For any golfer who wants to play great golf
Posts tagged Mental Game
Gain more confidence by challenging your fears and doubts
May 9th
A sure way to ruin a golf shot is to step up to it and hit without being fully committed to the shot. There are a number of reasons that can cause us to not commit to the shot.
Sometimes it’s our equipment. There’s a 4 wood in my bag that doesn’t fit my swing anymore. My irons and driver have an x-stiff shaft and this 4w has a stiff voodoo SVS7. It just seems and feels out of place now. I feel like I need to make too much of an adjustment to my swing to hit it well. So when I have a 235 yard show where it would be appropriate I hesitate. This happened recently and I’ve decided not to repeat the mistake.
The hesitation is, I believe, my body telling me not to use the club. Even on the practice tee it feels strange now and it really doesn’t feel like it belongs in my bag now. I used to love hitting this club but as my swing has evolved, my equipment changes with it, and that’s what has happened with my irons and driver.
Not being comfortable with the equipment can cause hesitation. The result of this is usually a less than committed swing that tries to compensate for the discomfort. And this often leads to bad shots. It’s what Doc Joseph Parent calls an “anyway.” A shot that you hit “anyway” even though you feel uncomfortable about it.
One the other hand, I really love the way my irons play now. It’s taken me a little bit to get adjusted to the stiffer shafts, but the ball flight and consistency have made it all worth it. This gives me so much confidence when I get ready to hit a shot that it becomes very easy to see the shot in mind, and hit it.
There are other things that can cause less than full commitment to a shot. This is not a complete list but I think these are some of the major reasons:
- Not knowing the right distances to play to, especially if the green or target is up hill or down hill.
- Not knowing exactly how to calculate the effect of the wind.
- Having a difficult or very long forced carry.
- Having a very difficult lie in the rough or even the fairway like when the ball is in a divot.
- Being unsure of the speed of the greens.
One of the best ways to eliminate many of these doubts is to practice hitting from difficult lies. The more experience you get escaping from difficult lies the more confidence you’ll have in approaching those shots.
One of the things I see that I think really holds golfers from becoming better is when they improve their lies in recreational rounds and then go out and play a tournament. If they don’t ever practice out of those difficult lies, they won’t know how the ball is going to react out of them. So right away, they put themselves at big disadvantage in competition.
Challenging your fears and doubts
Learn to get excited about practicing the shots that make you nervous and you’ll become a better golfer. Make a game of it. See how many times you can get up and down from a difficult shot.
Try to eliminate the doubts and recognize why they happen. Sometimes the doubts come from a lack of experience with a type of shot, other times they come because you’re body is telling you that something is not quite right, as when the equipment doesn’t fit you. These doubts can be overcome but in either case it’s very helpful to deal with them.
A must read: “Straight down the middle” by Josh Karp
May 5th
Like many golfers I have my library of golf books. I’ve split my library into instructional books, mental game, and other. Although this book falls into the category of other, I relate to its message because Josh’s journey through golf, in many ways, chronicles my journey.
It is amazing how golf connects to and reminds of every day life. I know people who will play golf with potential business partners to see how they handle themselves on the course, as it is often a reflection of how they deal with adversity in life.
But the journey of improving your golf game can also have an impact on improving your life in general. My life has changed as a result of playing golf. I’m reminded of a quote “Whoever said golf and life are similar was wrong. Golf is harder.”
Josh’s journey in which he learns to stop worrying and love his swing is a journey filled with ups and downs, meeting fascinating people, and making connections to things that on the surface seem unrelated to golf. But Zen and other disciplines have many similarities. For me I always understood Zen to be about letting go. It was about letting your body do what it does, instead of trying to control it with your conscious mind. After all, a warrior who has to control his muscles consciously won’t last very long. He will quickly be defeated by a foe with flow.
I love this quote from the inside cover of the book.
“Throughout the ages, the ancient arts of Zen and meditation have helped warriors prepare for battle, brought philosophers to enlightenment, and opened the path to inner peace for countless practitioners. Perhaps most importantly, however, these practices have allowed golfers to transcend their game and shave precious strokes off their handicap.”
I find that golf does indeed mirror many things in life. Hard work pays off. Tough rounds are interspersed with moments of glory, when we are in the moment and in the zone. These highlights keep us wanting to come back to the course, to subject ourselves for what we know can be either bliss or frustration, and that’s half the fun. You don’t know what you’re game is going to be like on any particular day. You don’t know what your swing and your chipping or putting are doing that day until you get on the golf course and start hitting shots.
