Mind Over Golf , livre ebook

Turner Publishing Company - Richard H. Coop

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91 pages

English

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Whether you struggle to break 100 or consistently break par, you've already discovered that golf is the most mentally demanding of all sports. Dr. Richard Coop, one of the foremost sports psychologists in the country, has developed a unique mental approach to the game, helping both skilled pros and beginning amateurs alike to play better. Mind Over Golf examines all the demanding psychological challenges of golf and explains in detail how to conquer them. Golfers have discovered that there are ways to lower their scores that go beyond getting tips on their swing and stance. In order to play better, you have to find the key that allows your natural athletic ability to come to the fore, without being impeded by anxiety about making a poor shot. By following Dr. Coop's principles and ideas you'll be in the strongest possible position, both physically and mentally, to put your best swing on each shot. As Payne Stewart says in his foreword to Mind Over Golf, "Not everyone can swing like a tour pro, but most everyone has it within himself or herself to think like one, and Dr. Coop lays the foundation for that within these pages."

Sujets

Sport

Autres sports

Golf

Recreation

Sports

Informations

Publié par	Turner Publishing Company
Date de parution	01 avril 1997
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781620458563
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0650€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

M IND OVER G OLF

Copyright 1993 by Dr. Richard H. Coop and Bill Fields
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
909 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10022

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Coop, Richard.
Mind over golf / Richard H. Coop with Bill Fields.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-02-861683-4
1. Golf-Psychological aspects. I. Fields, Bill. II. Title.
GV979.P75C66 1993 92-20575 CIP
796.352 01-dc20

