“We probably shall not like what we see and hear, but we must be very patient and objective.” -Swami Prabhavananada

The winter daylight is less (boo!), however, we don’t stop working on our game and ourselves after the sunsets.  For those after-work dark hours, try this mental training exercise for a winter game-improvement project.  It will influence other areas of your life as well.

Mind Training:
In order to control the mind during golf, we have to get to know it.  Few golfers know, objectively, what the insides of our minds are really like.  Over a shot, our dominating fears and desires have become so familiar to us that we don’t even notice them.  

As a preliminary exercise, it is good to spend some time every day simply watching our minds, listening to the inner chatter. Try these golf-specific indoor drills while practicing awareness of the inner-chatter:

• Putting indoors
• Slow-motion golf swings
• Golf-specific stretches
• Extra credit: “Formal” sitting/meditation

Swami Prabhavananada, although probably not a golfer, knew exactly what mental training was necessary for golf. “We probably shall not like what we see and hear, but we must be very patient and objective.  The mind, finding itself watched in this way, will gradually grow calmer.  It becomes embarrassed, as it were, by its own greed and silliness.  For no amount of outside criticism is so effective and so penetrating as our own simple self-inspection.”  

If we continue this exercise regularly for several months, we shall certainly make some advancement toward mental control over a golf shot.  By spring’s time change, we will be able to concentrate…hopefully. Game on!

Dodie Mazzuca is the author of “Golf Sūtras,” “Daily Golf Tap-Ins,” and founder of Golf PROformance. She teaches golf lessons, golf schools, and performance coaching for competitive players in Santa Cruz, CA and Reno, NV.