Why You Can Improve Your Game Without Practicing

by Craig Sigl creator of Break 80 Without Practice

You may copy and distribute this ebook freely as long as it is kept intact in it's entirety. Pass it onto friends, print it, email it, post it, whatever. Craig Sigl and Break 80 Inc. retain all rights to this publication. No guarantees, warranties or promises are made to your actual results from reading this ebook. It is for informational purposes only. In short, what you do with this info is entirely up to you. I can't make you read it. I can't make you believe any of it. Only you know if you want to allow it to change the way you currently think so that you can finally work some magic in your golf game. You hold all the keys. I encourage you to open some doors!

www.break80golf.com

Copyright 2006 Craig Sigl

Why You Can Improve Your Game Without Practicing

Dear Fellow Golf Fanatic, I know youre curious about this subject or you wouldnt even be reading this. I mean, come on, how is this possible? Is this guy nuts? Who the heck does he think he is? Youve been told all your life that the way to get better at golf is to first take a lesson. Then, go down to the golf range, and practice each individual movement that the pro golf instructor just taught you. And do it until it becomes habit, or repeatable without thinking. Yep, me too. Heres the thing. Since it makes sense, and its intuitive, it must be right, right? I will not argue with you that that method I just outlined works. It does. I admit it. In fact, Im not telling you here or anywhere in my writings not to practice. I never say that practicing golf is bad for your game.far from it! The problem with most folks though, is either they practice terrible habits, or they dont have time to practice at all! And so THEY NEVER IMPROVE. Its a tragedy really. Now, I probably havent said anything yet for you to disagree with me on yet, right? Dont worry, I probably will and wont disappoint you on that. But maybe, I can change your mind before we even disagree? What do you think? Well, at least lets give it a go Let me start with a questionIf I were to ask you: How many seconds are there in a year? Some of you would get out your calculator, or maybe do some math in your head, and then be able to come up with a huge number. Youd multiply 1 second times 60 in a minute, times 60 in an hour, times 24 in a day, times 365 days in a year.and the number you come up with would be right! Now, I on the other hand, could come up with an answer far faster than that12 What? Thats not right? Oh yes it is. There is a January 2nd, a February 2nd, a March 2nd, etc. Twelve seconds! Would this be correct? Of course. 12 is not intuitive and doesnt seem right to answer the question with, but does it satisfy the question, which is the desired outcome? Absolutely. Ive given you this simple analogy to shake you up a bit. If you want to break out of the mold that the golf industry has put you in for all those years,

Why You Can Improve Your Game Without Practicing

then you will have to open your mind to some possibilities that you might never have come across before. And, because you have never seen anything like this, your tendency might be to immediately dismiss it as not real. Are the seconds of the month real? Well, I dont think so except as an idea in our mind. Can you touch them? Smell them? See them? We like to paint pictures in our mind to understand some things and so we take this a step further and make a calendar and number the boxes on it for every month. Ahh, that helps! I dont want to get too deep here so lets get back to golf. Sometimes I make myself dizzy when talking about out there ideas. My 12 year old boy recently told me: Dad, my friends and I sometimes have no idea what you are talking about when you talk to us. I guess I should consider that a badge of honor. Anyway, the same thing goes for golf, or any other sport for that matter. You see, we are our experiences and history. We tend to see and live in the future the way we have experienced in the past. We know that many many golfers have improved their game the standard way. Lessons, Practice, Play (LPP) . Weve seen it! Weve witnessed it. Weve read umpteen books and magazines that discuss it. All the pros say that is the way to do it! So that must be the only way to do it huh? Ok finethen I guess you dont ever want to get in a car and drive over 35mph. What? Did you know that before railroad engines were built that most EVERYONE believed that the human body would explode if it traveled over 35mph? Both times, the CEO, Fred Smith, explained to his detractors that these technological jumps would actually INCREASE his business. He was right. You see, increased productivity for everyone meant that (about 56 kph) I dont have to waste your time telling you about all the old beliefs that are now looked upon as completely silly today do I? World is flat, leeching blood cures illness, humans will never flyetc.

