Pro Mental Coach Review - Forum Testing

[TRyan]

Exactly, I think #17 at TCI is a case in point for what I'd like the software to improve. After several holes of tough shots to small landing areas (some of which i made, and others I didn't), I actually got up to the tee, told my self just swing as hard as you can b/c the fairway is wide open and huge. Lost all mental focus, just wanted to hit as far as I could. Missed the fairway both days.

~Rock

Exactly. When I stood on 17 seeing trouble short and left I just froze. First day I did hit the green somehow, but Sunday I was in the parking lot. Just one of those things where I get so nervous but I cant back off the ball and just swing and hope

 

[IceyShanks]

Exactly. When I stood on 17 seeing trouble short and left I just froze. First day I did hit the green somehow, but Sunday I was in the parking lot. Just one of those things where I get so nervous but I cant back off the ball and just swing and hope

That's my whole game, and I'd say in regards to just that it's not mental as much as it is ability. The one thing that I would hope to gain from the mental side is confidence. I know I'm always going to need help on just how to swing the club properly, but I would be in a better mindset maybe I wouldn't get so down on myself or even be able to stay on a high and keep the momentum going.

 

[TRyan]

That's my whole game, and I'd say in regards to just that it's not mental as much as it is ability. The one thing that I would hope to gain from the mental side is confidence. I know I'm always going to need help on just how to swing the club properly, but I would be in a better mindset maybe I wouldn't get so down on myself or even be able to stay on a high and keep the momentum going.

This is it for me! I am looking forward hopefully keep a par train going. So many times I will have two or three pars in a row and then a bad shot will just absolutely kill me, and after that it is all downhill from there.

 

[IceyShanks]

This is it for me! I am looking forward hopefully keep a par train going. So many times I will have two or three pars in a row and then a bad shot will just absolutely kill me, and after that it is all downhill from there.

I think that hurdle has to be one of the largest for us average golfers, the pros seem to be able to rebound so well from a bad shot or bad hole.

 

[gioguy21]

I think that hurdle has to be one of the largest for us average golfers, the pros seem to be able to rebound so well from a bad shot or bad hole.

the biggest trick for staying on a par train? forgetting you're on one. play each hole as it's own...remember, good/bad/indifferent you still have to score on the hole infront of you...can't change the previous (except with an eraser ) .

 

[Super Tuna]

These reviews are money so far. So many questions I had that have already been asked and answered. Is there a way for it to correlate your scores with your mental ability? As in, does it have the option to input detailed scores with putting GIR's and FIR's etc to see if you are scoring better or worse in relation to the mental side? Hope that is not too confusing.

Unfortunately not. It's one of a couple feature requests I sent in.

My goal for this program is to be able to step up to a shot, whether a narrow fairway, over water, long forced carry, etc. and just know I am going to be able to hit the shot I need. I have some holes on some of the courses I frequent that really mess with my head. I hope when it is all said and done that I have the mental aspect of these holes conquered.

I think that's a great goal TH and I'm looking forward to seeing if it works out for you. I didn't get that benefit but that doesn't mean you won't.

This is it for me! I am looking forward hopefully keep a par train going. So many times I will have two or three pars in a row and then a bad shot will just absolutely kill me, and after that it is all downhill from there.

This is where the program has really shined for me. Eliminating blow up hole #2 because I'm still annoyed about #1 is pretty much a 2-4 shot swing in a round for me. Just from that it cut more then 2 strokes of my handicap.

Loving the stuff so far guys. Keep it coming!

 

[staticline]

Great stuff so far. It's amazing how we justify a $300 club because it's shiny and new, and something that we can hold in our hands and hit an occassional pure drive. But, $130 for something that improves our mind is difficult to justify.

We all know how mental this game is, yet we try to purchase physical items to correct the mental issues.

 

[IceyShanks]

Great stuff so far. It's amazing how we justify a $300 club because it's shiny and new, and something that we can hold in our hands and hit an occassional pure drive. But, $130 for something that improves our mind is difficult to justify.

