exact. Your literally start off as a single cell organism called a zygote, which divides into two cell masses that go on to become an embryo. As cells divide... two cells become four, which becomes eight, and so on. Each new set of cells replicates the original cell's chromosomes.
But what is super fascinating to me is that some of these cells (which appear to be identical to anyone less than a scientist) huddle up together and go off to form communities of cells. Kind of like a group of folks deciding to go off and form a neighborhood with covenants, or their own league with rules. Some cells gather up together, and head over to become your heart, some your tongue, some your fingernails, some your brain, and so on. Cool, eh?
My point in all this... cells are pretty darn "smart." There's definitely a good argument to be made for what is known as cellular memory, aka: muscle memory and motor memory. Many of you have asked me about muscle memory. And, yes, all mechanics related to shooting or any other physical action do fall under the category of muscle memory. To be more specific, the performance of all actions and skills actually fall under something called procedural memory. Examples of procedural memories include your gun mount, your swing, riding a bike, driving a car, eating with a fork, and opening a door.
Procedural memory is a type of long-term memory. Long-term memory is found at the subconscious level of your mind.
When you first learn a new skill, you are very conscious about it. Meaning the new behavior is not yet engrained into your subconscious mind/procedural memory. When you engage in this new activity it occupies your singular focused conscious mind. This part of your mind gets overwhelmed easily as it can only focus on one thing at a time, juggling between up to seven items before you feel like you are losing it. Think about the times you are running out the door to a meeting, trying to find your keys and wallet, grabbing your coffee, being asked a question by your partner, while your cell phone is ringing. In this scenario you are frazzled by attempting to juggle just five items. This same feeling happens when you are first learning the mechanics of shooting, or if you've been shooting for years but hire an instructor to help you "fix" your shooting skills.
The juggling of the details of the mechanics can be overwhelming to your conscious mind. But not for long, thank goodness! The new skills get easier after you have repeatedly engaged in the same activity or skills. With repetition, skills get reinforced and shifted to what we call the subconscious mind. To be a good shooter, it's important that the skills that are repeated and reinforced are "good" ones... as those are the ones you want to heave on autopilot, in muscle memory, to feel instinctive, to be programmed in your procedural memory.
When the brain is looked at using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), scientists can actually see the above described changes as they occur when we learn and remember a new motor skills. One of the observed changes to the brain involves the increase in connections between different areas of the brain which are required for that particular skills. These connections are called synopsis pathways. There are many really cool videos on the internet that show these pathways being formed as a person learns a new skill. The first few times you participate in a new action, the path is being made. Similar to the first few times you walk through an area of the woods... there would be much underbrush and branches to navigate through. But the more times you walk that area of the woods, the more defined the path becomes, and the faster you can travel along it. The same with your brain, the more times you repeat a skillset, the more defined the pathway becomes; and the faster neurotransmitters can travel along it. Neurotransmitters are the chemical messengers that send signals to specific target areas of the brain needing to be triggered.
MRI scanners also show us how the brain actually changes during the process of learning new skills. At the very beginning of engaging in a new action or movement there's a ton of activity across the brain, but most of the activity can be seen in two areas: the pre-motor cortex and the basal ganglia. The high levels of activity in these areas are thought to be related to the fact that much thought and planning must go into a new action. With repeated practice of said action, it becomes effortless and more automatic. At the same time the activity in the pre-motor cortex and basal ganglia decreases. Hence, the skills become less conscious and more subconscious.
Thanks to specific changes in your conscious mind, subconscious mind, brain structure, and brain functioning you not only remember new skills, like your shooting techniques and mechanics; but they get easier as you continue to improve upon them.
Without the amazing mental phenomenons described above, none of your shooting abilities would feel "as easy as learning to ride a bike."
Still questions It's 100% mental?
Let's break down the phrase and define the word "mental."
According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, a definition of mental is "of or relating to the mind" ("mental," Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionaru/mental. Accessed 12/5/2020.)
And then the word "mind"...
Some definitions of the mind are "a: the element of complex of elements in an individual that feels, perceives, thinks, wills, and especially reasons; b: the conscious mental events and capabilities in an organism; c: the organized conscious and unconscious adaptive mental activity of an organism" ("mind," Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionaru/mind. Accessed 12/5/2020.)
Now that you can see how the mechanics are mental...
In my next article I'll dive into why It's A Mind Game, and how your mindset, thoughts and beliefs will always trump your mechanics, expensive gun, best ammo, fancy chokes, and stylish prescription shooting glasses.
Dawn Grant is the owner of Amelia Shotgun Sports in Yulee, Florida where she offers lectures, clinics and workshops at her Mind Training School. Dawn is the author of 7 Strokes In 7 Days: Quick And Easy Break-Through Mental Training That Will Revolutionize Your Golf Game And Life; and the inventor of MindMastered.com.
You can learn more about her, and her Online and Live training programs at DawnGrant.com
Yes, it is highly likely my last article, "It's 100% Mental" (ClayShootingUSA, March/April 2021, pp. 72-76), ruffled the feathers of many shooting instructors. An activity I have become quite familiar with over the last 12 years of my work as a mental trainer helping clay shooters with their mind game. But having facts related to the mind, cellular activity, synopsis pathways, neurotransmitters, pre-motor cortex, basal ganglia, and procedural memory, makes the argument of whether "it's 100% mental" a moot point.
Now that I have proven that even your mechanics are mental...
I am going to help you to see how and why It's A Mind Game.
Let's walk through the journey of a common clay target shooter's life. An enthusiast of the outdoors who has hunted for many years of his life, or who has enjoyed outdoor competitive sports... stumbles upon the sport of clay target shooting. He has a great day with a friend shooting his shotgun at various flying orange saucers soaring through the air. He is intrigued by the strategically set targets at the many stations which meander through a beautiful winding path among the peaceful, gorgeous outdoors. At the end of the day, he has a natural high from spending hours shooting a gun and blowing things up.
He is immediately hooked.
The adventure begins. He buts a starter shotgun and gets his ammo from Walmart. The more often her goes to the club, the more he sees that the regulars have shooting vests, colorful shooting glasses, fancy custom molded ear protection, their own transported gold cart, better guns, and better ammo. He invests in the better!
He works up his courage to go to his first competition, but has so much anxiety that he can't sleep, and it doesn't help that the bed is hard and the pillow is flat. As he arrives at the event he doesn't know where to register, and doesn't know where he is shooting. As the anxiety grows, he then realizes he forgot his special colored shooting glasses. In spite of the obstacles, he stumbles through the day, but his scores reflect his difficulties.
No worries, he's got that competitive nature that can't be denied, so he continues to go to competitions. With each return he is more comfortable and more aware of handling the important technicalities of packing all his shooting equipment and having a good bed, a good pillow, breakfast, lunch, snacks, and water.
Oh, the beautiful life of the competitive shotgun shooter. great friendly people that are like an extended family, gorgeous locations- all with fun and unique target presentations set by masterminds who enjoy messing with your head.
