Most of the ones I've got right now are probably out of print-- used bookstores rule. I just finished "Mental Toughness Training for Golf" by David Graham, which I thoroughly enjoyed. But it seemed more of an additude book, which is good, just not exactly what I was looking for. I'm now reading "Mind Mastery for Winning Golf" by Robert J. Rotella and Linda K. Bunker. It's mainly a study of visualization and how to kind of "already play the shot before you play it". It pretty much says that if you are looking at a particular shot, you should already know how to hit it well, beacuse you've hit the same shot before. They use visualization to get your body to do it again.
It works on the basis of the following thoughts:
You don't have to think continually on the mechanics of driving every time you drive, because you've done it so many times that it's now 2nd nature. You can drive, eat a sandwich, flip the radio around, etc... It's kind of like in driving, you are in this little mini-hypnosis state where your subconscious takes care of most of it. Same for walking, smoking a cigarette, talking to your wife while TGC is on
.
You shouldn't feel unconfident about any shot you face if you've spent time practicing and playing, because at some point in time you've hit the same shot with great results. If you face a 205 yrd par 3 over waste and with water in the back, you shouldn't break into a cold sweat. You have, at some time, hit a 205 yard shot that ended up beautifully. Maybe not over waste, but since it ended up beautifully, the waste doesn't matter then does it? The trick is to learn how to envision yourself when you hit the great shot, envision what your swing was to get it, what your mindset was when you hit it, what the ball looked like in the air, how close it was to the pin...
That's pretty much the watered down version without all the psychology technical terms. They then give about 80 or 90 pages worth of exercises to train yourself to get there with triggers to call it up before a shot.
I'm not sure about all this hooey, but hey, it's a good read. I'm also a little apprehensive. 1st exercise performed at work about envisioning a particularly spectacular shot you've hit in the past. I do it, following the book's instructions perfectly...
...and am jerked back "away from the course" 40 minutes later by my phone ringing. I wasn't alseep, but I wasn't at work any more either. It was kind of disconcerting... Anyway, sorry for the long post and I'll keep you guys posted on how much clap is in this clap-trap.
