We’re Back! Play Your Best Golf: The ADDMATT Program (Part 1)

 

Hello everyone, and let me just say Happy 2018! I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday season and is off to a fantastic year. I took some time away from these articles to really think of some great content, and better articulate what it is I want to say to you (the reader). What I came up with are a few series of articles, mostly geared around helping you play your best golf in 2018. These are not blow your brain out of the water concepts, but simple concepts that are really going to challenge how you think, how you view your own game, and also how you view golf as a whole. I’m extremely passionate about these articles, and they tie into my coaching programs, and how I view golf instruction. No, not every article I write is going to be instruction related, but getting you to play your best golf is what I’m passionate about. If you think you can’t get better, that’s nonsense! I know you can get better, I ask you to believe in yourself the same why that I believe in you. So, cheers to making 2018 your best year yet, and without further ado, onto the column…

Let’s talk about why we are all “The 2^nd Ball Pro”. You know what I mean, you stand over that birdie putt, read it ten ways to Sunday, and you miss it by a foot. You then drag it back one handed, and you knock it right in the hole. You’ve done it right? You’ve got your tee shot all planned out, a baby draw down the fairway that you slice OB. You grab a ball, don’t even think about it, and smash it right down the middle! Why is that? How do we get that second ball pro to come out on our first golf shot? That is a question everyone who plays has asked themselves.

What we need to understand is that on most golf shots we are in the left side, or the logical side of our brain. We’re overthinking! We’re trying to come up with the “How am I going to hit this shot,” instead of getting into the right side of our brain, the reactive side, that is simply able to process everything and allow you to execute it. Think of when you throw a piece of paper into the trash can at work. You simply crumple up the paper and throw it in. Until your buddy comes by, and bets you $5 that you can’t do it again… What do you do, you crumple it up then analyze, analyze, analyze, and then you miss it.

The thing is, practice makes what? No, not perfect, practice makes permanent. What you do more of, you get more of. Think about this, every time that you go out to play you are on the range thinking and overloading yourself, then why when you get on the course would you assume that you’d simply be able to trust it? You see on that second ball, the frustration leads you to drag that ball over, not think, and swing freely.

So what we need to do, is start to practice “letting go.” Practice freeing yourself up! What I want you to do is the next time you go to the golf course I want you to literally say to yourself, “I’ve already hit the first ball out of bounds.” Set up and let it rip. Feel like you’ve already missed the next putt, then just hit it and let it go. Start to realize that your best golf is inside of you, and you have to let it out. The 2^nd ball is proof that it is inside of you. We must start to unlock your potential by cutting down on the thinking, and really starting to open up on the trusting, committing, and letting go. So try it out the next time you play, and stay tuned for Part 2 next week!