I said that my journey mirrors in many ways Josh’s journey. I have not seen the people that he’s met but outside of golf I have been exposed to transformational techniques, and in many ways I’ve bridged the gap between them. You can see part of that in the domain name of this website. But the connections go deeper. People who know me well, know that I am a bit of a philosopher and thinker. It is partly why I created this website. I wanted to write about what it takes to become a better golfer from a different perspective then almost everything else I see on the subject. What I write about improvement is based on ideas, conversations and insights that germinate, then grow and develop, sometimes from the most unusual sources. But like life, all things are connected.
I’m willing to try unconventional things to improve my game, and in that way Josh and I are very similar. Get this book. If any of what I wrote above connects with you at all, then you are going to love it. He writes with a great wit and refreshing style. For me, this book is as close to a must read, as you will find.
McIlroy shoots course record to win the Quail Hollow Championship
May 3rd
Rory McIlroy put on an incredible performance to win The Quail Hollow Championship.
“I suppose I got into the zone, I hadn’t realized I was going in 9, 10 under. I just know I got my nose in front and I was just trying to stay there,” said McIlroy after the round. In his post round interview he also said that he was really seeing his shots, and hitting them, and that he saw his lines much clearer. He wasn’t being technical or addressing the ball full of swing thoughts. He was visualizing and executing, and it’s a great way to play golf.
One of the amazing things about that round is that he stayed in the zone and in the moment. He wasn’t trying to break the record. He wasn’t forcing shots. He recalled a similar time that he had been in the zone like that and it helped keep him going.
Most golfers whenever they’re close to a record, usually their personal best, they end up sabotaging themselves. One of the things that separates tour players from almost every other golfer, besides their sharply honed skills is that they are not afraid to go low. Many golfers have a fear of success and is one thing keeping them from playing their best. We can all learn from and be inspired by young McIlroy’s achivements. He’s got a great mind to go with a great game, and I’m sure there is a lot more we’ll see from him.
The golf brain
Apr 27th
I saw an amazing video today from Ted.com. Neuroanatomis Jill Bolte Taylor suffered a stroke and learned first hand the differences between the right brain and left brain when she had a massive stroke one morning. Watch this video if you have some time.
Although she never mentioned golf in her lecture, it got me thinking about the golf brain.
I think most golfers play left brain golf. They have a tremendous amount of mental chatter going on. They are also thinking a lot about the sequence of the swing along with the 32 million other swing thoughts cramming their brains.
Just go to a driving range and watch golfers hit. You can immediately tell that there is so much chatter going on. In addition to the chatter they are constantly reliving golf mental and emotional baggage. They’re constantly getting angry because they hit a poor shot, and then they remember a good shot and think that’s how they should be hitting it all the time. I watched one golfer mumbling at the golf ball after every shot, trying to tell it what to do.
Now, the right side of the brain is the more like a parallel processor than the left side of the brain. Instead of thinking in sequences, it sees the whole picture right now as it gets all the information from the senses. It is also the side of the brain that runs much of the body like your heartbeat, blood pressure, breathing etc. In addition it is also the creative center. I believe that golf is a creative activity. The best golfers are like artists who use the golf course and the golf ball as a canvas on which to create amazing things.
When you put all this together it makes sense to have the right side of the brain be the main driver of the golf swing. Now obviously you need both halves to play well. The left side of the brain can be used to create strategy and analyze the situation. Once that is over and you’ve decided on a course of action, you need to let the right side of the brain take over and hit the golf shot.
I went out to the range and experimented with a number of ideas to reduce mental chatter and engage the right side of the brain in my shot making.
The hardest part to do was to quiet the chatter. The left side of the brain is really chatty and wants to constantly give you information. I found that I could quiet it by focusing on my environment. I could look out the range and notice the trees in the back of it, or notice the patterns that the mat made, or the feel of the grip under my fingers. All of these things could quiet the left brain chatter. I also found that once I decided on what I wanted the shot to do, I didn’t need to remind myself of it.
So what happened on the swings where I was able to cut the chatter out? I was able to hit some really good shots. They felt pretty effortless and it was as if everything was nicely in sync.
I also noticed, that at times, the chatter would come back in the middle of my back swing. That was annoying, and would take make out of the moment. It also resulted in average to below average shots. Luckily I experienced that less than I expected to.