By now, all the upgrades have happened, including the heated and air conditioned enclosed cab Polaris. If he's lucky, each week is filled with instruction from a pro, the emptying of several flats of ammo, and the breaking of hundreds of targets.
He doesn't tell his wife the cost of the new gun (or that he even bought another one), or the hundreds to thousands of dollars he spends in a month.
Most shooters I have worked with would prefer not to tally up the cost of this sport that they love. But we can safely assume that anyone going to regular competitions, practicing a decent amount, getting instruction from a pro, and owning good equipment is spending tens of thousands of dollars a year. We can also safely assume they have a competitive spirit that they can't deny... which means they want to win (or at least feel they have done their best), will keep trying to get better, and will not give up!
But check this out, in spite of that inner drive, determination, commitment, and love of the sport, many will end up considering quitting, contemplating leaving in the middle of an event, and even hating it. This happens because they get frustrated with their inability to perform as well as they practice, their inability to break as many targets as they believe they should be able to, and/or their inability to be or stay focused. Instead, they are angry, regretful, worried, trying too hard, trying to duplicate good shots, distracted, over-analyzing, thinking about previous bad shots, thinking about their score, thinking about work, thinking about previous conversations or arguments, thinking about loved ones, and even thinking what's for dinner- which is probably going to be steak.
Guess what happens when their mind goes off in all these different directions? They lose their all too important focus on the targets, and their scores reflect it. All their skills go out the window. Suddenly it doesn't even matter that they have the best vest, the best gun, the best ammo, the best glasses, the best ear protection, the best chokes, the best side by side, or even the best instruction from the best pro.
Let me be very clear, there is unquestionable, undeniable value in taking this sport seriously and investing in all the tools, and instruction that will help you to experience your best performance. Magnificent minds have invented and created for you great equipment, and great programs. Absolutely find and buy the best of everything for you and your game, within your budget! Get the better gun, better ammo, betting shooting glasses, better ear protection, better vest... and maybe even better chokes. But from this moment forward, know that your better mind is just as important.
Your Mind Game consists of your mindset, thoughts, beliefs, expectations, and your level of skill at being calm, present and focused. And I don't just mean "focused" with your eyes, I also mean focused with your mind. Having good focus with your mind means you are no longer distracted by the wanderings of your conscious mind. Having a good mind game means that when you are shooting you no longer: get angry/regretful/worries/distracted, over-analyze/think about previous bas shots/think about previous bad shots/think about your score/think about your work/think about previous conversations or arguments/think about loved ones/think about what's for dinner (even though the steak is going to be delicious). You no longer try too hard or try to duplicate good shots. Instead, you will be calm, present, engaged, focused, and genuinely give each target your undivided attention.
It's A Mind Game because your mental state will always trump your mechanics, expensive hun, best ammo, fancy chokes, custom fitted ear protection, and stylish prescription shooting glasses. You can be the best of the best competitive shooters, with world titles and your name in the Hall of Fame, but if your mind is in the gutter, so are your scores. No exception.
Several years ago, I was working with a notable PGA tour pro who said to me, "Every golfers who has earned their card to be on the PGA tour has undeniable great mechanics. Some have mechanics so good that their scores may have them dancing around the top 20 or top 10. But unless they also have a great mind game, they won't stay there. They will fall apart on the final round or holes, miss the easy shots, or win once but never again. It is only those with a strong mind game combined with their awesome mechanics who will perform consistently at the top of their game and the scoreboard."
Take a look in the mirror and see how much of what I have explained applies to you. And know, if you keep doing the same think you are going to keep getting the same results. Isn't it time you take your mind game more seriously? Isn't it time you perform as well as you practice ,get your money's worth out of your efforts, feel like you've done your best, and actually have fun doing the sport that you love? If so, then let the mental training begin.
Dawn Grant has had a private practice as a mental trainer and hypnotist since 2001, where her main clientele has been weekend warriors, elite competitive athletes, and Olympic hopefuls, who live all over the world. Many hold credentials in PGA tour, LPGA, Web.com tour, IJGA, USA Shooting, ISSF, PSCA, USA Sporting Clays Team, WBA, Ironman, and NCAA. Her work has contributed to multiple World Champion titles and Hall of Fame honors. Most notably, she assisted Vijay Singh in winning the 2008 FedEx Cup Championship. Her Clay Shooter's Mind Game Mastery online course, clay shooter's hypnosis audio, custom hypnosis audios, and private session have helped several thousand clay shooters all over the world to have consistent focus and peak performance. Dawn is the owner of Amelia Shotgun Sports in Yulee, Florida where she offers lectures, clinics and workshops at her Mind Training School. She is also the author of 7 Strokes In 7 Days: Quick And Easy Break-Through Mental Training That Will Revolutionize Your Gold Game And Life, and the inventor of MindMastered.com. She travels to major NSCA events and offers her clinics at clubs across the country.
You can learn more about Dawn, and her online and live training programs at DawnGrant.com.
Check out her shotgun club at AmeliaShotgunSports.com
This is a question I get asked at least once a week. It is also a hot topic among shooting instructors as they too get asked the same question regularly as well.
I have a pretty clear opinion on this, as I outlined in "Should You Wait to Work on Your Mind Game?" (ClayShootingUSA, July/August 2021, pp. 88-90). But to be clear, that opinion is total based on my specific mental training process, techniques, objectives, and angle. I believe a true mental training program should sufficiently and successfully address these human conditions: frustration, anger, regret, worry, fear, lack of confidence, doubt, second guessing, over thinking, trying too hard, distractions, lack of focus, over thinking, moving on from a miss, etc. While it trains a person in genuinely having focus, confidence, fun techniques to apply before, during and after shots, and ultimately the end-all-be-all peak performance zone.
Before I dive in further... I'd like to send out a huge congratulations to all the Olympians of the USA Shooting Team!
We are reminded loud and clear by some of the 2020 Olympians of how vital their performance. Some allude to it in interviews. Some, like Damian Warner, Tom Dumoelin, Simone Biles, and Naomi Osaka come right out and admit to being proponent of mental training or take action to protect their well-being by acknowledging they're not in the right head space.
Here is a testimonials from 2020 Olympic Silver Medalist Kayle Browning written for me and my training:
"Thank you SO much for everything that you have done for me. You're such an inspiration to me. There's no way I could make it to where I am right now if it wasn't for your help! I appreciate you so much, thank you!" -Kayle Browning 2020 Olympic Silver Medalist
Kayle is hugely successful both in shooting and life, here are several more of her awesome accomplishments!
- Pro USA Shooting athlete (international bunker trap)
- 2020 Olympian
- 2012 U.S. Olympic Team alternate
- Multiple World Cup and national medalist
- Former national champion
- National record holder
- World record holder
- World champion gold medalist - team event
- Owner of Cypress Creek Lodge
- Profession shotgun coach
- Beyond the Podium podcast host
Not convinced yet of the undeniable value of a good mental game? Feel free to listen in to the over 150 episodes on the Olympic Channel Podcast. Here they have interviews some of the world's top athletes and asked them how they look after their mental health, including how they cope with negative thoughts and how to have confidence in risky situations.
