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Sports psychologist on McIlroy's composure and how to channel it

It was the cheer heard round the world when Rory McIlroy finally won The Masters in Augusta, Georgia, making history as only the sixth person to complete the Grand Slam.

McIlroy's journey to donning the coveted Green Jacket was a long and fraught one that was 11 years in the making, and his winning performance featured as many near misses and blunders as it did feats of exceptional sportsmanship.

So with millions of eyes on him and errors aplenty, how did McIlroy keep his head, and how can we emulate his cool-headedness?

Sports Psychologist Dr Stephen McIvor joined Drivetime to share his tips for coping under pressure.

It sounds counter-intuitive, but McIvor's first piece of advice is that if you're feeling the weight of expectations, whether that's during a job interview, on a date, giving a best man speech or acing a test, is to "not give it so much attention".

Speaking about McIlroy's approach on the pitch at the prestigious tournament, he said: "If he focused on the implication in that last pot of, it's going to be a Green Jacket or not, it wouldn't help him putt."

Instead, McIvor said, McIlroy managed to "shift his intention away from the incidentals, the outcomes themselves ironically, shift it away from opinions of others" and focus on the task at hand. It was a tactic, the sports psychologist said, that was likely borrowed from Bob Rotella, McIlroy's skills coach.

Another lesson we can take from the tennis pro's strategy is the importance of putting the blinkers on. It was noted in the press that McIlroy didn't speak to his playing partner Bryson DeChambeau during the game, a tactic that Rotella confirmed was part of their plan.

Speaking to Radio 4's Today, Rotella said: "That didn't have anything to do with Bryson. That was just the game plan all week and we wanted to get lost in it. We didn't want to pay attention to what anyone else was scoring, or shooting, or swinging or how far they were hitting it – we just wanted Rory to play his game."

McIvor shared his take, adding that, "If I bring other people in like conversation my playing partner, it might open up something that I mightn't deal with that well or it might question me or I might question myself."

Of course, it's easy to say keep your eyes on the prize, but what if you've suffered some fumbles or even major disappointments? How do you ignore the negative self-talk that might come from past mistakes?

McIvor said it's about using the disappointments to influence your future actions, rather than trying to run from them.

"When we really hit those speed bumps we reflect and it's not the shot I took, but what mindset was it when I took that shot that didn't help me?"

Instead, he said, use those moments to understand what state you perform at your best in, and how to reach that state more.

Listen back to the full interview above.

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