Golf Mental Game - 5 Things You Do to Ruin Your Own Game
I am willing to bet that whilst playing golf you: 1) Talk to yourself We all have an inner voice that chats away inside our head.
In psychology this is self-talk.
Self-talk can be a very positive thing or, more normally, it can be a very negative thing.
The problem with self-talk and golf is that the two don't go well together; especially negative self-talk.
Self-talk is your left-brain dominating your right-brain (see my article Golf Mental Game - 5 Reasons Why It Is So Difficult) which prevents you gaining access to your inner spatial expert.
Utilising your spatial awareness abilities is essential if you are to play great golf.
Your right-brain is needed to assess all of the spatial relationships required to make the ball go where you want it to go.
Too much self-talk prevents you getting this assessment right and leads to poor shots.
2) Overly criticise yourself Although self-talk is natural, it can also become our inner demon.
There are three modes you can be in when you talk to yourself: positive mode, negative mode, or neutral mode.
The choice is yours but far too often we fall in to negative mode.
In this mode, our self-talk becomes a disruptive factor in our attempt to play good golf.
Negative mode generally manifests itself as our inner critic; a hard task master who is impossible to please.
We make one small mistake and this starts a chain reaction of self-criticism, self-doubt, de-motivation and the downward trend continues.
Criticising yourself internally makes you play bad golf - period! Don't reflect on your mistakes; in fact don't even give them a second thought, but simply move on and think about the next shot.
3) Try very hard to play well We all like to do well at things; it makes us feel good which is great, but quite often we try too hard to do well.
Think about the times when you have played your best golf.
How did you feel? I am willing to bet that you were a) relaxed, b) feeling positive, c) not even thinking about how good or bad you would play.
When we try too hard to do something well, especially play golf, we put ourselves under pressure.
Now pressure in competitive activity is natural and most people do actually benefit from a little controllable pressure.
However, more often we put ourselves under adverse pressure by simply trying too hard to do well.
This type of pressure is not good for performance.
You will play better golf if you can forget about how well you will play and simply play.
By removing the pressure to do well from your thoughts you reduce the pressure and your game improves.
4) Feel pressure when your playing partner is doing well Golf can be so competitive even when it is just an afternoon round with friends.
Most people are competitive by nature, it is after all a survival instinct, and it can be difficult to avoid this entering even the friendliest round of golf.
Competition brings with it pressure; the pressure to do well, to succeed, to beat the opposition into the ground! This is usually made worse when it is obvious to us that our buddies are playing well or at least better than we are.
This puts us into compete mode and increases our desire to do well.
Unfortunately, for many players this also produces a reduction in performance due to the added pressure.
There are a few lucky people who actually raise their performance when faced with competition and this is good but how do they do it? The way to control this competitive pressure is to simply ignore what other players are doing and focus fully on each shot you play.
By staying in the moment of your own game you can avoid being distracted by how well (or badly) others are doing.
5) Get annoyed when things go wrong Hey, we all make mistakes right? No one is perfect, OK! It is natural to make mistakes and make mistakes you will when you play.
The difference between you and Tiger Woods, or any other top tour pro, is how you deal with those mistakes.
The worse possible thing you can do is get annoyed with yourself (or your buddies).
This will increase the adrenaline in your system and increase your heart rate.
The first reduces your ability to co-ordinate your movements and produces tunnel vision which can make spatial perception difficult.
The second makes you tachycardic, the condition when the heart beats rapidly, and so the heart pumps less efficiently and provides less blood flow to the rest of the body.
This leads to rapid muscle fatigue, poor physical movement and bad golf.
Try to remain relaxed as you play and treat mistakes as a positive learning opportunity.
When you make a mistake, and you will since we all do, look at it objectively and remain calm.
Learn from it rather than allow it to destroy your game.
There you have it; 5 things most players do to ruin their own game.
Think about each of these 5 things and see how they might relate to the way you play golf.
Then, see how you can condition yourself to avoid them!
In psychology this is self-talk.
Self-talk can be a very positive thing or, more normally, it can be a very negative thing.
The problem with self-talk and golf is that the two don't go well together; especially negative self-talk.
Self-talk is your left-brain dominating your right-brain (see my article Golf Mental Game - 5 Reasons Why It Is So Difficult) which prevents you gaining access to your inner spatial expert.
Utilising your spatial awareness abilities is essential if you are to play great golf.
Your right-brain is needed to assess all of the spatial relationships required to make the ball go where you want it to go.
Too much self-talk prevents you getting this assessment right and leads to poor shots.
2) Overly criticise yourself Although self-talk is natural, it can also become our inner demon.
There are three modes you can be in when you talk to yourself: positive mode, negative mode, or neutral mode.
The choice is yours but far too often we fall in to negative mode.
In this mode, our self-talk becomes a disruptive factor in our attempt to play good golf.
Negative mode generally manifests itself as our inner critic; a hard task master who is impossible to please.
We make one small mistake and this starts a chain reaction of self-criticism, self-doubt, de-motivation and the downward trend continues.
Criticising yourself internally makes you play bad golf - period! Don't reflect on your mistakes; in fact don't even give them a second thought, but simply move on and think about the next shot.
3) Try very hard to play well We all like to do well at things; it makes us feel good which is great, but quite often we try too hard to do well.
Think about the times when you have played your best golf.
How did you feel? I am willing to bet that you were a) relaxed, b) feeling positive, c) not even thinking about how good or bad you would play.
When we try too hard to do something well, especially play golf, we put ourselves under pressure.
Now pressure in competitive activity is natural and most people do actually benefit from a little controllable pressure.
However, more often we put ourselves under adverse pressure by simply trying too hard to do well.
This type of pressure is not good for performance.
You will play better golf if you can forget about how well you will play and simply play.
By removing the pressure to do well from your thoughts you reduce the pressure and your game improves.
4) Feel pressure when your playing partner is doing well Golf can be so competitive even when it is just an afternoon round with friends.
Most people are competitive by nature, it is after all a survival instinct, and it can be difficult to avoid this entering even the friendliest round of golf.
Competition brings with it pressure; the pressure to do well, to succeed, to beat the opposition into the ground! This is usually made worse when it is obvious to us that our buddies are playing well or at least better than we are.
This puts us into compete mode and increases our desire to do well.
Unfortunately, for many players this also produces a reduction in performance due to the added pressure.
There are a few lucky people who actually raise their performance when faced with competition and this is good but how do they do it? The way to control this competitive pressure is to simply ignore what other players are doing and focus fully on each shot you play.
By staying in the moment of your own game you can avoid being distracted by how well (or badly) others are doing.
5) Get annoyed when things go wrong Hey, we all make mistakes right? No one is perfect, OK! It is natural to make mistakes and make mistakes you will when you play.
The difference between you and Tiger Woods, or any other top tour pro, is how you deal with those mistakes.
The worse possible thing you can do is get annoyed with yourself (or your buddies).
This will increase the adrenaline in your system and increase your heart rate.
The first reduces your ability to co-ordinate your movements and produces tunnel vision which can make spatial perception difficult.
The second makes you tachycardic, the condition when the heart beats rapidly, and so the heart pumps less efficiently and provides less blood flow to the rest of the body.
This leads to rapid muscle fatigue, poor physical movement and bad golf.
Try to remain relaxed as you play and treat mistakes as a positive learning opportunity.
When you make a mistake, and you will since we all do, look at it objectively and remain calm.
Learn from it rather than allow it to destroy your game.
There you have it; 5 things most players do to ruin their own game.
Think about each of these 5 things and see how they might relate to the way you play golf.
Then, see how you can condition yourself to avoid them!
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