Dear Golfer, If you ever feel discouraged or hassled on the golf course, consider using a secret weapon to help you re-focus and nail your next shot. The weapon? Music. Music is one of the quickest and easiest ways to alter your mood. Disco Dick (pro golfer Richard Zokol) was one of the first pros to use music to calm his nerves. Disco Dick started using a Walkman on the PGA tour way back in 1982, when mental toughness training was a pretty new concept. According to Dick, using a Walkman on the course back then ...was like showing up on the tee with a shaved head, body piercing and tattoosit was pretty radical. Radical, but effective. Dick says that, Sam Snead taught me to smell the roses between shots and so, after every shot, Id put the headphones on. It was soothing and blocked out the pressure. Next thing I know, Im seven under and leading the tournament.1 Sylvie Bernier, who won Olympic gold in diving, used the same technique. Sylvie was driven to try mental toughness training after years of disappointment and failure. She was one of the top ten divers in the world, but would frequently choke and end up 7, 8, or 9th in world-class competitions. Sylvie was especially stressed out about the scoreboard. Whenever she would finish a dive, she would look at the scoreboard and her heart would go crazy. Sylvie knew the only way she would be able to control her reaction the scoreboard would be with music. At the Olympics, she had her trusty Walkman with her at all times: Between dives my coach says Good or what was wrong with my dive. I go back, I listen to my Walkman... I always listened to the same thing on my Walkman... Take your passion, make it happen from the movie Flashdance. I dont know why this song. Maybe because my best friend gave it to me just before I left. She said, Listen to this song and make it happen for real. I carried my Walkman on my last two dives right up to the ladder and left it on the table. Then Sylvie nailed her last dive to win the Olympic gold medal.2 Using music is a simple yet powerful way to immediately lower your score now. I suggest you try it during your warm up swings, then again when you need to re-focus on the course. Your friend,
Lisa B. |
