Showing results by author "Dr. Joseph Parent"

In chapters such as "During Your Swing Is Not the Time to Give Yourself a Lesson" and "How to Enjoy a Bad Round of Golf," the author guides golfers with simple yet powerful techniques to prepare for, execute, and, equally important, respond to the results of any golf shot. The author, Dr. Joseph Parent, is a PGA Tour Instructor who draws on his teaching experience to offer special methods that have led to amazing improvements in the games of professionals and amateurs alike.

A Walk in the Wood is both inspiring and instructive. Simple stories with clearly stated goals and easy-to-follow exercises provide all the tools you'll need to take the first step, or continue on your journey, toward a quieter and calmer way of living. 

Confidence, as every golfer knows, is the key to peak performance on the greens. Zen Putting: Mastering the Mental Game builds your confidence through a thinking-outside-the-box approach that helps golfers of all levels get out of their own way and roll the ball better than ever.

From the best-selling author of Zen Golf: Mastering the Mental Game and the tennis champion and world record holder of the Golden Set comes the most innovative and powerful book since The Inner Game of Tennis. Combining deep Eastern wisdom and practical tennis expertise, Zen Tennis will help you get out of your own way and into the zone.

Dr. Joe Parent has drawn on a career coaching the masters to write a hundred easy to understand yet powerful tips for improving any golfer’s score, from the essentials of the mental game to helpful hints to keep your composure. As with his other books, you will find yourself returning time and again to hear what Masters and PGA Champion Vijay Singh call “lessons that make the mental game seem so simple".

Zen Golf Deck is a collection of brief lessons and exercises drawn from Zen Golf: Mastering the Mental Game. Applied in actual on-course sessions with golfers, including many PGA TOUR and LPGA players, they will introduce you to a unique perspective that brings together techniques of modern psychology and ancient wisdom traditions. Each lesson in the Zen Golf Deck will give you ways to make your mind an ally instead of an enemy, helping to reduce frustration, increase consistency, and lower your scores.

I’d like to congratulate you. You have a perfect swing. Now, you’re probably thinking, “What’s that about? He’s never seen my swing.” Well, I don’t need to, because I didn’t say the perfect swing (which, by the way, doesn’t exist, since we are all as different as snowflakes). I said a perfect swing, and everyone has one. Your perfect swing is the best one you can make today.

Players often rely on swing thoughts, but as we discussed earlier, thinking while swinging isn’t such a good idea. It’s preferable to have a swing image, one that includes at least the path and finishing point of the ball, but can also include the feel of the swing. For players who need a swing thought, it is better to have one that describes what you intend to do rather than how you intend to do it.

Poor decisions are what make you gain weight and good choices are what enable you to lose weight. Your brain will respond to the changes you make, and your body will, too. Instead of recipes and requirements, you'll receive time-tested techniques for being more present and mindful while cultivating good eating and exercise habits. The Best Diet Book Ever provides great information and practical strategies that will help you become the lighter, slimmer you that you long to be.

Our actions are shaped by our intentions. When I ask golfers the purpose of making a golf swing, most of them answer, “To hit the ball.” Yet focusing on the ball as the target is a problematic perspective. Thinking of their job as “hitting the ball” instead of “sending the ball to a target” is probably why you see some high handicappers make quite acceptable practice swings and then get up to the ball and swing like they’re chopping wood.

This is one of the many paradoxes of golf. The control we want to get refers to consistent accuracy, control over where the ball will go. The control we have to give up is the kind we exercise when we “steer” a shot. Steering is an expression of the thinking mind trying to control the swing to make sure we get the results we want. Paradoxically, the results we get usually range from not very good to terrible.

Shambhala is a legendary kingdom that is a model of enlightened society, like the story of Camelot and its ideals of genuineness, confidence, and dignity. Shambhala warriorship is not about conquering others and wreaking destruction. It is about having the bravery to overcome aggression, to manifest fearless gentleness. The fundamental training of a Shambhala warrior is based on the Buddhist practices of mindfulness and awareness in action.

Playing the game of golf can inspire us to embody gentleness, inquisitiveness, and fearlessness. Gentleness means being kind to ourselves and considerate of others. We can take delight in conducting ourselves as gentle men and gentle women in golf and in life. Fearlessness means being more curious than afraid, trusting in our basic goodness and manifesting unconditional confidence in every situation we encounter.

Everyone has comfort levels. They are the levels of performance or spheres of activity that are familiar to us. We’re comfortable playing in the B-flight, we’re comfortable chasing the leader from behind, or we’re comfortable just making the cut. We’re comfortable playing our usual game. Sabotage is the undermining (through underhanded interference) of a project or mission. Self­-sabotage doesn’t make sense—why would we undermine our own work to reach an important goal (like breaking 80)?

Here’s a pre-round putting warm-up routine I have given tour players and amateurs alike. Step 1: Putt to nowhere. In an open area of the practice green, stroke a few putts with no target at all. Vary the distances you roll the putts. Do this until you feel your stroke is smooth and consistent.

Simple yet powerful keys for keeping your composure and the mental edge over your opponents, which will help you play with more consistency, experience less frustration, and shoot lower scores.

The key to getting the distance right on long putts is getting a good feel for the speed of the green. Here’s a putting drill that will quickly give you a feel for the pace of the green. On a level area of the practice green, line up several balls about 20 feet away from the fringe. Set up to the first ball and focus on the distance from the ball to the fringe. Then make your regular stroke, putting toward the fringe.

A vital part of our preparation for a golf shot has to do with alleviating tension from our body. Excessive muscle tension is an obstacle to making a fluid, powerful golf swing. There needs to be just enough tension to maintain our posture and hold onto the club as we swing, but any more than necessary interferes with the flow of the swing.

Once a man wanted to get to a particular island just outside the harbor. He went to the dock and found that two boats moored next to each other were both leaving for the island at the same time, but taking different routes. Not being sure which would be better, he stood with one foot in each boat trying to decide. He still hadn’t made up his mind as the boats pulled away from the dock, and still couldn’t decide when the boats started to go their separate ways.

One of the challenges faced by all levels of golfers is expressed in this lament: “Why can’t I hit it on the course the way I was hitting it on the range? It feels so frustrating!” There are many reasons, one of which is purpose. When you are on the range before a round you are usually trying to get comfortable with the swing, seeing how it feels that day, looking for some swing key, and so on. Once we’re on the tee, it is about performance.