Bad shots plague every golfer, from tour players to someone picking up a club for the first time. The reaction is usually one of anger or resignation, which can carry over into the next shot and cause more exasperation. Before you know it, you’re on the final hole in a daze, unsure of how everything went so wrong.
For new golfers, an uncluttered mind is a beautiful thing
Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott are here to save you from yourself. The two women were working as golf coaches—Marriott after a collegiate golf career and Nilsson after playing on the LPGA Tour and coaching the Swedish national teams—when they created Vision54. It’s a golf school in Scottsdale where people can go to get on-course training from the performance gurus. Nilsson and Marriott also work with professionals on the LPGA Tour and PGA Tour. Ten are major-championship winners, including Annika Sorenstam, Suzann Pettersen, and Ariya Jutanugarn.
Nilsson and Marriott believe that the key to good golf starts with a healthy mental approach, and a major part of that is learning how to react to bad shots. Their neuroscience research has informed their teaching. For example, the way a person reacts emotionally to an event affects the way that person’s brain stores the memory. If you get mad after a bad shot, the shot and that negative reaction are stored in your mind. The more you replay it, the more prominent the memory becomes. Because of those negative reactions, your brain starts to associate golf shots with something scary, something to avoid. This can be detrimental to your game.
If you shouldn’t get mad after a bad shot, then what should you do?
“As a new golfer it’s extremely important early on to realize that you can separate the outcome from the process,” Nilsson says. “Even though the goal is to get the ball in the hole, to get the ball in the hole you need to know what your intention is for that stroke or putt. That’s what you should evaluate, not the shot’s result.”
Here are five things Nilsson and Marriot say you can tell yourself instead of cursing or tossing a club when your ball ends up in a bunker:
(1) “I didn’t hold my finish.”
(2) “I misjudged the wind.”
(3) “Next time, I will make a smaller swing.”
(4) “I was thinking about the outcome instead of feeling my tempo.”
(5) “I didn’t trust my decision. Next time I will honor my gut.”
Most of the golfers Nilsson and Marriot work with have been playing golf for a while, so they have been “brainwashed” to think about the result and not the process. The advantage that beginners have is that there are no bad habits that need reworking. It’s a lot easier to start out thinking like this on the golf course than trying to train yourself to do it after years of agonizing over bad shots.
The good news is that the way our brains store memories works for positive emotions, too.
“When you do something well, you should celebrate it for about 15 seconds, even if it’s just internally,” Nilsson says. “Anything from great to good to good enough you need to recognize and take in and be proud of it.”
Nilsson also suggests talking about good shots after your round.
“What we practice, we get good at,” she says. “If I practice reminding myself of good shots and what I do when I hit good shots, it’s going to be easier to do those things more often.”
- Source: For new golfers, an uncluttered mind is a beautiful thing https://www.golfdigest.com/story/new-golfers-uncluttered-mind-beautiful-thing-clear-head
TaylorMade Stealth Driver – Best Golf Drivers Of 2022
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- The 60X Carbon Twist Face is encased by a polyurethane cover, featuring a revolutionary new nanotexture technology. The nanotexture cover is used to fine-tune launch and spin to optimize total distance regardless of playing conditions.
- The weight savings of the 60x Carbon Twist Face has allowed more weight to be positioned low and deep in the head, this will add 15% more MOI compared to Stealth Plus+.
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- Our most flexible Speed Pocket design is engineered to maximize ball speeds and produce additional forgiveness on low face strikes.
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Knowing sound is a critical component of feel, our team of engineers is obsessed with creating the perfect sound with Stealth. They used a combination of curvature, shape, and internal stiffing ribs to finely tune acoustics, delivering a sound profile that is both bright and powerful to match TaylorMade drivers over the years. Listen as the Team Taylormade athletes test the driver for the first time.
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Our 20 Year Journey to change the face of golf was made possible by an innovative nano texture cover which creates, which creates the face texture needed for the ideal amount of friction. Polyurethane covers the entire face tune launch and spin, optimizing total distance in all conditions.
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The Asymmetric Inertia Generator creates advanced aerodynamics at the most critical phase of the swing – The moment right before impact. This breakthrough design increases clubhead speed, while allowing for additional weight to be placed in the rear of the club to encourage higher MOI, optimal launch angle, and improved forgiveness.
WHY CARBON’
The future of driver performance begins with our 60x Carbon Face. Comprised of 60 layers of carbon sheets strategically placed and arranged for better energy transfer and higher ball speeds across a larger face. (Ball speed claim based on the testing of Stealth vs. SIM 2.0 at 106 Swing Speed)
Product Description – TaylorMade Stealth Driver
Price: 579.99$ | From: Amazon
60X Carbon Twist Face
The all-new 60X Carbon Twist Face is 44% lighter than an equivalent titanium face, while also being 11% larger than SIM2 and SIM2 Max drivers and nearly 20% larger than the 2020 SIM driver. Sixty layers of carbon fiber have been strategically designed to optimize energy transfer to deliver fast ball speeds over a large area, resulting in optimal distance and forgiveness.
Nanotexture Cover
The 60X Carbon Twist Face is encased by a polyurethane cover, featuring a revolutionary new nanotexture technology. The nanotexture cover is used to fine-tune launch and spin to optimize total distance regardless of playing conditions.
- High MOI Design
The weight savings of the 60X Carbon Twist Face has allowed more weight to be positioned low and deep in the head, this will add 15% more MOI compared to Stealth Plus+
- Asymmetric Inertia Generator
The Inertia Generator remains the foundational source of refined aerodynamic properties. The result is a slippery-fast head shape that aids in swing speed generation on the downswing for golfers at every level.
Thru-Slot Speed Pocket
Our most flexible Speed Pocket design is engineered to maximize ball speeds and produce additional forgiveness on low face strikes.
Product information – TaylorMade Stealth Driver – Best Golf Drivers Of 2022
Price: 579.99$ | From: Amazon
Technical Details TaylorMade Stealth Driver
- Item Package Dimensions L x W x H 47 x 8 x 5 inches
- Package Weight 0.59 Kilograms
- Brand Name TaylorMade
- Warranty Description 2-year manufacturer
- Model Name Stealth
- Color Red
- Material Fujikura Ventus Red
- Suggested Users Men’s
- Manufacturer TaylorMade Golf
- Part Number N7407405
- The model Year 2022
- Sport Type Golf
- Hand Orientation Right
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