One month to go....... and the Open Mind Workshop

Hello again. Its exactly a month to go now to playing test and i'd like to say my preparations are going as well as i'd like but sadly they aren't quite. I've just gotten into a bit of confusion with my technique which many golfers would tell you makes the game very hard to play with any flow!
I'm not overly concerned at this stage - I have a lesson on Friday and have also had some very useful input from my boss which has helped. I have decided to write all thoughts on my swing down to ensure I come away from this lesson with a full understanding of what I should and shouldnt be doing. It's important as this will most likely be my last bit of tuition before ze big test.

All other areas are improving though, namely my short game and putting. I will be extremely interested to see how these hold up under the pressure as I have spend more time working on these than ever before and feel I have worked on some good stuff, particularly how various clubs perform in terms of carry and roll on the greens when chipping. I cant believe that for 10 years I had never focused on it and I have created a chart that when it's complete should give me not only the best idea of what shot to play but also which club is most suited to that shot (which should eliminate at least one variable).

In terms of the mental side of my golf, I attended the OpenMind Workshop at my workplace which is conducted by my boss Neil Plimmer and his colleague Steve Griffiths, a hypnotherapist/psychotherapist who is based in Hove (the guy who I visited last year who really helped me conquer my nerves). If anyone does stumble across the blog and is serious about their golf, please visit their website and maybe consider coming along as I can personally assure you, both guys are very passionate about this project and I have seen how much hard work has gone into the sessions.
To summarise what happened, this was only really an introductory session but it explored many important concepts such as 'The Zone of Awareness', Achieving Flow, Stress management, course management and many others.
The biggest things I personally took away from this were two-fold: One being that if I hit a bad shot, I must imagine a ring around me in which I can vent all my frustration as much as I like, but when I leave the ring, thats it and I must it behind me and focus on the next shot. The other was clearly an illlustration of how much pressure I put on myself. After I hit a tee shot, ask myself 'will I find it and can I play it?' Very often the answer is yes with me to both of these but I still tend to make it a negative because I focus on it maybe being a swing fault that has caused me to hit it somewhere different from my intended target.
One of the biggest things I have realised is that I set my sights too high and therefore find it very hard to find positives on the course. So, now I'm going to work on forgiving myself more and tryig to look at the positives of every shot I play because there always is one and if there isnt one, then I'll focus on next shot and make that the positive.

I dunno, food for thought I guess but well see what happens. Will write again soon....