Zen Golf Wisdom

Golf is a simple game. Mental golf wisdom requires the mind more than the body, although golf success is contingent on both.

Consistency plays a pivotal role in mental golf wisdom. However, consistent golf is not a matter of technically improving your shots during the game; it is a matter of emotional self-mastery in the key moments of a round.

The vast majority of golfers have exactly the same reaction to a poor shot or round:

They become frustrated and even angry at the poor outcome. They demonstrate no mental golf wisdom.

They become anxious about the next shot, worried it might be as bad as the previous one.

They become upset about their sudden loss of confidence, and intuitively tell themselves to “get over it.” They are aware of the importance of mental golf but they show no wisdom in that.

Then they approach the next shot with tension. They often inadvertently put pressure on themselves to correct eagerly the problem. They may even start thinking about their swing or technique to make sure the next shot is better than the previous one. They are at a loss as to how to apply the mental golf wisdom to their game.

The problem is that none of these reactions leads to magnificent, consistent, and enjoyable golf. They miss the gist of mental golf wisdom.

Zen Golf Wisdom

What is Zen golf wisdom?

Essentially, it is mastery of the mind, which is the mastery of mental golf. There is no sport requiring as much complete control of the mind as the game of golf.

Golf success wisdom stems from the Oriental wisdom of thinking and the mind. Specifically, it is the wisdom of Zen.

Tiger Woods once said: “My mother’s a Buddhist. In Buddhism, if you want to achieve enlightenment, you have to do it through meditation and self-improvement through the mind. That’s something she passed on to me: to be able to calm myself down and use my mind as my main asset.”

Tiger Woods also commented on the golf success of Jack Nicklaus, “The biggest thing is to have the mindset and the belief you can win every tournament going on. A lot of guys don’t have that; Nicklaus had it. He felt he was going to beat everybody.”

If you are playing your very best, you are in a state of meditation, transcendence -- the ideal conditions for mental golf success.

So, what exactly is the wisdom of Zen golf or mental golf wisdom? 

The word “Zen” is Japanese, but it derives from the Chinese, meaning “meditation.”

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Golf Nutrition for Golf Success

Golf nutrition is important for your golf success. It keeps you in optimum physical and mental conditions, which are the criteria for a good game.

Athletes in many sports focus on good nutrition for better sports performance. However, in the game of golf, little attention is paid to golf nutrition because many golfers regard the sport as a slow-moving activity requiring little aerobic or anaerobic energy. As such, they may have ignored the fundamentals of good nutrition necessary for golfing success.

Truly, most golfers’ diet is not healthy. Golfers are mostly bad eaters. Many of them focus on the game, completely oblivious to their diet.

For sustenance, they stuff into their mouths donuts, egg and sausage biscuits, chips and assorted junk foods, and consume beer or sugar-loaded beverages for quenching their thirst. Worse, at the 19th hole, further indulgences jeopardize their health, making some of them worse off in shape than prior to their round.

Golf nutrition contributes to a good diet, leading to good scores. Golf is a game of extended endurance, requiring focus, rhythm, and consistency, which are the fundamentals for golfing success. You need a good diet to provide you with adequate energy throughout a round. Only a healthy body and mind will give you the same measure of strength, flexibility, concentration, and physical and emotional consistency throughout all 18 holes with little fluctuation. Golf nutrition may give you a body and mind for optimum performance.

Overweight is a major factor that affects your scores. Your body shape is a reflection of your performance. Several previously overweight professionals have made major improvements in their tournament standings after losing weight and getting into shape.

Golf nutrition may get you into better shape for better scores.

How to Lose Weight

So what is the secret to weight loss and weight control?

There are only two major factors affecting weight loss:

  You must be healthy.

  You must eat less.

That may sound too simple and obvious to be true. But if you are healthy, most probably you do not have a weight problem. On the other hand, if you are unhealthy, and you would want to lose weight, it is almost impossible without restoring your health first. So, first and foremost, you must have a healthy body before you can manage your weight, or even shed a few extra pounds of unwanted weight. But no fad diets please! Fad diets simply don't work!

