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You could be making a big mistake blaming your mishits and mishaps on your golf swing?

No matter how much time and effort you have been spending, grooving your golf swing to perfection, you still will not achieve your goal if you are using unsuitable or defective golf clubs, will you?

Now is the time for you to consider the following Golf Tip – this covers an examination of your golf clubs quality.

If you plan on buying used golf clubs as beginner’s tools, scrutinizing before purchasing is a must. The clubheads, the shafts, and the grips are golf club parts that should pass inspection first, before landing a decent spot in your golf equipment locker.

Another excellent golf tip that will help you when buying a used set of golf clubs, try and ensure you have set consistency. If all the clubs have the same grip, shaft and heads then this will add consistency to your golf swing. It will also help a lot if you check the price of new clubs versus used clubs.

A golf tip for a golfer that plans to regrip his clubs – Be cautious. This is because the grips are the only point of contact you have on the club during your swing. If the grips are too thin or too fat, this will make a big difference to your swing. Before carrying out the regripping, you need to know the core grip of the club and your hands grip size. To determine your core size grip, measure the diameter of the butt of the shaft you’re going to re-grip. The shaft’s diameter should match the grip’s core diameter. In determining your hands grip, the available size grips are regular, mid-size, oversize and jumbo. Use only the best re-gripping materials that will provide optimum performance for your golf clubs.

Another golf tip is that using ill-fitted clubs will be an obstacle to your golf playing success. A golfer must consider his or her body type in choosing the best-fitting equipment to support and carry out the golf swing effectively. Too heavy or too light clubs will result in changes to your swing angles when carrying out your golf swing. With the resulting poor results. This will be avoided if you select the best fitting equipment available.

Custom golf club fitting makes a better option than just buying a new set of golf clubs. Getting custom fitting golf clubs is a golf tip that translates to a very worthy investment. The uniqueness of each person is attributed to the need of this way of buying new golf clubs. A custom fitting produces golf clubs that specifically suit the height, strength, swing characteristics and clubhead speed of the golfer.

The type of club shaft also helps in predicting whether you’ll do well in a game or you won’t. There’s a choice between a steel club shaft and a graphite-made club shaft. This golf tip aims to make you realize which type of golf club shaft will benefit your game.

Observations show that the steel club shafts are more preferred by professional golfers while graphite shafts have become more popular with women, senior players and beginners. Steel shafts are less expensive than graphite shafts though.

One more golf tip that could help you is that the golf clubs in your bag must suit your skill level. Since various skill levels need various golf clubs, it won’t be wise to just use or bring a golf club that is just lying around. And, don’t ever forget about the maximum golf club load your bag is allowed to hold during a round. You can only carry a maximum of 14 golf clubs in your bag. No more.

Aside from your skill level contemplation, your mastery of a certain golf club and being comfortable with using it must also be put into consideration in deciding which golf club to hit.

The correct combination of the right swing and a good choice of equipment will better arm you to become the best golfer you could ever be.

Visualization techniques help improve your game. All good players do it, whether consciously or unconsciously. PGA pros, for example, visualize every shot they take. It’s the key to their success. I also encourage it in my individual golf instruction sessions. Below are a couple of visualization techniques that I’ve written about in my golf tips.

To improve your scores quickly, try developing a good mental picture of your swing. Too many recreational golfers have a poor mental picture of their swing. Hence, their swings look awkward and disjointed.

This awkward, disjointed swing isn’t solely the player’s fault. It’s also the fault of the way we teach golf. When I give golf lessons, I often work on individual elements of the swing, breaking it down into discrete parts so we can focus on correcting it.

Recently, for example, I worked with a player on completing a full shoulder turn before initiating her downswing. We worked on it for a couple of sessions. You can bet she thought of her shoulder when she played her next round.

This approach, as golf instruction techniques go, works well. However, it encourages you to think of your swing piece-meal, instead of as one fluid motion. When we practice, we also encourage the piecemeal picture of our swing by focusing on correcting individual swing faults one at a time, instead of concentrating on rhythm and tempo.