Tune in and you'll hear statements like this from wrestler Jordan Burroughs: "I think the best athletes in the world are the people who can control their emotions."
I agree with Jordan and many of the other statements related to the mental game which are stated in the over 150 episodes! Hence, why I consider my mental training program true mental training- because it does address emotions, as well as mindsets, perceptions, thought patterns, belief systems, and habits.
In order to tackle such mental issues, I believe we must begin with a detailed explanation of the make-up of your mind. Because I believe it's important that you have a general understanding of your mind before you attempt to give it a tune-up, just like knowing it's important to understand an engine before you take it apart and change its parts. And, as you know, you would get yourself in a mess if you started deleting files from your computer before understanding if they are important to the processes of that computer.
You have a conscious mind, a subconscious mind, an unconscious mind; and some would also say a superconscious mind. For a point of reference, know that many of you are shooting too much from your conscious mind, and need to learn how to shooting from your subconscious mind- aka: shoot instinctively, shoot intuitively, shoot automatically, shoot without thinking about it. But how can you do this if you don't even know what those minds are, how they function, why you are working with one more than the other, and how to switch which mind you are accessing so you can actually shoot from your subconscious?
Think about this. We have yet to invent a computer as powerful as our mind(s). Such a computer would have to be able to take in information from its sense of sight, smell, taste, hearing, touch, and emotion, while simultaneously and appropriately responding to those stimuli baed on information from the past, present and potential future. Meanwhile, as it engages in these high tech maneuvers, it must also filter through its 60,000 thoughts a day, all of which have their own set of cause and effect circumstances. Then, oh yes, there is more... here is where it gets very tricky. For most folks, especially those who have not participated in any mental training, you are in a very poor habit in which a large percentage of those 60,000 thoughts are negative, limiting, unhealthy and unproductive. And since you don't know any better, you are believing and reacting to all of them, which brings about instantaneous decrease in your performance.
So, you see the dilemma. It is imperative that you understand your mind and make change to the default programming. But at the same time, this is no easy task, and it can be very challenging.
Attempting positive change with limited knowledge of your mind functions could ultimately put you in a much more difficult and limiting position. It is just as important to recognize the fact that attempting to make change with the same mind that got you in your current predicament, will only result in the same outcomes. You need a fresh perspective and training to gain the insight and skills necessary to bring about effective, long term change.
As great as all this sounds, and as convincing as it is. Taking action to address your mental game is different than just believing it is important. Then, taking the best, most successful action is even more important.
Like everything, you have a lot of options for your mental training. To see if my mental training is the best option for you. I encourage you to start with my free webinar: The Elusive Zone for Clay Shooters, which you will find under the "Free" menu tab on my website, you can apply for a free 30 Minute strategy call to discuss your current situation and issues, and to go over the training programs that would be best for you.
Dawn Grant has had a private practice as a mental trainer and hypnotist since 2001, where her main clientele has been weekend warriors, elite competitive athletes, and Olympic hopefuls, who live all over the world. Many hold credentials in PGA tour, LPGA, Web.com tour, IJGA, USA Shooting, ISSF, PSCA, USA Sporting Clays Team, WBA, Ironman, and NCAA. Her work has contributed to multiple World Champion titles and Hall of Fame honors. Most notably, she assisted Vijay Singh in winning the 2008 FedEx Cup Championship. Her Clay Shooter's Mind Game Mastery online course, clay shooter's hypnosis audio, custom hypnosis audios, and private session have helped several thousand clay shooters all over the world to have consistent focus and peak performance. Dawn is the owner of Amelia Shotgun Sports in Yulee, Florida where she offers lectures, clinics and workshops at her Mind Training School. She is also the author of 7 Strokes In 7 Days: Quick And Easy Break-Through Mental Training That Will Revolutionize Your Gold Game And Life, and the inventor of MindMastered.com. She travels to major NSCA events and offers her clinics at clubs across the country.
You can learn more about Dawn, and her online and live training programs at DawnGrant.com.
Check out her shotgun club at AmeliaShotgunSports.com
But, before I do, if you aren't up to speed on how your mind will either make or break your game, I suggest you read "It's A Mind Game" (ClayShootingUSA, May/June 2021, pp. 60-62).
As a refresher, my definition of the Mind Game is much more thorough and comprehensive than many other mental training expert and sport psychologists' interpretations. I firmly believe, and have witnessed for over 20 years, that the lack of a good mind game is the most obvious and relevant cause of poor performance.
You can be one of the best shotgun shooters in the world, breaking 100 straight one moment but losing it all the next... due to your mind. This didn't happen because you suddenly, spontaneously drew a blank on how to break targets. And your body didn't just forget your well-trained, muscle-memory mechanics.
You got: frustrated, angry, regretful, worries, or even overly excited about the "win-what-ifs."
You then started: trying too hard, attempting to duplicate good shots, getting distracted, over-analyzing, thinking about previous bad shots, thinking about your score, thinking about work, thinking about previous conversations or arguments, thinking about loved ones, or even thinking about what's for dinner.
Do you think frustration, anger, regret, worry, over-excitement, trying too hard, attempting to duplicate good shots, being distracted, over-analyzing, thinking about previous bad shots, thinking about your score, etc. NEVER happen to top shooters? Or maybe you think they ONLY happen to top shooters? If you think either of these statements is correct... you are wrong.
As the saying goes "we all put our pants on one leg at a time." If you find yourself putting a top shooter on a pedestal and thinking they are perfect or much different than you... this is your chance to realize they are human too. There are many paths to becoming an elite athlete and many different personality traits and talents that help a person to get there. But none of which release them from being "human." Among the many factors that contribute to consistent, peak performance, an elite athlete can have different levels of emotional and mental maturity, as well as different levels of mechanical inclination. Don't assume that because they are a top shooter, they have all the answers, have a perfect life, or have a perfect mind... it is humanly impossible and unrealistic. I suggest you respect them, their effort, and their skills while knowing they can only "know" so much, especially about the mind game. As PGA Tour pro Notah Begay once said to me "All pro golfers on the PGA Tour have great mechanics, that's a given. But they don't all have a great mind game. Only the ones who stay on tour and can consistently perform in the top ten have a great mental game. All others will either never rise to the top, will rise briefly, or won't keep their card."
Stop and think about that.
Top athletes need a good mind game for consistent, peak performance. And so do you! It doesn't matter if it is day one, day 20 day 300 or day 874 or your clay shooting life! All humans will perform poorly at anything and everything that is important to them if they have a poor mindset. All humans will perform better at anything and everything that is important to them if they have a better mindset. All elite athletes will have consistent, peak performance when they have a great mind game on top of their great mechanics.
As a new shooter you will absolutely, without a doubt, have aspects of frustration, anger, regret, worry, over-excitement, trying too hard, attempting to duplicate good shots, being distracted, over-analyzing, thinking about previous bad shots, and thinking about your score! And know this... because confidence is the number one tool to swipe out such faux pas, you will likely have even more of these than the top shooter who is giving you instruction and telling you "you don't need to work on the mental game just yet."