We all know how mental this game is, yet we try to purchase physical items to correct the mental issues.

I agree it's a small price to pay compared to what we do on other equipment, but the difference being it's easy to see if a club either does or doesn't work for you. What are the tangible results you get from this program??? It's kind of a quandary in the sense that it should help and I'm hoping the testers can show us how much they improve over time. The proof is certainly in the pudding!!!

 

[DufferToo]

Well got home tonight and saw the little package I’ve been waiting for. Time for me to have some fun in this testing. Ripped the package open and ran up to the computer. Installed the software and we are good to go. One aspect I really liked about the installation was that they asked for your PGA Pros email address. This way you can share your progress with your coach. I thought that was neat.

First thing you do after registering the software is you take an assessment test. Basically they want to create a baseline so that you can track any and all progress made. It was just a few basic questions about how you handled certain situations during your last round. Took only a few minutes and you were ready to start the tests. Oh the tests!

First section of the assessment test is all about Focus. Perhaps I should have eaten prior to taking this doozy of a test because I struggled mightily with it. The test consists of you staring at your computer screen. There is a series of images that flash on the screen. You should press your spacebar if you see a letter inside a white golf ball. Don’t press the spacebar for anything else. I was hacking away at that darn spacebar for anything and everything. Focus was not a strength lol.

The 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] part is an assessment of your motivation and stress management style. This section consists of 9 questions about my most recent round. The questions had to do with how I played and how I felt during certain moments. The next 6 questions were related to how I handled stress during my last round.

The 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] part was Cognitive Skills. This in essence covered what we all call the zone. What we should not think about and what we should think about during the shot. It was interesting reading and I enjoyed that I was not just sitting here jamming on my spacebar. Now comes the Cognitive Test. This is again pressing the spacebar if a letter in a white ball is seen. They also throw in pressing the spacebar if a number is inside a yellow ball. I may have broken my keyboard while smashing that spacebar for anything and everything that I saw flash up. I was awful.

The 4[SUP]th[/SUP] section was called The Neuropsychology of the Mental Game. In a nutshell they are telling you in this section that you can exercise the brain and how you can do it. The final test is given now and it is again letter in a white ball equals jam the spacebar. I did a little bit better on this one

The final section is what to expect out of the software. The assessment took me about 40 minutes or so. I think I did pretty poorly as it judged not only if you hit the spacebar for the right combination, but also how fast you hit the spacebar after the image flashed. That was where I truly struggled. I was slow. The results of my test is a score of 52% and my perception is 37%. The results say that I underestimate myself. The test score is broken down into 7 groups

Brain Speed-56
Focus-52
Inhibition-50
Flexibility-52
Mental Endurance-52
Stress Management-69
Motivation-37
My assessment was right at 50% for my age group with the only result that was way off base was being very low with motivation.

And that ended my initial assessment test. I enjoyed it. As I said, it took about 40 minutes but it didn’t feel all that long. My results were average although I really felt like I did poorly. I have been trying to start the exercises that come with the program but so far everything just hangs when I try to start the exercises. Going to fire off an email and see if tech support can help me out.

Hmm, Chunky maybe you have spent too much time around the "Knuckler"??

I think it is more like this program is going to teach you to not even have the thought in your mind as to whether you can carry a distance or not. I think it will teach a preshot routine if you don't have one already and a thought process with no doubts. Also will teach you how to handle stress by using breathing tecniques and stuff like that. That is my take from the limited time that I have had with it. Sent an email last night to tech support and hopefully I can get this issue worked out.

I think that this might be one of the biggest takeaways from the program. Improving our focus on the game during a round will help us play better. Reducing stress in all of lifes activities will also improve our health, which should allow us to play longer. Sounds like a win-win to me.