There are two basic components to your swing: your trunk, supported by your legs and feet, and the unit of your hands, arms, and shoulders. Your trunk moves on a fairly horizontal plan. Your hands, arms, and shoulders, on the other hand, move on a relatively vertical plane. The trunk is the hub of your swing, around which the hands, arms, and shoulder component moves.

A good way to think of this is arrangement is to imagine your trunk turning within the confines of a barrel, while the club moves up and down along the rim of the wheel. As your body rotates to the right (for right handers), the clubhead moves up along the rim of the wheel to the top of your backswing. As your body rotates to the left, your club moves down the rim of the wheel and back up the other side as you complete your follow-through.

In reality, your swing is not a perfect circle, since the dynamics of motion require you to change planes. Nor does your trunk move in perfect rotation. You have to have a slight lateral motion to the left. But the barrel concept is a fairly good way of thinking about your swing as a whole. It encourages the major components to work together in harmony.

Another technique that can help your swing is visualizing the type of shot you want to hit. Establish a pre-flight target line in your mind before addressing the ball. Retain this image when hitting. Then, try copying it with your actual ball flight. This visualization technique forces you to think about the target line, not your mechanics.

However, if you have to think about something during your swing, try thinking about a phrase promoting a smooth takeaway. Slow and easy or slow and smooth are good swing thoughts. Anything that produces a nice takeaway works well.

Why? Because the takeaway is the key to the overall shape and tempo of your swing. Tempo is the speed of your swing. Actually, the time it takes you to complete your swing, from beginning to end. We all have a natural tempo. Try maintaining it when hitting a club, whether you’re hitting a driver or a sand wedge.

Individual golf lessons emphasize discrete parts of your swing. Visualization can overcome this. It focuses you on the harmony of your swing. In fact, you should get in the habit of thinking, “visualize to realize” on every shot. Golfers with single digit golf handicaps do.

Despite many reassurances, some amateur golfers still dread golf strength training exercises.

The problem would appear to be the presence of equipment like dumb bells in this sort of strength training. Not everybody is an exercise expert and therefore many people cannot tell the difference between body building exercise and strength building exercises.

The two are very different. They are so different that the difference can be compared to the difference there is between day and night.

Body building has got no part to play in golf strength training exercises. If anything this sort of exercise routine would damage a golfer’s game rather than improve it.

One of the effects of a body building exercise program that includes nothing else is that it causes the body to lose flexibility. Flexibility is very important in golf and that is precisely the reason why stretch exercises are a part of any good and genuine golf strength training exercise program.

In body building the emphasis is on lifting increasingly heavier weights so as to get the muscles to grow in size as quickly as possible. A body building program is usually rigorous and definitely not for everybody.

Muscle strength-building exercises using dumb bells are the exercises that are useful to golfers. Dumb bells play a huge role in golf strength training exercise programs. Only that the weight lifting program is very different from the one used in body building.

Much lighter weights are used and lifted up and down many more times than is the case in weight lifting. Still the sessions are much shorter than body building sessions.

Results have shown clearly that when this golf strength training exercise program is combined with stretch exercises, the improvement witnessed in any person’s game has to be seen to be believed. The results of golf strength training exercise programs are usually tremendous.

With the ever-increasing popularity of golf among both men and women, there’s a constant quest for the next gadget that will help players improve at the game. And – as is the case in almost any market – there’s no shortage of companies offering gadgets and gizmos promising just that. So how do you know what will work and what won’t? Here are some things you can do.

Listen to friends, pros and fellow golfers. There’s no doubt that you’ll get some bad advice, so listen to the entire statement about a particular item. For example, if someone tells you that he wasted $20 on a gadget that was supposed to help his swing, find out why it didn’t work. It could be that the very reason it didn’t work for your friend would be the reason it does work for you. For example, if your friend is battling a consistent slice and your problem is distance, that gadget may help you out – even though it was no help to your friend.