The Golf Industry Says No Way

But Craig, if folks started thinking they could get better without practicing, then the golf industry will lose untold amounts of $ per year. Nope, I totally disagree and heres why. I used to work for Fedex, an international air and now ground transportation network. But in its early days; it was primarily a document-moving overnight delivery company. When Fax machines first started coming out, everyone predicted that Fedex would suffer heavily as more documents would travel electronically. Fedex stock dropped. When personal computers came out, it was said that Fedex would get hurt even more.

Why You Can Improve Your Game Without Practicing

more things would need to be moved. More deals would be created and thus more opportunity for making connections that required transportation of some sort. Yes, documents might not be that important anymore but something else will still need to be transported. Flash to golf. Its a well-known fact that average golf scores have not gotten better among the general golf-playing public since the invention of steel shafts. Now that was a big one and it did give golfers a huge jump at that time. And even with todays high-tech equipment and golf balls, scores are not going downand lately, there has been a leveling off of new courses built and new players entering the game. Lets face it, the game is pretty hard to play well and many folks just give it up in frustration. The game of golf should be absolutely booming right now since all the baby boomers are hitting their retirement age. But its not. Some huge golf companies are actually in trouble these days. So, I say, the way for golf to grow and EVERYONE in the industry to benefit is for real folks everywhere to start actually pushing that average score statistic lower. When that happens, more people will get into the game. When more people get into and stay in the game, everyone in the industry benefits! Do you know how many folks give up on the game every year because they feel they are no good at it? Or get frustrated with the game? And why is that? Its because they are told that the only way for them to get better is to take lessons and practice at the range!

And they just dont have the time or the patience to do that!
Teaching pros will always be needed to work on the fundamentals and they can now work with their clients in other areas than just traditional swing instruction. That is, if their clients actually wanted to lower their scores rather than just look good. So, it has to begin with YOU, the general golf public. If more golfers actually improved, then more golfers would stay golfing and not take up watching sports on the Television in their easy chair. Golf experienced a short-term boom in the 90s. Why? Because a guy named Tiger Woods came on the scene. Never before has a minority from such humble beginnings accomplished so much and made the game exciting! Many folks took up the game to be part of the excitement. They all thought that if this guy can do it, then so can I. Remember, Tiger Woods was playing at 3 years old! His Dad was his greatest teacher and they played on a military base course and public courses. It was written that he was taught the mental game at an early age. Then, it all became old hat for the millions of new golfers as they were all told that they had to hit zillions of balls on the

Why You Can Improve Your Game Without Practicing

practice range like Tiger in order to improve. Its sad actually, to watch all those average folks leave the game and go back to watching Tiger on T.V. instead of playing themselves. So what has happened lately? Tournament winnings have gone through the roof, the popularity of pro golfers is at an all-time high, and the average person has left the course. you. I wouldnt disagree with them. ANDif you want to learn how to go from shooting over 100 to getting in the 90s, then maybe you should ask some average folks how they did it. If they tell you that they took lessons and practiced like crazyand you dont have time to do thatthen ASK SOMEONE ELSE! I am a Master Practitioner and Trainer of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). The major theme behind NLP is.MODELLING do what successful people have done. Successful people think differently than the average person in whatever sport or business we are talking about. They dont follow the masses. If they did, they would be one of the masses right? - simple logic that you cant deny. You can either be right and be one of the massesor you can get resultsits your choice.

Golf Pros Cant Be WrongCan They?

