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Comment on Fearless Golf: Conquering the Mental Game by bythecshore

bythecshore — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 06:56:47 +0000

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

This book cut 13 strokes off my first round. Really., July 18, 2006

bythecshore (Eastern U.S.) -

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This review is from: Fearless Golf: Conquering the Mental Game (Hardcover)

I know that sounds like ridiculous hype, but it's true.

I swear I'm not the author's brother, cousin, agent or employee. I am a weekend golfer - not even every weekend. I live up north so only play 4 or 5 months out of the year. I've consistently scored 103 to 107 per round over the past 4-5 years.

At the driving range, I hit the vast majority of my shots right down the middle, or at least well enough so that they'd be in play 90% of the time. It's when I get out on the course that it all falls apart. So I knew my technique was okay... it had to be a mental problem. I was thinking of seeing a sports hypnotist but couldn't find one and besides, I just don't play that much golf - maybe about 9 holes a week - and didn't want to invest the time or money.

So I went online to see if I could find a book that would address my problem and found Fearless Golf. There is no technique in book, so if your swing or putting stinks, look elsewhere. This book is all about what's going on inside your head. For me it was a bullseye.

When I first started reading it, I was a little defensive; I'M not fearful... I'M not afraid. But as I went though the book, I realized that I was and just didn't realize it. I was afraid of going with what works... I was holding back and sabotaging myself. I was "afraid" of posting yet another lousy score, "afraid" of losing another $10 bet, "afraid" of wasting my valuable time on another awful round. , etc., etc. This book helped me figure that out and get things straight. Why do I golf? Why don't I trust my swing like I do at the range? Why do my bad shots turn in to more bad shots? I got answers to these questions and more importantly, a few solid, concrete things to do mentally before each shot that have made a huge difference.

The results: on my first 9 holes after finishing the book I went birdie-par-bogey-par and ended up with a 45 (there was a 9 in there). My next 9-hole round was another 45 including another birdie and a few pars. That may not sound so great to you, but in my world pars are rare and birdies were extinct! Those two rounds added up to a 90 - or 13 strokes less than my low-end typical 103!! And 17 less than my typical high-end 107! I've seen all the infomercials on TV and in the magazines of products "guaranteeing to shave 5, 10 or 15 stokes off your score", but this one really worked, not that there's any such promise in his book.

Yesterday I played in a company tournament of which I play 2 or 3 a year. In this pressure situation, on a totally unfamiliar course (in 95 degree heat), I scored a 96, still 7-10 strokes lower than my usual. Several times during play, I realized that I was forgetting to do the mental "warm-up" before each shot and as soon as I went back to it, my shots instantly got better.

Not only are my scores much better, but 80% of the frustration is gone. Whereas last year I was thinking about quitting the sport, I now am thinking that consistent play in the high 80's is realistic. (Hey - I only missed by one stroke on those two 9-hole rounds!)

If my story sounds like you - good at the driving range but much worse on the course, then buy this book. It costs less than a dozen decent golf balls and was EASILY the best $15 investment I've made in years.

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Comment on Zen Golf: Mastering the Mental Game by Ross Bagdasarian "J. Karman"

Ross Bagdasarian "J. Karman" — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 06:53:51 +0000

50 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

Why you should buy this book!, August 14, 2002

Ross Bagdasarian "J. Karman" (Montecito, CA USA) -

This review is from: Zen Golf: Mastering the Mental Game (Hardcover)

As an avid, yet struggling golfer I was ready for just about anything that could improve my game, including a lobotomy. Zen Golf was not only straight forward, but incredibly useful. Shortly after reading the book, I went out and "trusting" my swing not only hit a lot of great shots, but actually began having fun again. I enjoyed myself so much that I scheduled a full day lesson with Dr. Parent. Talk about a book brought to life. He was wonderful. Not only was he full of insight and stress relieving approaches, but he was really fun to play with. In the last year or so, I have been shooting a lot of 80's and even some 90's. Employing Dr. Parent's concepts I shot 77 AND had a fun time. I don't dread golf anymore. I highly recommend the book to every golfer looking to play to their full potential and take the hernia out of the game. For those luckier still, I recommend a lesson with Dr. Parent. If you are struggling with your game, either take up tennis or get this book.

