Inner Certitude On and Off the Golf Course

[Dr Ray]

Jack Nicklaus said, "In the final analysis there is no question a
genuine belief in yourself is the top requirement for winning golf
tournaments. Inner certitude about one's abilities is a golfer's
primary weapon - and this is surely the case with Tiger Woods who
expects to win every tournament he enters.

But, does this tell the complete story about inner certitude? I think
not.

Inner certitude is "situationally specific" which means freedom from
doubt exists sometimes and sometimes not. Here's why.

Imagine Michael Jordan playing golf with Tiger. Tiger is sure to win
and Michael knows his limits - in this situation. Reverse the
situation, with Tiger shooting baskets with Michael. Tiger is about
as confident as most of us. He will lose and he knows why. Of
course, both cringe when facing Federer on the tennis court.

Knowing your "capabilities" and your "limits" is basic to inner
certitude, because absence of doubt exists only when performance
skills are there to back you up. If you are confident as a "Manager"
on the job, but a little shaky on the course, it is because you don't
have the golf skills in place required for genuine self-confidence.

You can not fake self-confidence and you have to know which challenges
you are capable of meeting successfully - and what you need to
practice.

Consider your golf game. Let's say you are fairly skilled when it
comes to putting, but your chip shots are unreliable, not to mention
your drives. Thus, you putt with inner certitude, but your score sky
rockets. What to do?

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE - something most aspiring golfers tend to
avoid. They want to "play" golf. After all, it's Saturday and its
been a tough week. Off to the golf course, meeting buddies and so
forth. Then comes the difficult part. Things are proceeding fairly
well until that first double or triple boogie and then another soon
after. So much for inner certitude felt early on.

Practice can be a lot of fun at the driving range, when you know what
you are trying to accomplish and actually "measure" your results.

Consider the words of Jack Nicklaus, “I never hit a shot, even in
practice, without having a very sharp, in-focus picture of it in my
head. It’s like a color movie."

When you come to fully understand Power Breathing in the Position of
Strength, and how you can rely on this foundation for every swing, you
will have made a giant step forward toward inner certitude. (Example
- 2-iron consistently delivers "x" number of yards when you use Power
Breathing and less so when you don't)

Let's not forget the words of Ben Hogan, who believed there wasn't
enough daylight in a day for all the shots he needed to practice.
What’s really interesting, is even though Hogan may be the most
consistently accurate shot maker ever, he said after years of trying,
the game is imperfectible.

So, here's where the fun comes in.

Gradual, steady, measured, improvement, resulting from practice,
practice, practice, leads to inner certitude and the reliable
performance flow you dream about and sometimes achieve - and can do -
more and more - as your performance skills improve.

Dr. Ray