 

[CharlieMoy]

Alright well tonight was my first go with the ProMentalCoach(PCM) and I must say, I am mentally exhausted. This is a program that definitely works the brain muscles. Its fun, and will help me get my brain some exercise before I go to sleep. I took some screenshots throughout and I will explain the games as we go. First up, the Assessment test. Forgive the font size, I just didnt want my words between pictures to get skimmed past, if people do not have interest in the pictures.

Spoiler

The assessment test establishes a baseline in the described areas. It ran me through the general questionnaires that the others took. After that, my results were as follows:

Spoiler

As you can see I am a pretty average dude across the board. Once it established your weaknesses and abilities, it gives you a specific training program as follows. My first day of training involved games such as:

Stay Positive
Putting Practice
Drive with Obstacles
Distance to Pin

Spoiler

Stay Positive - This exergame is all about clicking the positive things that pop up. Faces with different expressions pop up and across the screen, as do words like Champion, stress, HoleInOne, Birdie, Victory, Wonderful, Jealousy. The concept is to focus on the positive. I accidentally clicked the wrong faces a few times because some look happier than they are supposed to, but you learn quick enough. I liked this game but I have one issue. For those playing on laptops, your time is bound to be slower. I guess it goes for all games but this one is the most noticeable so far. Having a mouse would just flatout work better. This could effectively handicap you for training, but make you even better than someone who trains with a mouse. But it has a picture of Tiger in the background so that makes up for it!

Spoiler

Putting Practice - This was a difficult game because it had you remember holes in order on a putting green, but every once in a while it would rotate the green, or change the camera angle, or both! You have markers you can go by if youd like.

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Drive With Obstacles - This was a fun exergame. You click on the item that pops up in the golf ball first, its usually only there for a millisecond or two. I caught myself guessing a few times because I blinked and missed it, but soon after I had trained myself to blink at certain times to be ready for the play. Throughout the game there are other sections where "actions" happen, they are fast as well. All you do is identify which area the action happened in.

Spoiler

Distance to Pin - By far the most complex exergame that I played. As GPS numbers show up, you press 1 or 9 based on whether the number is higher or lower. But as you move through the stages, it doesnt ask you for the previous yardage, it asks you to rate higher or lower based on 2 yardages ago. For example:

46, 56, 48(9 -higher than 46), 47(1 - lower than 56), 54(9 - higher than 48), 77(9 - higher than 47).... Its TOUGH!

Spoiler

Overall I did pretty well on the games and got a decent score on most. I look forward to the gradual increase in difficulty as well as how this relates back onto the course! I hope what I am adding is nothing but positives in this thread and if anyone has any questions they can feel free to PM me or post away and I will definitely update this thread as I follow my calendar!

Spoiler

 

[DufferToo]

Thainer,

Thanks for the detailed run thru of your training session. The exercises look like they are reasonably fun, well except the distance to pin one.

I appreciate the effort all of the testers have made so far and I am definitely looking forward to watching your progress.

 

[#Cookie]

Very nice write up Thain, thanks for taking the time to do that.

Definitely interesting to read various opinions and feelings about the program. Truly curious to see if something like this is a game changer on the course so to speak.

With that said, this definitely looks like a solid and well thought out program.

 

[Chunkylover77]

Very nice writeup Thain. I'm still going through CS to get the exergames to work.

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2

 

[Hawk]

I did the little test this morning. In my defense, I was getting admonished for putting the hotdogs in the wrong place and the boy was asking me to explain the plot line to Toy Story 2. There were lots of numbers in the 50's.

 

[CharlieMoy]

Very nice writeup Thain. I'm still going through CS to get the exergames to work.

Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2

I did the download, not the discs. Does your computer have the right "specs" as per the program requirements? Just saying, it could happen.

Thanks everyone for the comments. Im going to get back on there today and do a few exergames.

But I need to express how enjoyable these exergames are. They are tough, but in an angry birds sorta way. The software form is good and clean, works nice and is very simple. The program suits the eye very well.

