Week 5 (Practice)

This session I met my client at the golf club again. I asked them to bring along a ipod with my playlist downloaded and three golfing friends to help with the session. The session lasted for 2 hours and the aim of the session was to allow the client to practice the ‘listening to music’ technique and look into how it made the athlete feel. In the session I set up a ‘mock competition’ and asked my client to listen to the songs in the order that I provided.

Travelling to the comp= Fast Car-Jonas Blue (114BPM) 

Warm up= Pack Up-Eliza Doolittle (135BPM)

Just before T off=Remember the name-Fort Minor (85BPM)  

During Comp= X Gon' Give it to ya-DMX (101BPM) 

I created a mock competition using the other three golfers, my hopes of this session would be that by the client using the music it would keep them calm before the first tee off, this would help reduce their overall anxiety during the mock competition. To assess how the technique was working on my client I asked several questions during the session that helped me get a good idea on how the client was feeling. 

• How did you feel after using the technique?

“Much better than I normally do. I forgot about the pressure I usually place on myself, even during training. This allowed me to make better shot decisions and think about the game in a better light” 

• How did the songs make you feel?

“The songs made me feel more motivated and confidence about my golfing skills and game plan. Therefore this lowered my anxiety, which I feel had a huge benefit on my performance”

• What stood out for you the most in the music?

“I think it was the lyrics that stood out for me and gave me the most benefit. All the lyrics were positive and upbeat. They stuck in my mind during the game and I linked them to my own performance and lifestyle”

I feel that this session was a huge success as from the client answers I can see that this technique helped with them with how they feel prior to the competition. In the future I feel that this technique will help my clients anxiety to decrease in competition situations, the overall hope being that this decreased anxiety will be able to help the client have a clear game plan as they will have their 100% focus on the shots themselves. The lowered anxiety will also link to a reduced HR this reduction in their HR could also allow the shot to be more smooth flowing shot as they will be in a more relaxed and controlled state. Therefore I feel that this is one of the best techniques for my client to use as it links with their personality and will hopefully improve their anxiety levels which will link to an increase in their game play.