How to Keep a Healthy Body

A healthy body needs detoxification.

You must detoxify it. A body, loaded with toxins from the environment, from the chemicals in your foods and water, from your pharmaceutical drugs, is never healthy. Detoxification prepares the groundwork for golf nutrition.

To detoxify your body, go on a fast -- a one-day fast, to begin with. Fasting prepares you for better golf nutrition.

You could lose as much as one to two pounds per day during a fast. 

To lose one pound of body weight, you need to burn up 3,000 calories more than you consume -- which is virtually impossible unless you exercise vigorously. Your body is made up of mostly water. Sodium in food retains water. As soon as you fast, huge amount of water is eliminated or flushed out from your system (this is how and why fasting cleanses). 

In weight control, calories do count. In fasting, there isnothing -- no calorie, no protein, no carbohydrate. Absolutely nothing! The rate of losing weight is directly proportionate to the degree of your overweight.

However, the ultimate goal of fasting is not weight loss: it is internal cleansing for optimum health. In fact, you will put back some, if not all, of the pounds you have lost during a fast once you resume eating. Fasting helps youcontrol, but not lose, your body weight.

In addition to fasting, you may use foods to detoxify your body. Some of the most common foods for detoxification are:

• Alfalfa sprouts

• Beets

• Burdock

• Green barley

Include these foods in your daily diet to give you energy and vitality.

You may also use herbs to detoxify your body.

Your body is a self-cleaning mechanism via your liver, kidneys, urine, feces, breath, and sweat. Keeping your systems of elimination in a healthy condition can help improve and protect your health. Herbs can provide you with safe, natural, time-tested methods to improve the natural functions of your body to support its natural cleansing process. Diuretics increase kidney function, and thus the elimination of urine and excess fluids

The most common herbs for detoxification are: black walnut, cascara sagrada, cayenne, dandelion, echinacea, Indian rhubarb root, licorice root, milk thistile, psyllium husk, red clover, slipper elm inner bark, yarrow.

Water is an invaluable nutrient to every living thing on earth. Every cell of your body requires water to carry nutrients and energy to it, as well as to transport toxins and wastes from it. Water plays an important role in detoxification.

Hydrotherapy involves alternating application of hot and cold water aimed at increasing your blood flow to different tissues of your body. Take a very hot shower immediately followed by a very cold one, and repeat the process two or three times. After the hydrotherapy, snuggle into your bed, staying warm for half an hour or so. You will feel completely refreshed and rejuvenated.

Pure Inside Out - The Water Bath shows you how to use water to detoxify yourself to keep it pure inside out.

Regular physical exercise not only stimulates blood circulation and the movement of lymphatic fluids, but also promotes the reduction of fat reserves, thereby instrumental in facilitating the removal of toxins from your body. 

Low-impact aerobic exercise, such as jumping rope or a bouncer, significantly improves your body’s circulation, which benefits detoxification.

Skin brushing is another effective time-honored method to increase blood and lymphatic circulation to remove dead skin cells, and rid your body of toxins, especially through its pores.

Brush your entire body daily with a natural-bristle dry-skin brush. Be persistent, and the initial discomfort will dissipate after a while when your body has become accustomed to the abrasive effect of brushing.

The use of foot pads is an easy and unobtrusive way to assist your body in the removal of a myriad of pollutants that invade your body on a daily basis, as well as the health-repressive toxic wastes that prevent your body from achieving the true wellness you really should be experiencing.

Accordingly, when applied to the soles of your feet overnight, these foot pads not only warm up to open pores of the skin but also stimulate the reflex zones on your soles to draw out and absorb accumulated wastes under osmotic pressure from the blood and lymph systems in your body.

