Top Golf Psychologist Shares How to Deal With 1st Tee Nerves

Simply trying to eliminate or block anxiety will only make it worse. In this video top golf psychologist shares proven techniques to deal with 1st tee nerves and other golf anxiety. There is no way that players tee up on the 1st tee of the Ryder Cup and don’t feel nervous. It is how you deal with it that makes the difference.

Time Stamp
00:00 Wrong game
00:45 In your head/game
01:20 Protecting ego
02:00 Relief
02:45 Redhead
03:25 Grounding exercise
04:30 Back in the game

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About Noel
Driven by a love of the game and all the challenges it presents, Noel has been a specialist golf coach for over 20 years. As such, he is dedicated to a process of continual learning for both himself and his students. Having qualified in 2000 as a PGA professional Noel played two seasons on the Europro Tour. Since those early days, Noel has taken his own coach education from an eclectic range of sources that include sharing time and resources with industry-leading experts in the fields of coaching, academia, biomechanics, performance psychology and motor control. As such, you can expect well-structured learning, clear communication and an holistic approach to skill development. In recognition of his coaching and research, the PGA have awarded Noel the coveted ‘Advanced Fellow Professional’ status. Noel presently coaches at Wycombe Heights on the outskirts of West London and on his coaching trips to Monte Rei, Portugal. He coaches all levels of golfers and has a diverse student base ranging from committed club golfers to tour professionals.

so in the in our kind of overview of psychology video Trevor Trevor you know mentioned really in in on the first SE most of us are playing the wrong psychology game can you just remind us of that metaphor yeah so use of the uh golf club if I was on a session with a client this is what we’ actually do and just started to kind of notice where our attention is going so you know the fact that we’re kind of nervous and anxious we know from you know way back when evolutionary perspective that’s a very normal thing for us to experience but if we’re very in our head with this it doesn’t mean to say it’s useful so just noticing like if we were to just to hit a shot right now if you were really in your head over this shot what what type of things would be showing up soorry so this is this is me in my head yeah and that end would be being in your game in my game yeah okay and and as we said on the previous video mainstream psychology has H trying to sort of fight nervousness and pretend I’m not nervous and play sort of these mind games and that yeah mental gymnastics are sometimes called keep at that end isn’t it corre in our head question so what would be showing up for you right now let’s say if you more head if I was more in the head on the on the te I would be I mean I don’t need to think too hard it’s it’s it’s usually familiar with with me and I’m sure many people I’d be thinking about um not to mess up um how it’s looking I’d be thinking about yeah not looking Dar not hitting a real howler and all these things that are sort of protecting my identity and if I’m hitting here my identity as a golf coach who you know should be reasonably good at this that’s that’s where I’d be and let’s say let’s roll with that like if you did screw up on camera people watching hopefully uh like what what might show up for you if I did oh just embarrassment isn’t it embarrassment so you can kind of sense that kind of knotted into this is the sense of I don’t want to feel embarrassed yeah okay would you mind just going ahead and hit one and just allow yourself to kind of uh let that stick around let that stick around okay so so that sense of trying to avoid feeling embarrassed okay right right right okay so a little bit leaky but what was that like as an experience what was kind of what was showing up for you over the shot familiar it it’s very familiar it was I can tell you one thing it was here it was all here um and then oh that ball went quite straight that was that was nice it was almost like a relief when it went straight okay awesome so a sense of relief that the ball got away okay the best Drive you’ve ever hit like absolutely not no okay it’s in play yeah okay so a sense of just getting through it getting it over with absolutely I’ve got through it okay awesome so do you mind if we just do something that that might help us just nudge back this way so I kind of say that there’s there’s a bit of a stepping stone that we want to get to first which is just a little grounding exercise if that’s okay I’m just actually taking this one from Daniel Carter the alltime point scorer in Rugby Union uh for the All Blacks and uh he talked about kind of redhe head and blue head so when he was redhead you know he’d be like oh my God there’s 80,000 people watching me you know I could let the whole of New Zealand down you know kind of rugby craze Nation the red head is his really in his head consequences and self-consciousness that’s it you know kicking for the World Cup and what if I miss and everything else so um you know the the stepping stone he’d make first that he would acknowledge that he’s in a state of redhead and then he’ do a very simple grounding exercise to kind of rebalance that this is like a SE saw so just very simply just um just allow yourself to just go up onto your toes for let’s say three or 4 seconds just raise up onto your toes and see if you can just really focus in on that sense of pressure of your toes pressing into the ground so so this be something you do on the tea 100% while while you’re waiting around and whatever it’s maybe not your go okay right okay yeah and just notice that your attention is neither over here in your head and it’s neither in your game what it’s getting us is kind of back into balance so to speak okay so I’d then be curious about if you were really in your game yeah what kind of stuff is showing up for you at this end okay if I was in my game um yeah so I’d be less concerned about that all that self-consciousness stuff I’d be thinking about the the task I’d be thinking about the ball flight I want to hit start line finish line Much More Much More engaged in the in the shot um yeah do you mind if I just ask a some simple question there yeah like what does a good swing feel like um do you me to express it or yeah just just simply yeah do it do it or or explain it uh let’s see if you can do it and just just just notice where your focus is that’s talk us through it if you can okay where is my focus when I’m trying to think about good swing what does a good swing feel like okay okay it’s smooth it’s balanced okay so smooth and balanced mhm great let’s see if we can hit one focusing on smooth and balance and being more outwardly focused if that’s showing up for you is being kind for me to be engaged in the shot it’s definitely more about what I want to do out there okay smooth and smooth and balanced okay and did you notice as you were over the ball if you could almost just use your index finger to kind of Trace where you were like where did you feel you were on that scale actually hitting that shot okay so if that is if that’s in my head and that’s in the shot um where’ you feel you were there probably here okay great yeah and this isn’t a Panacea by any means what this is a tool to do is to just start noticing where our attention is because uh you know 99% of people that are playing golf particularly amateurs will be over here but be clueless that they’re over there yeah that’s the big so this is we call this tracking in Psychology that’s the kind of psychological term for this and we’re beginning to kind of track where your attention is okay and then and then um again and and none of this guarantees a great shot off the first te does it not at all but um but we’re starting to kind of load the deck in our favor yeah yeah and and as we’ve said before at least now we know the game we’re play and the game is to get away from in our head and more more and more into the into the shot okay brilliant well I will uh I will try that out um and I will see the next time I’m on the first te and there’s a group around if I can stay over this end and less playing mind games about not being nervous yeah we find that mental balance and then go ahead and connect with what we’re trying to do