Nothing makes me happier than to see Tiger Woods reacquiring his competitive powers in the recent PGA Tour events in which he has played.

And even if you are not a Tiger Woods fan you can’t help but admire his never-say-never attitude.

Tiger has experienced his share of set-backs over recent years, like many golfers, but I don’t think anyone would argue that he is one of the most determined and resolute individuals in professional sport?

His grit and determination is a model for all of us to understand and learn from—even though his circumstances are quite different from ours.

Tiger has not only collected a cache of trophies and championships over his career, he has also amassed phenomenal wealth from his golfing prowess.

So you have to wonder what kind of competitive drive he has, a drive that has him working as hard as ever, after nearly 20 years on tour, when he doesn’t have to. 

The Common Trait of Successful Individuals
It is actually quite common to find high achieving individuals from the realms of professional sport and also business to have amassed immense financial wealth over their career, and yet they are still working as hard as ever, as if they didn’t have a cent to their name.

Clearly financial freedom isn’t the only motivation that drives them. And it’s not about winning either, because when you talk to these individuals they will tell you that they lose many times more than they win.

They are smart enough to know that they can’t ‘control’ much of anything in their life—especially winning. So why do they keep pushing themselves, and why do they try to keep getting better when they really don’t have to?

I believe that their core driver is the consistent idea that they can remain competitive in an ever changing world over a long period of time. In other words, they love the challenge of continually adapting and improving their skills and abilities to be a constant and competitive force in whatever they do.

Just look at the golfing greats such as Nicklaus, Palmer, Player and Norman who went into business with the same competitive drive they had on the golf course and have carved out a successful niche in other professional domains.

Developing Your Competitive Nature
There’s a lesson here for all of us about the importance of persisting in the face of adversity, and to believe that you have the ability to adapt, grow and continually find ways to improve your competitive nature.

How would you answer the following questions about your current competitive drive and nature?

• Are you an amateur or professional golfer with nonstop burning passion for the game of golf?

• Are you the type of golfer who never (And I mean never) gives up on trying to produce your best score in any round of golf--even if you are playing atrociously?
• Do you hate to lose (even a dollar) when you are having a fun bet with your friends?

• Do you have a strong purpose or will that drives you to practice much longer hours than your friends?

• Do you avoid short-cuts in your skill training in favor of doing it right every time?
  
• Do you always attempt to do your best when you practice your skills or play on the course?
  
  

Hopefully you answered yes to these questions. Through persistent maintenance of your passion, drive and enthusiasm for improving your game you can tap into a bigger chunk of your amazing potential and use it to be more, have more, and also do more in your life.

We have worked with many elite golfers over the years and what we have learned from our experience is the guys and gals that stay in the game and continually get better are the most competitive golfers. They are the golfers who keep adapting and adjusting their game to the constant challenges they face.

Last Thoughts...
The United States Olympic committee's motto can be seen all over the Olympic Training Center campuses in Colorado Springs, Colorado. These small signs can be seen from the gym, to the dining room, and also on doors to different training venues, and the signs simply read...

Create your own sign that reads 'It's Not Every Four Rounds, It's Every Shot" which you can place in locations you frequent that constantly reminds you of your need to stay competitive.

Tiger Woods is an exceptional golfer, but he's no more special than you or I. But Tiger is smart in that he works very hard on improving his competitive powers, because he worked out long ago that the secret to success in anything you do lies in your ability to keep finding ways to sharpen your competitive edge.


So get to work on sharpening yours; but remember that it's not so much a question of how, but more a question of now.

Lawrie Montague and David Milne - Pro Tour Golf College
The Professional Golf Tour Training College for Serious Amateur Golfers

Golfers who are trying to perform a mechanical motion are often fragmenting learning to swing the club and play golf. This is similar to students who are taking in information to give back on a test, without gaining any personal meaning for using the information beyond a classroom.

Two questions that the brain will ask before new learning is stored are:

1)      Does this information make any sense?

2)      And does it have any meaning?

Sense and meaning are independent of each other. 
A playful approach to learning can provide insights for making sense and gaining meaning.


Our past experiences give meaning to new learning, and meaning is more significant than sense. Often information can make sense, but has little meaning for future use, in the present environment.

For example, knowing a word is not the same as understanding its meaning, and also having the ability to use it in several contexts with knowledge of meaning.

In play-to-learn environments, givers of information are influencing the learning process and are not just dispensing facts. In teaching fixing to get it right environments this often is not the case.

One of the brain’s most important skills is making predictions. If this, then that!

Efficient approaches to learning enhances the brains power of prediction and also the skill of self-reliance for responding to future events in ever changing environments.

Playful approaches to learning unconsciously evaluate what individuals need to make themselves aware of. 

Information that the brain can use to make predictions and decisions with is more useful than technical information that cannot be used for these acts.

Therefore...

• Playful approaches to learning unconsciously guide individuals in the direction of useful insights; they do not give answers. 

• Play-to-learn approaches to progress create curiosity and interest; they are not providing a list of details.

• Play-to-learn environments fill in the gaps in our knowledge with acts of curiosity, not “how to” directions. 

