All right guys so we are here today.
Honored to have lee cromwell home who is a sports psychologist who specializes in golf lee welcome thank you. So much for joining us elise going to help us do a series of videos today.
From questions that you guys have asked. So we've had loads that we put out yesterday about what topics you would like us to cover psychology lesson topics really and you came up back with some great answers and we're going to cover them some of them today.
The one that trended the most was first teen nerves without question first teenagers was absolutely key. So we're down here today.
At hailey uh golf club where lee kind of based himself with he works with quite a lot of tour players. So he's not here very often he's here there and everywhere uh leave you not oh no austria last night were you where were you before malmo. And then.
Wentworth and then.
Spain the week before that it's all right sorry for something it's working for a living so like i said lee works with some really really top players um you can check out his website as well winninggolfminds.com he does loads of he does a library of uh sessions on there. And if you stick a code in rick shields code you get a little bit of discount off the products as well on there so it's definitely worth doing so first tea nerves this is a killer in it really. For a lot of people it can be because it's i mean whether they're a 25 handicapper. Or a tour player you know it's uh first t nerves it's all relative i get 13 nerves no question about that dog i used to yeah well let's let's hope i used to let's hope you used to as well uh i mean well the main thing with first tee knows is. For your club player i would say it's kind of fear of embarrassment yeah. And the embarrassment is a very very strong emotional state yeah because what happens is when a player goes on to the first tee there's often a bunch of other guys around there's nothing there like a putting green. Or the clubhouse that's right yeah yeah. And we get this kind of situation which we call in psychobabble terms self-presentational sources of competitive stress which basically means that we we try and think about what the spectators are thinking about ourselves. And then.
That causes us stress but one of the first things we need to realize is they're probably nervous as well there isn't they're as nervous as you are completely just not their turn. Yet yeah absolutely absolutely. And plus you know they're worried about their own game so they're not terribly concerned about the way that you're going to hit your tee shot um they probably feel a little bit of empathy with you as well. And what happens is when we when we get a fear response the the kind of mechanics of the brain if you like that will go into um fight flight. Or freeze mode okay. So what what happens is we're trying to demonstrate some of those as well well the freeze mode is quite a simple one really great because if we look at any first tee anywhere around the world we'll see some players just kind of get addressed the ball they look down the fairway all they see is the trouble. So they might see the trees down the left door the outer bands down the right and then.
They just freeze on it so they've almost got a fear of actually taking the club away so they almost get into just complete shutdown almost completely yeah you see them on you know on the first tee. And they just and they'll do a couple of waggles. And they'll wait and trouble trouble trouble people you know so yeah. And all of that pause that just creates tension all around here yeah yeah. So so one of the one of the good things to do. For everyone is just make sure that you've got really kind of loose soft hands okay. And a relaxed grip relax grip totally you know that's a really good thing to do if someone goes into the fight response yeah. And we can have a mixture of fight fight flights. And threats are in the spectators don't watch anymore turn around. Or i'll kill your shins what we end up doing is they might get really really aggressive with the waggles. And then.
And then.
Again they get the tension and then.
They start to swing it really hard and we you know oh as a golf coach what yeah bad tempo can do. For you so it ends up becoming right you know what i'm gonna i'm gonna hit this yeah i'm gonna hit this hard. And it becomes and then.
It's detrimental to your technique yes technically it is yeah absolutely. And then.
We've got the the flight response which is where someone walks up to the ball without even thinking about you know all the technicalities that they need to work on the basics they just stand there. And just hit it and then.
They're picking up the t-peg almost before they've made contact with the ball they almost know it's going to be a bad shot yeah i just get over it. And i'll take my second shot from wherever it comes absolutely absolutely so the key thing yeah how do we how do we deal with it there are all the things that you you'll experience i'm sure a lot of you are nodding your head at home going yeah i i get that i get that. So lee now is going to come up with give you some really good techniques of how we conquer that. And i'm going to hit one straight down this par four feeling confident with leon leave by my side no pressure i'll just take a little time i've not seen you to shop. For a while that's true my first job today.
