Make Your Plan and Shoot Your Plan: Going from 75 to 90

Here are some thoughts that I talked about in the Coaching Hour where we were talking about how to go from 75 to 90 percent. (Part two here)

Before you get into the stand you should have a plan – a confident plan that you are comfortable with. Use your previous experiences to be decisive with the shot. When you cross the entrance of the stand, there should be no doubt. If a negative thought comes in, replace it with another one.

The routine is imperative to stay focused on the process. The routine prepares you mentally and physically for each shot. The routine relaxes you and keeps you in the present. Each shot must have a routine and a plan!

Make your plan, shoot your plan.

The more you can visualize the shot and be clear to the brain of what you want the shot to look like, the better. You want to put your mind in a position on every shot to have the greatest chance for success at that moment in time.

Stay process-oriented, not outcome-oriented.

How does this happen? You must do it in practice so that you don’t have to think about it.

Your practice needs to have a goal of what you are going to do. Then go do it. Practice should be fun. You should be enjoying the breaks so that you will take that to the tournament.

But what happens is you may practice great then you go to the tournament and you get careful and try to control everything. Then all you are thinking about is missing a target. Your whole mind and body will now react differently than they did in practice and fear gets into the game. Trust in yourself.

Remember what you did in practice. Tournament day is what you have worked for… ENJOY IT!

I think the year Rick took to figure out what works best for him was perfect. Now he doesn’t have to think about those nuisance decisions and he is comfortable in his decisions of getting there a day early and having his own pillow. Or if the tournament is close, he just goes that day.

Taking the emotion out of the misses is so important so you don’t go down that rabbit trail. That, too, must be practiced.