New Book: Fearless Golf

[eric nielsen]

I'm about 2/3rds through this book and it is very very good. Far be it from me to tell you what you should put in your head, but if you ARE looking for answers about performance, motivation, fear, focus, and so on, this is a good read.

You can download articles related to Dr. Gio Valiante's teaching and clients

HERE

and HERE

The Golf Digest article gives the best preview of the book, it's a PDF file.

He certainly comes highly recommended by some of the fiercest competitors in sports, so I had pre-ordered the book Fearless Golf. Now that I have it I am completely happy with the purchase.

Just a hunch but I'm guessing within a few weeks this will be a huge topic.

[jnshapiro]

Thanks for the suggestion. I've ordered the book.

Joel

[Clay1]

In my competitive archery days I use to read golf books too. I'm not a golfer but many times talent follows the money. There tends to be more money involved in golf than shooting so guess who gets the bulk of the talent? It got weird when I started to order russian shooting manuals from russian olympic coaches. There is a ton of good info out there, you just have to be open to new concepts. Brian says in his book that you never stop learning or rather you shouldn't stop learning. Hope improved scores are in your near future.

[chp5]

The Golf Digest article gives the best preview of the book, it's a PDF file.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Good article. Where did you get the book?

[eric nielsen]

Amazon.com - over the years I've been VERY happy with their company's service.

Here's a link: Fearless Golf

You might call your local Borders - they should have it too.

[reneet]

Don't forget we can support USPSA by ordering through their referral programs.

USPSA referral programs

[Duane Thomas]

A lot of "combat pistol" shooters really resent any comparison of their sport(s) to golf, which I think is very narrow-minded and cuts them off from an immense amount of useful information. Robbie Leatham has said that of all the sports he's ever tried, golf reminds him the most of IPSC shooting.

I was very impressed with Dr. Bob Rotella's Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect. I won a state IDPA championship in 2002 and I credit much of it to reading this book a week or so before the match. I'll definitely be reading Fearless Golf.

And of course, any USPSA/IPSC/IDPA shooter worth their salt has got to see The Legend of Bagger Vance. That movie is like a short course in the art and science of the mindf*#k - self-inflicted and otherwise - and how to overcome it.

[geezer-lock]

Robbie Leatham has said that of all the sports he's ever tried, golf reminds him the most of IPSC shooting.

Robbie is probably right. Look at this Golf Digest article that I adapted for shooting:

"IF THERE IS ONE UNIVERSAL TRUTH FOR SHOOTERS

of all levels, it is fear: fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, fear of the unexpected, fear of poor judgment. It is fear of long courses, of short courses, of speed courses, of standards courses. It is fear of penalty targets and steel and movers, of floppers and drop turners. It is fear of shooting with certain people or against certain people or even in front of certain people. We fear things that in reality aren’t there, like that stop plate that looks to be inches from a penalty target but isn’t. It is even fear of knowing we are afraid, and it gnaws on our consciousness, undermines our skills and infects our confidence.

What shooters of all abilities must come to see is that maximizing your potential in shooting—the truest of all shooting goals—begins and ends with one requirement: You must learn to effectively deal with fear, to embrace its challenge to your skills and to overpower it so you can think clearly and effectively and shoot your best. Anything less invites the insidious decay of doubt and inconsistency.

Fear is the most critical impediment to performing to your greatest potential, and it is the one thing that great champions all manage to overcome. In the simplest terms, the greatest competitors shoot fearlessly. Understanding fear begins with understanding why we play the game in the first place. In professional psychology, the reasons why individuals choose to engage in a particular task or activity are called achievement-goal orientations. That’s fancy language, but what it means essentially is that we choose to do something for a certain end, a particular objective; in short, we are motivated by the activity because in some way it enhances our sense of self, our personal well-being. Those objectives govern our approach to the activity from the outset. These orientations are critical factors that influence a person’s level of motivation and achievement, as well as the degree of anxiety and fear they experience as they engage in those activities.

The danger of ego shooting. The primary motivation for some shooters, what we will call ego-oriented shooters, is to earn recognition from others. For these shooters, what others say about them is powerfully important, sometimes more important than improving and developing their game. While preparing to hit an important shot, their minds are often divided: one side is trying to focus on executing the shot, but the other side is busy worrying about what other people “will think of me if I blow this.” One can easily understand how such extraneous concerns can interfere with the mechanics of shooting. Shooters whose attention is focused on raising their personal stock in the eyes of others—or even in their own eyes—often become indecisive and uncertain with the gun in their hands. When you require the approval of others, you give them the key to your emotions—and you forfeit a fair amount of control over your confidence, too. Ego shooters view a bad match as humiliating, debilitating, and embarrassing. As a result, they play with the ever-present sense that such humiliation is just around the corner. That, friends, is called playing with fear. For them, a match can be an emotional roller coaster—euphorically high at certain times, excruciatingly low at others—all depending on how they think they are being viewed and evaluated. (Note: That sense of evaluation isn’t limited to outsiders. An ego shooter’s self-evaluation can be just as destructive.) They move through the match trying to show off with good shots and trying to avoid embarrassingly bad shots. Curiously, they have an equal tendency to play overly conservative at times and wildly aggressive at others. Facing any kind of pressure, ego shooters inevitably must do a dance with the dreaded “c” word, choke. Whether they are trying to hold off opponents, protect leads, or play “just good enough” to maintain whatever slight advantage they have, choking is never far from their perspective.

