"Act Without Expectation"
-Lau Tzu
I've written in the past the value of meditation and how it can help athletic performance. I have come across an excellent resource for your daily practice. Visit this link and follow the instructions on how to really deepen your meditation.
http://www.quietmindsystem.com/how-to-meditate-deeply-a-beginners-step-by-step-guide/?awt_l=KobYg&awt_m=3iRNH..Lg9G4ZjN
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Windows For Development For Our Youths11/5/2012 Read this great article about the windows of development for our boys and girls. Lets help them develop athletically so the sky can be their limit!
http://moving-the-future.blogspot.com/2012/11/speed-windows.html?m=1 The value of meditation9/15/2012 Listen to this sound byte from NPR on how MBA programs across the country are teaching the art of meditation. No matter your faith you will benefit from this valuable skill! http://www.npr.org/2012/09/13/161050141/buddhist-meditation-a-management-skill Tom Watson's Key To The Golf Swing8/19/2012 I love how simple tom watson explains the golf swing in this clinic he gave in 2005. Choking in Sports8/18/2012 I hate the phrase. I hate the word – Choke. Nothing bothers me more than hearing an announcer mention choking in sports as he attempts to explain what is happening to a player or team that appeared to have the game, match or tournament in hand. As I watched the British Open this summer it was painful to see Adam Scott finish with 4 straight bogeys. He obviously didn’t handle the situation as best as he could. But it isn’t as simple as it appears. Being a golfer and having competed at a high level, I have had my fair share of letting the magnitude of the situation get to me. I’ve allowed myself to get out of the moment and allowed my emotions to dictate my performance. It is usually a snowball effect. When I think back to Adam Scott at Royal Lytham, if he had made the 4 footer on 16 I feel he would have won the tournament. He had just bogeyed 15 and now bogeyed 16.
For a golfer with a large lead when faced with small adversity if they can make a key 4 footer, hit a good chip or hit a ball on the green after a poor drive they feel as if “I am going to get this done, it is my destiny and my day.” When the short putt lips out, the second shot sails over the green into a tough spot, they start to unravel and feel out of control. It then affects their decision making. When Adam walked onto 18 tee, Ernie Els had just birdied to tie him. He made a tactical error in hitting a 3 wood. He either should have ripped a driver as he had been doing so well all week or hit an iron that couldn’t get to the bunkers. He hit into the only area he couldn’t hit it. He then played a great shot and gave him a chance for par but missed the putt. Everyone will say he choked and unfortunately it will be hard to refute, but as I mentioned earlier it is a series of events that lead to it. If he could have made one par on those last 3 holes before 18, he pars 18 in my opinion and wins the championship. Choking is just a situation where our focus gets more on the outcome than the process. We realize where we are and what we are about to accomplish. If we could always the play the game with the process in mind and be a kid we would choke less. We must learn to program our minds to go back to that place where we went out and played for the love of the game. It is a difficult thing to do but the best lose themselves in the moment and just do what they can control. Next time you are playing for your Y league or on the course with your buddies and have a chance to win the match remember why you are there that day. It is what you enjoy doing. Have fun, be a kid and let it go. I’ve been coaching some junior golfers pretty seriously the past few months. I’m faced with the ever important question. How do you blend good coaching to an already talented and accomplished player? The player has aspirations to be the best and so seeks out someone that can help get them there and guide them along the way. The parents want to build a team around the player so he or she has all the tools. From experience, I can tell you it is a fine line. A player learns to play the game with limited instruction and coaching. They tee it up and go play the game, a beautiful thing. There are things though that could be better, could make them smarter on the course and a more efficient player. Things that could help them make less mistakes and hence lower scores. The flip side to that is a player can start thinking too much. They can lose the innocence of playing the game.
What I have learned from observing and watching a lot of junior golf this year is that less is always more, even if you’re an adult. Good coaching doesn’t always mean coaching. Good coaching means quietly watching and making comments at the right time. Players have to play; they hit the golf shots and hole the putts. We aren’t robots. We are creative beings. There is an art to playing great golf. Hard work on short game, wedge game and putting can always be done. Persistence in these areas is always the answer. It really is a simple process. Stay patient and be creative. Always stay positive and expect good things to happen. Have great body language; pretend you are on stage performing for an audience and use the example of Michael Jordan. He used to say that he would not allow himself to take a night off. There were plenty of nights where he was tired or down and felt low on energy. You want to know what forced him to give his best effort. He said that there might be someone in the stands that had not seen him play. It might be the only time they every saw him play live and he was going to give them the best Michael Jordan. He was going to play with passion and do all the things he could do to help his team win and be Mike as the commercials used to say “Be like Mike!” As we chug along the tracks of life it is important to take a step back and reflect on what we have learned. Coaching is much the same. We can have our philosophies on what we feel is the correct way to do something. What I have learned is the best coaches are able to keep their overall philosophy but adapt it to new things learned and shape it for the uniqueness of the player. Remember that less is more especially in an already gifted athlete. Giving too much instruction can ruin the natural flow they exhibit when competing. As coaches we want to bring out their strengths and help them find a way to minimize their deficiencies. Always remembering the quote from the famous UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, “don’t let what you can’t do interfere with what you can do!” Please visit @mensfitclub to read my latest blog post. http://www.mensfitclub.com/how-creating-a-vision-board-will-help-you-reach-your-athletic-goals/
Sun, Jun 10, 20126/10/2012 Check out my latest blog post at http://www.mensfitclub.com/remembering-junior-seau/
