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MENTAL ACUITY ///

When Steph Curry came back from his knee injury, nobody knew if he was ready to perform on the big stage of the NBA playoffs. In fact, Steph went 0-10 on his first ten 3 point attempts. Did he get down on himself and sulk on the court? Absolutely not! He stayed positive and keep shooting. The result was an historic performance that helped his team beat a feisty Portland TrailBlazer team.

We all know that it doesn't help to get upset on the golf course. It always leads to poor play for the rest of the round. Years ago, I read a book entitled " You Can't Afford the Luxury of a Negative Thought". It's true! If you get upset, your body releases a the stress hormone cortisol. This makes it difficult to think clearly and to perform athletically. Moreover, cortisol stays in your body for a while so just deciding after a few minutes to change your attitude may be too late as it is already in your system. You literally don't have that luxury. 

Unfortunately, as humans we are predisposed to be negative. On average, we are about 3 to 1 negative thinkers. You need to change this and run your brain better.  If you think positively and celebrate all the good things that happen, you release the hormone DHEA which makes you confident and strong. Obviously this is the way to go. Steph Curry is the personification of this. He does not get down on himself and he certainly celebrates the his successes. His shimmy after his 3 pointer goes in is producing buckets of DHEA and makes him the confident player that he is. Do your Steph Curry imitation on the golf course and I guarantee you not only will play better but you will have more fun!

ZANDER TIP ZONE ///

 HIT YOUR BUNKER SHOTS PURE

MENTAL GAME ///

Do you ever look back on a round and then realize what you were doing wrong? It is hard to realize what is really going on while in the heat of competition. Developing your awareness is a skill just like working on your chipping. You need to check in with yourself throughout a round. Tour caddies do this with their players all the time. They are not just bag carriers, they are partners with the players and act as their on course sports psychologist. Jordan Spieth even goes as far as saying "we" played well or "we" had a tough time. 

Not all of us have caddies to do that for us so we need to be our own sports psychologists. Start by checking your tension levels. Tension can kill a golf swing so before you go about changing techniques after a bad shot, start to monitor your tension level. Make a note to yourself or put a reminder on your glove or ball. 

As you develop the skill of awareness, you will give yourself better opportunities to play your best golf. 

STRATEGY TIP ///

What do you do when you warm up for a round on the driving range? Hopefully you are using this time to loosen up, perform some of the shots you will encounter that day and getting in touch with your tempo. We are human so our rhythm and tempo changes from day to day. It would be a good idea to figure out what it is that day. To find out, do this simple drill. Make full swings and 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% tempo. Hit three shots with each tempo.  Find out where you are performing the best. You can also play around with changing backswing and downswing tempos. For example, I tend to play well when I swing back at 75% and down at 50%. By the way, thinking about your tempo while you swing takes all the mechanical thoughts away which is awesome!

SHORT GAME ///

Many players fear the bunker. I''ve had students come to me and say that they purposely avoid bunkers. This is not an option. What I tell people is that if you hit a pretty good shot, it may be in the greenside bunker as that is usually no more that 15 yards from the hole. You need to know what to do. 

GOLF FITNESS - LANCE GILL ///

LANCE GILL PERFORMANCE

I am delighted to announce that Lance Gill from Lance Gill Performance will be joining the ZanderGolf team and write a monthly feature on forthcoming ZanderGolfClub newsletters. He will be teaching us how the body relates directly to your golf game and how limitations in these areas can effect it.

Lance Gill is the president of LG Performance, a private Golf Performance based company specializing in the betterment of golfers in the areas of; Fitness, Screening, Biomechanics, Instruction, Mental, Nutritional, Programming, and Life Coaching.. He is the Co-Director of the Titleist Performance Institute Fitness Advisory Board. He establishes protocols for player development in the fields of functional movement restoration, physical screening, strength and power screening and development and for player development globally.

Lance has worked for TPI for more than 10 years and is actively functioning as the Performance Director at the Institute, overseeing many projects including the development of; PGA, LPGA, EPGA, Web.com, Symetra, Challenge Tour, KPGA, JPGA, KLPGA, JLPGA, and LatinAmerica Tour players, as well as multiple National Federation Teams. His duties include Biomechanical Evaluations, Physical Screening, Program Development, Practice Schedule Development, Periodization of Programs, Coach Education, Trainer Education and Medical Education of player staff. With the comprehensive approach via the TPI methodology, he has helped countless tour players reach and move towards their personal goals and at the same time gain worldwide recognition for the TPI, Titleist and Acushnet brands. In short, Lance is one of the most sought after experts in the field of golf fitness. I am so excited that he has come aboard to help the ZanderGolfClub community.

Zander Golf  //  71 Cuvier St SF, CA 94112  //  415.810.9764  //   www.zandergolf.com