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The Royal Golf Club's PGA teaching professional Martin Robinson gives tips on dealing with pressure situations
IN my experience there is one very destructive fault that every golfer has suffered from without exception, that is the state of tension - both physical and mental.
Think back to a time when you have played a critical tee shot badly and how tight and anxious you felt moments before the shot as the pressure mounted, did you feel relaxed and your muscles free from tension? Not very likely.
Now, think back to any one of your most recent best tee shots, it doesn't matter if there wasn't as much perceived importance on that shot, I want you to think how your muscles felt. Were they tension free? Did the movement flow better?
As the muscles become tense they contract and shorten, and are more prone to fast jerky movements, that is you will be more likely to thin the ball and the clubface will not rotate freely through impact.
If you can recall a contrast in how your muscles felt when thinking about the two shots you can see that tension is an unwanted addition to any shot you hit under pressure, the good news is that you have control over the amount of tension you feel.
First of all a nice deep breath will start to send you into a slightly more relaxed state. The next thing you can do is the Tension Body Scan (TBC). Step up to the ball and imagine a real life scenario where you are playing a difficult shot under pressure.
Start at the top of your body with the face, neck, then the shoulders noticing where the tension sits and relaxing those muscles as you go, move down through the arms, forearms and hands (this is where the tension damages the swing the most) through the torso and stomach allowing every last bit of tension to dissolve through your legs and into the floor, leaving your body poised, relaxed and ready to hit the ball squarely.
Without even changing your swing you can learn to deal with the tough pressure situations and also get your game back on track when you start badly. If you practice this and become skilled at knowing how to dissolve tension you will maximise your potential to play each and every time that you step out onto the links.
