Product Description

For the last decade, golfers of all abilities have been drawn to the writings and teachings of Bob "Doc" Rotella. His books Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect, Golf Is a Game of Confidence, The Golf of Your Dreams, and Putting Out of Your Mind have all become classics for golfers everywhere. Weekend golfers and pros like Brad Faxon, Darren Clarke, Padraig Harrington, Tom Kite, and Davis Love III all read and listen to the man they call Doc because his teachings are simple and direct -- and in the end, what Doc says makes them play better golf.

The Golfer's Mind was actually first suggested by Davis Love, Jr. -- Davis Love III's dad -- who encouraged Doc to write an instruction book on golf's mental challenges, organized by topic. Love thought that golfers could keep the book with them, or at least nearby, at all times. When they needed a refresher on a certain issue, they could consult the book, read for a few minutes, and take away solid guidance regarding their difficulties. Doc heard what Love said, and twenty years later, The Golfer's Mind is that book. From his Ten Commandments (Commandment I. Play to play great. Don't play not to play poorly) to just about any topic a golfer might imagine, this is the ideal way for players to get all of Rotella's teachings. Doc covers topics including:

• Butterflies
• Practicing to Play Great
• The Rhythm of the Game
• Routine
• Setbacks
• How Winning Happens

In the perfect format for the busy golfer, The Golfer's Mind is the concise and convenient quick-reference tool to appeal to Rotella's millions of followers and is sure to become a golf classic.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22358 in Books
• Brand: Booklegger
• Published on: 2004-11-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

Features

• Mental Game
• Hard Cover

From Publishers Weekly
For all those players who gnash their teeth at flubbed drives or missed puts, sports psychologist Rotella comes to the rescue with this breezy little mental massage for frustrated golfers. Each of the chapters—with their uplifting names like "A Golfer’s Sense of Self"—come with easily digested bits of advice, which range from the obvious ("Slow play, wind and rain are contingencies you must plan for") to the obvious-yet-still-helpful ("Accept whatever happens to a shot and move on"). Rotella doesn’t pretend to have the perfect approach to the game, and reading will certainly not immediately improve one’s swing. But Rotella is successful at hammering home the realization that, while golf may be just a game, it’s infinitely harder to play it when angry. Rotella even counsels against playing more intensely during the final holes of a game, stressing that the best players keep a steady, measured intensity at all times. This is a quick course in golf relaxation, soothingly and professionally delivered.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author
Dr. Bob Rotella is a consultant to the PGA of America, the PGA Tour, and the LPGA Tour. He is the author of several bestselling golf books including GOLF IS NOT A GAME OF PERFECT.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Introduction: My Top Ten

All of the rings and all of the money and all of the color and display -- they linger only in memory. The spirit, the will to win and excel, these are the things that endure. The quality of any man's life is the full measure of his commitment to excellence and to victory, regardless of what field he might be in.

-- Vince Lombardi

I teach the psychology of greatness. The way I teach it varies.

When I first begin to work with a client, I like to arrange for him or her to come to my home in Virginia. We spend a couple of days together, some of it in conversation and some of it on the golf course. I get to know the client thoroughly. He is immersed in my ideas about using the mind to achieve greatness, about playing to play great, about bringing the best possible attitude to play and practice.

After that, the nature of my contact with my clients may change. Some of them still like to come to Virginia periodically for a long session. But others prefer shorter talks on specific issues and problems that have arisen in their careers. I might meet them for lunch or dinner in a town that's hosting a golf tournament. We might chat on the putting green or the practice range. Sometimes we talk over the phone while he's in a hotel room and I'm at an airport.

This book is akin to that second category of counseling sessions. In fact, it arises partly from them. When I talk to a player who says, "Doc, I'm having trouble trusting my swing," I review the fundamental ideas about the necessity of trust and why it helps a golfer produce the best shots he's capable of making. Players have often wished I had a book, a handbook if you will, that could serve the same function and reinforce those conversations. This is that book.

If you're completely unfamiliar with sports psychology as I teach it and with its application to golf, you might want to consult one of my earlier books, like Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect. It's my primer on how great golfers think.