Rob LaRosa, the Head Golf Professional at Sterling Farms Golf Course where I play and practice, came over and noticed how good I was swinging. I hadn’t seen my swing on video since the first 30 day challenge I had and so he took a video and showed it to me. It was really smooth and fluid. He told me that it looked really good.
I think this is a great area to explore. If I can begin to use my right brain more when I play I think it will really help to improve my ball striking. It certainly felt really good to quiet the mind and just swing.
Be your own caddy
Apr 26th
As I kid I learned how to play golf on a golf course with caddies. We never took the golf cart, but we usually had a couple of caddies.
The caddies were great. Not only were they super nice and friendly, they knew the course so well that you couldn’t help but play better. They kept you in the game, recommended the right strategies and clubs.
I don’t get to play with a caddy anymore. So I’ve had to learn to become my own caddy. I’ve had to learn the right strategies. I’ve had to learn to deal with the disappointment of making a bad swing. The caddies were great with that. They could always make you laugh.
I think that if everybody could play with a good caddy, that the scores of the average golfer would really drop. Playing with a caddy really takes pressure off. Your mind can be much more quiet, thinking about the shot, rather than trying to calculate everything. But since most people don’t get to play with caddies then they need some help.
I think it’s great that GPS devices have come along. They can certainly help with strategy, that is if you know the strategies then you can get the most out of your gps . If you don’t know the strategies and you only know distances, then you won’t be able to play your best golf.
Caddies will give you the right club if there’s trouble in back. They’ll give you the right club if there’s trouble to carry. But range finders won’t do that. They’ll only give you distances. It’s up to you to use the right strategies. I’ve been writing a lot about strategy lately because I really believe that golfers can cut their scores by simply playing better strategic golf. The problem is that most golfes never take short game lessons, they never take playing lessons where they can learn the strategies, and so it’s almost like their playing with one hand tied behind their back.
The golf course architects use all kinds of tricks to get players to make bad decisions. And these bad decisions, lead to double bogey or worse. Simply knowing these tricks can help players beat the course architects. If everyone could play with a caddy, these problems could be avoided. However, most players are on their own, solo golfers battling the golf course, the conditions, the architects, their opponents if in a match, and themselves. That’s why we created Game Sense: Tee to Green . It gives you the knowledge to be your own caddy, and play your best golf.
Golf perfection is impossible and not needed to play good golf
Apr 26th
You ever get mad when you don’t pull off a shot, that realistically you had no business trying? Happens to me too. Just because we hit that shot once in our life we think we should be able to do it on command.
Of course, that’s not even close to reality. Perfect golf is impossible even for the players at the very top of their game who are the best in the world.
But you don’t need to play perfect to score well. When I look back on my best scoring rounds, I wasn’t playing perfectly. I was leaving myself with good opportunities to score and was able to cash in on enough of them to end up with a good score.
Aside from perfection in golf being unattainable, the main problem with trying to get it is that it puts pressure on every part of your game. That is the quickest way to score badly.
What you want to do is find ways to take pressure off your game. Play to your strengths. If you’re a good wedge player, don’t go for the par 5s in two, leave yourself a good wedge that you know you can get close instead of an awkward 40 yard pitch shot over trouble. If you’re a good putter, you don’t need to be close to the hole on every approach shot, just get on the green and two putt, and you’ll occasionally one putt for birdie. In fact just trying to get on the green, might leave you closer to the pin then trying to get it in tight.
As I said, good scoring doesn’t require perfect ball striking. Good scoring requires you to make smart decisions that will take the pressure off and leave the best chance for success. To increase your golf IQ and make smarter decisions on the course, check out Game Sense . Play smarter golf and lower your scores. Bill S. lowered his scores using game sense on his first round with it.
Stuart Appleby shows us why right brain golf is better
Apr 20th
PGAtour.com had a good article on Stuart Appleby.
“I’m trying to be a little more relaxed about things,” Appleby said. “I felt like I probably shut down my natural abilities, talents, whatever it is to play golf. I’m trying to play more natural golf and (use) the feel that I have.”
If we can, as many sports psychologists say, “Get out of our own way”, then we have a chance to tap into our natural abilities.
I read a book that has had a big impact on my life outside of golf recently. It’s called “A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule The Future” by Daniel Pink. The central theme of the book is that our culture has been dominated by left brained activities that require analysis, and a rigid process, but that the future will be ruled by those who take more creative approaches and use the whole brain. It makes sense in golf too.
