One of the Most Costly Mental Mistakes in Golf is the Easiest to Eliminate. Here’s How…

Golf is a game that is played mostly from within, and for this reason, it is important to know when you are putting too much pressure on yourself to perform. Having too high expectations of yourself is one of the biggest causes of a loss of self confidence and not playing to your potential. But by simply re-framing your mind-set and being more disciplined in your approach, you can easily eliminate this pressure and play better, more enjoyable golf.

Expectation is a self-created pressure we need to eliminate if we want to become better golfers. It demands that we should play in a certain way, and if we don’t, something is wrong, leading to frustration and self-doubt. The general opinion is that expectation and confidence are one in the same thing. If we expect to win a tournament or expect to hit great golf shots, this will increase our confidence. But in fact the opposite is true. Confidence is how much self belief you have in executing a given shot, not trying to continually meet expectations.

Whether it be your performance relative to your pre-round driving range session, your playing partners or your last round, continuously measuring yourself will you make you frustrated and further remove you from the process needed to execute good golf shots. For example, let’s say your last round was one of your best and you are getting closer to becoming the player you always knew you could be. Then during your next round you find yourself quickly several shots over your new expectation (target) of yourself. Thoughts of “what am I doing wrong?” and “this is not how I know I can play!” will result and you will quickly find yourself becoming frustrated and losing focus over the ball.

The opposite can occur if we are playing better than our expectations. If we go into self-assessment mode and measure our performance vs our expectations, we will feel out of our comfort zone and the result is likely to be a quick retreat back to our usual level of play.

Success in golf is playing each and every shot as best you can. This sounds obvious, but your score is an aggregate of all these individual shots. We need to focus on the execution process of each individual shot (THE PRESENT), not the target of a good score (THE FUTURE). I like to tell my students to focus on the steps of their shot routine and make that their goal for the round instead of going out there to shoot their best score. As hard as it is to do, mark your score card, but don’t think about your running total. At the end of each hole write down the number of shots that you felt you successfully stuck to your routine. Total these numbers and make this your target for your next round. If you can make this a habit, I’ve no doubt you will start to see the results and get more enjoyment from the game whether you shoot your best score or not.

Believe that your ultimate success in the game relies on being “in the zone” for every shot and making the best decisions you can for the shot at hand. Your best golf will come when you are in the present moment for each shot and truly enjoying the experience of the game.

Source Golf State of Mind

This is a variation of the game that Eben Dennis talks about in his Power Feel Golf Book. The game was invented by the late Ted Ball and is called “Cuts and Scrapes”. Try it and it will definitely help your mental game and lower your scores.

The game is designed to credit anything positive about your shots and your routine, so that becomes the focus. The more positive thoughts you have, the more you will suppress the negatives which is what we need to do for better performance. It is designed to teach you to focus on the process of hitting the shot at hand and to get you to stay in the present, instead of thinking about your total score.

There are two versions of the game:

The shot routine is one of three routines associated with playing each golf shot.  This one is usually called the pre-shot routine and is often considered the only one.  The three routines are the decision routine (selecting club, shot type and target), shot routine (from standing behind the ball to hitting the ball) and the post-shot routine (responses to good and poor shots).

Learning a strong mental pre-shot routine is the single most important thing you can do to improve your mental game, and your golf.

But not just any mental routine. Your mental routine must:

• Compliment your learning style
• Ease you into narrowing your focus
• Free you to hit athletic, artistic, creative, right brain shots or putts
• And tap into your powers of self-fulfilling prophesy!

Sound complicated? It’s not. In fact, an effective mental pre-shot routine

• Simplifies your thoughts
• Makes the game easier
• Allows you to think the same for every shot and putt, whether it is to win the Masters or a friendly round with your friends.

We regard the mental pre-shot routine as one of the essentials of a strong mental game. It lends to a very challenging sport….

• Consistencey
• Longevity
• And simplicity

We have long used the pre-shot routine as an excellent and effective standard for measuring and monitoring skill development in all other parts of your game.

The Three Step Journey to a Great Mental Pre-Shot Routine

Tip:

To make this fun and easy, start by assuming that you are of two brains. Let’s call the left brain the “thinker/analyzer” and the right brain the “athletic/creator”

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Been practicing hard but not showing the benefits of all that practice when you get to competition? This is extremely common and it occurs with players of all levels, from Tour players to high handicappers. Frustrating isn’t it!

How would you like to ensure that your efforts in practice are transferred to the golf course, especially in competition? Of course that is what every golfer wants.

One way to ensure value from your practice sessions is to avoid making the errors outlined below by first being aware of them and following the advice

Problem #1 Practicing without a purpose

Solution: Be Continue Reading→

Have you done it?  I have.  We have all done it at some point or another.  Hitting a great tee shot quickly followed by a really poor second shot seemingly from nowhere.  Completely out of the blue.  It is extremely  frustrating.  What really is the challenge is to not do it too often.  But why does it happen? Continue Reading→

April sees some incredibly important tournaments on the calender.  None more than “The Masters” but it also sees the Australian Junior Championships and the Interstate Teams Matches being contested.  It is an honor to coach these talented athletes and we are heading into the tournament quietly confident.  The team has trained exceptionally well and is looking forward to competing in front of a home crowd.

Golf Queensland has named its representative teams to compete in the Girls’ Interstate Teams Matches in April.

Queensland has the home-side advantage with the Girls’ event being played at the Carbrook Golf Club from 15 – 17 April.

The Queensland Girls’ Team won the Series last year and will be looking at repeating their good form in April. During the past four years, the Girls’ Team has won the event three times (2008, 2009 and 2011).

The Junior Queensland Interstate Girls Team are as follows:

• Victoria Fricot (Peregian Springs)
• Gennai Goodwin (Mossman)
• Lauren Mason (Horton Park)
• Tiffany-Claire Lewis (Pelican Waters)
• Dee Dee Russell (Coolangatta Tweed)
• Nadine White (Pacific)

Girls Development Players

• Samantha Foley (Warwick)
• Mikaleigh Pickles (Horton Park)

Manager – Tricia Harding
Coach – Virginia Irwin

Throw a sleeve of three balls onto the ground, and line them up facing the target, one right next to each other.  Set up as if the ball closest to the target is where you would have it for your driver, under your left arm pit or opposite the big tow of your left foot (right hander).  This would be the position I would recommend for your driver, 3 wood, and 5 wood.   Continue Reading→

Factors that affect Performance

Uncontrollable Factors
(Eg: crowds, weather,other perfromances,luck)

Controllable Factors
(Eg: organised, body language,mental process, tempo) Continue Reading→

The foundation of consistency is a solid pre shot routine.  Repeating the same mental and physical steps before every shot a key ingredient to a successful outcome.   Your pre shot routine is your own.   Define it and own it.  Certain fundamentals must be included when establishing your own routine.

Behind Ball
(a) Selection of Club and Shot, Make Positive Decision (No Indecision)
(b) Level of Involvement in Continue Reading→

What is self talk?

 Anytime you have a thought or talk to yourself (out loud or in your head) you are using self talk. Some examples of self talk are:

• “I’m so bored”
• “I can make that shot”
• “How good was that putt”

Positive & Negative self talk

Self talk can be positive and productive which helps you perform better or negative and unproductive which hinders your performance.

The more negative self talk you use the more likely you are to get frustrated Continue Reading→