Often what I hear from readers of those earlier books is something to the effect that, "Your ideas were really helpful right after I read them, Doc, but lately they don't seem to work well." What that tells me is not that the ideas have gotten less effective. It tells me that over time, the reader has forgotten some of them. Or he's reverted to old ways of thinking, perhaps without realizing it.

This doesn't surprise me. The players with whom I work individually are prone to the same problem. If the issue is trusting the swing for instance, they might be able to do it very well in the months after we have our initial session. It's one of the things I stress. But over time, a golfer is exposed to a barrage of contradictory ideas. People are telling him to think about the way his hands cock the club or the ratio between his hip turn and his shoulder turn. If he's a professional, he gets this sort of advice from renowned instructors on the practice range at Tour venues. If he's an average player, he gets it from magazines and television. Pretty soon, instead of trusting his swing and thinking about his target, he's thinking about pronation while he's on the golf course. He's trying to swing while his mind sorts through bits and pieces of conflicting advice. That's difficult to do.

When this happens with one of my established clients, I review the essentials with him. This book is an effort to do the same thing for readers. It's a distilled version of what I teach.

So often, in those telephone sessions, I return to ten fundamental points of good golf thinking. If Moses hadn't already copyrighted the name, I would be tempted to call them my ten commandments for playing great golf. I know that if a player adheres to them, he can find out exactly how low his skills are prepared to take him on any given round. Here they are:

I. Play to play great. Don't play not to play poorly.

II. Love the challenge of the day, whatever it may be.

III. Get out of results and get into process.

IV. Know that nothing will bother or upset you on the golf course, and you will be in a great state of mind for every shot.

V. Playing with a feeling that the outcome doesn't matter is almost always preferable to caring too much.

VI. Believe fully in yourself so you can play freely.

VII. See where you want the ball to go before every shot.

VIII. Be decisive, committed, and clear.

IX. Be your own best friend.

X. Love your wedge and your putter.

These ideas may sound obscure or strange to you. If you finish reading this book, they won't. I intend to explain each of them, and by the time I'm done, you will understand why they're so important. I hope you'll want to re-read them often.

The first person who suggested the format for this book to me was the late Davis Love, Jr. He and I worked together on the staff of Golf Digest Schools before his tragic death in a plane crash in 1988. He told me once that he wished there was a book of instruction on the mental side of golf, broken down into topics. He thought that a player could carry the book with him or keep it close by. When he needed to refresh his thinking about a particular issue, he could consult the book, read it for a few minutes, and come away with sound advice aimed at his problem. Not only do I owe the idea behind this book to Davis Love, Jr., I owe him so much more. He taught me a lot about golf, and he was a great friend. That's why the book is dedicated to him.

I hope readers will use this book as Davis Love, Jr., envisioned. You might want to read it in its entirety first. After your first consultation, I intend the book to be available as a handbook. You may want to consult some chapters, like "A Golfing Philosophy" on a regular basis, because it's so easy to lose track of the fundamental ideas in that chapter. If you're getting ready for a tournament and you feel the need for some advice on putting, for example, or acceptance, or game plan, you can go right to the chapters on those topics. Read as much as you need. Use the thoughts at the end of each chapter for a quick refresher. Put the book aside and come back to it when you need it again.

Sometimes people ask me if I teach psychological "techniques." I don't. The word "technique" suggests to me some sort of mental parlor trick. I don't want you to have faith in a technique. I want you to have faith in yourself. Your mind can be a powerful tool that will help you realize your dreams and aspirations. But you have to control it and use it properly. You have to coach yourself. You have to believe in yourself.

What I teach is both simple and difficult. It's simple, for instance, to say that you have to be committed before you start your swing, that doubt and indecision can ruin a shot. But on the course, it's not so easy to be committed. It takes discipline and practice.

The fact that it's hard is one reason it's worthwhile. Having control of your mind and using it properly can separate you from the competition, whether it's at your club or on the PGA Tour.

