Breathing

Holding your nerve under pressure is the key to superior performance on the golf course and focusing on your breathing is the easiest and most direct way to accomplish this.

Here's what happens when you shallow-breathe

Changes in your body go something like this. You perceive a tense situation, say a bad lie after a hooked tee shot and immediately and unconsciously you start shallow breathing (breathing into the upper chest area). Next, your chest will feel tight, less oxygen is fed to your brain, your nervous-system becomes flooded with adrenaline, your heart-rate quickens, your muscles tighten and your whole body feels tense. In this state you are likely to rush your shot and shorten your backswing, leading to a potentially duff second shot which will only increase your sense of anxiety, ensuring you keep on shallow breathing and thus continue with the ever decreasing circle of your performance.

Now here's what happens when you take a few deep breaths

Changes in your body go something like this. You perceive a tense situation, say a bad lie after a hooked tee shot and immediately and unconsciously you start shallow breathing...but because you've been practising Meditation you will:

Remember to focus on your breathing during your pre-shot routine
Stop and take a few deep breaths before taking the club away

Circle of Excellence Now, instead of allowing your innate Stress Response to take over and rule your brain, body and nervous-system for the duration of the shot, you can take conscious control of your state via your breathing.

Deep breathing in turn will send more oxygen to your brain which floods your nervous-system with endorphins, lowers your heart-rate, relaxes your muscles, increases your mind~body connection, raises your confidence levels, and creates a calm yet focused state from which to set-up and swing. Physiologists call it the Relaxation Response...we call it the Circle of Excellence.

You can learn to hold your nerve under pressure via personal tuition sessions with Jayne Storey or with our 'distance coaching' programme which is conducted over the phone and internet. Or you can teach yourself with the help of our coaching video download "Breathing to Win!".

> Contact us for more information.