Another point about golf gadgets is to evaluate what the product claims to do and how. Remember that golf is a sport that requires time, practice and effort. There are no “magic” gadgets or golf tips that will suddenly make your game improve. If you find those gadgets that make outlandish claims, be wary. Your grandmother had some good advice when she said, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

Before you buy golf gadgets that are supposed to help, consider how they work. It may be that a putting game or some other video gadget is a great idea, but only if you have what it takes to make it work. Don’t buy expensive equipment to evaluate your swing if it requires more hard drive space than you have.

If you are the typical enthusiastic golfer who thinks about the game all the time, even when you are in the office, then this golf instruction tip for exercises in your office will be of great help.

But first it is important to appreciate the value of stretching exercises, which is what the golf instruction tip in this article is all about.

The golf swing is resisted by the human body because it is a very unnatural movement, as far as the human body is concerned.

Golf-specific stretching exercises help a great deal in conditioning your body to adapt to the golf swing as much as possible. The idea is to make the body comfortable during the golf swing so that you greatly reduce on its’ awkwardness. In simple terms the more comfortable your body is during a golf swing, the better the quality of your golf swing will be.

This golf instruction tip is also for all those terribly busy business executives who have great problems creating the time to play their golf, let alone having some extra time to spare for exercises at a gym.

Just 15 seconds at a time is adequate to execute this golf instruction tip that is bound to greatly improve your game.

Actually there are numerous types of stretches you can do in the office.

For example the seated twist has had an amazing record in reducing and at times even eliminating back pain. It has also quickly improved many golfers’s back swing and follow through range of motions. The result has mostly been a much higher club head speed and greater distance.

To do this golf instruction tip on exercising, you need to start off seated upright in your office chair, with chest high and back straight. You can then reach behind you with one arm, which will rotate your upper body. While staying erect, twist as far back as you can go and then hold for about 10 seconds.

You can then twist the other way and repeat. Go both sides 2-3 times, remembering to hold for 10 seconds, each time. This golf instruction tip will reap many rewards on the course.

I often hear from amateur golfers about how training with weights makes them feel “tight” and it ruin’s their golf swing. Traveling on the PGA Tour I disagree with this point of view completely. It is well known that the top players on the PGA Tour; Tiger, Vijay, and Phil workout regularly. They praise the benefits of their workouts in the development of their golf swing. I am a first hand observer of what they do in the gym on the days they play.

As a result, I see the reasons why amateurs do not workout as excuses rather than legitimate reasons. I would guess that the difficulty amateurs have with weight training or working out in relation to the game of golf is how to do it correctly. This article will discuss how to properly workout to improve your golf game.

Weight training is not bad for the golfer if done correctly.

Weight training done incorrectly is bad for the golfer.

This is where the amateur gets sidetracked, frustrated, and ends up thinking weight training is bad for golf. A typical weight training program found at many health clubs can be detrimental to the golf swing. These types of programs can make you feel “tight”, adversely affect your golf game, and leave you frustrated.

The reason why these “generic” training programs are counter productive to golf is their inability take into account what is required of the body in relation to the golf swing.

Golfers need to be very aware of a few important concepts when weight training in relation to the golf swing. First and foremost, any training program for golf needs to be cross-specific. A cross-specific training program develops the body to the positions, movements, and requirements of the sport you participate in.

Granted everyone’s swing is slightly different but the base components are the same. All golfers rotate around a fixed spine angle, transfer weight forward and back during the swing, generate clubhead speed, attempt to square the club at impact, and complete the swing in a balanced finish position.

The main goal of a cross-specific training program is develop your body physically around the golf swing. This induces what is termed a transfer of training effect onto the golf course. Simplified this states that the training you do in the gym pays off on the course in a positive manner.

Designing a weight training program for golf is a simple process if done correctly. The best place to start is with flexibility. Golfers need to be flexible. The golf swing requires you to move the club through a long range of motion, thus requiring your body to be very flexible. Areas of the body that typically require large amounts of flexibility for golf are; the hamstrings, lower back, hips, and shoulders. Oftentimes the amateur’s swing can improve from just adding flexibility exercises to their training program.