When lying horizontally, your body fluids collect in your head and feet. There is an acupuncture point on each of the sole of your feet, known as “gushing water spring,” through which excess toxins and moisture from your body will be excreted into the foot patches. By applying foot pads on your feet while sleeping, you may be able to extract toxins from your body through the process of osmosis in the form of moisture onto your soles.

Foot pads are obtainable on the Internet.

If your body is rid of toxins, it will respond appropriately to any weight-loss program. If you eat more, you put on a few pounds; if you eat less, you lose a few pounds. But your weight will never balloon or get out of control. Therefore, if you weight fluctuates drastically, the problem is your health, more specifically -- your body is simply too toxic.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Golf Wisdom (1)

Alcott, Amy

“Golf is a spiritual game. It’s like Zen; you have to let your mind take over.”

Comments

There is a close connection between the body, the mind, and the soul when it comes to playing golf.  That’s why Zen may play a pivotal role in golf success.

Zen can affect your body, mind, and soul because it forms a link with science, religion, and philosophy—they may contribute to your golf success.

First of all, Zen is spiritual, but not a religion; it does not impose on anyone to believe in a particular version of God. As a matter of fact, Zen encourages opening of your mind, and therefore allows you to be more receptive to the spirituality of Zen and, accordingly, more open to the spiritual benefits associated with Zen.

In addition, Zen is more of a philosophy than a religion. As such, it embraces eternal truths (e.g. the Eight Noble Truths), and intrinsic human values (e.g. compassion and loving-kindness) that promote emotional wellness of the mind and the soul.

Furthermore, Zen is practical and easy to incorporate. Zen is easy to acquire and assimilate: all it requires of you is a willingness to open to experience and to practice meditation consistently. Medical science has already vindicated the health benefits of meditation and its salutary effects on the body, the mind, and the soul. Through meditation, Zen can train your mind to focus on the present moment. This mindfulness is critical to your golf success—before, during, and after your golf swing

Cotton, Henry, about British Open Champion, Harry Vardon

“He would not play any course twice in the same day. Why not? Because he was so accurate, that in his second round, his shots finished in the divot holes he had made in the morning, and that took the fun out of the game.”

“I wouldn’t advise any professional golfer to marry before the age of thirty. Marriage means a division of interests, and golf, particularly tournament golf, demands all your time.”

Comments

Golf is a fun game, but it demands a lot of mental focus and concentration. If you decide not only to enjoy the game but also to turn it into a golf success career, then you do have to make some sacrifice.

Stephen Lau

Confidence in Perfect Putting

Perfect Putting Is Confidence at Its Best

A good putter has to be confident. A good putter has to feel that he or she is up to par. Yes, if you start telling yourself that you can't putt, you may indeed have a problem in getting your ball in the hole even from a distance of just two or three feet. 

Missing a short putt on the last hole may become an unforgettable mistake that you start dwelling on until it may haunt you for the rest of your life. People often say you learn from your mistakes. However, the inability to forget could be more devastating to golfing success than the inability to remember what to do. 

As a good putter, you must acquire the ability to consciously block from your mind all your missed putts. You must learn to focus on the present putt. Always think of yourself as a good, if not a great, putter. This is confidence at its best.

Of course, your inner self might tell you to get "real." However, you must also learn not to use "realism" as your excuse for your persistent negative attitude towards your own evaluation of your caliber as a putter.

Remember, Jack Nicklaus misses his putts too. But he chooses not to remember the putts he has missed; instead, he remembers the perfect putts he has made. And don't tell yourself that you are not Jack Nicklaus! 

Confidence is disciplining your mind to separate you from the rest of your competitors, just as Jack Nicklaus has separated himself from the rest of the professional golfers.

If you can change your thinking about remembering the putts you have missed, you are in fact changing your own self-perception about your caliber as a putter.

Remember, a great putter is not born, but is made -- made through conscious effort to improve not only the putting techniques but also the self-image. A positive self-perception immunizes you from doubts and fears about your putting techniques -- doubts and fears are stumbling blocks in golf success. 

