In order to play to your potential in golf or in tennis, you need to know how to how stay confident, how to stay relaxed and how to stay focused. In short, you need to know how to get into the zone and stay there.
According to Jay P. Granat, Ph.D. a psychotherapist, author and founder of www.StayInTheZone.com, there is a simple questionnaire and rating system that can help you to determine if you are in the zone, mentally tough and ready to compete effectively at golf or at tennis or at any other individual sport.
Here are the questions.
Simply rate yourself from 1-10 on each of the questions.
You can use ratings from zero to ten and you can use decimal points.
- How confident do you feel?
- How relaxed do you feel?
- How focused do you feel?
- How well have you been practicing?
- How resilient do you feel?
- How well do you sleep the night before a competition?
- How is your relationship with your coach or coaches?
- How much fun do you have when you compete?
- Can you quiet self -criticism?
- Do you engage in positive self-talk?
- Are you able to tune out distractions?
- Are you able to stay in the present?
- Do you have pre-shot routines that you consistently use?
- Do you have a “Plan B,” if your A game is not working?
- Do you follow and eating regime that makes sense for your body?
- Are you injury free?
- Can you empty your mind and trust your athletic body?
- Can you quiet your mind to focus on just one thing?
- Are you injury free?
- Are you able to control any interpersonal problems or stressors?
- Do you use a simple mantra, phrase or tune to reset your mind and your body?
- Do you know how to recover from a loss, setback or slump?
- For young athletes-Is everything good between you and your parents?
- Have you seen yourself on video in the last ninety days?
- Have you been practicing well?
- Do you have a technique to move from choking to the zone?
- Do you practice meditation, visualization, guided imagery or visualization prior to competing and when you practice?
“Ideally, I like to see athletes with scores of 8.5 on most of the above. Being eighty five per cent ready, is usually enough to produce fine performances.
If you discover weaknesses that are causing you to lose matches and tournaments, you need to develop strategies and techniques to overcome these deficiencies.
It is hard to make these kinds of changes on your own. A sport psychologist, coach or mentor can often be quite helpful in building confidence, reducing anxiety, improving focus and in showing you how to enter the zone more often.
If your scores are very low, you can probably benefit from some counseling, mental toughness training or training in self-hypnosis,” says Dr. Granat.
Jay P. Granat, Ph.D., is a Psychotherapist, Hypnotherapist and Licensed Marriage and Family Counselor. The founder of www.StayInTheZone.com, Dr. Granat has coached athletes from virtually every sport from around the world. His clients have included Olympic Gold Medalists, professional golfers, Division I athletes, tennis pros and elite young competitors and national champions.
A former university professor, Dr. Granat writes a weekly column for five newspapers and has appeared in many major media outlets including: Good Morning America, The New York Times, The BBC, The CBC, Sports Illustrated, The Wall Street Journals, USA Today, Sporting News, ESPN, The Newark Star Ledger, ESPN, Tennis Magazine, Tennis View Magazine, Iowa Golfer, The New York Post and The Bergen Record.
Golf Digest Magazine named him one of America’s top ten mental
Granat earned his Masters and Ph.D. in Counseling from The University of Michigan. He is the author of How To Get In The Zone And Stay In The Zone With Sport Psychology and Self-Hypnosis, How To Lower Your Golf Score, Zone Tennis, 101 Ways To Break A Hitting Slump, How To Get Into The Zone In Just One Minute, How To Have A Killer Serve With Sport Psychology, How To Throw More Strikes and Bedtime Stories For Young Athletes.
Granat is particularly interested in the role that family relationships play in stress and in how they impact one’s ability to perform their best when under pressure.
He is past Vice President of The New York Society For Ericksonian Psychotherapy And Hypnosis. He is a member of The American Counseling Association and The American Psychological Association.
Dr. Granat is available for public speaking, consulting and counseling.
He can be reached at info@stayinthezone.com or at 201 647-9191.