So heres the problem as I see it: We want to get better at golf. We look to those that are very good at golf and ask them how they did it. They tell us that they worked their tails off practicing their technique for countless hours. We conclude that is the way to go. Only thing isin golf, and in some other sports as well, most of us shouldnt be asking the pro how he/she got to the top ranks and try to model them. What? This is golf blasphemy your saying here, Craig. Just hang on a minute and let me explain. Now, if you want to be a pro golfer, then YES, you should absolutely ask pro golfers how theyve done it. You know exactly what they will tell you dont

Do You Believe?
Ok, how do we have to think in order to be successful at improving our golf scores when we arent able to practice like we think we should? Believe it or not, the most important thing you have to dois JUST BELIEVE that you can! If you can do thatthen youre half way there. Really! I think Hale Irwin said it best when he wrote: So many golfers get themselves into a position to improve and then never come through because they subscribe to this self-defeating prophecy that they belong at a certain skill level. You see, Belief is everything.

Why You Can Improve Your Game Without Practicing

Even though many folks totally understand this concept, they will still choose to believe in the old ways, no matter what. That always baffled me but I now understand why. Its because of how our brain and bodymind processes new information through the filter of deleting, distorting and generalizing all inputs to form an internal representation that results in a behavior. What? Geez, would you please explain that Ok, you see, our senses are bombarded with 126 bits per second of input. We can only handle about 7 bps. So, our automatic processes filter out and pay attention to only what it thinks we need to deal with. The rest is discarded. You will always tend to think and feel and react based on what you already know. And this is due to a survival mechanism in our brain processing. Your mind must always be considering what it thinks is important at any given moment. For instance, can you remember a time (I know you can because it happens every day) when you were listening to someone tell a story? They were telling you about THEIR experienceand what were you doing? About midway through the story, they say something that triggers you to remember your own story that somehow relates to theirs. And now, its all you can do to keep from interrupting them to tell them YOUR thoughts. Everything we do is a result of our past experiences, knowledge and stored values. I could go on and on about this NLP stuff but I know you just want to improve your golf game so Ill get back to the task. Let me first tell you about baby elephants in a circus. When they are young, their legs are chained to a stake in the ground to keep them where they should be. Over a period of years, they finally give up on pulling on the chain and stake because it only hurts them to try. As they get older, they become totally conditioned that when the chain is on, they wont attempt to stray any further than the normal distance of the chain. If they were to try pulling the chain, they could easily pull the stake out of the ground because of their huge strengthbut they dont. One particular circus had a massive fire in the tent where the elephants were chained up. All of the elephants burned to death even though they could have escaped had they just believed they could and pulled on the chain. Whats your chain? If you think you can do a thing or think you cant do a thing, youre right. Henry Ford

Quantum What?
The next part of the puzzle comes from the scientific study of Quantum Physics. You might think that I am a Hypnotist and NLP trainer and sayWow, this guy is OUT THERE! And I wouldnt blame you for thinking that, as that is what I would have thought a few years ago. Well, I didnt get to where Im at by blind faith. I am one of those that are always in need of some

Why You Can Improve Your Game Without Practicing

scientific proof or study. I want to know WHY something is the way it is before I believe in it. I want to see the studies! I want some solid research and reasons WHY something is the way it is. And I found it in a study called Quantum Physics. Quantum Physics is the study of subatomic (smaller than atoms) particles. This is the science that has convinced me that Scoring Lower Without Practicing is possible. I could write a book on what I have learned about Quantum Physics and how it applies to us but you know what? There is already a book out there that has applied it to golfits called: Quantum Golf by Kjell Enhager. I read this book a few years ago and I must tell youI didnt understand it! Its only now that I have learned about the power of the mind and how it relates to Quantum Physics that it makes sense to me. If you are ready to believe that your mind is powerful enough to make a huge jump in your scores, WITHOUT PRACTICING, I would recommend that you read this book as well as my humble writings. In a nutshell, Quantum Physics has determined that the thoughts you have become matter. You create your reality by how you think. Let me see if I can do any justice here with an oversimplification: We used to think that atoms were the building blocks of matter (things we can see, touch, feel etc.) Physicists have discovered smaller. Those smaller objects or particles dont BECOME particles until you create them with your thought. Before that, they exist as wave-form potential. In other words, at the sub-atomic level of matter, nothing is objective! Everything is influenced by the observer (YOU!) Yes, you had traveled that road befo re, but eve ry car ride is diffe rent. You press the gas and the brake at diffe rent times and see diffe rent things eve ry trip. A p a rt of you can do thatautomatically! This is big folks! Let me go on Have you ever learned to ride a bike? Why is it that it takes a lot of falls and spills and training to ride a bike the first timeand then once you know 8 It gets real complicated let me tell you but its all grounded in the scientific method and mathematical formulasand its very empowering for your golf and your life! And it all PROVES how powerful your mind is. Just go read Quantum Golf.

