Most people have learned to breathe in a shallow and ineffective way, and can gain significant benefits from practicing what is called “diaphragmatic breathing”. Or just “breathing from your diaphragm”.

First, a quick test to find out your current situation:

While standing, place your right hand on your chest and your left hand on your stomach. Next, take a deep breath and notice which direction each of your hands move.

It’s most common to find that your right hand (the one on your chest) moves upwards, while your left hand (on your stomach) moves inwards towards your spine,
If this happened to you, it means that you are actually taking a shallow “chest breath”, and only using one-third of your potential breathing capacity. This can actually increase tension and stress in your body, especially in the small muscles of the neck and shoulders. The solution – diaphragmatic breathing.

It’s actually quite easy.

Once again, place your right hand on your chest and your left hand on your stomach. Now, as you inhale this time, keep your right (chest) hand still, and allow the air to fill up and expand in your abdomen (left hand moving away from the spine).

It is sometimes helpful to imagine your stomach as a balloon, and as you inhale the air inflates the balloon. Only after the “abdomen balloon” is filled do you allow the chest to expand and fill with air.

Hint: Watch small children, as they have not yet “unlearned” this natural breathing process and can be excellent role models for you.

As you exhale simply allow all tension to release from your body and mind. Although it may take a small bit of conscious effort in the beginning to re-learn this breathing pattern, it is well worth it to have this simple tool at your disposal to instantly alleviate stress and create more freedom in your golf swing.

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Stephen Ladd is a Golf Performance Coach pioneering breakthrough energy psychology techniques, and the creator of Renegade Mindset Techniques for Golf ™. Visit http://www.RenegadeMentalGolf.com for free reports, videos, newsletters and an 8 part email mini-tutorial!

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EFT is a meridian-based therapy, similar to accupuncture or accupressure. You simply “tap” on a few “clearing points” on the face and body, while focusing on the negative emotion, in order to “clear” it. Sure, it sounds a bit unusual, but so are the results!

Gary and his team achieved “astonishing results” while working with war veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). These men had recurring nightmares, phobias, paranoia, shame and guilt, among other socially crippling conditions and feelings. EFT was able to give them peace and hope in a matter of hours, where more traditional therapies had failed for years. So what does this have to do with reducing your golf handicap?

Well, if EFT can help a war veteran with PTSD then your first-tee jitters, yips, or anxiety about hitting over a water trap don’t really stand a chance! Try it for yourself and track your golf handicap over a period of four weeks.

Try This EFT Exercise Yourself…

The next time you are faced with a shot that is causing you any sort of negative emotion, step away from the ball. Identify the negative feeling and focus on it while calmly performing the “tapping” as described below.

1. Using the tips of your index and middle fingers, tap on the boney area about one inch directly below one eye – approximately 10 times.

2. Tap 10 times on the boney area just outside the same side eye.

3. Tap the insides of your wrists together approximately 10 times.

4. Finally, take a deep breath, step up to the ball and swing away.

Yes, it really can be that simple to eliminate the mental and emotional barriers between you and consistent peak performance!

The above demonstration is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the enormous potential inherent in these techniques to reduce your golf handicap and increase your enjoyment of the game. For more groundbreaking techniques that will improve your performance on the golf course, visit Renegade Mindset Techniques For Golf. Don’t forget to check out the free reports and email tutorials while you’re there!

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There’s a reason for this – these traditional mental approaches to improving your game often are a complete waste of time! It isn’t that you weren’t using them often enough or doing anything wrong, or that positive thinking exercises and affirmations have no value; it’s just that you’ve been missing a big piece of the puzzle…

You were practicing DENIAL. And a part of you knew it. You were essentially denying the part of you that knew that what you were affirming, such as “I consistently hit 90% of greens in regulation”, simply was not true.

Even as you were repeating your affirmation over and over again, part of you whispered “bull****”. You could call that part of you the “inner critic“. And let’s face it; the inner critic may have a point. After all, it may be a fact that in the past year, you averaged only 30% greens in regulation so you’re setting up an internal conflict between what you tell yourself, and what you know to really be true. And this can set up a mental block that affects your game dramatically.

The inner critic is the voice of all negative emotions on the course – fear, doubt, anger, embarrassment, etc. It can even be an underlying cause of physical symptoms such as tension, sweaty palms, and a variety of aches and pains.

The “Renegade Mindset Techniques for Golf” System deals specifically with recognizing and eliminating the inner critic. RMT is a sports-specific form of Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), the most popular method in the emerging world of Energy Psychology.

Instead of denying its existence, thus allowing it to subtly sabotage our best efforts at improvement, you can focus your attention on it and “clear it” with the simple yet powerful RMT protocols.

Once the negative thought or belief is acknowledged and cleared, a positive affirmation can more effectively take hold in your conscious and subconscious mind. You will have eliminated its competition, and therefore it will be easier to accept.

The RMT for Golf routines always begin with recognition of the negative issue. Then you will focus on that particular issue while “tapping” to eliminate it.

DO NOT be concerned about “being negative“! Remember, it is the acceptance and clearing of the negative that is the key. With the negative feeling/emotion cleared, THEN you can install the positive substitution with ease!

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• top golf mental game tips to reduce your handicap fast – the mental game of golf can help to reduce your handicap pretty quickly. putting is perhaps the biggest part of the game where how you think can make a big difference. many people develop the putting yips not because they have bad …

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All golfers have had this zone state experience, whether for a moment or two, for a round or throughout an entire golf game. They’ll swing smoother, drive the ball further, sink seemingly impossible putts on instinct and play better than they ’should’ have – effortlessly. But what is The Zone, anyway? How do you get into it and STAY in it?

There are no shortage of theories contemplated and examined in sports psychology about what happens in our brain and nervous system during this experience. They’ve even hooked golfers up to brain-wave monitors in search of data to explain the changes they’re going through, in the name of helping players find this Zone state.

For the most part, these efforts have done nothing to improve our understanding of being ‘in the zone‘ because they’re based on a misguided notion, and so produce equally misguided conclusions. The idea that you have to somehow CREATE this state is a misguided one because it suggests the Zone is some sort of destination, something found outside your natural state of being.

In reality, the Zone IS your natural state of being!

The Zone is not a state that you need to “get into”, or struggle to maintain. Rather, it is the state of being that you are supposed to be in! And it is the place to which you can return when you eliminate the things that are blocking your natural, intended state of mental, physical and emotional freedom. Among many, these impediments may include:

• Insecurity
• Self doubt
• Fear
• Tension
• Comfort Zones
• Anger
• Over-thinking
• Etc., etc…

These issues, and others, are keeping you from living in the zone, on and off the course. When you learn how to clear these issues from your mind…you are back in the Zone. After a relatively short period of time, being in the Zone will start to feel normal…because it is!

Fortunately, there are techniques you can use to clear the issues that keep you from playing in the Zone, and from shooting the game of which you are capable. They work quickly, they’re simple to learn, and taught in a context that’s specific to golf. Improving your game will become easier than you can imagine right now, with no electrodes or brainwave monitors required! Are YOU ready to live and play in the Zone? Check out Renegade Mental Golf today.

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