Because my next training day has new games, I'm going to play the games I already have been playing until the training schedule introduces the new games to me.

 

[TRyan]

I did the download, not the discs. Does your computer have the right "specs" as per the program requirements? Just saying, it could happen.

Thanks everyone for the comments. Im going to get back on there today and do a few exergames.

But I need to express how enjoyable these exergames are. They are tough, but in an angry birds sorta way. The software form is good and clean, works nice and is very simple. The program suits the eye very well.

Because my next training day has new games, I'm going to play he games I already have been playing until the training schedule introduces the new games to me.

I agree with all of this Thain. I got some exergames in last night and will be posting my thoughts after work today. This is a lot of fun and hopefully a big benefit to me in the long run

 

[gioguy21]

I agree with all of this Thain. I got some exergames in last night and will be posting my thoughts after work today. This is a lot of fun and hopefully a big benefit to me in the long run

i don't know about you guys, but i can only take so much of the games and i need a rest. especially the focus ones (ie the letter/number in a golf ball) are a strain if you do a few one after the other. i will be posting more after work once i have my session.

 

[CharlieMoy]

I think thats the point. Mental toughness and mental endurance play a big role in maintaining peak performance.

i don't know about you guys, but i can only take so much of the games and i need a rest. especially the focus ones (ie the letter/number in a golf ball) are a strain if you do a few one after the other. i will be posting more after work once i have my session.

 

[Chunkylover77]

I did the download, not the discs. Does your computer have the right "specs" as per the program requirements? Just saying, it could happen.

Thanks everyone for the comments. Im going to get back on there today and do a few exergames.

But I need to express how enjoyable these exergames are. They are tough, but in an angry birds sorta way. The software form is good and clean, works nice and is very simple. The program suits the eye very well.

Because my next training day has new games, I'm going to play the games I already have been playing until the training schedule introduces the new games to me.

My computer is pretty up to date. I updated everything within the past 6 months. Pretty top of the line. The software starts fine and everything it is just hanging on these exergames. I will get it worked out. Very good writeup Thain!!

 

[staticline]

I think thats the point. Mental toughness and mental endurance play a big role in maintaining peak performance.

Thainer,
It looks like you were testing at midnight. Were you able to go to sleep in the normal time it takes you to fall asleep? Or did the mental exergames exhaust you and you fell asleep faster? Or did the games cause you to be wired and awake.

 

[TRyan]

First Day of Training

First Day of Training

First Impression/Background on me: http://www.thehackersparadise.com/f...ew-Forum-Testing/page6&highlight=mental+coach

Initial Test/First Feedback: http://www.thehackersparadise.com/f...ew-Forum-Testing/page8&highlight=mental+coach

So today was my first training day with the Pro Mental Coach. I logged into the software, it was easy as usual, and then I went to the introduction screen where it displayed my test results and then had a link to my training. I was once again introduced to “Coach Parr” who is with you throughout the journey and he provided me with my tests for the day.

Spoiler

My first test was called “referee.” In this test you are shown a golfer to the left, the golfer is either swing a wood or an iron. You click a letter on your keyboard which corresponds to which club the golfer has. Seems easy enough right? Well it really isn’t. The club is blurred out during the backswing and so you have to see it as he finishes his swing to decipher what club it is the golfer is using. If this isn’t hard enough, you have two nameplates that show up on the bottom of the screen. These nameplates each have a last name of a famous golfer. You are supposed to click one letter on the keyboard if they are the same name, or another letter if they are different. Along with these two things, you have a person who occasionally yells “FORE.” When he does this you are supposed to hit the spacebar. Each of the tests is timed and during some points of the test you are given each of the scenarios one at a time. These situations are fairly easy, although I found myself messing up occasionally, but it is when they are combined that it becomes difficult. I took this test for the first time and scored a 74%. I guessed the correct club 73% of the time, the correct grouping of names 69% of the time and correctly hit the spacebar when the golfer yelled FORE 100% of the time. This came out to an average of 74%, which was scored a Par. This meant I did right on average with where the global average was.

