The obvious ones: good food, water............being in shape........and also in good health...........getting sleep.....etc. All that obvious stuff which I feel stupid actually trying to inform you about cause you surely at least know better already. Anyhoo....lol...........carrying on........
I have a bunch of environmental allergies and they are a pain in the ass. Nothing much I can do on that end but it is an extra drain mentally and physically.
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Mentally: anxiety will drain your energy like CRAZY. Same with too much grinding (esp. if you aren't at ease between shots) and/or conscious thought. i.e. dwelling on things........or really any excessive thinking during a round.....too much "gear turnin." (or "wheel spinnin"!)
Just like any bad day at work man. Stress!!! Everything suffers.....it just drains you in every way.
And to me, even with all the talk about grinding, I don't feel like I should have to try to FORCE myself to focus during or before a shot.
That's not to say though that I don't put in any effort or I don't want to be precise all around cause you can miss the boat on that end of the spectrum too and get too sloppy. I like to think more along the lines of "deleting" the bad thoughts out of my mind and telling myself to just try to get on "automatic."
i.e. opposite of "manual"...i.e. no CONSCIOUS thinking, esp. over the ball. It's basically the end goal- which to me, should be fairly obvious. Get on automatic and all the habits you've built will come out. Everyone hits their best shots when they're not thinking about it....hmmm.....
Singing a little tune in your head can be a great way to distract from or "block" unwanted conscious thought over the ball. Some will laugh at this one for sure but good for them.....I say don't knock it until you've tried it for a while.
And aside from the conceptual side, I've also read some quotes from pros that suggest this isn't as weird as it may sound. Fuzzy is an obvious one.....and I even read about Jack Nicklaus saying he played his best with "raindrops keep falling on my head" in his mind. (honestly)
Also.........if you do feel stressed and it's approaching or already arrived at overload.........you should release that in some way. Kind of like a stress ball. You have to release that stress/tension/anxiety or it will ALL build.....and it will drain you....and it will leech on your game.
If I haven't already gone off all on my own (in a releasing pent up stress kind of way)....and I really need to release all that stress......I usually take a short breath, over-grip my club, and really clench basically everything. Then a few breaths to follow up. If you've had a lot of pent-up stress you'll really feel relieved afterwards. (just be careful or people will think you are going to go on a rampage with your wedge)....(also be careful not to soil yourself)
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Hope Brian doesn't mind the plug cause this is more or less ALL dealing with the mental side of things but.....if you take the time to really realize what's in front of you there's a LOT of good stuff here:
www.clearkeygolf.com