As a newbie to shotgun sports, on top of needing to learn mechanics, you absolutely are missing targets due to your mind. No matter the years of experience, age, cost of gun, or level of instruction; all shooters wanting consistent, peak performance need to be calm, present, engaged, focused, and genuinely give each target their undivided attention. The only way to learn this, and be this, is to work on your mental game... now. Not some random time in the future when your mechanics are suddenly "where they need to be." Whatever that means.
There are many top instructors who recognize the value of a true mental game, and who see their students struggling with their mindset, thoughts, beliefs, and expectations... so they refer them to me. Meanwhile, there are other top instructors who don't fully understand the mind game, or at least the type of mind game that I teach, and they will tell their students to hold off on mental training because "it's too much to think about or try to do when you are learning new mechanics." I can't speak for the process or content of other mental trainers. But I can tell you that my mental training is for all people, at all levels.
Being able to be your best in your performance as a human is what I'm an expert at, and what I've trained thousands of people to do. I can teach you peak performance skills that you practice in all aspects of your life. You gain mastery of such mental skills by repetition and familiarity. You then easily and practically effortlessly apply them to everything that's important to you in your life, including your clay shooting sport.
Getting your mind out of the gutter, will help you as a human in all aspects of your life, including improving your shotgun sport scores.
No exception!
So WHY would you wait?
Dawn Grant has had a private practice as a mental trainer and hypnotist since 2001, where her main clientele has been weekend warriors, elite competitive athletes, and Olympic hopefuls, who live all over the world. Many hold credentials in PGA tour, LPGA, Web.com tour, IJGA, USA Shooting, ISSF, PSCA, USA Sporting Clays Team, WBA, Ironman, and NCAA. Her work has contributed to multiple World Champion titles and Hall of Fame honors. Most notably, she assisted Vijay Singh in winning the 2008 FedEx Cup Championship. Her Clay Shooter's Mind Game Mastery online course, clay shooter's hypnosis audio, custom hypnosis audios, and private session have helped several thousand clay shooters all over the world to have consistent focus and peak performance. Dawn is the owner of Amelia Shotgun Sports in Yulee, Florida where she offers lectures, clinics and workshops at her Mind Training School. She is also the author of 7 Strokes In 7 Days: Quick And Easy Break-Through Mental Training That Will Revolutionize Your Gold Game And Life, and the inventor of MindMastered.com. She travels to major NSCA events and offers her clinics at clubs across the country.
You can learn more about Dawn, and her online and live training programs at DawnGrant.com.
Check out her shotgun club at AmeliaShotgunSports.com
Hank Haney International Junior Golf Academy (IJGA) is proud to announce the addition of Dawn Grant to its Life Skills and Mental Training program.
Dawn Grant has trained PGA and LPGA golfers such as Laura Diaz, Will MacKenzie, Cameron Beckman, Ted Purdy, and even Vijay Singh, who went on to win the FedEx Championship. After graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree from Westfield State College in Psychology, she received advanced training through certifications from the National Board of Hypnosis Education and Certification as well as the National Guild of Hypnotists. She is a board certified hypnotherapist and well regarded for her abilities as a motivational speaker and mental trainer.
At the Hank Haney IJGA, Grant will be tasked with aiding students in a positive and mental state of mind in hopes of helping them break out of their negative habits through relaxation and breathing techniques.
“We are excited to announce a new addition to our Life Skills and Mental Training Program, Dawn Grant. Dawn has worked with many PGA and LPGA Professionals,” said Ryley Hendry, Chief Operating Officer of Hank Haney IJGA. “We are excited to have her work alongside Matt Cuccaro (Director of Mental Training) and Fiona Vick (Assistant Director of Mental Training).”
Grant began working with the students and staff of Hank Haney IJGA on October 7th. After a successful week of Grant’s workshops, Hank Haney IJGA embraced her approach and they are looking forward to continuing to work with Grant throughout the school year.
“Dawn brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to our already impressive staff. We are excited to have her work with our Hank Haney IJGA students and staff. We know her expertise will have a positive impact and will help each one of our students reach their fullest potential,” stated Hendry.
To obtain more information about the Hank Haney IJGA, please visit www.ijga.com or call (800) 791-8229.
There are many things a shooter can do to sharpen their mental skills, all of which would have a tremendous impact on their performance. Today, I want to focus on helping you with your ability to be focused and present. As you know, being focused and present is important to making good shots for any shooter. You see this with the Pros, while squadded with others, and in yourself. You must be focused and present if you expect to break the target well.
As we look to address this skill set using mental training, we need to first recognize that a correction needs to be made to the times in which you are not shooting focused and present. Take a moment right now to brainstorm and familiarize yourself with how you are thinking and feeling when you are not focused and present when shooting. Your thoughts can be on a discussion that occurred earlier in the day, on the squad mate that won't stop talking, or on chewing yourself out for missing an easy target at the last station. All these thoughts will cause anxiety in your body. We have to counteract this cycle by purposely thinking in a healthier, more productive manner. One of the suggestions I use with clients and in my clay shooting products is "I am focused and present on the current shot." We are going to break this down and expand on it as a way of helping you to improve your skills in that area.
As with all my teachings, I highly encourage you to practice mental training on and off the course. You will gain much more mastery over the skill in a shorter period of time. Look at your ability to be focused and present in any moment, where 'in any moment' can be anything happening in your life. You cannot expect to be able to easily pull this trick out of your pocket at a weekend tournament if you have limited availability to do it in life. If you practice what I teach you in life, then you will easily carry it into your shooting game. In shooting, 'in the moment' applies to whatever particular shot you are engaged in at any given moment in time.
I spend a lot of time discussing and teaching clients things like: the importance of being present, being aware of your negative thoughts, being aware of your reactions to some of those thoughts or old programming, and being able to feel confident that you have the tools to shift away from those old ways of responding or thinking. The reason I spend time on these topics is so they can have a more positive, effective, healthy and limitless way of experiencing life and their shooting game. All this is possible to you when you simply (easier said than done) learn how to stay in a present moment, and keep your mind from wandering out of the 'here and now.' Staying focused and present are critical factors to improving your shooting performance.
All shooters know the importance of being present in that moment, but they struggle with their mind taking them into the past... into a past shot, a previous station or round. Maybe they missed a target or pair on the last station, or it could have even been a few stations before that. What if they started an event and missed targets on the first peg or station, and carried into the third, fourth and fifth station, or each shot after that so-called bad station? Do you think they would perform well if that is all they thought about?
Another tendency is to allow your mind to take you into the future, with 'projections.' Let's say you missed a few targets or played a few station poorly. You can then have this doom and gloom attitude about what will happen on the upcoming stations or pegs, and maybe draw a gloomy conclusion to the entire tournament. Or, let's say you had a streak of perfect stations and you have been performing really well. You might get to a point of concern about whether you can carry that on, where you may think: "I can't do that very much longer... the longest streak I've ever had is four stations." You could also project: "at this pace, I could win." Or "at this pace, I could end up being in the top ten!" These can lead to pressure as fear or expectation creep in and cause you to fumble future shots.