In contrast to those who play because they want the attention and admiration of others, some shooters have as their primary incentive a desire to learn, improve, and excel. A focus on learning and personal development is inconsistent with worries about how our results will be viewed by others. Professional shooters who play to excel are better able to disregard outside contingencies like rankings, scores, other peoples’ opinions, and even prize money. A recreational shooter whose reason for playing is to learn and grow, and even relax, cares very little about how others in his squad will view his shooting. In both of these cases, a shooter’s attention is on things related to getting better hits: draw mechanics, strategy, course conditions, tempo and location of hazards. Because their minds are undivided as they prepare to shoot (rather than being disrupted by the potential reactions to the shot), these shooters are better able to stay focused and remain composed during their round. And rest assured that they’re enjoying themselves a good deal more and worrying a lot less than their self-obsessed and self-conscious counterparts. These shooters hold the key mentally to conquering fear and achieving success. They exhibit what psychologists call a mastery orientation. Regardless of your ability, if you’re trying to optimize your skills only a mastery approach to the game will work consistently. Only a mastery approach will allow you to shoot fearlessly.

The goal: Play with a mastery approach: Mastery shooters enjoy everything that the match throws at them. The greater the challenge, the more fun they have. For them, the sight picture becomes an automatic process. Because they focus on improvement relative to their own current capabilities, their standards and goals are self-set rather than set by others. Mastery shooters do not care who their competitors are, because they don’t view shooting as a competition between players. Rather, they see shooting as the process of attacking the match as well as they can with the skills that they possess. Mastery shooters are not influenced by how often others tell them they are good or they are bad because, quite frankly, they do not play for others. They play to achieve goals they have set for themselves, and they use only those self-set standards to measure their improvement. It is easy to understand how to apply the ideal mastery orientation to big matches. But what about those of us who will never shoot “big” matches? I believe mastery shooting makes fundamental improvement possible regardless of the skill level. A mastery approach does not necessarily require a focus on shooting a particular score; instead it requires an exacting focus on hitting a particular shot with a particular routine at a particular target.

I try to teach shooters what the game is not: You are not playing against a score. You are not playing against a course of fire. You are not playing against other shooters.

The goal is to play with a mastery approach. Mastery shooters understand that great shooting is the summation of individual shots, and that every shot is a chance to get closer and closer to perfection. Because they view shooting this way, they find it easy to immerse themselves in the process of shooting, and they often concentrate to the point of ignoring everything around them. Shooters in a mastery mode know first and foremost the competition is only this: You are attacking a match, one shot at a time, the best way you know how. The mastery shooter gets consumed with the task of executing shots, not with the prospect of going under 3 seconds or shooting 100%. The score is merely an aftereffect of the attention paid to the details of the match. Shooting your greatest match begins by making precise shots at specific targets, regardless of the circumstances. And that’s what shooting without fear is all about."

Adapted from Fearless Golf: Conquering the

Mental Game by Dr. Gio Valiante, with Mike

Stachura, $21.95, XX pages. Published by

Doubleday. Copyright © 2005 by Dr. Gio Valiante.

Quoted extensively in Golf Digest.

See the original here:

http://www.golfdigest.com/instruction/inde...alfearless.html

[Clay1]

Geezer-lock, long post man, but preach it brother! Couldn't agree with the author more. Now the question is how to make that happen once we cognitively understand what needs to be done?

[Duane Thomas]

You don't make it happen. You allow it to happen. Practice to the point that you know you can do anything they throw at you at the match. Then relax, clear your thoughts, turn the shooting over to your subconscious mind, get out of your own way, and let it happen.

[j1b]

Rob is a huge golfer. Plays regularly in AZ. When he and I first hooked up I was not a golfer. I, in fact, loathed golfers. Rob said it was the best game to help him stay mentally strong. After that I took up the game - I still suck.

Thanks for the suggestion on the book. I'll look for it.

J

[bwannabe]

And of course, any USPSA/IPSC/IDPA shooter worth their salt has got to see The Legend of Bagger Vance. That movie is like a short course in the art and science of the mindf*#k - self-inflicted and otherwise - and how to overcome it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

See it and read the original book by Stephen Pressfield. In fact you should read all of Pressfield's books, most especially "Gates Of Fire," about King Leonidas' stand at Thermopolaye. "Molon Laabe," and all that. While we're on th subject, it's kind of a sore point with me that of all the stuff the guy wrote, "The Legend of Bagger Vance" is the only book to get made into a movie.