• Playful learning works because of what it is not, - and not because of exact details.
  

Trying to be correct or be exact is often at the cost of playful application, playful usefulness and playful accessibility.

A playful approach to progress is trying to accomplish the next thing, it’s not trying to fix what just happened!

NOTE: Janet Rae Dupree (NY Times 5-4-08) “Don’t bother trying to kill off old habits, once those ruts of procedures are warn into the brains hippocampus they are there to stay, sustained. Any new habit we engrave into ourselves creates parallel pathways that can bypass those old roads.”

“The first thing needed for innovation is a fascination with wonder. But we are taught instead "to decide" (make a choice). To decide is to kill off all possibilities but one. A good innovator is always exploring the many other possibilities.” (Author of Open Mind)

Some have called playful learning anti-intellectual, but it is true critical thinking or problem solving at its best.

Getting caught up in details and a volume of information can cause one to lose sight of their relationship to past experiences, other ideas and patterns.
“Too much information? Ignore it" was the title of a story in the NY Times (11-11-07) about how information overload is slowing down maximizing personal production.

Golfers should also take note!

One of the aims of play-to-learn environments is to prepare individuals for using adaptations of basic core information in ever changing real world conditions. Play to learn environments enhance an individual’s ability to extend what has been learned in one context to many different environments.

NOTE: Playful learning environments will broadly educate individuals; they are not training them to perform perfectly. “It would be a mistake to expose individuals to an expert model and assume that they will learn efficiently.” (P50 How People Learn)

Play-to-learn environments are more about seeing options, and random probing, than performing perfectly. Attempts to explain details can limit progress with insensitivity to the power of a variety of conceivable random approaches.

Minds in motion are at the core of learning that lasts. Often the villain is micro management of positions and parts, and moving away from the whole.

Becoming an educated golfer (or educated in anything) is less about knowing the details of a peculiar skill or fact, than about being able to find your own way of creating workable outcomes by using just basic core information.

Tiger Woods won the 2008 US Open by adjusting and creating workable, not perfect outcomes, with the playful self-skills he came to golf with as a young child.

It seems that today’s approach to golf instruction is grounded in a culture of teaching “a swing,” and not a variety of ways to use a golf club.

Two opposing questions could be asked;

1. What set of problems will teach “a swing” approach or equip golfers to solve?
2. What set of problems will learning a variety of ways to use a golf club equip a golfer to solve? 

Playing to learn environments equip golfers to be consistently creative with their golf club.

By Michael Hebron PGA MP CI

What’s interesting about the idea behind transference ability is that it is another way of describing your ability to learn a skill set thoroughly enough to trust it when you perform it on the golf course in tournaments.

The key word here is "trust," and as we all know or have probably heard, "trust must be earned." 

However, it is how trust is earned that is the real key to successful transference of skills to the golf course, and in this article I'll show you how to do it easily and well.

So What Exactly is Trust and Why is it Important?
Well, the dictionary describes the word Trust as a firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something.

Basically trust as it relates to golf performance describes your level of belief in the reliability of your golf techniques under any type of perceived pressure on the golf course in tournaments.

Therefore trust is primarily developed as a consequence of the way your golf skills are practiced and developed on the practice ground.

What we are really talking about is your golf practice methodology, your practice approach, or the specific way you practice your golf skills to bring about changes in the way you perform them on the golf course in tournaments.

Basically from this point forward it will be helpful for you to start seeing your golf practice as a series of strokes or trials that grow or expand your learning potential. 

This takes place within a period of time on the practice ground, or even on the golf course.

Like learning any motor skill, you are required to perform multiple repetitions to augment or boost learning potential. 

The key to successful transference of skills from the practice ground to the golf course will ultimately get down to your commitment and resolve to perform each-and-every-stroke with your full attention on each stroke, and your intention to perform each stroke to the best of your current ability.

When you perform each stroke you are in fact generating a small experience over and over, and it’s the quality of each individual experience when repeated many times that ultimately leads to improvement, and eventual reliability in your technique.

I’m sure you realize that it is not uncommon for some golfers to practice their golf stroke for many hours but not experience anywhere near the level of progress they desire. 

Why does this happen?

The 2 main reasons we come across at Pro Tour Golf College are a poor attitude over less than stellar results, and unproductive practice habits.

So how can we improve this situation to fast-track our golf skill development so we can achieve better results on the golf course?

With 2 unique concepts I'm going to share with you.

Aiming Your Attitude and Applied Golf Skills Practice...

The students at Pro Tour Golf College are just like you. They want to improve their skills and transfer them to the golf course sooner rather than later, and we have a very specific way we go about doing this. 

I'm sure that you would agree that it would be helpful if you could practice your skills with a specific practice process that manages your skills as it guides you towards effective skill transfer?



Every student in our Tour Golfer Bridging Program goes through our E.G.I.S Assessment at least 3 times over a 10 week period to basically find out how good they are with their short-game and long game skills. 

For example, during the assessment the students will hit sets of 10 shots to various targets located between 10 yards/metres and 25 yards/metres from the edge of the green covering chip, pitch, bunker, lob, rough and buried bunker shots that are defined by target zones of differing sizes.