I believe that virtually every golfer has the potential to be much better than he or she is, and that using the mind is one essential way to improve. You will never know if you have the ability to be the best player in the world, or the best player in your club, unless you commit yourself to developing both your physical and mental skills. This book can be part of that commitment.

"Commitment" can be an imposing word. It can suggest that using your mind properly is an onerous chore, that you might shoot lower scores, but enjoy the game less. Trust me. The players I know who have the best minds also have the most fun playing golf. They understand that it is, in the end, a game. They have a ball finding out how good they can be at it.

So can you.

Copyright © 2004 by Robert J. Rotella

One: A Golfing Philosophy

The greatest pleasure is obtained by improving.

-- Ben Hogan

Why does my first session with a player usually last two days? I take this much time in part because I prefer not to jump right into a discussion of the particular problem that brought the player to me. I like to have a general discussion of the client's and my own basic ideas about the game of golf. In my less modest moments, I think of these ideas as a philosophy of the game.

I don't care if my client thinks of them as a philosophy or merely as a set of ideas. I do care whether he or she subscribes to them. If we can't come to agreement on these fundamental principles, it's much less likely that I can help the client. If we do see the game in roughly the same way, it becomes much easier to solve the specific issue that's troubling the player.

To begin with, I believe golf is a game of both confidence and competence. I am not about to tell anyone that a player who lacks physical skills can transform himself overnight into a winner by changing his thinking. If you trust a bad swing, it's still going to produce bad shots. (Though it will produce fewer of them than it will if you don't trust it.) You have to attain a level of physical competence to play well.

Having said that, though, I believe it's impossible to overestimate the importance of the mind in golf. There is no such thing as "muscle memory." Your muscles have no capacity to remember anything. Memory resides in your head. Therefore, no matter how long you practice a golf swing, no matter how skilled you become at it, your muscles alone can't remember it and execute it when the need arises on the golf course. Your muscles and the rest of your body are controlled by your mind. Unless your mind is functioning well when you play golf, your muscles are going to flounder. If your head is filled with bad thoughts, your scorecard is going to be full of bad strokes.

I'm not sure, actually, where the body ends and the mind begins, and I don't believe anyone is. I don't know where the soul and the spirit are located in a human being, but I know they exist. I think it's more useful to consider a human being, and ...

Customer Reviews

A necessity for all serious golfers
Buy this book, read it once, twice, three times... then read it again. If you have high expectations on the course and get frustrated when you fall short of these expectations, this book will be a great help to you.

Read This Book Before The Big Match/Outing
I am not a distinguished golfer by any means, but I have an annual competitive golf trip with buddies that stirs my competitive juices at the start of the golf season. Rather than take a golf lessson (which would just confuse the heck out of me so close to competition), I bought and read this book. It made all the difference in the world as far as my mental attitude was concerned. I was able to keep a positive attitude after my (inevitable) poor golf shots, and I celebrated my good ones.

I loved his rule to "love your putter and wedge". In other words, to get enthusiastic about the opportunity to use both clubs. That mental attitude change made a huge difference in my short game.

This book also helped me give myself permission to play well. Too often, I would start a round hot and then fold under the pressure of a low scorecard. Dr Rotella helped me recognize this mental flaw and deal with it when it reared its head.

Let's be real here, this book is no substitute for talent and dedicated practice. But if you're tired of blowing up on the golf course and often harbor thoughts of abandoning your clubs on the bag drop rack, this book is for you. It will help you play to your true potential.

As for my golf outing, it was handicap adjusted, and I was the only guy to shoot under my index (by one stroke over three rounds), so I took home the trophy and some cash. For the 13 previous years that I attended, I never came close to winning. The difference was my mental attitude during the competition and my ability to deal with the pressure. For me, this book paid for itself, quite literally.

For tennis players also!
Bob Rotella provides fundamentals of mental toughness that can be used in many sports. I'm an enthusiastic tennis player and have successfully used the methods outlined in The Golfer's Mind to improve my game and to use as a basis for raising my game to the next level. "Play to play great", Get into process, not results", and "Believe fully in yourself" are examples of the thoughts to play by. Train your brain as hard as you train your body.