Another aspect of a cross-specific training program for golf is balance training. Balance is the ability of the body to control its’ center of gravity and body parts efficiently. Balance exercises address both the nervous and muscular systems of the body creating greater efficiency in its ability to control body movements and center of gravity.

After you have looked at the flexibility and balance components of a training program for golf, it is time to shift gears to the “weight training” side of the equation. The golf swing requires the development of strength within the muscles of the body. You need muscular strength to maintain a fixed spine angle, create an efficient weight transfer, and develop clubhead speed.

The development of strength in the muscular system is where the amateur commonly makes mistakes. Remember all the exercises in a cross-specific training program for golf must revolve around the movements of the swing, and create a benefit to your play on the course.

Typically, strength training is thought of as a group of exercises that create “bulk” and build the “beach muscles”. Bench pressing 300 and developing biceps like Arnold does not mean you’ll drive the golf ball 300 yards.

Developing strength for the golf swing is very different from “football” or “bodybuilding” strength exercises. The golf swing uses the whole the body, from feet to fingertips. As a result, golfers need to strengthen the entire body cross-specifically to the movements of the golf swing. A key to strength training exercises for golf is to integrate the entire body into the exercise patterns, rather than isolating a specific muscle (a.k.a. bicep curls and bench press).

For example, bicep curls may make you look great for the beach or fill out your golf shirt, but you do not swing the golf club with your biceps only. You use your entire body, and as a result the strength training part of your program, must incorporate the entire body. Exercises such as ball crunches, Russian twists, single leg squats are beneficial strength training exercises for golf.

Completing the template of a golf specific training program is endurance training. The golf swing is a repetitive movement. In a single round of golf the swing is repeated numerous times. A week on Tour might find players swinging the golf club well over 1000’s times. As a result, it is necessary to develop the endurance capacities of your muscular system.

Developing endurance in your muscular system allows you to repeat a movement over and over again without getting tired, a key component of the golf swing. Once the body becomes tired, the ability to swing the golf club properly becomes impeded resulting in miss hits, lost distance, and poor shots. Bottom line, you need to make the same swing consistently to score consistently. Endurance training assists in this process.

To summarize; weight training and working out is beneficial to the golfer, if and only if it is done correctly. The wrong choice in the type of training program, exercise selection, or even exercise sequence can hinder your golf game. Choosing a training program that is cross-specific to the golf swing and induces a transfer of training effect onto the golf course is best. This type of program incorporates; flexibility, balance, strength, endurance, and power exercises relative to the golf swing providing benefits to your body and golf game.

Many golfers are not aware of the rotator cuff and its function in golf. This group of muscles around the shoulder is crucial to the golf swing. Not surprisingly, the shoulder is one of the areas most often affected by the golf swing. Many golfers fall prey to strain and injury in this area.

Since most golfers don’t realize the importance of the rotator cuff area, they don’t do any conditioning to strengthen and help prevent injury. By using a golf fitness routine that includes strength and flexibility exercises, many problems with the rotator cuff can not only be improved but prevented as well. Increasing flexibility and strengthening these muscles, will help to increase power and control in your swing.

The rotator cuff is the area of the shoulder that is a supporting and strengthening structure of the shoulder joint. It is made up of the capsule of the shoulder joint blended with tendons and muscles as they pass to the capsule or across it to insert on the head of the humerus, the bone of the arm. Golf can result in what is known as a repetitive strain injury to the rotator cuff. Repeated movement of the shoulder causes it. The sheaths that cover the muscle tendons can swell and press on the nerves causing pain. Tendonitis, bursitis, and tears in the rotator cuff are common injuries for golfers.

To improve your power and control of your golf swing as well as prevent injury, it is a good idea to do regular stretches and exercises designed specifically for the rotator cuff.

This conditioning should be done on a regular basis both before play and in between rounds. It is especially important to warm up the rotator cuff area before exercise. This helps to increase blood flow to the deeper muscles and prepares them for activity.