Of course, changing the way you perceive yourself as a putter requires practice and perseverance. 

First, practice mental visualization of the good putts you have made. 

Garry Player once said: "On every putt, see the ball going into the hole with your mind's eye." 

Mental visualization is important to golfing success. In your mind's eye, you already see your success, and seeing is believing.

Tiger Woods' father was said to have trained his son while he was still a very young kid to roll a ball to a hole, and then roll it to the hole again with his eyes closed. That was how Tiger Woods received his training in developing his mental golf.

Practice to relive the perfect putts you have made. Visualize the puts in your next round of golf, and see them going in the hole.

Stop complaining in the way your converse about your own putting. Stop moaning about the mistakes you made. Complaining only reinforces the negative image, and may well become self-fulfilling prophecy. 

Confidence means the ability to control the mind by focusing on something small and simple.

In good putting, you clear all the clutters in your mind by narrowing your mental focus as much as possible. Learn to empty your mind of instructional thoughts from books, fellow golfers, or your coach. Just let your subconscious mind take over your strokes. It is like a runner on the track would let the subconscious mind take over the breathing to increase the oxygen intake; a runner does not have to consciously breathe harder in order to get more oxygen into the lungs to win the race.

So neither should you consciously focus on your strokes. Instead, just focus on the target. 

In your mind's eye, you should see only a mental picture of the hole or your target. A good putter not only focuses on the target, but also narrows down the target. Therefore, a good putter's target may not simply be the hole. Remember, the smaller the target is, the better control your brain and your body may have in getting the ball to the target of your choice. Learn to select a smaller target, such as a broken blade of grass, or a tiny edge of the hole. Your brain works better when the target is smaller, and your brain subconsciously has better control of your body's functions, especially your muscles and reflexes.

You may have one of the best strokes of your life when you see the target, and your mind simply reacts to it with little interference from your conscious thought.

Confidence means getting control of the present situation, and the past is insignificant and irrelevant. 

In any sport, gaining control of the present situation is important. Some people believe that you must try the hardest in order to control the present situation. However, in putting, trying your hardest may not be equivalent to doing your best.

Why is that so?

This is because putting requires spontaneity, and spontaneity is controlling the mind and hence the response, but without striving your hardest to control the resulting action. Essentially, spontaneity is focusing on the process, and never on the outcome. In this way, your efforts may become "natural" and "effortless." As a result, your strokes may become more confident, free from doubt or hesitation. 

Bobby Jones once said: "Putting -- a game within a game -- might just be said to be the most important part of golf." 

If putting is, indeed, an integral part of golf, make sure you excel in it, and make sure you are thinking like Jack Nicklaus. The mind is all that matters on the green. You become what you think you are, and your putts are affected by your mind, which is influenced by your confidence.

In perfect putting, confidence means overcoming any unconscious attempt using excessive muscular strength to steer the shot to the target in the swing. Confidence means using your conscious mind to remember only the good shots and discarding the bad ones. Confidence also means putting the outcome of a shot in perspective -- golf is only a game and whatever the outcome may be, it is not the end of the world. Finally, confidence means staying in the present moment. The past has nothing to do with the present, and only the present is real to you. Make the most of what you can do at the present moment, and the future is beyond your control. When you control your mind, you control your confidence, and hence you control the game. 

The Boomerang Golf Putting System

The Boomerang Golf Putting System not only is an addictive and challenging game, but also fine tunes your muscle memory. Once set, every putt becomes an identical challenge of perfect line and perfect pace. Learning how to hit a perfectly straight putt is golfing success. It is the perfect gift for any golfer. Play on your own or with friends and start grooving a professional putting stroke today -- it's great fun and you won’t be disappointed with the results.

Elite Sports Dead On Series II Putter

The putter is used on virtually every hole, unless someone chips in a shot. There is almost a direct correlation between a person’s handicap and the amount of putts made during a round. This premier club aims at lowering your scores.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

The Basic Elements of Perfect Putting in Golf

The average golfer takes 43 percent of his or her shots from the putting green. This means that putting plays a pivotal role in the game of golf.

