Just Breathe
The Front Nine Tips for Parents Raising Junior Golfers, Hole 9
I have worked with thousands of athletes in the past 28 years and my most competitive, intense client was a top college female golfer. Her DISC profile was High Dominance, one big chart of intense internal energy with the primary focus of being the best. Winning was everything. When things went well and she was leading a tournament, she could relax and have a good, calm flow to her game. Of course, winning came easy in this mindset with her incredible talent level.
But when her game turned sour, you could literally watch a “fuse” being lit and in seconds explosive reactions would appear. I noticed she often got so frustrated that she would forget to breathe.
So we came up with a simple principle to take a deep breath, hold it and then a long exhale after a poor shot. You could actually see her tension release with the exhale and she was able to relax and focus on the next shot.
“Funny how we can forget how to breathe when things get tough.”
Betty Baird Kregor is an LPGA Master Teaching Professional and owner of StraightShot Inc., specializing in the DISC personality system to mentor and advise athletes of all ages and abilities.
In 2014, Kregor retired from over 27 years of teaching golf to consult athletes in the mental aspects of sport an serve as a "performance coach" for goals, scheduling, practice programs, college advising and more.
Her LPGA education in DISC profiling allows an athlete to maximize their performance with "self awareness" of their strengths and weaknesses. It is also an important tool in finding the right college fit. College athletic consulting is a service that benefits 9-12th graders in learning how to market their talents, schedule college visits and value the importance of academics.