Spoiler

The second test was called, Putting Practice. In this test you are faced with a giant putting green with a ton of flags on it. This test reminded me of Simon Says. It would show you a pattern of flags and then you were supposed to repeat it back in one of three ways; in order, in reverse order, or after a 10 second delay. During the 10 second delay a Compass rotated around the screen in an attempt to mess with your head. While all of this was going on the screen would occasionally get a red hue to it or people would yell and scream, which made you really concentrate on what you were doing. On this test I scored a 78%. It was another par for me. I found that this test was difficult when it started going to 3 and 4 different locations and then asking me to do them in reverse order.

Spoiler

Spoiler

After taking the second test I had to take a break. After about 10-15 minutes I felt mentally drained. These tests really require your full focus, so I grabbed a snack ate it, and returned to the testing.

My third test was called my “Pre Shot Routine.” In this test I was supposed to recreate my preshot routine and then play the routine back, clicking the space bar each time I believed I breathed during my routine. This took me from club selection, practice swing, lining my shot up, swinging and watching the ball down the fairway. This was a really good real life application and I tried to recreate my swing and breathing as realistically as possible. After I applied my breathing, I was given the task of trying to recreate the same breaths watching the routine for a second time. I actually scored a 100% on this test. I was shocked at how well I did, but I really do try to focus on a good pre-shot routine on the course, so this actually shouldn’t be too surprising.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Finally, I took the Drive With obstacles test. In this test I was given a screen with a golf ball in the middle. At first the golf ball would display one logo, and then immediately following it would show to logos. My goal was to pick which logo was the one shown at the first. Along with this there were certain zones that might have something going on in them. A fish jumping, a gopher popping out of a hole, a bush shaking to name a few. Whenever I saw one of these I was supposed to click on it. This really made me focus on the screen at all time, and using my periphrial vision. During this test there would be loud noises and clubs being thrown across the fairway in an attempt to distract me. I scored an 82% on this test for a score of Birdie.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

My average score on the 4 tests was an 83.5%. I think that is a pretty good start for my first day doing these tests. The games are very mentally draining. After finishing the tests I had to sit down and sort of clear my head. I think the ProMental coach is going to do an excellent job of explaining to me how to channel my focus for the golf course, and I hope that my next training session on Friday will bring similar results. It was just on beginner difficulty, because that is what Coach Parr recommended for me, and I have no doubt these will become increasingly more difficult each and every time.

Spoiler

 

[DufferToo]

TexasHacker,
Great job on outlining todays training. You said that you clicked the spacebar to indicate breathing. Besides the breathing, what else did the program work on during the "preshot routine"?

 

[TRyan]

TexasHacker,
Great job on outlining todays training. You said that you clicked the spacebar to indicate breathing. Besides the breathing, what else did the program work on during the "preshot routine"?

It just forced you to consider your preshot routine, estimate how much time you spend on each part of it. It really makes you think hard about how much goes into your routine, and you can tell that a preshot routine with regular breathing is very important to them.

 

[DufferToo]

It just forced you to consider your preshot routine, estimate how much time you spend on each part of it. It really makes you think hard about how much goes into your routine, and you can tell that a preshot routine with regular breathing is very important to them.

Ok, that makes sense thanks.

I very interested in seeing how this program improves everyone's game.

 

[Chunkylover77]

OK I'm at a boiling point right now with this software. I have had a frustrating experience with CS so far due to the fact that I'm at work from 8:30-7pm. I email them and then don't see the response until I get home. They are not coming up with solutions but just asking more questions.

I have uninstalled/reinstalled the program a few times. This makes you have to take the assessment test over and over again. The computer still freezes at the exergames. The CS is saying this has never in the history of the program happened. I am not buying that. I am extremely frustrated. Maybe this is the patience testing part of the program