MENTAL VICTORY

We are our biggest enemies in any sport, but with golf, even more so. With team sports or individual sports such as tennis, we have a clearly defined opponent, who we hope to defeat through skill or strength or a little bit of luck.

With golf, though, we can’t do much to alter our opponents’ fate. But there’s a lot we can do—good and bad—to alter our own. Noted sports psychologist, Lake Forest resident, and founder of EleVive, Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo works with student athletes, including golfers, and also with recreational golfers to help them train their minds for a more successful game.

While golf is a game of fun (especially if we’re playing well!) the golf course is also a place where business deals get done. Avoiding embarrassment with customers and clients is always preferrable, and that means making sure you’re listening to the right voices in your head.

“When you’re not playing so well on the golf course that impacts how you interact with your clients and customers,” Lombardo says.

She says a lot of times what happens is when people make a bad shot it gets in their head, and then they start thinking, “I can’t make another bad shot.”

“If you say, ‘Don’t think about a pink elephant, then all you think about is a pink elephant,” Lombardo says. “So, if you tell yourself, ‘Don’t mess up’, you are actually more likely to make another mistake.”

It’s hard to get rid of a thought when you’re beating yourself up for a past mistake and telling yourself not to do it again, Lombardo says, because then a lot of people aren’t putting all of their worth on their next shot. They’re putting a lot of their worth on how they’re playing and a lot of pressure on themselves that the shot needs to be good so that this customer will be impressed by them, or they’ll look good in front of their boss.

“I worked with a man who, throughout the entire year, plays two to three times a week. Not a professional golfer by any means but golf is his love in life,” she says. “He came to me after having the yips. He could not putt. We did one hypnosis session together and that one session was all he needed. I didn’t hear from him for a while, and he texted me maybe three or four weeks later. He said everything’s back to normal.”

Lombardo first learned about hypnotherapy when she was in psychology school more than 20 years ago and has continued to do extensive training in the practice. Although she was initially skeptical about it, she has found it to be profoundly helpful for her clients.

“It’s very, very powerful because everything that we do is on a subconscious level. So, if your subconscious is working against you instead for you, you do not get to operate at peak performance,” Lombardo says. “If I’m working with a basketball player, for example, they can make 99 out of 100 free throws during practice, but when people are watching them and they are in the psychological Red Zone (high stress), even though it’s the same shot, they just can’t get out of their own way.”

Lombardo usually works with athletes for eight sessions, giving them some skills for how they can make sure their minds are working for and not against them. It requires practice, but there’s a positive payoff.

“Usually, we’ll do one or two unconscious therapy sessions, if you will. I do a lot of guided visualizations to help people start to rewire their brains,” Lombardo says. “So, instead of predicting that it’s going to be a failure, they actually feel and experience the victory.”

For more about Dr. Elizabeth Lombardo visit elizabethlombardo.com. For more on EleVive, visit elevive.com.