Fitness for Your Game

It is my belief that 99.9% of all golfers have experience some sort of pre-round stress. Though we may have played the same 1st hole of a golf course many times over, when there is money, tournament, or championship cup at stake, that calm seems to disappear. Here are a few techniques to help squash those nerves while on the way to the golf course or walking onto the 1st tee.

• BREATHING EXERCISES: From the moment you open your eyes in bed, eat breakfast, drive to the golf course, hit balls on the range, and tee up your first ball, your breath will dictate your comfort zone. Breathe mindfully. Focus on deep slow breaths (through your nose if possible), hold for a brief moment, then release the exhalation just as slow through your mouth as if you are blowing out negative thoughts. Feel how the belly and lungs/ribs inflate to maximum each time you inhale, then rid yourself of useless carbon dioxide as you exhale fully. Close your eyes and, with each deep breath, feel how the muscles in your head, face, and neck relax and give way to gravity.
• POSITIVE SELF TALK: Yes, you ARE getting ready for a competition and need to put your game face on, but smile to yourself (as you breathe) and perhaps repeat a mantra preparing you for your wonderful 18 chapters you are about to write during the next four hours. Beating yourself up verbally or mentally will DO NOTHING to improve your game. Play one shot at a time and never look back or dwell on something that happened negatively in the past. But, DO remember the great feeling you had when past shots on certain holes faired very well.
• REACH TO SKY/SIDE BEND/CAT/CHEST & BOW: These exercises can be used before and throughout your round to help enhance oxygen & blood flow throughout the body which energizes you as well as calms the mind. In this example they will be done with a club. They consist of four exercises that transition well together & can be done in 4 complete breaths:
• ---Inhale bring arms over head & REACH TO SKY
  ---Exhale SIDE BEND to one side
• ---Inhale bring arms over head & REACH TO SKY
  ---Exhale SIDE BEND to other side
• ---Inhale bring arms over head & REACH TO SKY
  ---Exhale round back/tuck hips like a CAT & bring arms/club forward
• ---Inhale bring arms/club behind back to stretch CHEST
  ---Exhale take a BOW and bend over keeping knees slightly unlocked