These are a few example of the different things that can happen if you allow your conscious mind to wander into the past or the future. It becomes imperative, then, that you learn how to keep your conscious mind present and stay focused in each moment when you are shooting; that you are focused and present on the current shot. This is ultimately the biggest skill to learn. It's not really hard, but it can seem hard because it takes commitment and diligence. You will find, after learning this information and going into observations of this phenomenon happening, that your conscious mind wanders all day long, continually in the past or future. Your mind plays out different scenarios of what happened, what should have happened, what is about to happen and many other varying analyzations. You will see that everytime your mind does that, it takes you out of the present moment. But the good news is, you already know what it feels like to reel your conscious mind back in - to bring yourself present. I notice I do this when I am driving down the highway, it starts to down pour rain and I want to be safe; or when one of my kids comes to me with something important and I want to give her my undivided attention. You can train your mind to do this, with commitment and diligence, and you will see your performance improve as you do.
It's time to go to work! Start training yourself to be more present in life. Shift my suggestion so it pertains to whatever life event you are participating in. If at work, it could be: "I am focused and present on... this call, project, meeting, conversation, etc." At home, it could be: "I am focused and present on... cooking, dinner, conversation with loved ones, cleaning dishes." You can find opportunities all day long to practice this skill. The more you practice this skills, become aware of it, and commit to change; the more likely you will be in transferring it over to the shooting course, to your game and into each shot. Practice this mental training and you will definitely see significant increase in your performance.
In "7 Strokes in 7 Days," Grant taps into her decades of experience helping top athletes reach their peak performance to share concrete, specific, "secret-weapon" techniques that improve focus, quiet the mind, boost confidence and consistency, and cultivate the tools necessary to maintain calm under pressure.
The "peak performance" state of mind Grant describes in "7 Strokes in 7 Days" is not only applicable to athletes but extends to all people in the form of stress-free, mindful living. In Grant's book, she shares how the state of mind can be achieved, helps readers to become their best self, and teaches them how applying these techniques can create opportunities for success as a human being.
You are a competitive golfer. You struggle on the golf course. You don't perform as well as your practice. Your performance is inconsistent. You can't focus. You have experienced "The Zone" infrequently or not at all. And you just aren't having fun playing gold anymore.
No matter how hard you try to make shots happen, no matter how well, you do in practice, no matter how expensive your clubs are, no matter if you've trained under the best instructors, no matter how hard you try to focus, you just can't seem to take strokes off your score.
You're sabotaging your own efforts and don't even realize it. But no worries, I can help you.
I am an expert on the mind. I can help you with all of these self-inflicted obstacles, both on the golf course and off. Resulting in improved, consistent performance in gold; and improved, consistent performance in life! Ultimately, you become an overall happier, more successful person who can be your best in any situation.
You are experiencing Peak Performance in all areas of your life. I know what you want.
You want to focus better. You want to perform as well as your practice and be more consistent. You want to feel more confident, trust yourself and trust your mechanics. You want to feel you've done your best and see improvement in your scores. You want to enjoy once again the sport that you love.
In summary you'd do anything to be able to know how to fell your best and perform at your best in any situation, under any conditions. What you really want (whether you know it or not) is the ability to perform in "The Zone."
I know you are discouraged.
You have spent a lot of time participating in instruction for mechanics, learning proper technique, practicing, and maybe even dabbling in mental training. You have spent a lot of money on clubs, instruction, greens fees, golf carts, clothes, balls, gadgets, and gizmos. All this, only to have inconsistent and mediocre performance. I know, at times, you have thought about quitting golf altogether.
You have gotten so annoyed with yourself and the game that you have often wondered if it is worth your time and money. You may have thrown your clubs, kicked your golf bag, cursed the heavens, and got close to walking off the course in the midst of around. How do I know all this?
Because, although all humans and athletes are different, they are also all the same. They come to me thinking they have unique problems when, ultimately, they are experiencing the same issues I've heard hundreds of thousands of times. But it's not just a matter of hearing their problems; I've training clients out of their issues and into hugely successful solutions. At this point, we are talking about 1000's athletes of all kinds who have improved their mental game. This means they have better focus, heave great scores in performance, leave the event feeling they did their best, and have a total enjoyment of the sport they love again. But, better yet, they experience The Zone more often and for longer periods of time due to knowing how to set up and experience their optimal state of consciousness.
What is this optimal state of consciousness I speak of?
Many refer to the ideal state of mind for Peak Performance as "The Flow," others refer to it as "The Zone." I am sure there are many other names out there as well, but personally, I like to refer to it as "The Zone." This state of mind and state of being has been acknowledged and sought after for thousands of years. I find it funny that something so incredible, so recognized, and so common can seems so out of reach. Whether one was a leader in ancient times, an Indian medicine woman, a military general, a corporate executive, an athlete, or an artist... each has been seeking to experience this mental and physical state, where the level of their human potential goes through the roof! Unfortunately for them, The Zone has been dodging their every effort to MAKE this state of mind happen.
Athletes and artists have been most prone to experiencing The Zone, but that doesn't mean they know what causes it or how to re-create it. Even the best of the best Pro Athletes, Famous Coaches and instructors, and Expert Sport Psychologists and Mental Trainers will say The Zone is elusive; they will also tell you that you can't create it. But, they are wrong, and nothing could be further form the truth! This is nothing against them. How could anyone that doesn't truly understand the mind think any different? It's not really their fault; it's just their lack of understanding.
Contrary to popular belief. The Zone is NOT elusive and is totally within your grasp!
Not only do all these other "experts" not understand the mind well enough to make a statement like "you can't make The Zone happen;" they also don't have the number of clients and private sessions directly related to the topic under their belt to make such a profoundly impactful proclamation. You see, I have been helping clients one-one-one to achieve this state since 2001. I have well over 60,000 hours invested in understanding the mind, its potential, our limitations, how to overcome those limitations, and how to be the best version of yourself. I am genuinely, personally inspired daily to understand the human psyche, not only for clients but for myself. Of all the different passions, hobbies, and interest that folks can have, mine is to deeply understand, practice, and teach optimal human performance. I have known from a young age that I wanted to help people make profound, positive changes in their lives, and I am fortunate I have found an avenue to achieve that. Like an addict getting their next hit, the high I experience when I help someone to overcome their limitations and tap into the best version of themselves... is indescribable. But then again, if you are one of the fortunate who has experienced The Zone while doing something you love... then you can relate to this level of euphoria.
The Zone isn't reserved for a few special people, certain kinds of athletes, elite military, or highfalutin CEOs; it is accessible to all of us. I experience it in both my life and my work; and can absolutely, positively help you to experience it so you too can be your best. Now, isn't that exciting! But let's add to that excitement just a bit more! Just as an athlete who performs in The Zone experiences their best performance and successful outcomes, the state of Peak Performance I function in as a Mental Training provides for the best outcomes possible... with successful, positive change bestowed upon you!
I am The Peak Performance Whisperer. I am The Focus Whisperer. Or, even better yet. I am The Zone Whisperer.
Why not? I figure that if there is a Dog Whisperer and a Horse Whisperer, then there's definitely a precedence set for me to be The Zone Whisperer.