And what's most people's is first shot of the day you know that's what most people's first shot is you know it's just those get out the car straight to the first tee nervous yeah i mean obviously obviously you know it helps if we've got time to hit some shots either on a range. Or in a net just to kind of loosen up but we don't all have that facility and that's not any chance we don't get a chance so one of the good things to do is when you when you stand behind the ball what i like players to do is ask an effective question. So what we need to do we need to kind of block out the thoughts of all the trouble left. And right so if they they ask just a simple question and that would be when they stood behind what would a really good shot look like okay yeah. So if you ask the brain a question it will kick into autopilot. And start to answer that question for you then.
We can ask you guys now you know when you're looking down this hole what what would a good shot look like you know you can start to picture this before you even get to the course if you know what the first tee looks like absolutely. And that's you know another thing is you can sit at home in your favorite armchair. And you can you can kind of play that that first tee shot over. And over again in your mind but the key thing with that is do it as if you're looking through your own eyes don't do it as if you're looking on watching on on tv because that then.
Gives you the ability to feel the nice tempo that we're going to be looking. For on that first tee with a relaxed hand so we are constantly reinforcing that positive shot yeah we're going right this shot perfect would be straight down probably a little fade off this t actually a little fade into the fairway just cut it off those bunkers. And is it worth really kind of seeing the flight of the golf ball as well definitely when you ask that question what would a a really good shot look like your brain kicks into autopilot. And it will start to see that ball flight now some of you you might just start to feel the ideal swing you know a key thing is rhythm. And tempo you know if you can maintain your rhythm. And tempo rather than going kind of lashing of it. Or or freezing over it then.
You're much more likely to hit a good shot and then.
What we're trying to do is we're trying to load the dice in our favor this doesn't guarantee that you're going to hit a good shot no. But it significantly increases the chances of it so again you just stand behind ask yourself what would a really good shot look like just keep seeing that yeah. And the key thing is when you stand behind the ball just take a little cause. So you're just calming everything down try and get your breathing nice and low we don't want to complicate things by giving you too much to think about we want to actually simplify everything. So that's that question nice and calm just pause for a couple of seconds and then.
Walk into the shot okay yeah is that good is that is that all we need yep. So here we go quick recap relaxed relaxed hands relax my arms yep i want to see the perfect shot by asking that question what does a good shot look like. So what does a good shot look like i keep asking myself i can see the shot. So i can see the shot now good little pause yep compose yeah lower the breathing yeah. And then.
Hit nice it's got a tiny bit left but it tells but it's fine i'm pleased right you know what was good though you know i've i hit shots on camera. But i've never hit a shot in front of lee i still felt before this little clip i did feel some pressure felt some nerves. But soon as that you know that nice temper that chilled out i felt a lot more relaxed they they were really good points. So quick recap on that is ask yourself the question what does a good shot look like yeah. And then.
Just get nice and relaxed as relaxed as you can in your hands. And arms and there's a biological reason for that when we feel stressed our um blood flow goes to our vital organs so it actually comes from your hands so you end up gripping it tighter because it feels like a normal grip so you have to grip it as loosely as possible nice and relaxed and nice and relaxed and then.
Just that little pause before you take the shot looking at your target which might be one of those bunkers if you're gonna play it off it and then.
Just go ahead and play the show perfect and crucially remember all the guys watching they're gonna feel the same thing you're everyone watching just you know it's almost worth just if you hear bad one laugh it off oh absolutely and just move forward and the key thing is you know the the t shot off the first does not dictate the rest of your round no at all exactly. And a lot load of people think that it does it's like oh if there's a bad one off the first oh that's it i'm going to hit a bad shot t shots today.
All day no that's not the case i think statistically proven you a lot of players who do have to hit a first bad one can continue. And have a fantastic round you know it's better the first bad t-shirt than your last bad shot yeah. So guys thanks so much for watching if you've enjoyed the video and learned a lot from it do give it a thumbs up comment down below as much as you can ask as many questions you want i'm going to get myself. And leon there to reply to as many questions you've got as well do check out leah. And his content as well on winninggolfminds.com you can click the link down here. And that'll direct you to the website stick in my name as the code and you'll get some discount on the content on there it's got loads of library guys if you've enjoyed the video give it a thumbs up like i say subscribe to this channel by clicking the link below and check out the next.
Video in the window next.
Door we're gonna do some loads more videos from people who have asked questions uh. And thanks for the question there for this um video as well it was very much appreciated loads of loads of these ones you know yeah five. Or six people asked this this question to make sure we did this topic thanks. For watching and we'll see you all in the next.
Video soon.
