How to stay motivated in 2012

As an old year departs and a new one beckons it is the perfect time for not only reflection, but also to create some goals for the coming golfing year ahead.

One of the biggest factors in achieving any goal is the ability to sustain your motivation to do so. In this article I am going to take a look at the ‘motivation’ that will be needed if you are to sustain a winning mind-set throughout 2012.

Motivation comes from two sources: oneself (internal motivation), and other people (external motivation).

The reason that setting goals plays such an important role when it comes to motivation is because the very definition of motivation is ‘moving towards’ something. If you have not set yourself a goal even at the start of a round of golf, you will find it difficult to stay motivated because without a set goal you have nothing to move towards. If you just go out and play, and have no real purpose for your round other than a vague hope to play well, then you should not be surprised when you come back with at best moments of glory, but overall many moments of mediocrity.

If you are un-motivated when you go out to play golf then this will most definitely reflect in how you will play. You need to have the drive and desire to make good results happen. This is as true off the golf course as it is during a round of golf. ‘Drive’ and ‘desire’ are the two most important emotions required to make any goal happen and to stay motivated.

External stimuli can help when it comes to motivation; such as the desire for praise or approval that comes with winning. What drives you internally will be connected to your personal emotions and how important the outcome is to you.

The ability to sustain motivation is often linked to how well you can control your emotions. Self-control also plays a major role, because in order to pursue whatever goal you have set for yourself you need to be able to keep any learned negative thoughts about your past play and negative behaviour at bay. This will definitely take a certain amount of selfdiscipline; much like breaking any habit.

Ultimately, how we think affects how we behave so when we are presented with something positive such as a reward, an accolade or praise for winning, then we will want repeat this outcome and how that makes us feel over and over feel again. We will have associated positive meaning to our behaviour and therefore we will want to repeat that behaviour. The more motivated we are and by that I mean the amount of ‘desire and drive’ attached to the goal, the more likely we are to achieve it.

I often talk about creating ‘good habits’ so by turning ‘motivation’ into a good habit or a natural way of behaving, it will become easier to repeat. You will have probably met motivated people in your life and it just seems that they have a natural ability to stay motivated. This will be because they have repeated this way of thinking and behaving so often it has now become a part of their personality and way of behaving. They have succeeded in creating a good habit.

The idea is to repeat and repeat good behaviour as this helps you sub-conscious support you as soon as you create positive and motivational thoughts. The added bonus to any positive habitual behaviour is that it also eliminates self-analysis from the process and we all know what happens when we start analysing our golf game half way round?

Think of people you know who are motivated, both on and off the golf course, their behaviour is authentic to the way they are. It almost goes unnoticed because they do not analyse why they are doing something - they just get on and do it.

Staying motivated and positive has become a way of life to them and rarely will this falter. People who behave in this way find it easier to pick themselves up from any knock backs – so letting go of a few bad shots is far easier for them.

Start with smaller goals and making each round count and before you know it by the end of the season your scorecards and tournament wins will have taken care of themselves in 2012!

Groundforce Dynamics

Many PGA coaches profess that once the fundamentals of grip, stance, posture and alignment have been established, the role of the legs and the mid-section is a key to golfing success.

The lower body, in conjunction with the torso, generates torque and coil in the golf swing – but this powerful relationship can only be achieved when the body enjoys a stable relationship with the ground. Therefore, a golfer needs to be able to maintain lower body stability whilst performing a powerful movement of the upper body.

This is where dynamic stability training comes in. In our September iissue we introduce a few exercises to improve your dynamic stability. The golf swing is a dynamic movement; therefore one must train using dynamic exercises.

Dynamic stability training consists of exercises that integrate movements of the lumbo-pelvic-hip region with the trunk and shoulder girdle over an unstable base of support. The use a Swiss Ball will place you in an unstable position. As always, the use of the core is important in all of these exercises as you will have to stabilize and/or move multiple body segments at one time.

Here’s a refresher exercise: In a standing position, try and draw your navel in and upwards using your stomach muscles. Make sure that you breathe out as you do this. Don’t just suck your stomach in by inhaling and holding your breath! If you are engaging your core properly, it will feel like you are tightening a corset around you midriff. Some people just think of holding in a wee, that works well too!

Get your hands on the September/October/November issue of SA Woman Golfer for step-by-step exercises designed specifically to strengthen your core stability.