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Comment on Play Great Golf (Hypnosis Series) by Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 06:51:56 +0000

Comment on Zen Golf: Mastering the Mental Game by David M "David M"

David M "David M" — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 06:47:31 +0000

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

get your mind out of the way of your golf game, June 3, 2002

David M "David M" (Rhode Island) -

This review is from: Zen Golf: Mastering the Mental Game (Hardcover)

The one time I had a perfect (for me) round of golf I noticed that the game seemed extremely simple. The rest of the time, I wonder how it can be so complicated to try and reproduce that simplicity. Zen golf gets to the root of this and offers a path there, and the opportunity to have that round at any time.
Joseph Parent's advice applies to all levels of golfers and is a guide to consistent and reproduceable results. It is one of those rare books on golf that doesn't fill your head with things to consider while you play, it does the opposite by showing you how to clear your head and in doing so clear away the obstacles that prevent us and our bodies from naturally performing the way we are capable of. I expect that the short time it took me to read this book will have a long-lasting effect on the way I will play golf from now on, and I am in the process of reading it for a second time.

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Comment on Play Great Golf (Hypnosis Series) by B. Lewison "ohyeah"

B. Lewison "ohyeah" — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 06:39:32 +0000

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

pretty good, May 20, 2009

B. Lewison "ohyeah" (California) -

Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)

This review is from: Play Great Golf (Audio CD)

Both my husband are beginning golfers, and hypnosis is helping us with our concentration and frustration issues...I like the electronic music on this cd-relaxing but catchy. The narrator has a British accent, but a kind of regular-guy-sounding British accent.
What did not work well for us was one of the visualizations about watching your favorite golf player - since we don't watch much golf, we kind of drew a blank when listening to that part. We also think the author should have included "fun" as one of his themes to focus on. I would say give it a try, although we both prefer our own personalized golf scripts we wrote for ourselves after reading "Instant Self-Hypnosis" by Forbes Robbins Blair.

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Comment on Zen Golf: Mastering the Mental Game by William Ray

William Ray — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 06:19:28 +0000

65 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

The Point, October 8, 2002

William Ray (Eugene, OR United States) -

This review is from: Zen Golf: Mastering the Mental Game (Hardcover)

What's the point of golf? What are we trying to achieve while we're out there? Simply put, the point is to get the ball in the cup as quickly as possible and enjoy the process. I played a round early this summer, had an awful time, came off the course stressed and feeling bad about my behavior. I was literally hyperventalating over putts. Turns out I scored well. So something was amiss, right? This book has me enjoying the game again. Zen Golf is not a deep and difficult treatise of the deeper meaning of life and golf. It is closer to an instruction manual on how to play better golf and enjoy the game more. It addresses concepts like trust, confidence and positive thinking. I now enjoy those 3-iron punch shots out of the trees. I'm learning to enjoy those 5-footers. Every shot is an opportunity and there's no need for fear or negativity. My "evil caddie" seldom comes around, and when he does, I know what to do. This is simply the best golf book I've ever read.

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Comment on Fearless Golf: Conquering the Mental Game by J. Duncan

J. Duncan — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 06:11:37 +0000

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

the new standard for golf's mental side and beyond, May 13, 2005

J. Duncan (New York, NY United States) -

This review is from: Fearless Golf: Conquering the Mental Game (Hardcover)

valiante takes golf psychology to a new level with this book. whereas rotella's message is very anectodal and breaks down to something like "equipment and your swing don't matter, stop trying to be perfect and accept things more," valiante's message has more a lot more depth. he acknowlegdes the importance of a good swing and the right equipment and his message is well grounded in psychological research. although breaking his message down to a few points is no easy task (as a matter of fact, he goes out of his way at the end to say it's really up to the individual to frame a message in their own context), it would be something like:

- don't attempt to try and control emotions by pretending they don't exist and that you're not nervous, rather condition yourself to respond productively when these feelings arise;
- focus on things you can control such as preparing properly, developing a plan for the course and the target for your next shot, rather than things you can't control such as what other players are shooting or the weather;
- practise makes permanent rather perfect, so be realistic about what it is you need to work on to get better and how accurately your practise routine reflects these items;
- strive to maintain a light grip, because when the nerves tense up you will lose feelings in your outer extremities and without realizing it, you will grip the club much tighter and hit poor shots as a result.

there are other important elements of this book that from someone else's perspective might be prioritized differently (consistent with the notion of what's key for each individual), but these are the keys for me. clearly, the principles laid out in this book transcend golf and provide a framework for success in life. this is one of the few books of any kind that i am certain to re-read from start to finish -- it's really so powerful that you'll want to make sure you don't miss anything and are left with the right plan for you.

my one criticism is the book's format: several exemplary stories about golf professionals (nicklaus, woods, dimarco, stewart, toms, mickelson, etc etc) are inter-woven throughout the chapters but in odd spots where if you want to read the story it interrupts the flow of the chapter or section. most of them are worth reading, however it would have been a lot better to put them at the end of sections to reinforce the point(s) that had just been fully articulated.

but that said this is clearly an instant classic and becomes the new standard that replaces the works on golf psychology that preceded it.

bravo gio!