My expertise is in "Mental Training," coming from a culmination of 30 years of true dedication to formal education, certification, studying, mentoring, coaching observing, and a lot of personal practice. I'm like a swing coach or a personal trainer, but my competence is pertaining to the mechanics of your mind and your thinking process. I have extensive working knowledge and on the scene training support for Competitive Golfers and other competing athletes. I have helped them to tame down the contributors to their attention deficits and the "mental chatter" since both have been the thieves keeping them "off their game." They learn how to overcome thought patterns like "I can't pull off this shot," "this is why I'm not any good," "I'll never be as good as my friends," or even the sneaky, double-edge sword kind of thoughts like "if I keep this up I'm going to win." But they aren't just elimination these deficits. They are learning and building powerful techniques for mental prowess.
The results my clients gain are phenomenal. Which usually catches them off guard since they are so used to working so hard, with minimal change. Isn't it time you stop trying to fix your problems the same way you always have, only to end up getting the same results you've always gotten?
With this in mind, it does not surprise this quote have become so well known:
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results." -Rita Mae Brown
It's time for things to change.
It's time for you to get the most out of your game, as well as the most out of your time and money.
I know how to help you!
For some, the state of grace athletes call “the zone” is the stuff of mystics and fakirs. For others, it’s a will o’ the wisp, a happenstance, a glimpse of what could be. For Dawn Grant and Bob Palmer, the zone is nothing less than a way of living.
“To me, the zone is about life skills,” says Grant, hypnotherapist and peak sports performance mental trainer head- quartered in Amelia Island, Florida. “It’s being able to handle your anger, being able to handle your stress, being able to handle your worry, being able to handle your regret. If you’re get- ting at these things in life, you’re not going to be able to apply it to your shooting.”
In Grant’s practice, she has worked with sporting clays luminaries Wendell Cherry and John Woolley as well as PGA tour legend Vijay Singh, author of two PGA championships and one Masters. Grant worked with Singh during his run to the Fed Ex Cup in 2008 (see September 2015 “Wingshooting”). Those who study with her work on what Grant believes are the five mental keys to peak performance: relaxation, concentration, positive imagery, monitoring self-talk, and developing a consistent mental routine. The goal, in shooting and in life, is to perform on the uptick.
“Too often we default into negative tendencies,” Grant enthuses. “We’re in the zone when we’re not over-thinking, over-analyzing, second guessing. We’re not trying too hard. In sporting clays, we’re not thinking of the score, of outcomes. We’re present and focused. We’re living— and shooting— intuitively, instinctively, taking advantage of what we know, what we’ve learned, how we’ve trained.”
“Rather than the zone being elusive and spontaneous, something rare, something we have no control of,” Grant insists, “we need to understand that if we learn to notice tendencies or bad habits, learn to work on those tendencies in a more constructive way, the end result is the zone state virtually on demand.”
Former national karate champion and 4th degree black belt Bob Palmer lives, as befitting a much-sought-after traveling speaker and clinician, “not far from the airport outside Toronto.” He is the CEO of SportExcel, a high-performance training concern for business and sports leadership. He has coached elite athletes from six continents in over 30 sports, as he website touts, Olympians and Pan-Am, Commonwealth, and X-gamers. Palmer is the author of Mind Vs. Target: Six Steps To Winning In The Clay Target Mind Field, a title Palmer describes as a “clinic in a book.” When, in conversation, some clays shooters insist they’ve never experienced the zone, Palmer counters by asking, “Have you ever had a moment of brilliance? [For a clays shooter] maybe it was just a few targets or a few stations where it was effortless, it was fun, it was adrenalized, and there was no thinking involved. It just seemed to happen. All your skills came to the surface, and you didn’t want to quit, but then [that feeling] does.
“The most important thing someone learns [from that experience] is that the zone has a feel attached to it,” says Palmer. “It’s a very special one. It’s individual. It’s not the same for everybody, and when you get that feel, you know you’re there.” Palmer’s exquisitely simple, nuts-and-bolts training program is a hands-on tool kit that, like Grant’s, empowers his students to enter and sustain their performance in the zone.
“It’s not something you can wait to have happen while you’re shooting because it usually goes wrong,” Palmer says. “But you can get it before you step into the station. Better yet, you can get it even before you arrive at the range. Even better yet, if you can live in it, then shift gears into a much more intense zone when you’re shooting, your game changes and, for many of my athletes, it’s life changing. It will apply to everything that you do.”
In Dawn Grant’s practice, hypnosis bypasses what she calls the “chatter, chatter, chatter” of the hyper-critical conscious mind. Her detailed programs for clays shooters ground them in relaxation hypnotherapy that establishes what she calls “selective thinking.” As she writes on her website, selective thinking gives the conscious mind a very different role to play, that of an alert, clear-minded gatekeeper that can step out of the way with suggestions consistent with what the student most wants.
One of the misconceptions about hypnotherapy is that of putting the subject into a trance that robs one of free will. Nothing could be further from the truth. Grant writes, “Suggestions enter your subconscious mind when you take the mental attitude of, ‘I like that suggestion, I know this is going to work for me.’ You are completely responsible for your own success. You are completely responsible for your own failure.”
And perhaps that’s the down-and-dirty secret of hypnosis. As Grant writes in one of her blogs, “OK, the truth be known...as a hypnotist, I cannot hypnotize you. Never have been able to and never will be able to. There is really only one form of hypnosis, and that is self-hypnosis. All hypnosis is self-hypnosis.
“What you need is a hypnotherapist to teach you how to do it, to be a facilitator... [who] shows you how to place yourself into a beautiful state of hypnosis that [affords] you the physical relaxation and mental alertness” that are hallmarks of being in the zone.
Grant’s training as a hypnotherapist, coupled with a studied background in the shotgun sports, allows her to design suggestions that relate specifically to helping shooters quiet the noise of a fickle, judgmental conscious mind and move into a “present in the now” performance state. The design helps them deal with distractions of all kinds, from noise in the gallery to the weather, a shooting cart’s function, obnoxious squad mates, an overbearing scorekeeper, and lost targets.
Grant laughs when she says, “We’re trying to bring the conscious mind to heel. Our goal is to enable it to learn in a healthy, constructive reflection that helps us make better choices,” before getting out of the way and letting us perform without conscious thought as we put our training and expertise to work.
All of Dawn Grant’s students start with a basic session, perhaps in person, perhaps over Skype, perhaps via an audio CD that she describes as “a widening of the conscious mind through breathing techniques and progressive relations...that take you into the alpha state, which is really what the zone is. Call it the gun mount practice...a teaching moment that you experience, practice, and talk with me about.”
From there Grant offers a variety of specific mental training packages involving different depths of instruction and, as one could imagine, different price points. For example, one product deals with suggestions developed specifically for maintained-lead shooters, a detailed exercise written from Grant’s own training from Woolley and Cherry.
