Practice with consequence

As, in many sports with all great athletes commitment & dedication become their routine. Practice for practice sake is a waste of your time. Your practice must have a consequence. It must be beneficial in ways where you receive feedback & where you can see developments & improvements.
In saying this you must make your practice harder than the real course situation. By doing this when faced with challenging situations you will not be fazed . Also, your confidence levels will increase.
Two examples of this are:
1: practice hitting shots out of divots , this can improve your control of the face at Impact but also plants a seed in the brain saying " if I can hit it out of a divot , off a good lie is easy"
2: worst ball practice, play 9 holes with two balls. When you hit the two balls off the tee, choose the worst shot & hit the two balls from there, then choose the worst ball from there & play the two balls again until you eventually hole out.Play this way on every shot. If you can achieve a reasonable score taking the worst scenario on each shot , you learn to accept that golf is not a game of perfect but a game in which the object is to get the ball in the hole in the least amount of shots.

Enjoy the process,

Darren.

The Document Part 2

Once you have finished THE NOW DOCUMENT, you will have a vital piece of information with regards to your future.  You have a clear and concise appraisal of where you are right now and you can begin to ask yourself this key question:

• If I continue with my current patterns and habits, will I get to my intended destination?

For most of you, the answer will scream at you from off the page.

No way!!!

The Document Part 1

THE DOCUMENT

What we need to do first of all though, is such a vital part of this process but is almost never included in the standard goal setting and achievement processes.

If we go back to the analogy of the sat nav and consider how the machinery actually works; the whole sat nav system is dependent on one piece of information.

Not the location, not the route, not the motorway, but the one thing we need to start the whole process, is a real clear and accurate PRESENT LOCATION.  We cannot even start the engine and move unless we know EXACTLY where we are now.  The sat nav just will not work unless it knows its CURRENT POSITION, then and only then, can it begin to calculate how to create a route to the required destination.

In just the same way for you to begin your journey, to where you want to go, you know you have to have an honest and clear look at where you are right now.

What you need to create is possibly the most important piece of writing that you have done in the past 10 years.

You need to create what we will call THE NOW DOCUMENT:

Write out in sensory, rich detail a complete description of you NOW: What is your golf game currently about? What are the good patterns? What are the patterns which are getting in the way? How are your relationships impacting your golf and your life? What do you like about yourself? What do you dislike? Who are the people that have had the biggest impact on you? Who do you admire? Who would you like to be more like? I want you to take a blank piece of paper and do this now.  Let the pen really flow, be honest and open and get down on paper the good and the bad.  Just let it all out. This exercise should take you quite a while, so really give yourself some quiet time to let all of your thoughts flow out of you.

THE NOW DOCUMENT

2014 Day 7 Blog AWAKENING - Motivational Video

AWAKENING - Motivational Video

2014 Day 5 Blog Mind Power Meditation(Kevin Solon)

With the New Year now fully underway, resolutions abound I've decided to focus on spending time meditating each day. The system I will be using I learned off

KEVIN SOLON

Dip CH, Dip LBC, MPNLP, TFT, MIICHP, MLBCAI

Kevin Solon worked in the business world for many years. He holds a Diploma in Psychotherapy, Counselling and Hypnotherapy and is a Master Practitioner in NLP and is qualified in TFT. He has a wealth of experience in all aspects of emotional issues as well as motivation, stress management and confidence building. In addition, Kevin has a Diploma in Life and Business Coaching and engages in personal, executive and corporate coaching. Kevin is currently Vice President of the Irish Institute of Cognitive and Humanistic Psychotherapy (IICHP).

      The method I am using is :

• deep breathing with the eyes closed until you are comfortably relaxed
• then focus on picturing a pleasant image , in full detail
• then imagine a sound, noise or music that makes you feel good
• feel something on your body eg. like feet walking through water on the beach
• visualize your perfect life ie. house, car, job, relationship
• for the next few minutes breath deeply & slowly from your stomach , just like a baby does

When you start this there is no time limit , just do what you are comfortable with.

Enjoy the process!

Darren Mc Loughlin 
PGA Professional 
HDip.BStudies                                                                             
HDip.SportsPsychology 
HDipSportsNutrition 
Tel:00353-860827800 
Skype: Darren Mc Loughlin 
Facebook:www.facebook.com/darren.loughlinpga 
Twitter:@DarrenPGA 

Steve Elkington Face On

Look at the width Elkington  creates in the backswing & how the right elbow moves into the body on the downswing.

Yours in Golf,
Darren Mc Loughlin 

PGA Professional 
HDip.BStudies 
HDip.SportsPsychology 
HDipSportsNutrition 
Tel:00353-860827800 
Skype: Darren Mc Loughlin 
Facebook:www.facebook.com/darren.loughlinpga 
Twitter:@DarrenPGA 

2014 Day 4 Blog Cruising ( Arsenal style)

As in most sports balance within working effectively & over doing it is very important . With regards to this I have taken a relaxed view on today's journey. Relaxed most of the day just did a few exercises from Jason Glass' Explosive Rotational Power video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFfX9CKMtpE

After, this I sat down & watched Arsenal beat Spurs again 2-0.
Early start in the morning , starting my weights program & some putting.



 Ole Navapol one of my students hoping to make the Asia Tour , oh ye & the other guy is a 3 time major winner.

Enjoy the process!

Darren Mc Loughlin 
PGA Professional 
HDip.BStudies                                                                             
HDip.SportsPsychology 
HDipSportsNutrition 
Tel:00353-860827800 
Skype: Darren Mc Loughlin 
Facebook:www.facebook.com/darren.loughlinpga 
Twitter:@DarrenPGA