THE PLAYERS COACH

Concentration Exercises for Training the Mind

Developing your concentration skills is like training anything else in your life. If you are trying to get in shape and lose weight, how many times do you go the gym per week, how many hours per day?

If you want to be mentally tough, the choice is yours. The mind comes with training. You are in control of your mind; it is a tool that you can use to be successful.

You need to train your mind, it will not train itself.

Instructions for these mental performance focus exercises:

  • Find a place where you will not be disturbed
  • Take a few calm, deep breathes to relax your body
  • Practice each exercise for 10 minutes, after a while of training, lengthen it to 15 minutes of focused training
  • If you happen to get distracted please start again
  • You have to be honest with yourself!
  • Mastering the focus training exercises depends on the individual
  • Put your whole attention on the exercises, block out everything else
  • Do not try to take on too much in the beginning, start easy and slow

Concentration/ Focus exercise

Exercise 1, Take any book and count the words in the first paragraph. Do this again, make sure you have counted them correctly

Advanced As you advance in your training, do this with 2 paragraphs

When you become advanced, try to count all the words on an entire page

Exercise 2 In your head count backwards from 100 to 1… 99-98-97….

Count in your head from 100 to 1, skipping each 3 numbers – For example – 100, 97, 94, etc….

Exercise 3 Choose a word that reemphasis positive affirmations about your golf game or life. Try and repeat it in your mind for 5 minutes with out any disruption. When you become advanced, try to do it for 10 minutes.

Exercise 4 Take an object, such as a golf ball or a fruit.

Examine the object from all sides, while keeping your whole attention focused on it. Do not let yourself be carried away by irrelevant thoughts that might arise, or thoughts about the grocery where you bought the fruit, how and where it was grown, its nutritive value, etc… Stay calm, ignoring, and showing no interest in these thoughts. Just look at the fruit, focus your attention on it without thinking about anything else, and examine its shape, smell, taste and the sensation it gives you when you touch it.

This time you visualize the fruit, instead of looking at it.

Start, by looking at the fruit and examining it for about 2 minutes, just as you did in exercise number 5.

Then close your eyes, and try to see, smell, taste and touch the fruit in your imagination. Try to see a clear and well defined image. If the image becomes blurred, open your eyes, look at the fruit for a short while, and then close your eyes and continue the exercise.

You may imagine holding the fruit in your hands, as in the previous exercise, or imagine it standing on a table.

Exercise 5 Take a small simple object such as a spoon, a fork, or a glass. Concentrate on one of these objects. Watch the object from all sides without any verbalization, that is, with no words in your mind. Just watch the object without thinking with words about it.

After becoming proficient with the above exercises, you may try this exercise.

Exercise 6 Draw on a piece of paper a small triangle, square or a circle, about three inches in size, and paint it with any color you wish.

Put the paper with the drawing in front of you, and concentrate your whole attention on the shape you have drawn. For now, only the drawing exists for you, with no unrelated thoughts or distractions.

Keep your attention on the drawing, and avoid thinking about anything else. Be careful not to strain your eyes.

Exercise 7 Start the same as above, but after looking at the figure for a moment, close your eyes and visualize the figure with the eyes closed. If you forget how the figure looks like, open your eyes for a few seconds, look at the figure, and then close your eyes and continue with the exercise.

Exercise 8 The same as above, but now visualize with your eyes open.

Exercise 9 Try for at least five minutes, to stay without thoughts. Do this exercise, only after you have practiced all the previous ones successfully. If you practiced the preceding exercises correctly, you will be able to impose silence on your thoughts, even if this is at first, just for a short while.

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