After the assessment has been completed they add up their results and their results place them in a specific colour category based on the score they had. 

For example, in a recent Greenside Wedge Skills Assessment at our Jakarta Indonesia location, one of our students William (Name changed for privacy) had the following results in the 6 sub categories of the Greenside Wedge Skills Assessment.

E.G.I.S GREENSIDE WEDGE ASSESSMENT - SUB CATEGORY RESULTS
1. Chip Shots.........................30%    = Yellow Target Zone Golfer
2. Pitch Shots........................52.5% = Orange Target Zone Golfer
3. Bunker Shots.....................27.5% = Yellow Target Zone Golfer
4. Lob Shots..........................32.5% = Yellow Target Zone Golfer
5. Rough Shots......................47.5% = Orange Target Zone Golfer
6. Buried Bunker Shots..........25%    = Yellow Target Zone Golfer

Now if you study our Greenside Wedge Skills Target Zone Practice Matrix (below) you can see that we can guide and manage William's learning by adjusting the size of his target zones when he practices these particular skill sets, and also give him a reasonable benchmark to aim at achieving to bring about skill transference on the golf course in tournaments.

Basically William's score of 30 percent in his chipping assessment places him in the Yellow Target Zone category, and the matrix suggests that he needs to achieve results of 50 percent or higher (70 percent of the time) in this colour zone when he practices his chipping skills before he can graduate to the Orange Target Zone level.

You can see that the Orange Target Zone has a smaller target radius for chipping, and a 10 percent higher benchmark to achieve for William to graduate to the Red Target Zone.

In other words, as William improves his skills the challenge becomes slightly more difficult, and the benchmark is higher to achieve as well.

Applied golf practice gets down to your attitude to improvement and how you go about learning and developing your skills.

A quality investment in your golf practice will grow the reliability of the different strokes you need to compete successfully on the golf course.

You must develop an ideal performance attitude (Mushin) for every single stroke you make and then combine it with a method of practice that challenges you as it manages your improvement.

Successful skill transference really boils down to your ability to perform your skills reliably, so it just makes good sense to build the best attitude possible with every shot you practice, with the best practice method available.


Lawrie Montague and David Milne - Pro Tour Golf College
The Professional Golf Tour Training College for Serious
Amateurs and Professionals

When I talk to golfers about their sources for building confidence in their game, amateur and elite players often tell me that successful performances are their number one determinant of confidence.

This response raises some important questions to think about:

• How do you define or assess a successful performance?
  

• If your confidence is solely based on scores or results, how many successful outcomes do you need under your belt to feel truly confident?

• Lastly, consider what happens to this confidence when you are approaching a new level or tour experience or going through a slump?

If you hold a results-only focus when these circumstances arise, it is highly likely you will go into most events on shaky ground and resilience is compromised. 

You’re then left with HOPE as a strategy, feeling anxious, over-whelmed, and never in control of your performance.

When players’ focus solely on results as their confidence building blocks learning is compromised and the ability to develop reliable recipes for winning doesn't happen.

Many athletes talk about ‘performance’ and they actually mean ‘results.’ There is a distinction. Performance is the input or your recipe you create to maximize your chances of achieving the outputs (result). 

Performance is not results. Results are results.


Put another way, performance is the HOW and the result is the WHAT.

To play golf at the level you want more consistently and feel confident in what you are doing, you have to focus on your performance building blocks as much as you do the results.

A results-only focus will set you up to believe that ‘you are only as good as your last result’ and that can be scary when you are in a rut and haven’t strung a few solid rounds together for a while.

When you focus solely on results as your foundation for confidence in your game you will respond poorly to performance slumps, and fall into the all too common pattern of worry, doubt, and dramatic meetings with your coach about a swing over-haul to find form.

Think about how gritty players get the job done when they aren’t feeling at their best? It always comes down to having the right performance focus, on your key ingredients that you have control over no matter how poorly you are striking the ball.

Top players not only achieve great results consistently but also love to compete. This is because they understand their recipe for winning, and don’t go into events hoping things will go their way.

They go in confident in a game plan they have tested, and they focus on quality preparation that is NOT based around tweaking their swing or hitting it well.

Here are 5 ways for shaping your performance focus and building a reliable recipe for true confidence: 

1. Your pre-shot routine is the number ONE ingredient in your performance focus. Develop and refine a sound pre-shot routine that establishes clear commitment to your shot selection regardless of how well or how poorly you are striking the ball.
2. Give your pre-shot routine and shot selection process a regular check-up.
3. Know your strengths and find ways to maximize these in your game.
4. Understand “what makes you tick” as a player and practice replicating these skills, shots, and habits.
5. Practice your tournament day habits from your morning rituals to your warm-up.
   
   

Placing as much emphasis on your performance process as the results will raise the intensity in your training and build confidence on reliable factors you can manage and adjust in consistently helpful ways.

Dr Jay-Lee Nair

Visit Dr Jay-Lee to learn how to shape your performance process at the Singapore Sports Medicine Centre.