Bob Palmer’s unique approach stems from his assertion that living and shooting in the zone is about assuming leadership of our own game, leadership in our own lives. Palmer says when we allow outside factors to influence us, we give over our leadership role and our place in the zone. “If you’re influenced by your squad mates, that will pull you out of your game. If you’re influenced by the top shooter there, that gets into your mindset and pulls you out of your game. When you go to a competition, watch the top shooters walk by. They’re into their own heads. They’re not influenced by anyone.”
Palmer maintains that it’s critical his students have clarity not only about what the zone feels like, but what it feels like in the no zone. “You’re chugging along, you’re in the zone, and it all starts to crash. You step back and say, “Oh...[squad mates, an uncooperative co-worker, circumstances with a spouse] have taken leadership from me. Pulled the rug out. I’m out of the zone.”
Palmer’s six-point building blocks are “a tool kit to turn that situation around, take back that situation.” Training includes each student doing a touchstone exercise, visualizing both zone and no-zone experiences for quick recognition of both, using each as a different sort of guide; learning to establish mileposts and set goals in perspective; practicing the power of physically and mentally “rehearsing” future events; being on the lookout for, and rewriting, self-talk scripts; as well as training tips for helping us not think.
Palmer prides himself on the practical, applied workshop nature of his teaching. As with Grant, he sees his role as a guide, teaching people how to take charge of their own ongoing learning. “Take that leadership model outside of shooting— to the classroom, to the boardroom , into family life,” says Palmer. “People may be very good at writing goals down, but are they learning how to make those goals bright, powerful, attractive? Do they have a tool kit for how to deal with difficult people, how to energize themselves, how to forget the bad and the ugly? It’s not about Bob being your coach for life. It’s the system being your coach for life.”
For Palmer, a major part of performing in the zone is treating our failures as opportunities. There’s a chapter in his book with the intriguing title “Love To Miss.” Ironic as it may seem to those steeped in the North American sporting tradition that we must despise losing, we must despise failure if we’re to have a champion’s mindset. Too often, hating one miss can detonate an avalanche of more. Palmer teaches techniques for helping us embrace and benefit from a miss. “If you don’t mind missing, you’re not going to miss twice,” he says. “It’s going to have no influence on you whatsoever. But if you hate missing, you’ll hate missing the second one even worse and go into that death spiral.”
Instead, Palmer insists that he wants his athletes “to get excited by those downturns. My wife used to always say to me, so and so went to a competition and didn’t do very well. What do I say to that? I get excited. They’ve revealed some faults, some flaws. They’ve now got the chance to work them out of their system. They have the opportunity to learn to reset.”
Palmer says that owning the zone is about “getting excited about missing or losing and treating it like a detective would,” about being free to reflect, to analyze, to plot how to get better. The zone, he says, “isn’t so much about accepting losing; it’s about having a passion for winning and having the tools to figure stuff out.”
Randy Lawrence is an NSCA Level I Instructor. He retired from Hocking College's School of Arts and Sciences as the institution's only three-time Excellence In Instruction Award winner. Email Randy atpointswingfetch@hotmail.com.
Always, there was the passion to help people. First it was children. After earning a degree in psychology, the job was as a children’s case manager at a mental health facility. There was involvement in Big Brothers and Big Sisters, then work at the state attorney’s office. And although she knew she was helping people, for Dawn Grant, “It just never felt big enough. I wanted big change, wanted to see results beyond the efforts of traditional therapy.”
Then came the book Many Lives, Many Masters by psychotherapist Dr. Brian Weiss, who turned to hypnotherapy to treat a woman wracked by phobias, anxiety, and chronic depression. “I couldn’t put the book down,” Grant remembers. “With in two weeks I was booking an airplane flight to begin training [in hypnotherapy].”
Grant sought out the best programs available, studying advanced techniques in hypnotherapy, convinced that “medical relaxation” held life-altering potential, especially for those open to, perhaps even desperate for, an alternative to traditional methods. Grant hung her shingle on Florida’s Amelia Island, seeing dramatic progress for those trying to quit smoking, lose weight, fight phobias, and combat anxiety issues. Almost immediately she fell on the advantages in mental training for athletes. Her clients now include elite performers in golf, more than two dozen PGA touring pros, including the great Vijay Singh, whose work with Grant was instrumental in his run to the 2008 FedEx Cup title.
Dawn’s led workshops at Hank Haney’s prestigious golf academy, and NSCA All-Americans Wendell Cherry and John Woolley, as well as shooters attending Team USA’s Super School, are among the stars from the clays shooting sports who have studied with her. Those dedicated to the program have reaped the advantages of harnessing their mental game to what Grant touts as the power of “selective thinking...recovering from the effects of fear-based consciousness.” And while that may read like new-age psyche-speak, the vast majority of us are all too familiar with fear-based consciousness.
“It’s the analytical mind that wants to chew up everything,” Grant says. It’s the inner judge and jury that reminds us we’re really not very good. That we’ve never had luck at a particular club, always struggle with rabbit targets, can't shoot when squadded with so-and-so, have never performed well a) in a late-afternoon flight, b) in windy conditions, c) on true pairs thrown below the stand, d) in shoot-offs, e) since bumping up to AA class....
“The reality is that fear creates tension in the body,” Grant notes. “All these thoughts— repeat, repeat, repeat— come down to our subconscious. Our body is reacting to them instantly and automatically. [Fear-based thinking] inhibits the flow of a higher energy, our true capabilities, our optimum level of performance and effect fear-based results in our lives.”
“Your character is underneath a microscope in competition,” Grant points out. For many of us, trying to be at our best in front of others “magnifies insecurities, confidence issues, performance anxieties. Think how fear, anger, worries affect your performance, how they get you out of being in the present. You want to be 'in the zone,’ to let go, to go beyond...allowing your mechanics to naturally flow from your subconscious mind, releasing fears, doubts, and insecurities.”
That’s what makes hypnotherapy such a great fit for mental training in the clays shooting sports. The world’s top wingshooting coaches steep their clients in deep practice, steeping their stroke in efficient fundamentals until those tenets become second nature. Grant laughs. “When a shooter says, 'l want to learn to shoot from the subconscious,’ I have my hand up high.” Just as repetition grounds shooters’ best move to the target, “thought patterns get repeated, too, and if reinforced are habits.” Many clays shooting athletes wrestle with a faulty belief system.
“Traditional therapy deals on the conscious level,” Grant points out. “Hypnosis accesses the subconscious directly.” For those open to the training, she says, “The change seems almost miraculous because we went straight to the source [of the ingrained habit].”
“In my world, it’s not about the gun, target lines, lead, gun insertion— that’s all mechanics,” Grant says. “What I do has zero to do with mechanics. My concerns are fears. Anxieties and insecurities, anger, guilt, resentment— how those play out against the backdrop of our squad mates, the target setter, the ref, the weather, the scorecard.”
Dawn mentions that many short-term “solutions” are simply avoidance behavior. “Wearing double headsets, not speaking to anyone, avoiding the leaderboard, 'forgetting’ a miss,” she says, "doesn’t address progress. Rather than avoiding or burying something, we can learn how to process [an event] as something valuable, maybe implement immediate change” that can help us on the next target, the next station, the next tournament.
