“Experiencing some jitters?”

By: Dave Mahoney

You may have recently watched an interview with Tiger Woods before he made his comeback at the Match Play Championship at the end of February. In the interview, Tiger was asked if he thought he may be nervous when he tees it up again since this was going to be his first tournament back after his injury. If you were watching the interview you may have been surprised to hear Tiger say that of course he was going to be nervous. In fact he went on to say that the day he is not nervous playing golf is the day that he gives up the game. He also added that he takes great pride in what he does, and being nervous is merely a sign that he cares about what he does.

So what can we take away from this information? First of all, if we didn’t realize this already, we can now see that Tiger Woods is a human being. Secondly, we can confirm that Tiger knows exactly how to harness the power of his mind. In our culture many people misunderstand the meaning of being fearless. Fearlessness does not mean that we do not experience fear, but rather we know how to move beyond it and use its power to our advantage. When I visited Doctor Bob Rotella a Sports Psychologist who has worked with golfers like Phil Mickelson, Padraig Harrington, Davis Love, Tom Kite, and many others, he would remind me to “welcome the butterflies.” This is something that every golfer can use to their advantage. A big part of the reason Tiger has been so successful is that he looks at fear as if it were his friend.

Now let’s take this a step further. How can fear possibly be our friend if we are trying to accomplish something? The truth of the matter is, within fear, there is a tremendous amount of creative energy waiting to be transformed into present moment focus. Remember, Albert Einstein concluded that everything in the universe is made up of energy. He also concluded that energy cannot be created or destroyed but rather it can only be transformed. This applies also to our own minds. When we are standing on the first tee and experiencing some nerves, it is important to not get into an inner battle with yourself but rather look at the fear as a great asset to your potential. We can use this powerful energy source to our advantage. You might now ask… “How do we transform its power?” The answer lies in our attention. When we redirect our attention away from the negative stories the mind is telling us, and direct it towards our routine, great creativity comes available that we wouldn’t have had without the fear in the first place. So when a wave of anxiety hits our awareness, it is important to stay with the process or the “pre shot routine”, and let go of the results or the future. If you can redirect your attention out of the future and into the present moment you will be learning how to see the game the way Tiger Woods does.