Golfing success demands the composite of a great player and a great putter. Perfect putting is the dream of any golfer.

Putting on the green is an art in itself. 

Putting is an art because there are no hard and fast rules regarding how one should deliver the perfect putt. Putting is an art because it is a reflection of the philosophy and personal traits of the putter. As such, most golfers have come to believe that "putters are born, not made." Be that as it may, these personal characteristics, such as the power of imagination, the finesse of touch, and the accuracy of judgment  can be cultivated and acquired simply by changing the way you think about putting. 

The Basic Elements of Perfect Putting

A good putter must have the capability to assess the green.

A good putter must have the vivid imagination and sharp eyesight requisite in a good survey of the green to predetermine the amount of break on side-hill putts, thereby instrumental in determining the "line" of the putt.

A good putter must be able to analyze the unique characteristics of a green, such as the speed of the green -- fast, hard, slow or soft, and to determine the contour of the green -- sloping one way or the other. An acute awareness of the particular characteristics of the green may help the decision on the strategy before even stepping on the first tee. 

A good putter must be able to gauge the distance consistently, especially on long putts. Accurate judgment may help striking a "specialized" stroke. 

A good putter must be able to control the stroke and the placement of the ball. A good putter must putt the ball consistently and confidently, such that the ball is put within an inch or two of the targeted spot. Such confidence is often reflected in the positive attitude, the targeted concentration, and relaxed mentality of the putter. 

A good artist relies on his or her tools, and this is also true of a good putter, who needs to experiment different equipment before "feeling good" on one that will inspire confidence in delivering the perfect putt.

A good putter must know how to choose his or her equipment. The art of choosing the right size of the equipment depends on the physique, the height, and the arm length of an individual; while the choice of the weight of the equipment is contingent on the individual's preference for power deliverance or delicacy of touch. A heavier equipment may give you more power at the expense of being more difficult to exercise control on a slick green. You must learn the art of arriving at a compromise between power and touch in your choice of your equipment, such that your equipment may become an asset, not a liability, in your putting. 

Stephen Lau

Get the Wisdom for Your Golf Success!

The Complete TAO TE CHING in Plain English

TAO wisdom is the profound human wisdom from ancient China more than 2,600 years ago. It is expressed in TAO TE CHING, one of the most translated works in world literature.

There are many translations and interpretations of Lao Tzu’s ancient classic “Tao Te Ching.”  Given that the Chinese language is often capable of multiple meanings, following the exact Chinese translation may make the flow of the language uneven and even difficult to understand. 

The book contains not only the complete 81 chapters of Lao Tzu’s immortal classic but also the author’s own interpretations of the essentials of TAO  wisdom (which is the wisdom of Lao Tzu) for easier intuition and assimilation.

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Golf Body Fitness

Stretch Exercise for Golf Fitness

Stretch exercise aims at improving your flexibility in order to extend the range of movement of your joints so that you can play your game more efficiently for better scores. Flexibility is a great asset to your overall golf success.

Stretch exercise relieves muscular stress and mental tension, both of which contribute to better golf fitness for better scores.

Flexibility reduces the risk of lower back pain, which is a most common complaint among golfers, especially senior golfers.

Flexibility training encourages postural balance and awareness, which are important to the game, especially during the backswing and follow through.

Improved joint strength reduces the degeneration of joint structures in the body, which may lead to adverse arthritic conditions.

With improved physical performance, there will be less tissue resistance, which decreases the chance of injury during the game.

Warm-Up Exercises for Golf Flexibility Fitness: 

Nowadays, hundreds of thousands of Americans of all ages and with all physical backgrounds practice Yoga on a daily basis. Yoga, as a daily exercise, has the following benefits:

It normalizes your muscle tone, as well as balances activity of opposing muscle groups.

