photo by: Bob Stapleton/Sportzpics.net
It was probably one of the most amazing examples of mental toughness in sport, let alone golf.
Louis Oosthuizen becomes the deserved 2010 Open Champion at St Andrews.
Peter Alliss made the remark on commentary how Louis appeared to look at a big red dot on his glove before EACH shot and then go into a trance-like state!
Well, he did!!
About a month before the Open, I was called up by Chubby Chandler at ISM to work with Louis on his concentration and MIND FACTOR.
We sat down for the first time in Manchester and talked. It was clear his routine was all over the place. He had all of the pieces he needed but in completely the wrong order.
Most golfers just do NOT understand how important and how vital it is that you get your routine right. You need to know HOW to put the pieces together.
Concentration is one of THE most misunderstood aspects of golf and life!
Nobody ‘loses’ their concentration they just allow themselves to put it in the wrong place.
One of the difficulties of golf is there are no outside agents which help you focus your concentration – unlike, for instance, football, where the referee’s whistle will trigger the mind to focus on the game. In golf, it is essential you create your own ‘concentration trigger‘.
With Louis, the ‘RED DOT’ became his trigger point to go into a deep zen like, almost hypnotic state.
In five hours, you need to be able to ‘switch on’ and ‘switch off’ to be able to maintain your focus at the RIGHT time.
- Did you notice how Louis actively seemed to be smiling and enjoying himself? This was a specific step we discussed. The RED DOT became the focus point to play the shot and then he would ‘come out’ of that trance in between shots.
- Do you think knowing HOW to concentrate and HOW to build a robust routine might just help YOU?
All of the SECRETS to the kind of routines that Louis worked on are in the MP3 programme ‘The SECRET to CONSISTENT GOLF with the 7 Rituals of success‘.
And if you want the full blueprint to a world class pre-shot routine, look no further than our Mind Factor Online Players Coaching Programme.
Kind regards
Karl
Ps – Do you use a concentration trigger? If so, tell us about it below!
on Jul 20th, 2010 at 7:14 AM
Dear Karl,
Congratulations on your fantastic work with Louis !!!!!!!! That must be so pleasing to see the effects of your coaching!!!
Myself, I use my glove as a concentration trigger, but I might just put that red dot on from now on!!!
Kind regards
Marina Bobeldijk
on Jul 20th, 2010 at 12:34 PM
dear karl
Being a teaching pro (in contact with you via phil rowe) your work with louis oosthuizen is obviously interesting and fulfilling = as you mentionned a golfer can’t concentrate for 4 or 5 hours on the course but needs to find himself in the right mental situation at the right time – your notion of having a “dot” – marina’s idea of using the glove (like doctors preparing for an operation), etc etc seem essential to find a constant ‘sureness and comfort’ = as much as the importance of routine — teaching people on practice ranges doesn’t help to build up this routine – but part of our work – beyond the ‘technics or mecanics’ should be to teach our pupils to perhaps leave the last few balls at the practice range and go through their routine which should be re-used out on the course – and each person to find his mind, concentration thoughts and organisation
Congratulations again and it was nice to see a player enjoying the experiance and a worthy winner – yours in respect david maxwell (cambodia)
on Jul 20th, 2010 at 4:30 PM
Hi Karl, well you`ve done it again, help Louis win the biggest golf championship in the world. You must feel very proud of yourself by helping him with your special talent you have in the mind factor train the brain to help someone to be so successful. congratulations on your success! John Lovett
on Jul 23rd, 2010 at 7:00 AM
Hi Karl, once again congratulations on your skills, what I suggest to the players that I help is when they take out of their yardage chart out of their back pocket is a trigger to start their pre-shot routine, I ask them to go through their routine(sorry ritual) an the practice area, they may have 6 or even 7 parts to go through before they hit the ball, I agree with them that is their neural position to get into before they hit the ball. when on the course I ask them are you in neutral, so their opponents don`t know what we are talking about, it seem to works very well.