One simple way to warm up is by holding the arms at should level. Do at least 20 circles with both arms. The next step should be stretching exercises to help reduce tension in these muscles. Three areas should be stretched: the back, the front and the under side of the rotator cuff. Once the stretches have been completed, exercises to strengthen these muscles should be performed. After exercise, golf practice or rounds, be sure to cool down these muscles with stretching.

By simply practicing a few stretches and exercises, you’ll not only help to prevent injuries, you’ll see a more powerful and controlled golf swing.

We have all heard the word tempo in relation to the golf swing. Announcers on television speak of the “great” tempo Ernie Els has in his golf swing. What does tempo mean to the amateur and their golf swing?

Tempo in the Golf Swing

Tempo in the golf swing is a combination of many parts. Tempo is part timing in all aspects of the golf swing. It is part sequencing of each position within the golf swing, and it is part “feel”. Putting all these golf swing parts together creates tempo in your own golf swing.

Interconnecting each phase of the golf swing; address, take-away, backswing, transition, downswing, impact, and follow through is one part of tempo, Performing each of these phases with the correct timing is also tempo. And finally “feel” for the clubhead is part of tempo.

We can probably say tempo is the end goal of all our practice and time spent on our golf swing. Once we have developed tempo in the golf swing, there is definitely a level of mastery within it.

How Do We Develop Tempo in the Golf Swing?

A great question that does not have a simple answer: Developing tempo in the golf swing is a task that requires patience, practice, and time. There really are no short cuts to developing it within your golf swing. One practice session at the driving range will not do it. The use of a single training aide will not get you there. The implementation of a golf fitness program will not achieve this task on its own.

I say this because developing a PGA Tour type golf swing requires a “basket of tools” in your arsenal. Developing tempo and a silky smooth golf swing requires you to:

§ Receive proper instruction on the fundamentals of the golf swing

§ Maintain a consistent practice schedule with your golf swing

§ Use swing drills to develop every as of your golf swing

§ The possible implementation of training aides into your practice sessions

§ Implementing of golf fitness program to develop your body around the golf swing.

The “basket of tools” listed above put together can lead you to developing great tempo in your golf swing. It requires a comprehensive approach in which no short cuts can be made. Let’s take a look at the bullet points above to get a better understanding of how to go about this process.

Proper Instruction in the Mechanics of the Golf Swing

Learning the fundamentals of the golf swing is key to developing tempo. This can be achieved through quality instruction. This will allow your body to learn the nuances of the swing. This is the first step in developing tempo.

Consistent Practice of the Golf Swing

As they say practice makes perfect. In order for your body to learn and be able to repeat to proper mechanics of the golf swing, you must practice on a consistent basis. The body learns biomechanical movements through repetition. The golf swing is no different. Repetition through proper practice session is the second key to developing tempo.

Swing Drills to Develop the Golf Swing

The golf swing as a whole is one of the most intricate athletic movements to perform. In its entirety, it is a very difficult movement to perform and master. It is best when learning the golf swing to break it down into parts. Breaking the golf swing down into segments allows you more easily to master each phase of the swing. This is accomplished through the implementation of golf swing drills. Swing drills break the swing down into manageable parts.

Training Aides in Association with Your Golf Swing Drills

Training aides assist the body in developing the golf swing. Think of training aides as “training wheels” on a bicycle. They simply help your body learn certain movements and positions associated with the golf swing.

Implementing a Golf Fitness Program

Your body swings the golf club and performs the biomechanics of the golf swing. In order to perform the biomechanics of the golf swing correctly. It is necessary for your body to have certain levels of flexibility, balance, endurance, strength, and power. If your body is lacking any of this aforementioned list learning the biomechanics of the golf swing correctly will be very difficult. A golf fitness program is the final key to developing tempo in your golf swing.

