Best Relaxation Technique?

[Teambobbright]

Embrace the nervousness as excitement, be grateful that your golfing, the pros get excited too and they just except the feelings, when you try to fight it your fighting your instincts, except it and dance with your fears.

[Beachcomber]

i read in a good book to close your eyes, and imagine your walking down stairs...count them in your head...at the bottom of the stairs is a door...open it...make sure you hear the sounds in your head...and when you open the door you hear the ocean...and you visualize the beach...hearing the waves crashing on the sand...feeling your toes in the sand...the warm sun coming over you...and take 10 deep breaths...counting down as you do it... guaranteed you'll feel much more calm. the whole time you're doing this, think of every single possible detail...the wood grain of the door, the brass handle, the salty breeze on your face, the faint caw'ing of seagulls...etc

Wow. This sounds like something I should be doing every day?

[Beachcomber]

The Perfect story to show how zen works with golf. After winning several archery contests, the young and rather boastful champion challenged a Zen master who was renowned for his skill as an archer. The young man demonstrated remarkable technical proficiency when he hit a distant bull's eye on his first try, and then split that arrow with his second shot. "There," he said to the old man, "see if you can match that!" Undisturbed, the master did not draw his bow, but rather motioned for the young archer to follow him up the mountain. Curious about the old fellow's intentions, the champion followed him high into the mountain until they reached a deep chasm spanned by a rather flimsy and shaky log. Calmly stepping out onto the middle of the unsteady and certainly perilous bridge, the old master picked a far away tree as a target, drew his bow, and fired a clean, direct hit. "Now it is your turn," he said as he gracefully stepped back onto the safe ground. Staring with terror into the seemingly bottomless and beckoning abyss, the young man could not force himself to step out onto the log, no less shoot at a target. "You have much skill with your bow," the master said, sensing his challenger's predicament, "but you have little skill with the mind that lets loose the shot."

So what you're saying is that a Golfer should practice hitting balls off the 405 freeway? Dodging traffic? This will help me with my nerves and tension?

[BuckeyeNut]

Originally Posted by umuddafadda

When things are tight.....(even in a little ole club championship-etc)

I have a tendency to get quick in transition....(plus lift head-etc)

Any suggestions on how to alleviate these crunch-time tendencies

or even to lower heart rate?

Try relaxing.........LOL

Really............ease off the death-grip and relax those muscles so you can make a fluid swing. I'm not trying to be captain obvious here, but it's as simple as THAT! Tension in the golf swing is no good....which is why your swing gets herky-jerky under pressure.

[GaijinGolfer]

Originally Posted by BuckeyeNut

Try relaxing.........LOL

Really............ease off the death-grip and relax those muscles so you can make a fluid swing. I'm not trying to be captain obvious here, but it's as simple as THAT! Tension in the golf swing is no good....which is why your swing gets herky-jerky under pressure.

For most people its not as easy as that though.

[joekelly]

Ever heard of Tantric Yoga?  That's a kind of sex yoga where the focus of the 'game' is not ejaculation, but rather just  being in the moment; slow and easy,  like, 'who cares'.  Now, consider that situation as per your personal sexual experiences.  Do you find it easy to forget and sublimate  what nature wants and intends you to do?  Me? No, I do not find this so easy to do. 99% of my brain, when in those situations, tells me one thing only and that is to drive towards the 'goal' of ejaculation.

So in golf  to shift your mental focus away from what you strongly desire (hit the ball, send it straight, send it far) and towards some other 'desire' is not so easy, as many here have noted. So golf success means to sublimate your strongest desires (which in fact are bogus) and substitute a new mental/physical  state.

By bogus desires i mean if you think that hitting, or directing the path of,  the ball is your goal, then that has been proven to be false, or at least non-productive.  Then, what is the 'true', beneficial and productive golf desire?  IMHO,  namely to swing the club, tension free in a consistent and forceful manner.

[divot dave]

practice swinging the club with your tongue between your teeth. Because we tend to clench our teeth when swinging with force or tension, this will give you instant feedback.