First of all, let's look at what happens when you are playing at your best. To do so requires you to have developed the right hardware. This is primarily in your brain and secondarily in your gody. It is useful to think of our brain as a muscle. For instance, to become proficient in your teeing off swing it is helpful for the right parts of your brain to be activated and strengthened -- which means that the networks of neurons have grown thicker. Then once these capabilities are developed, all you need to do is to develop the skill of recalling these abilities when appropriate.

So, here is the problem with a round that has gotten off to a bad start. It is absolutely vital to train your mind so that each shot is the only shot. By ruminating and getting tense because you sliced on one of the previous holes, all you are doing is reinforcing the wrong networks in your brain. Get over it! If you make a mistake, which is typically merely due to a misjudgment that may provide a valuable learning, it is helpful to see yourself as an observer at a distance. This is what we call dissociating from it. You are learning from it without reinforcing the mistake in your brain. When you do something fantastic, then do just the opposite. See it, feel it, and hear it -- and even smell and taste it -- from the inside out. When you remember it, associate fully into the experience. While you are doing so, just imagine your brain growing new neural networks. (Of course, this can also happen if you pretend that you are your favorite golf master who has just performed an excellent shot.) This helps reinforce positive results. Again, when analyzing poor performance imagine that you are seeing yourself at distance. Objectively observe and determine what lesson needs to be learned. Acknowledge it and let the memory fade. Don't reinforce the program in your mind by attempting to repetitively reliving it. On the other hand, if you want to strengthen your mental golf muscles, associate into your memories of your perfect performance and enjoy the excitement as your brain changes into that of a master.

These are some of the concepts that I use in my Golf mind training series. The mastery principles that I teach to golfers are also used in the Path to Mastery Program, which helps anyone master anything. Enjoy!