It lowers your risk of injuring muscles and ligaments.

As minimal effort is required, you feel relaxed rather than stressed out during the exercise.

Contrary to regular exercise, your breathing remains natural and controlled throughout.

You internalize your awareness: you become focused on your breath and the infinite, thereby attaining internal peace and relaxation, which are critical to mental golf.

Brilliant Yoga: Get the most practical approach to attaining a high level of physical fitness, while stabilizing your emotions and elevating your mental attitude, which are crucial to golf fitness throughout the game. In other words, Yoga unites your mind, body, and spirit for optimum performance during the game. Essentially, it is a holistic approach to your overall golf fitness through awareness of your body’s posture, alignment, and patterns of movement; Yoga is golf fitness.

Qigong is a Chinese system of golf-fitness exercise, based on physical movements, breathing techniques, and meditation. Literally, qi means “breath of life” or “vital energy,” and gong means “work” or “mastery of self-discipline.” Essentially, Qigong is an easy-to-follow exercise combining controlled breathing, focused concentration, and simple body movement. It works with your body’s energy for your golf fitness.

Qigong Power: Qigong exercise with step-by-step instructions and videos to improve muscle flexibility, enhance internal life energy, and promote clarity of the mind and physical well-being, which are all requisites for golf fitness.

Optimal Breathing

Get a FREE breathing test and see if you have been breathing correctly. Optimal breathing holds the key to your golf fitness and overall health. Learn how to breathe correctly.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Golf Fitness

Golf fitness is both physical and mental fitness for golf success. There are no secrets to good golf. Learn the techniques and apply diligently through practice. However, you must have a body and mind fit enough to put what you have learned into application.

The game, at one time, did not focus much on golf fitness, and fitness training was the exception rather than the rule. In the past, golfers were rather reluctant to spend a great deal of time working out. Nowadays, the success of motivated, talented golf players all practice golf fitness training, so much that an exercise trailer and full-time training and rehabilitative staff are always available for players at all USPGA events. Enthusiastic players and professionals realize that fitness is essentially year-round strength training to stay competitive for your golf success.

Golf is a game in which a small advantage in one area can significantly influence the outcome of the game. Golf fitness may mean the difference between finishing 1st or finishing 20th.

A Walking Program

Walking is a weight-bearing exercise for golf fitness. It is the activity closest to perfect exercise. Studies show that walking may have substantial health benefits for golfing success, including:

Enhancing your heart health, and hence responsible for your brain health, since the heart supplies blood and nutrients to the brain

Reducing high cholesterol and improving blood lipid profile (a group of blood tests to determine the risk of coronary heart disease) for weight maintenance

Controlling body weight through reduction of body fat

Enhancing mental awareness and sharpness

Preventing osteoporosis through bone density increase

However, it is important to stay mindful while walking. For most people, walking is an activity requiring no thought or intention -- because they have been doing it almost their whole lives. It is common for people to read while walking on a treadmill. That, however, is not mindful walking.

Do not approach walking as if you are merely performing a function of your body. Paying attention to how you walk is mindful walking.

Build your body strength and endurance by starting a walking program, especially if you use a golf cart instead of walking.

While walking, wear golf and walking shoes, which must be long and wide enough to fit your feet to avoid a host of future foot problems associated with poor support and inadequate cushion.

While walking downhill, tighten your lower abdominal muscles to support you lower back. Keep a little spring in your step and avoid locking your knees.

While walking uphill, straighten up your body, instead of leaning forward. Vary the length of your stride to reduce the strain on your back.

Walking is golf fitness to improve your overall physical endurance for the game.                                       

Brain Fitness

Brain fitness is also golf fitness. Your brain health is important to your golf success. The game requires good judgment and appropriate decisions, which will not be possible without a healthy brain.

Mental decline as you age may be due to altered connections among brain cells. To keep your brain healthy, you must keep your brain cells healthy by nourishing them with oxygen and nutrients. What is good for the heart is also good for the brain. Healthful foods for the heart are also healthful foods for your brain.