Summary

To summarize the development of tempo in your golf swing requires a “basket of tools”. Tempo requires; proper instruction on the golf swing, consistent practice of your golf swing mechanics, the utilization of swing drills, training aides, and a golf fitness program. Put all of these aspects together and a golf swing with tempo will be yours.

If you’re tired of golf instruction magazines, check out the Golf Channel (TGC) cable station and its popular Web site (www.thegolfchannel.com). Available through cable, satellite, and wireless companies, the TGC offers enough instructional material to more than satisfy both the beginner and the scratch player.

The Golf Channel

The Golf Channel is the brainchild of Joseph Gibbs and Arnold Palmer, who co-founded it in 1991. It offers a unique blend of golf information, news, features, and instruction.

The Golf Channel offers TV specials, documentaries, celebrity interviews, movies, video tours, lifestyle segments, and original programming, including Golf Central, a nightly golf news show and What’s in My Bag. They also have a series focusing on golf equipment, accessories, and manufacturers.

It also offers live tour coverage. Its first live televised tournament was the Dubai Dessert Classic in 1991. Back then, it offered limited tournament coverage. Today, it features extensive coverage of the Nationwide, European, Canadian, and Champions tours, as well as the PGA Tour, LPGA tour, PGA of America, and USGA.

In addition, the Golf Channel offers golf instruction and golf tips designed to lower golf handicaps. Academy Live is a weekly call-in show that gives viewers an opportunity to improve their game by consulting with top teaching pros. Playing Lessons from the Pros provides golf lessons and golf tips from professional players on their off-day practice rounds. Golf Channel Academy offers golf instruction designed to help improve every aspect of your game.

The Golf Channel Web Site

More interactive than the cable channel, the TGC Web site offers its own share of golf instruction including In Their Bag, which looks at what clubs the winner of the latest tour event carried during the win. One such look included a review of what Phil Mickelson carried when he won the Master’s a couple of weeks ago.

The Web site also provides online instruction in the form of articles written by teaching pros throughout the country. The articles cover a wide variety of topics, from the set-up and sand game to the mental game and the basics of golf fitness. They even cover swing theory.

But the Web Site’s most unique feature is Game Tracker Pro. An innovative online instruction tool, it provides in-depth game analysis and pinpoints major playing problems. In addition, it provides a USGA Handicap Index based on your state golf association’s regulations, a calendar, and an e-mail center, called My Inbox, where you can send and receive e-mails.

The analysis tool is user-friendly. It’s based on details you provide each time you play a round of golf. First, you select the course you played at. If the site’s databank has information on the course, a score card with all pertinent information, like the course’s rating, slope, and type of tee, appears on screen. If the course is not in the databank, you can provide the information yourself.

Next you input the round’s key details, such as the score on a hole, number of fairways hit, and distance of your drives, onto the scorecard. There’s room for information on the total number of putts you made, any penalty strokes you received and the number of up and downs you completed.

After the information is saved, Game Tracker Pro analyzes your rounds to see where your problems lie, providing you with a sense of which instructional articles you should read and what you need to work on to improve.

Game Tracker Pro basic is free of charge. You just sign up to take advantage of its features. The site also offers a chance to become a premium member for about $30 annually. The benefits of a premium membership include all the tools of TGC Basic, plus access to other instructional content, such as the site’s Video Vault, which contains more than 2500 golf videos.

Conclusion

Improving your game just got a little easier thanks to the Golf Channel’s help. Offering features like Game Tracker Pro, a practical tool to help pinpoint and correct weaknesses, the cable channel and Web site provide enough top notch golf instruction, golf tips, and/or golf lessons to satisfy all levels of play, from beginners to experienced players.

Before focusing on the subject of developing confidence with ones golf swing I want you all to think about this notion; you cannot just “Think” yourself a wonderful golf swing. Otherwise, we would all just think about pots of gold arriving in our front rooms and we’d all be rich. However, the pots of gold do not arrive just by thinking about them, likewise, our golf swing does not transform into that of Tiger Woods just by thought alone. Something needs to be done to get confident about that golf swing. So, this is the first notion that I want you to think about before I talk about building a powerful level of confidence in your golf swing.