Have You Ever?

Have you ever gotten in your car with a destination in mind? You turned the key and drove offand then you arrived at your destinationand you cant remember the trip! You drove a highly complex vehicle in varied conditions totally on autopilot!

Why You Can Improve Your Game Without Practicing

how, you can go 30 years without riding a bike and youre still able to ride it again perfectly! You might be saying that riding a bike is so much easier than swinging a golf cluband I would disagree. In fact, I can put a golf club in a complete novices hands and they could hit the ball a fairly good distance maybe the first time, or within a few tries. What are the chances of this happening with teaching someone how to ride a bike? Zero. If it was an easy task, then you would be able to do it fairly easily the first time right? But its not. It involves millions of chemical and neuron patterns in your body to make the muscles move precisely to keep balance while turning and maneuvering a bike; more than swinging a club. Can we model how we learn and successfully ride a bike for a lifetime and apply this same principle to golf? Yep. Have you ever felt like the only thing you were missing in scoring your best round of your life wasfocus and concentration? Maybe just on one particular hole that you blew it on? favorite beverage for starters, maybe its a wonderful wine. The wine comes and you sip and savor it as you look at the food menu. The descriptions are so tantalizing as you read every word. Mmmmm, you can begin to taste what you have decided is exactly what you want to eat today. You cant wait. You engage in fun, cheerful talk with your partners at the table. Everyone is there to experience the joy of a good meal and excellent conversation. The atmosphere surrounds your body and senses adding to the enjoyment as you await your meal in giddy anticipation. Finally, the server arrives with your plates! Ahhh, you can smell the aromas as you see your plate being put in front of you just as you pictured it. Its perfect! You soak in the beauty of the food as nourishment and a stimulus for pure bliss for a few moments before you finally take that first bite. Oh mannnn, that tastes so good.You let the flavors swirl around in your mouth as you engage your mind to take it all in from your senses. Everything about the food sends your mind into a place of justwell, feeling great! Nowlet me ask you. Would you say that you were focused and could concentrate on that wonderful experience during the times when it meant the most to you? Was it difficult to hold that intense focus on the food for the minute from when the food arrived until you swallowed that first bite? No? I didnt think so

Focus and Concentration

Lets go to your favorite restaurant, in your mind, right now. Why do you go to this restaurant? Because you love it. You get enjoyment and pleasure out of experiencing everything about the place and of course, the delicious food. You sit down and look at the menu. You order your

Why You Can Improve Your Game Without Practicing

Did you find it really hard to read the menu and choose which way to go with your food? Or did you get a small feeling like you get right before you open up a gift in wrapping? And how long did that take? Didnt it seem like you didnt have enough time and the server was there to take your order? Or, maybe you wanted MORE time to concentrate on the choices and sent him away. Expert were created the day I found a book called: Better Golf Without Practice by Alex J. Morrison. He wrote this in 1940 at the peak of his fame. Morrison was THE GREATEST teacher of his day by far. He had his own golf school in New York. He taught many politicians and big-time entertainers including Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. He taught Jack Nicklaus dad and the great Henry Pickard among many other pros. Morrison wrote: Five minutes in an easy chair, mentally rehearsing the Morrison Keys, which afford you a successful swing, will improve your game more than weeks of hip-swiveling on the practice ground with a blank mind. and You can give the right kind of attention to the Keys by seeing them clearly with your brain.