20 19 18 17 16 15

Design by Diane Stevenson / SNAP-HAUS GRAPHICS
To my parents, Paul and Sara Coop. They were both teachers who taught me to value and respect the process of teaching and learning.
C ONTENTS
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
F OREWORD BY P AYNE S TEWART
1. T HE R EASON FOR T HIS B OOK
2. T HE M IND AND G OLF
3. W HY G OLF D EMANDS S O M UCH M ENTALLY
4. L EARNING AND R ELEARNING H OW TO P LAY
5. F ROM THE P RACTICE T EE TO T HE F IRST T EE
6. T HE I MPORTANCE OF A P RESHOT R OUTINE
7. U NDERSTANDING AND D EVELOPING C ONCENTRATION
8. V ISUALIZATION : S EEING Y OURSELF S UCCEED
9. E MOTIONAL T RAPS : O VERCOMING F EAR AND A NGER
10. M AXIMIZING Y OUR P ERSONAL D ISTANCE : T HE M ENTAL S IDE OF T HE L ONG B ALL
11. S UCCESSFUL S ELF -T ALK
12. H ANDLING S OME C OMMON M ENTAL -S IDE C HALLENGES
13. J UNIOR -S ENIOR S TRATEGY : S TARTING R IGHT AND A GING W ELL
14. H ISTORY , O BSESSION, AND T RAITS OF THE G REATS
A PPENDIX : D ISCOVERING Y OUR G OLF P ROFILE
I NDEX
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book has been in progress for the past seventeen years, during which time I have worked with more than 700 golfers-from tour players to high-handicappers-on the mental side of golf. I have accompanied golfers to all four of the major championships and have shared their expectations, frustrations, and exhilarations as they competed at the highest level of the sport. At the other end of the spectrum, I have worked with beginning golfers who were just learning the fundamentals. I ve also had the opportunity to teach in golf schools with the most respected instructors in the game and have talked with them privately about the golf swing in particular and the game of golf in general. From each of these people and situations I have had the chance to learn something more about how the mind works on the golf course.
This practical experience has been combined with my formal training in educational and sports psychology, cognitive behavior modification, social psychology, attribution theory, and biomechanics to produce this book. To each of these tour players, golf school students, and instructors I express my deepest gratitude.
Since 1986, I have had the good fortune of writing a continuing column for Golf Illustrated . In writing for the magazine, I have had to sharpen and order my thoughts on the mental side of golf in order to communicate to its readers. Some of the material which I originally conceptualized for these articles is found in this book. I thank my editors at Golf Illustrated, Al Barkow and Mike Corcoran, for giving me the opportunity over the years to address a wide audience of golfers.
I am also indebted to Bill Fields, who collaborated on this book with me, for helping me express my thoughts in a more readable manner than the awkward academic format to which I was accustomed. His editorial skills are much appreciated. Rick Wolff, my editor at Macmillan Publishing Company, has provided enthusiastic support and encouragement throughout the book s development. It is a wonderful circumstance that Rick is a practicing sports psychologist himself as well as an editor. His suggestions have been consistently helpful and on target.
A special acknowledgment is due to two people, Payne Stewart and Chuck Cook, who began as my professional associates and have developed into close personal friends. The sharing of experiences, both highs and lows, makes life worthwhile, and I have shared both good times and bad with these two men.
The most important acknowledgment, however, is to my family: my wife, Sharon, my daughters, Kristy and Kelli, and my son, Daniel. They have tolerated and supported my absences from them (sometimes even when my body was physically present) in order that I might gain the knowledge on which this book is based. Without them, it would not have been possible, and I thank them for their patience.
Richard H. Coop
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
July 1992
F OREWORD
Having known Dick Coop for more than four years now, as a teacher of the mental side of golf, and as a good friend, it s a pleasure to contribute this introduction to a book that should help you improve your game and also enjoy it more.
Although people always have talked about how mental a game golf is, if you re like I was until I began working with Dr. Coop back in 1988, you probably don t understand what a sound mental approach to golf is all about. In my case, I seemed to have had all the physical tools to attain some big goals in golf, yet I had only a couple of wins and a bunch or runner-up finishes to show for my efforts. Everyone-myself included-thought I should have been accomplishing more, and the fact that I hadn t done so was both frustrating and disappointing.
I admit it: I was reluctant to seek Dr. Coop s help at first. I thought working with a psychologist would involve lying down on a couch and having a weird guy ask me a lot of questions. But nothing could have been further from the truth. After just one afternoon and the following morning of talking with Dick, I felt better about my golf game and about myself, and we ve built on those sessions ever since.
My game always had seemed to get me into position to win, but I didn t have what it took to allow me to capitalize on the position I was getting in. I was too interested in the end result of winning-and not enough in the process that I had to go through in order to achieve my goals. Dr. Coop helped me relax and let my swing take over. He encouraged me to develop a consistent preshot routine and use it whether it s my first swing on Thursday morning or the last one on Sunday afternoon, when the pressure of competition is at its greatest.
Proof that my game has matured since I began working with Dr. Coop were my victories in the 1989 PGA Championship and the 1991 U.S. Open. With my old mind-set, I don t think I would have been able to prevail in either of those major championships. But with my new mental approach, I was able to raise my game to the highest level when I had to.
I won t kid you-improving my mental fundamentals wasn t easy. In fact, one of the first things I had to get through my head-and you will, too, if you are to improve-is that ingraining a sound psychological approach to your game can take as much effort as retooling your swing mechanics. In fact, it can take more of an effort.
But trust me, the effort will be worth it. If you re a low-handicap golfer already, Dr. Coop s instruction can enable you to take advantage of your physical skills and move ahead to the next level, as I was able to do. If your game lacks some physical skills, learning the proper mental approach can help compensate for-but won t erase-the deficiencies in your swing. For all of the strange swings I see week to week in pro-ams on the PGA Tour, I see just as many-or more-errors committed on the mental side. Not everyone can swing like a tour pro, but most everyone has it within himself or herself to begin to think like one, and Dr. Coop lays the foundation for that within these pages.
My hope for you is that his advice will help your game as much as it has helped mine. Good luck, and good golfing.
-Payne Stewart
1
C HAPTER
T HE R EASON FOR T HIS B OOK
If you ve paid much attention to professional golf over the last several years, you ve probably heard about how sports psychologists have helped some of the sport s best players improve their games. You might be wondering what really goes on between the players and the sports psychologists, and what their lessons could mean to you. Could learning how to think more appropriately on the course actually help you more than yet another visit to your local driving range to slug out another bucket of balls?
The answer, as I hope to make clear in these pages, definitely is yes. Like the finest players in golf, you can also improve your game by paying attention to the mental side of golf. I ve frequently said that good psychology won t overcome bad physics-if you have certain swing flaws, you should seek to get them corrected on the practice tee-but sound thinking can only enhance your performance. A good way of looking at it is this: if you follow the principles and ideas in this book, you ll put yourself in the best possible position-both physically and mentally-to put the best swing you have that day on each shot. That s all you truly owe yourself, regardless of your skill level.
The genesis for this book-and my current work-probably dates to the early 1960s, before I returned to school to earn my doctoral degree in educational psychology. As an assistant basketball coach at tiny Glasgow High School in my native state of Kentucky, I saw firsthand how savvy thinking could help players perform to the best of their abilities. At the time, all teams were privy to the same instructional materials, and the Xs and Os didn t differ much among teams. It was evident to me that the coaches who were able to get their teams to focus on a task, and be mentally tough, were the ones who won the most games. Although I returned to graduate school and left coaching, the group of kids that I had coached on the junior varsity squad for two years later won the Kentucky state high school championship. And since Kentucky s was an open tournamen