When anyone is developing a new confident golf swing, there needs to be an element of action that is taken to alter and update the golf swing properly and effectively. Something new needs to be done enough times for the unconscious mind to learn it.

The early success philosophers and gurus like Stephen Covey and Napoleon Hill recognised that in order for a new behaviour to happen unconsciously and automatically, it needs to be done for 21 consecutive days. So then the new behaviour is learned thoroughly by the unconscious mind and your confidence in your golf swing can begin to happen on auto-pilot. So, any confidence with your golf swing needs some conscious effort and repeated application for your new confident golf swing to happen unconsciously.

Now, when you have a new way of doing things, the other, old, unwanted way of doing things doesn’t just wither away instantly. It remains in the bank. If you were confined to a wheelchair, the muscles in your legs would begin to experience atrophy, the same way that when certain parts of your brain are not used, they experience atrophy; this is why it is difficult for us learn languages when we are much older and school kids find it a bit easier; that part of our brain has not been used for a long time.

The old golf swing needs significant time to experience atrophy. Imagine that here and now as you read this, your unconscious mind has carved out a distinct way of you swinging your golf club and this way is well defined by repitition from the past. Every time you step up to perform your golf swing, your unconscious mind carries on down that well trodden pathway that you have always gone down; your golf swing is the same. It is the only way that it knows and is the easiest route to take.

When you create an alternative, confident new golf swing, you are carving out a new pathway that needs to be trodden down and paved well several times, so that your unconscious knows it is there and knows that it can take this route in certain circumstances, events and situations.

Ok. So then with repeatedly taking the new pathway, the old pathway can begin to overgrow and have its own atrophy. However, we all know how easy it is to unearth an old pathway and drift back to our old golf swing; if we allow ourselves to go back along that way, it can begin to get carved out again.

These notions can form the foundation of any programme of change. However we are focussing on your golf swing here today and how to develop enhanced confidence with your golf swing.

When I first became involved with the world of hypnosis, NLP and personal development, I read a wonderful book by a man called Dr Maxwell Maltz entitled “Psycho-cybernetics” that formed the basis of many modern ideas as to how we understand personalities. Dr Maltz was a plastic surgeon and he found that if he changed the way people looked, often it changed their personality too. When people looked different, they also felt different. Often people that had lacked confidence, were transformed into more confident, outgoing people who lived life with more zest.

What perplexed Dr Maltz is that some of clients did not seem to get happier. Some, whose appearance had changed a lot, didn’t seem to change their feelings. They still felt lacking in confidence.

So what Dr Maltz concluded was that cosmetic surgery would not benefit the client if they had a poor image of themselves. His solution was to create a visualisation technique that helped them to change their inner self-image. He had some wonderful results. So when the clients changed the way they felt about themselves, they became happier and more fulfilled and their confidence grew. You know that when you feel great about your golf swing, your golf swing is better and you are more competent with your golf swing. The technique is simple, here it is;

Firstly, imagine your golf swing as you would ideally like your golf swing to be. Think about how you would look if you were as happy and confident as you wanted to be with your golf swing. How do you walk? What do you wear? What expressions are on your face? How do you move? Take all the time necessary for this, to really get an idea of how you are when you are confident with your golf swing.

Secondly, when you know what you will look like, make a film clip inside your mind, in your imagination of yourself being happy, confident and deeply self-assured with your golf swing.

Thirdly, imagine yourself stepping into that film, imagine seeing through those eyes, hearing through those ears, and feel those confident feelings, think to yourself; how do I know the confident feelings? Where in my body are they? Enjoy feeling and being exactly how you want to be.

Lastly for this exercise, imagine that when you get up tomorrow you awaken as that ideal you, feeling this good and imagine your golf swing going as you want it to and be confident about your golf swing.

Remember what I said at the beginning, you must use this technique over and over in order to get the most from it and really make yourself a confident golf swing. Look out for part two of this article of getting confident with your golf swing.