How to Keep Expectations in Check5/18/2012 Remember the joy you had as a kid I am really enjoying coaching junior golfers and helping them to understand the nuances of the game. When you are a young golfer there is a thought in your head (at least there was in mine) that one day when you get on the PGA TOUR your game will just be good and good all of the time. You think you will find some formula the best players have and poof you’ll be on tour and winning tournaments until you want to stop playing. Yes, the best players have a formula but it isn’t something you wake up with one day. The formula is developed by practicing smart and learning how to trust your golf swing and game. The formula is keeping it simple and working extremely hard on those simple things and applying the coaching philosophy of Tony Dungy that in order to be great work on what you do well and perfect those things. We don’t want to neglect what we don’t do well, especially if we can improve our short game, wedge game and putting. But if you have a bad tournament or stretch it doesn’t mean to start over and change your philosophy, look for a new swing coach and think a new swing is the answer. Your focus should be on how can I make what I do and my strengths even stronger and put myself in position to maximize those skills. As our golf games develop we invariably deal with expectations. Expectations to play well because of how we have been playing, what others think we should finish, or a great round the day before the tournament starts. Every golfer must keep their expectations in check. I have found the best way to accomplish that feat is for your goal to be anything but your score. Create simple goals within your round that are measurable but do not involve the outcome. Let them involve the process; your ability to pick out good targets, to walk and talk with confidence and to keep an even keel throughout the round regardless of where your shots end up. The more attention you can pay to working on parts of your game that will impact your score the more confidence you will take with you into competition and the better you will be able to deal with adversity. Golf is a game of misses. We don’t hit many shots exactly how we pictured. Byron Nelson, one of the best ball strikers of all time used to say he would only hit about 5 shots just like he wanted in a round of golf. The great players manage their misses the best. They putt with great confidence and speed control. They have excellent distance control with their wedges and know how to flight the ball. Above all, they swing with abandonment and let it go. They trust themselves and know the more they can swing freely the better results they will get even if that means the occasional loose shot. I urge all parents to be mindful of potential expectations you put on your golfers. Children want to please their parents and it is natural that they would want to shoot good scores to make mom and dad happy. What is important is that your expectations for them involve things other than score. I encourage you to watch your golfer and see how they handle themself throughout the round. Is he or she up-beat, smiling and walking with confidence? Are they staying focused and patient during the course of the round regardless of the outcome? These are a few things to start measuring or judging them on. If you can start to make these your goals for them, both golfer and parent will enjoy the journey more. Remember, golf is a game, a game that mirrors life. In our professional endeavors we don’t have parents and loved ones looking over our shoulder at the office critiquing every presentation we give or judging us based on every phone call we make. Even in school, every project or test isn’t analyzed with a fine tooth comb. The teachers give us a grade and if we didn’t do well we are told to study harder for the next test. If we apply this type of behavior on the golf course the game will remain fun and the scores will be the best they could be for that day. Golf is great because it always starts over every day. We have another 18 holes to go play. We have a 1st tee shot to hit and a last putt to hole. If we can get a little better each time we go out, our games will be where we hope when it’s time to pick a college or make a decision about playing professionally. Remember to play the game and enjoy the walk! What is all the commotion about the long putter? We had our first Major Champion with the long putter in Keegan Bradley. Adam Scott won the WGC event with a long putter. You hear whispers of people saying the USGA should ban them. My thoughts come from a player who has used a long putter for 9 years and the psychological roller coaster that begets to switch or not to switch and will your ego let you do it? This commentary comes from my heart and these thoughts and opinions come from deep within my soul. A golfers soul who is continuing to search for the best method to play the game, physically and mentally. I went to a long putter Ala Adam Scott at a mini tour event in Florida after I was struggling with my putting. It instantly made me more consistent and fresh mentally. I can tell you from experience though that there isn't a week that goes by that I don't think about going back to a short putter. I actually went back to the short putter for a small stint on the Nationwide Tour in 2008. As golfers, we are always looking for ways to be better to gain a little more confidence. A big key in putting is letting the putts go, being free. The allure of the short putter for me is it was how I hit putts growing up. How you putt as a kid is what we all strive for; being creative, seeing the putt, hitting it without a care in the world. The long putters put a great roll on the ball. It is more sound mechanically as proven by Dave Pelz. The challenge is to be as free as you can with a more mechanically sound method. The short putter allows a lot of play so you can manipulate the path and face for good and bad. I challenge you to find your method and if it is a long putter feel as if you're using a short putter and the freedom you had when you learned the game! To sum up my commentary on all this talk about the long putters, pick a method you trust, be confident and free and remember it's just a game. Let it go be a kid and watch yourself make more putts and shoot lower scores. Until next week, find your putting method and enjoy the walk! AuthorJosh McCumber, professional golfer, coach and consultant has been playing golf almost all of his life. He has been around the game at the highest level, and has learned from the best players and instructors in the game. His uncle, Mark McCumber won 10 times on the PGA TOUR and his cousin Tyler McCumber is currently playing on the PGA TOUR. Josh will share his wisdom, knowledge and proprietary techniques from being out on the PGA TOUR with his uncle, his cousin and from his experience playing the Korn Ferry Tour (formerly Nationwide Tour) and 2 U.S. Opens. Archives
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