Research has found that keeping your brain active not only increases its vitality but also builds its reserves of brain cells and connections.

Always engage in mental activities to keep your memory sharp and your brain healthy. Generate new brain cells at any age through all types of brain activities, which essentially exercise your brain cells.

The best and most effective way to manage your brain cells is to use them, instead of using reminders.

Memory Improvement Techniques unlocks the secrets to a perfect computer-like memory in just about 5 minutes a day. At any age, your memory is powerful, but it is untrained. Memory Improvement Techniques trains you to acquire the skills of “flash memorization” so that you don’t need to remember the things you want to remember the hard way. You don’t need to read memory books, or attend expensive memory workshops. In Memory Improvement Techniques, you will find everything you ever wanted to know about enhancing your brain health for golf fitness. This is the book that will make you proud of your memory -- and may even go a long way to delay and prevent Alzheimer’s disease because it helps you fully utilize your mind at all times!

Remember, your mind and your body are not two things. What affects your mind, also affects your body. In other words, if your mind is tense, your body will also become tense. So learn to relax your mind as much as you relax your body. Mind relaxation can be achieved through meditations and power mind.

Keep your brain healthy for longer to play your golf for longer. Visit my blog: Increase Mind Power.

Vision Fitness

Vision plays an important part in golf fitness in that it sharpens your target awareness.

Staying focused on a target requires not only a great deal of concentration but also good vision.

Many golfers exercise their bodies without exercising their eyes for better golf fitness. Your eyes hold the key to your golf fitness as much as your body does.

Do basic eye exercise everyday. For more information go to: Senior Golf. Also, visit my web page: Vision Fitness Resources.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

Mastering the Basics of Golf (3)

Total Personal Commitment

Golfing success is about your personal commitment, not to the golf ball, not to anyone else, but to yourself and to your goal.

Commitment is different from involvement. In golf, as in life, total 100 percent commitment holds the key to success in any endeavor.

How do you commit yourself to golfing success? 

• You evaluate your strengths and weaknesses, and purposefully address those issues.

• You commit yourself to a golf fitness and golf nutrition program.

• You commit yourself to preventing golf injuries through a regular exercise program. 

• You commit yourself to mastering all golf basics.

• You regularly begin your pre-shot routine on the range, not on the golf course, until your golf swing becomes subconscious, thereby instrumental in enhancing your spontaneous internal motion functioning. Make your swing become second nature to you, such that you can focus on your target, not your swing.

Commitment requires a great deal of efforts and hard work. As one of the golf basics, it provides you with an inner strength necessary for success.

Simplicity Is Golfing Success

Golf inconsistency is a common hindrance to success.

Jack Nicklaus: “If there is one thing I have learned during my years as a professional, it is that the only thing constant about golf is its inconstancy.”

The good news is: Simplicity produces consistency, which holds the key to long-term golfing success.

How do you keep your golf simple and consistent? 

• You make your goals simple and realistic: e.g. Examine where you take the most strokes. Remember, the quality of your practice always shows up in the quality of your performance.

• You make simple practice plans and adhere to them: be consistent, and avoid switching from one to another.

• You focus on what your control, instead of what you cannot control. You can certainly control yourself, but you cannot control others or the environment. Worrying makes you lose your control of your golf basics.

• You make a simple golf swing without too much analysis. Jack Nicklaus is a great believer in simple and natural swing. Just swing freely and naturally. It is consciousness without being self-conscious.

• You make simple decisions on all your shots. After your initial analysis of the forthcoming shot, make a simple decision and stick to it. A clear decision produces order and clarity with all your golf shots.

The game of golf is complex, but you need not make it “more complex” than necessary. Golfing success is deceptively simple and simply amazing.

Golf is play to be enjoyed, not toil to be anxious about.