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Comment on Fearless Golf: Conquering the Mental Game by Duane Thomas

Duane Thomas — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 06:04:07 +0000

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

Obvious and Repetitive, July 20, 2005

Duane Thomas (Tacoma, WA United States) -

This review is from: Fearless Golf: Conquering the Mental Game (Hardcover)

The problem with Fearless Golf by Dr. Gio Valiante is that he really has very little to say. There are, basically, only two ideas put forth in this book. (1) Golfers motivated by a desire to master the sport tend to perform better than those whose motivation is to impress other people. (2) People who possess high self-confidence in their skills tend to perform better than those who don't. Thank you, Captain Obvious. Fearless Golf is primarily an exercise in how many slightly different ways, and how many times, it's possible to say those two things. Valiante spends tedious amounts of time in the book's middle discussing how having "mastery golf" attributes is better than not having them (I'm talking 150 pages here, folks), to the point we want to scream, "Okay, we get it! Move ON." It's not until Chapter 4, page 198, that he begins talking about how to improve, how to get from "don't have" to "have". Even then, his advice could be summed up as, "Change, because that would be good." There are no specific exercises, no step-by-step progression put forth.

Understand, I'm not saying the ideas in this book are bad. They're not. It's just that the text is extremely padded, resulting in a slow, boring read. There are five chapters, an introduction and an epilogue in Fearless Golf. If you were editing this book, you could include the Introduction entire, take Chapter 1, cut it in half, skip ahead to Chapter 4, cut it in half, keep most of Chapter 5, lose everything else, and when you were done you'd have a taut, peppy 50-page essay giving you everything of substance in the 275-page Fearless Golf.

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Comment on Play Great Golf (Hypnosis Series) by Jeffrey B. Singleton

Jeffrey B. Singleton — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 06:02:59 +0000

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

It Works!, November 28, 2005

Jeffrey B. Singleton (Birmingham, AL) -

This review is from: Play Great Golf (Audio CD)

I listened to the CD 3 times. I felt confident and "In the Zone" as soon as the round began. I hit 9 Fairways which is a major improvement. My putting was excellent. I usually have "a lot" of negative thoughts during a round of golf but, this day I was very calm. Golf is mostly physchological. Listening to this CD is a great way relax and get better at golf at the same time.

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Comment on Zone Golf with CD: Master Your Mental Game Using Self-Hypnosis by James R. Brown "Jim 'Gymbeaux' Brown"

James R. Brown "Jim 'Gymbeaux' Brown" — Tue, 03 May 2011 23:25:52 +0000

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

NOT JUST FOR GOLFERS!, December 21, 2010

James R. Brown "Jim 'Gymbeaux' Brown" (Slidell, Louisiana) -

This review is from: Zone Golf with CD: Master Your Mental Game Using Self-Hypnosis (Paperback)

Let me set the stage. I am 65 years old and recently underwent two shoulder surgeries the last one in February 2010. Prior to the surgeries I had a 4/5 handicap; after the surgeries a 9/10 and lost a lot of yardage with all of my clubs. I would shoot in the mid 80s to low 90s and was understandably getting frustrated.

I read Zone Golf and listened to only a few of the many self-hypnosis tracks on the CD that came with the book plus more tracks that you can download from a web site. My first time out on the course after reading the book and listening to the tracks I shot an 80 and the 80 did not truly reflect how well I played. Most of the self-talk that I had experienced prior to reading the book was gone as long as I remained aware of what I was doing. It was when I started playing in an old automatic mode that I got into trouble. But when I used the principles in the book I quickly got back on track. Where before I almost gave up the game, now I can't wait to play again.

Here is the best part. The book would make a fabulous book for business owners and/or sales people. I am the Designated Broker for 100 real estate agents and I can assure you that sales people have the same self-doubt and self-talk about their business that golfers have about their golf game. Since the self-hypnosis scripts are written out in the book, it would be very easy to substitute Sales for Golf and you would have a sales book that would almost certainly help improve a person's business. The book makes you more aware of what you are thinking and what you are telling yourself. When you become aware of what you are saying you have the opportunity to change. As the Law of Attraction indicates, you become more of what you think about and this book will help you think about the proper things in golf and life.

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