Im not the first to tell you this

Allright, I know. Many of you reading this far are still not convinced. I mean, youre thinking. why should I believe this guy? What are his credentials? Is he a golf pro? What big names has he trained? Good questions and fair enough. Remember, I told you that NLP is all about modeling successful people. Modeling in NLP is simply: If someone can do something, we can find out how they do it, and we can do it too. My beginnings in becoming the Golf Anti-practice

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Why You Can Improve Your Game Without Practicing

and Unfortunately, instead of lower scores, most players finish with lower spirits and higher figures. And for their failures they invariably resort to that old alibi lack of practice. This seems logical, for very few players have the time or inclination for long hours of practice. Let me assure you that this excuse will no longer hold. That no practice alibi is through, finished If all of that isnt enough for you, there are countless studies done on the effects of mental practice in sports. You see, it has now been scientifically proven that the brain and nervous system do not know the difference between real events and vividly imagined events! use 10% of our brain, you hear others say 1/3, it doesnt matter. Nobody, but nobody thinks we use even half of our powers. It has only been in the last 10 years that the study of the brain has really taken off due to Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanning technology. Scientists can now watch the brain functioning on a monitor! They have identified all sorts of processes and mapped out where different functions of the brain happen. Its a fascinating time for neuroscience! Theyve hooked up athletes to these machines and found virtually no difference from reality to imagining themselves playing and competing in their sport. Heres the thing though, the more we know, the less we know. Here we go again with the woowoo stuff right? Well, not exactly but hope is on the way! Lets talk about Memory for a minute. Ive seen

We only use a small percent of our mind power

This has been stated so often in so many ways that its now a clich. You hear people say that we only

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Why You Can Improve Your Game Without Practicing

and heard the term muscle memory a zillion times. Golf pros say that you have to practice in order to create muscle memory. Golf psychologist Dr. Tom Kubistant says that there is no such thing as Muscle Memory. This is a guy who has worked with over 1300 golfers in his career since he started specializing in golf performance in 1986. That doesnt count the number of non-golf athletes before that for 15 years, including Olympic champions. So, lets get that out of your head right now unless you just want to continue to be one of the masses. Check this out: I read recently about when MRI machines first came out. A class of new doctors at Harvard was learning how to use the machine. The professor needed a volunteer to go in the machine so they could read the scan. It turned out that this student, who eventually finished med school and became an excellent doctor only had about half of a normalsized brain! This is a true story! He was extremely intelligent and if there was no brain scan, nobody would have ever known. Some of the latest research Ive read suggests that memory and indeed, ALL INTELLIGENCE resides below the level of the cells, below the level of molecules, and maybe even below the level of DNA. After all, what are molecules and DNA? They are nothing more than chemical structures. The human mind is an amazing and not well-understood thing. Us humans have been doing impossible things for a long time.

Every day in the world today, normal, average folks are told by doctors to go home and die of some incurable disease, like cancerand then they heal themselves! Small women have been able to lift 3,000 pound vehicles off their trapped children. Golfe rs that have no eyesightyes, blindhave been able to shoot in the 70s on regulation courses! I could go on and on about human potential and you may even know more than I. So, when will you believe that you have all the ability you need to become a better golfer? That you dont need to find The perfect swing? How many great golfers must you watch with your own eyes who have technically poor swings (like Lee Trevino or Jim Furyk) before you are convinced?

My Story/Your Story?
Ive been golfing since I was 11 years old. I loved the game right off the bat. In my late teens, I took a group lesson course and learned the fundamentals. I just couldnt get enough of the feeling that every time I went out, I was going to do better than the last time. I always, even today, feel like Im going to have my best game ever. With that hopefulness, I played the game for a good 25 years and could never shoot a 79 or better. I just wanted to break 80! Thats all; I didnt want to be a pro golfer, just a good one. I read golf books and magazines regularly. I played 12