No Great Expectations

In golf, having no great expectations makes the game simple and successful. Do not position yourself for failure by having great expectations. Do not let your great expectations get in your way.

How do you have no expectations?

You learn not to become “score conscious.” 

• You do not form any preconceived notion of how you are going to play in the game. Remember, one shot at a time. Only play the shot at hand.

• You do not expect your shot patterns to be exactly the same as the ones on the practice range. And do not expect to hit the ball perfectly every time. Always expect the unexpected. Golf inconsistency is only too common. Expect it.

• You focus your mind on the process, rather than theoutcome.

With no expectations from the game, you focus on your target in the PRESENT moment, thereby freeing yourself from the bondage of your accountability to any performance standard you may have preset for yourself.

Expect the best, but be prepared for the worst. Do your best, and let God do the rest.

Expect your total commitment on any shot.

Positive expectations give you motivation and passion for golfing success.

Playing with Confidence and Trust

In golf, as in life, everything you do is based on confidence and trust. To succeed in golf, you must learn to trust your technique, judgment, and decision. These are golf basics for golfing success.

In golfing success, there is no “gray” area in the arena of confidence and trust. Either you have it, or you don’t; there is no “in between.”

How do you play with confidence and trust? 

• You swing to your target without undue concern of how to hit the ball exactly right. You don’t trust the ball’s intelligence to find the target; you trust your own spontaneous movements acquired through regular practice. A pianist at a recital does not worry about his or her fingering, so why should you worry about your golf swing? You swing should always be natural and spontaneous, just like you type on the keyboard without looking. If you have mastered the golf basics, you should be able to play with confidence and trust, just like a pro.

• You learn to trust your mind, your emotions, and yourgolfing instinct. No matter at what level you play golf, you must develop that trust, without which you will be immobilized and you will not harness and fully utilize the golf basics you have mastered.

• You are confident that you have decided on the right type of shot. Trust the inner voice that makes the decision. Sometimes it is better to be decisive on the wrong club than to be indecisive on the right one. (see Golf Accessories.)

Just let yourself swing freely, trusting that you have made the right choice of clubs and shot.

Confidence and trust require time and discipline, but they are indispensable assets in golfing success. They enable you to play without “striving” to play better: you simply play according to your instinct and talent, trusting that they will bring about a positive outcome for you.

                     

Hanging in There

Frustration often undermines your golf performance.

Hang in there until you ultimately succeed. Always give yourself your best efforts to golfing success.

How do you hang in there when things are going askew? 

• You use your willpower to overcome all obstacles. Change your perspectives by changing your attitudes. Never sell yourself short. Show the world, or yourself, what you can do. Do not undermine your talent and sabotage your golfing success, irrespective of your level.

How do you hang in there when things are going askew? 

• You use your willpower to overcome all obstacles. Change your perspectives by changing your attitudes. Never sell yourself short. Show the world, or yourself, what you can do. Do not undermine your talent and sabotage your golfing success, irrespective of your level.

• You reply on your innate human spirit to persevere and to challenge yourself in any circumstance. Give yourself a pep talk and reinforce it with purposeful behaviors. Remind yourself that you play the game to enjoy, and nothing else or no one else really matters. Remember the old adage: Keep a cool head while others around you are losing theirs.

Stephen Lau

Copyright© by Stephen Lau

The Complete TAO TE CHING in Plain English

Get this ancient wisdom to understand how to play your golf with no expectations, how to focus on the present moment, and how to be mindful of what you are doing right now.

There are many translations and interpretations of Lao Tzu’s ancient classic “Tae o Te Ching.”  Given that the Chinese language is often capable of multiple meanings, following the exact Chinese translation may make the flow of the language uneven and even difficult to understand. 

This book contains not only the complete 81 chapters of Lao Tzu’s immortal classic but also the author’s own interpretations of the essentials of TAO  wisdom (which is the wisdom of Lao Tzu) for easier intuition and assimilation.

To get your digital copy, click here; to get your paperback copy, click here.