Using EFT for a Golfers Confidence and High Performance

"Experience tells you what to do; confidence allows you to do it." - Stan Smith

As athletes strive toward high performance, setbacks and failures occur. It is part of the process. Some athletes are easily able to put the failures into perspective. Other athletes hold onto them longer than necessary, allowing those moments to define who they are. Holding onto setbacks impacts athletic performance.

Athletes working toward BIG goals, regardless of their sport, face unforeseen obstacles. It’s not that they are unworthy of meeting their goals. Exactly the opposite. Obstacles and failure are powerful teaching tools when approached with the right mindset. It shows that these athletes are stretching themselves, taking risks, as they are actively pursuing their goals. It is just a matter of putting that into perspective.

Athletes performing within their comfort zone rarely excel. Pushing yourself requires setting challenging goals, stretching beyond your current abilities. It is a process.
I met with Lisa, a Division 1 golfer, who had an unexpectedly poor start with her season. She wasn’t prepared for the rough start, experiencing higher than normal nervousness during her first tournament, then allowing it to set the tone for the remainder of her season.

As we spoke further, Lisa admitted frustration with golf. She felt like she was fighting to get beyond the struggle and spoke about digging deep. Lisa’s tendency toward perfection doesn’t provide much room for error.

When her results are not matching her expectations of acceptable performance, she puts added pressure onto herself. It is almost as if she were holding a grudge against herself. The mistake becomes a constant reminder of where she does not want to go.

Your mind is similar to a compass, pointing you in the direction of your thoughts. With the way our brains are wired whatever you focus on expands. Focusing on the performance she is working so hard to avoid literally digs her in deeper. Her performance continues to falter, contributing to lowered confidence.

The goal for our session together was to make golf fun again. This required creating a reframe concerning her poor start this season. Since Lisa was familiar with the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) we went right to the root of the problem.

The Emotional Freedom Techniques adds another dimension for overcoming physical and psychological challenges. Fighting blocks affects your focus. Your energy becomes centralized on trying to get out of a struggle which only digs you in deeper. EFT is an ideal solution for clearing any obstacles impacting performance.

Reframes are powerful. My focus is to turn a negative into a positive. Based upon the Law of Polarity, each situation has an opposite. Whether something is seen as good or bad is a matter of perspective.

We briefly discussed the concept of relaxed-aggression. The concept is ideal for all golfers looking to improve their performance. Relaxed-aggression requires a calm, clear mind while performing with authority and aggression.

Since I like to use a lot of visualization while tapping, along with exaggerating the circumstances, tapping is a very creative process. We tapped on Lisa envisioning herself as a lioness during her game. She saw herself swaggering with a confident stance, keenly aware of her surroundings with a heightened sixth sense, protecting her territory from any negativity or distractions. Her baby cubs were her golf balls. Then with the relaxed aggression of a lioness she would swing her club confidently launching her golf ball toward its predetermined destination.

Lisa loved the visual of being a lioness, walking confidently along the course and protecting her game. She even practiced her swagger during our session together to truly embrace the concept of relaxed aggression.

Because testing is so important, we returned to her frustrations with golf from her fall season. She claimed that was all behind her now. She has learned two lessons. One is the perfectionist attitude she does not want to possess for golf, or anything else for that matter. The other is making a transition into relaxed-aggression, allowing her true nature of confidence and leadership resonates through her.

Activity: Where are you stopping yourself? Are you sure that your reasons are based upon sound logic? How does your focus become affected when thinking about those things? Now come up with a new perspective, one which states that performance block simply is not true. During practice, focus on the new thought. Notice the difference by focusing on what is possible instead of the impossible.