Why You Can Improve Your Game Without Practicing

once a week and went to the range often. At the age of 30, I took a set of lessons from a local pro. I did everything you are supposed to do to get better given the fact that I had to work a full-time job and had only so much time for my golf game. I was so sure that after I took these lessons that I was on the path to the 70s! Lodge in SW Washington state. I shot 112! No kidding. I got home from that round and pretty much gave up the idea of improving my game anymore. I had less time to practice than I did before and so I felt there was no way I could turn things around. I played only sporadically after that for awhile without a care in the world about my score. Just went out to have a good time and drink some beers. Im not sure how long that period was but one day, Im cleaning my garage. I go through a box of books that were stored in the corner. They were from my college days! I pull out a couple in particular that were from a class I took called Interpersonal Communications. I definitely remembered the class but I didnt remember reading the books. Seems like I always just kind of skated through college doing the minimum to just get by. I put the box away but bring these 2 books inside to read before I go to bed at night. I figured they would help me get to sleep and maybe I could remember some cool things about that class that I liked. I read them over the winter. I was very intrigued. Both of them had quotes and learnings from pro golfers but neither of them was about golf. I took the ideas and as an experiment, decided to apply them to my pitiful game. I had nothing to lose since

But it didnt happen. I didnt improve a bit. I will say that my swing looked better. My regular partners told me so! But, I didnt win any more of our bets. I dunno, maybe I got a little better, in my mind, since I had invested so much time and money into it all. Didnt matter; I still couldnt break 80 and that was all that mattered to me. Well, my life started to get busier and busier. We had 2 children. I went back to school to get training in computer technology. And I was working 50 hours a week at my regular job! My golf game got worse after those lessons. I finally had a meltdown when I went to a golf course called Skamania

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Why You Can Improve Your Game Without Practicing

I had no time to practice anymore. I let my golf magazine subscriptions lapse too. I continued to not practice my game in the spring and played about once or twice a month. That following summer, at Eagle Crest Golf Course in Redmond, OR, I shot my first 79! I couldnt believe it! Was I dreaming? How did this magic happen? How was I able to keep it going the last few holes when I knew I was close? It was all very hazy and fuzzy to me at the time; totally different than any other round. Was it working? The techniques I was using from those 2 books? I started asking a million questions of myself and knew I had to find out more about what I was doing, why I was golfing so well all of a sudden. Now, to those of you that might be wondering, Im a tad bit over 5 5 (165 cm) tall and at the time, about 140 lbs. (163 kg) so you know that Im no overpowering person. Anyway, to finish the story, I expanded my horizons on how to get better at golf and drove my scores down lower and lower over the coming years. I only hit balls at the range before a round to warm up and I never took another lesson. I stopped reading swing advice and started reading about the human mind in addition to golfing shortcuts for everything. I created my first product Break 80 Without Practice an audio CD program because I sympathize with all those folks who dont have time to practice. I know, I was one of you. Its audio because many of those folks dont even have time or the patience to sit and read either. They can listen in the car or while exercising, wherever! Ive since taken advanced trainings and certifications and revised Break 80 Without Practice with my latest research. Even folks who do have time to practice are adding these concepts to their game, including pros. My game you ask? Ive brought my handicap down to a 5 and had my best round of my life scoring a 71 on a 6840 yard course! And I still dont practice. Now, folks all over the world are writing me to tell me that they too are driving their scores down from what Im teaching. This game does not have to be so complex as we make it, you know. Once we understand a few principles of the mind and the physics of the game, its really much easier

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than youve always thought. Why in the world would you want to believe otherwise? Why would you CHOOSE to believe that you must do something a certain way when an easier or more efficient way for you is waiting your discove ry? What will it take for you to MAKE THE DECISION that you are not one of the sheep waiting in line to be sheared. That you are instead, one of the elite thinkers at the front of the pack. I encourage you to BELIEVE in yourself and give Break 80 Without Practice a chance to transform your game. Go buy it now here. Its guaranteed for a full year, no questions asked. Greens and fairways,

Craig Sigl The Golf Anti-practice Expert http://www.break80golf.com

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