Mental side of golf

[bobby]

Does anyone have any ideas or thoughts how to improve the mental side of the golf game?......it seems very important!

[Neil18]

Re: Mental side of golf

It's very important!

The irony is, the more you learn about "staying in the present", "clearing your mind", "playing one shot at a time" etc etc, the more you realise that good mental golf is essentially nothing.

Don't think. Don't even think about not thinking. It's the zen state you're after, and it takes a $hit load of practice.

It's not until you really get into clearing your mind that you realise how much useless crep is in there.

The trap not to fall into is thinking that not thinking and "going with the flow" means you don't care. You need to put yourself "in the zone" precisely because you do care.

Hard, but do-able!

Enjoy!

[GregJWillis]

Re: Mental side of golf

..how to improve the mental side of the golf game?

Its like asking, "How do I become a better person"?
The answer is being able to take the bad in life and turning it back into good, and doing it quickly, and naturally.

Your personality has already built-in defense mechanisms that you are good at using naturally. Trying to learn someone else's ways will be unnatural, maybe after some long training, you might be ok at it, but it will never be natural to you. You might be able to understand what the others are trying to do, but again when you are faced with it right then and there, you are going to react to whatever is in you, right then and there.

So, what is in you right now (built from birth) is most probably the best way to defend against the brutality of the world around you. Being aware of these styles or abilities and using them ritually will serve you the best.

Psyche coaches make a lot of money telling you what you already know. Most of what they will help you in will be training you to be aware and learning techniques to focus. Pretty simple stuff. Nothing mind blowing at all.

I totally agree with Neil, to improve the mental side of golf is going to be able to learn to put your mind into a sort of auto pilot, zone and being able to not think or worry about the past. Present "tense" is the only thing that is tense in golf. Everything else is loose and relaxed, including your mind.

Ok, so now that the philosophical is there...some tricks I use:

* Play 3 holes in a row where you do not write the score down at all. All you do is plan ahead on each shot, and anything that happens, good or bad, you do nothing but think about what is in front of you. Forgetting about changing your swing. Forget about worrying about how bad you just hit, forget about good that last shot was. Only what is in front of you. Then, after 3 holes, write down your score and take one bad item and make a note to practice/work on that item on the range next time. Take one good item and write that one down. Then do this again for 3 holes. After 18 holes you might have a nice list of things to take pride in, and another for your practice session. After while you will get into a natural 3 hole string of being able to not worry or over think yourself out of playing your game. Then try 6 holes, 9, 18? Who knows.

* When a bad shot happens. Get mad right then. Get mad and get it out. Trying to hold in pain is going to leak out in small bursts long after the event. Another bad shot held in will build on the current pressure level and eventually, you will completely explode into a useless mass of golfing flesh. Pack it in, because you have no way to relax back to normal. Letting out the pain of the event right then allows you to be satisfied with the fact that you allowed yourself to get mad at yourself. This is perfectly acceptable, even on a golf course (as long as it is not fulled with incredibly loud profanity followed by your club being either thrown farther then ball went, or digging a hole the maintenance crew will be forced to fill with sand and add another trap to the score card). Keep the outburst within respect of the situation. If it was just a 1 shot penalty, then keep it in perspective. If you just lost the match, then you be the judge...your not playing any more anyway, so go to town and whoop it up. Just be ready to pay for any damages.

* Last trick: Play positive positions. Never negative no-go's. The idea here is to tell yourself that you want to be on that line or play that shape to be in a good place on the course. You do not want to tell yourself that "you can't go here or there". So you are faced with OB right on a dog-leg left. You need to hit it right to left. You have been slicing it all day. Say, "Play it over the tree-line left and I will fade it back in to the center". Do not say to yourself, "Please do not slice it again...I can't go right!". Your brain has a funny way of only remembering what you just last said. What are the last words in each of those two statements? "Center" and "Right". Which would you want your brain to remember last?

[BrianW]

Re: Mental side of golf

Unless you live in a Tibetan Monastery in between games or have mastered Transcendental Meditation you will have spells of disappointment, elation, frustration and joy during your golf. Hey! it would be unnatural not to as they happen in life everywhere.

When playing golf there will be times for contemplation, times for self criticism and times to take pleasure from your actions, let these happen under the self control that we strive to foster. There is a time when playing where you should leave these emotions behind and that is the "Zone" , the space where the shot is played. Think of this "Zone" as a space or room that you enter when you take your shot, as you approach the ball and enter the Zone your mind should clear of all that has gone on before, in your Zone Space you consider the shot you will make, pick out your target, visualise the shot in your mind. You then step up and play it, take in the result, step back out of your Zone and move on.

[mariner]

Re: Mental side of golf

Bob Rotella's books are brilliant, and he coaches loads of top professionals.