Those who study with Dawn Grant, either on Amelia Island or through various innovative distance learning programs, begin by learning about the relationship between the conscious and subconscious minds. For most students, that information enables them to take better advantage of the notion that the guided suggestions of relaxation therapy, through hypnosis, is, in Grant’s words, "a tool in which they can observe and learn about their mind.” Part of that initial work is debunking the myths from popular culture about what hypnosis really is.
Grant says that hypnosis is nothing more than "a natural mental state of focus that enables a person to accept suggestion at a subconscious level of the mind.” She maintains that hypnosis by passes "hyper-critical thinking and allows for new information to be accepted by your subconscious: new perceptions, new beliefs, a new understanding based on suggestions given to you during guided sessions, through experience, and on the 'homework’ students practice between sessions.”
"There are tons of misconceptions about hypnosis,” says Grant, waving away popular notions that hypnosis is some sort of ninja mind trick or Howard Stern bit that reduces students into robots under the sway of the controlling therapist. "Truthfully, every human being goes into a state of hypnosis every hour and a half to two hours, every single day. It’s a natural process for your brain. We call it 'day-dreaming,’ 'zoning out,’ or 'spacing out.’
"A good example is when we’re driving a car. You know how to drive a car; your subconscious already has this down pat. Your conscious mind is free to wander off. You’re not unconscious. You’re not asleep. You’re not a robot. You’re not under someone else’s control.” Grant notes that even in this relaxed state, good drivers are "completely aware. The subconscious knows at all times what’s going on around you,” allowing us to instantly respond to road stimuli that require a fast refocus of our conscious attention.
“We also pass through this state every single time you fall asleep, every single time you wake up,” says Grant. "It’s that deeply relaxed state between wide awake and sleeping.” That’s the place her training will help students "recover from the analytical mind that has formed conclusions and formulated stories, most of them negative.... It’s a cleansing of the mind.”
In the early stages of her mental training, Grant serves as a student’s guide. In the beginning, she leads relaxation exercises into this natural state of mind where change of the conscious mind is rooted in schooling the subconscious. But for the techniques to become part of what she calls "an invisible tool belt” for continued growth, students must learn to manage them on their own and realize that the program is ongoing.
“All hypnosis is ultimately self-hypnosis,” says Grant. "You are in control. You simply learn how to allow yourself to go into that state.”
It’s obvious in talking with Dawn that she understands the game of sporting clays and the circumstances it presses on shooters. Part of her teaching using hypnotherapy helps clients develop what she calls "post-segment” and “pre-segment” sequences.
The post-segment training comes earlier in the program. It’s about learning to process what’s just happened, be it a “good” performance or “bad.” It uses details as touchstones: stepping out of the cage with an open shotgun, stowing the gun, getting in the cart, or gathering gear to walk to the next peg. Post-segment sequences carry shooters to what Grant calls “intermission,” a respite that allows the shooter to “have fun, be pre sent, enjoy the experience. You’re done processing the past, not thinking about the outcome [of the station just shot] or the next station.”
Grant chuckles. “It’s about being fully present, free of the suffering that comes from cruddy thinking. It’s about supervising and objectively managing the conscious mind in the face of all that stimuli. It’s learning to shoot, to compete from an empowered position.”
The post-segment sequence and intermission feed into the pre-shot routine that Grant says “starts the moment the person approaches the station and begins to draw conclusions about what [he or she is] seeing. The squad before you is frustrated. They’re throwing empty shells in disgust. The ref lets it be known that nobody’s run the station. Maybe it’s the target; maybe you are carrying around preconceived ideas about teal, for example.”
Grant-trained students practice techniques toward becoming “neutral data collectors” as they approach a new station and design their strategy for taking on the target. They learn how to slip into what Grant calls “a trusting subconscious...present in each body part and element as [they] attentively set [their] stance.”
Among the most empowering aspects of Dawn Grant's mental training through hypnotherapy is her regimen for enhancing concentration and managing what may be sporting clays’ most controversial f-word: f-o-c-u-s. “It’s not the Superman laser thing,” she cautions, “staring harder downrange, staring harder at the target.”
In part two of this series, we’ll talk with Grant during the 2015 NSCA US Open and share her approach for what she calls “purposeful, positive, productive planning” for targets easy or hard. Meanwhile, you can review her Peak Sports Performance website and creative learning platforms at www.dawngrant.com.
Randy Lawrence is an NSCA Level I Instructor. He retired from Hocking College’s School of Arts and Sciences as the institution’s only three-time Excellence In Instruction Award winner. Email Randy at pointswingfetch@hotmail.com.
Grant, who works with golfers through a combination of mental training and hypnotherapy, is in Augusta this week. She has worked with about a dozen players on the PGA and LPGA tours, including Cameron Beckman and Laura Diaz.
Singh, the 2000 Masters Tournament winner, is her most famous client. He overcame his putting woes to triumph at Augusta National Golf Club and to win the PGA Championship twice, but late in the 2008 season he was suffering from lack of confidence on the putting greens.
He had won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, but then missed the cut in the next two events before the FedEx Cup playoffs began.
"They called me, and I worked with him several hours each day specific to putting," Grant said. "That's where we came up with, 'I'm the best putter in the world.' I said no more talking about your putting problem."
She convinced Singh -- and his caddie, trainer and others around him -- that he should be referred to as the best putter in the world.
Singh went on to win the first two payoff events, The Barclays and the Deutsche Bank Championship, and captured the 2008 FedEx Cup title.
"This is the world's best putter. What a week! Especially for me," Singh said in a testimonial for Grant. "I'm just thankful for what happened last week, and I am grateful for the sessions we had."
Grant, who is based in Amelia Island,Fla., said she believes mental training can be useful in all facets of life.
"We've got an extremely powerful mind, but nobody gives us an owner's manual," she said. "When people go to a therapist, people say there's something wrong with you. How about there's something right with you?"
In addition to one-on-one sessions, Grant has released apps for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch that are available for purchase at her website, dawngrant.com. The gold apps focus on confidence, putting and the short game.
Her relationship with Singh ended shortly after his success in 2008, and he has not won a PGA Tour event since.
"Vijay saw huge results and now Dawn doesn't get a phone call," she said. "He believed that he was fine. That is a big, big no-no."
Singh said after a practice round Tuesday at Augusta National that his putting was "very good."
Grant says that, like a gold swing, "the mental skills need to be practiced."
"The good news with my session is that they are life skills," she said. "I teach my clients that at every waking moment they have an opportunity to practice them."
fOlder players such as six-time Masters winner Jack Nicklaus don't understand the attraction between today's players and specialty coaches.
"Today the guys are with a strength coach; they go with a nutritionist; they go with their workout guy; they have got five or six guys traveling with them," Nicklaus said. "I couldn't afford that."
"I'm not trying to put it down; it's a different generation. It's a different day. But I really think guys would be better players if they didn't run back all the time and try to figure out their own problems."
Nicklaus said he consulted a pretty good person when he needed advice.
"My wife," he said. "She has a great head on her shoulders."
Reach John Boyette at (706) 823-3337 or john.boyette@augustachronicle.com.