If you look at the way instruction has changed over the past 20 years it has become more and more technical and analytical. But what you are starting to see now is a move away from that. More and more players seem to be returning to feel golf. Jim Furyk is a prime example. I recently wrote about how he was interviewed by Michael Breed on the golf fix and how he couldn’t really describe his approach to the game other than to say that he is a feel player and let’s his dad worry about his swing.
Another good example of a feel player is Rickie Fowler. You might expect that because he’s young he might have been trained technically. But his teacher, who is the only teacher he has ever had, was a strictly feel based teacher. And Rickie Fowler has proven himself to be a phenom. Super talented, plays fast, and is very exciting to watch.
I often hear recreational players talk about how they get overwhelmed with all the technical bits of the swing. They get confused and they try to do everything with their left brain. The thing is, golf is more of a creative sport than that. I like to picture myself as an artist, my canvas is the golf course and my brush is the golf ball. I want visualize and feel shots, then make them happen.
When I successfully do that, I play my best golf. When I’m working on technical details, I don’t play nearly as well.
For example, yesterday I had my first round with a new set of iron shafts. Same club head different shafts. For the first 9 holes I was trying to get used to them and I wasn’t being creative with it. I wasn’t seeing my shots clearly, and I struggled. On the back nine I changed my approach and decided to visualize every shots carefully and feel it. My second nine was 7 shots better and only 3 over par. Not bad for being out on the course with a new set of shafts. BTW the shaft change was significant. I went from Project X 5.0 to Dynamic Gold X100. Once I changed my perspective the feel came back and the shots improved and my scoring really improved. Like Stuart Appleby by focusing on the shaft change I “shut down my natural abilities”, but by focusing on creativity and feel, I engaged my natural ability and let it play.
Getting the most out of your golf GPS rangefinder
Apr 17th
GPS rangefinders are wonderful things. They give you the distances you need to make smart decisions. They give you the distances to hazards, to carry over the hazards. They give you distances to fairway targets, and of course the front, center and back of the green.
This information is vital if you want to make good decisions on the course. What they don’t give you is the strategy based on the conditions of the day, how you’re striking the ball, and the pin placements. They also don’t take any pressure into account if you’re playing a Nassau, a match against a buddy, or a tournament.
Some of you are lucky enough to play with caddies and if you to have a good caddy, he or she, can save you many strokes. But for those who don’t have our own caddies or get to play routinely with caddies we need some help making those decisions. If I’m playing a par 5, and I have 245 yards to the pin, 230 to the front, and 260 to the back I will know the distances I need to reach the green, but the rangefinder can’t tell me if it’s a smart decision.
Whether it is a smart decision depends on a number of variables. What’s the wind doing? If I’m playing into a 15 mph wind can I get there? How am I hitting it that day. Am I striping my fairway woods or hybrids? Am I fading or drawing the ball? Are there hazards near the green? Where is the pin, and is it near any hazards? How’s my wedge game that day? If it’s really on, it may be worthwhile to lay up to my favorite full wedge.
All of these factors need to be considered because my main objective is to leave myself in the best position for the next shot and to take a high number out of the equation.
What the GPS rangefinder does, is that it gives you the numbers you need to make decisions about where your target should be. Great course management combined with the data from the rangefinder will provide you with the best chance to shoot low scores. Simply using the rangefinder without the course management won’t necessarily help you make good decisions. And good decisions lead to low scores. When you can consistently make good decisions you can play well anywhere and on any course.
Mickelson setting course management back for the average golfer
Apr 16th
Phil Mickelson’s miracle shot on 13 on Sunday will go down as one of the great shots of Masters history. It will also be a big setback for the average golfer.
There is no doubt that Phil Mickelson has an overload of talent. He has shown that over years pulling off incredible shots. But he has taken risks that have cost him tournaments, most notably the US Open at Winged Foot.
The problem isn’t that Phil tries those shots and sometimes pulls them off. The problem is that he influences golfers and they begin to think they can do the same. We’d all love to be able to strike the ball like Phil but even most golfers in the field at Augusta on Sunday would have laid up. With Phil’s talent he would have scored a birdie 80% of the time laying up, and he in fact scored a birdie.
Was it a heroic shot? Absolutely. Was it smart? Probably not. The par 5 13th had been giving up lots of birdies. Phil’s mistake is that he brought bogey into play. Luckily for him it didn’t turn out that way, but pine straw is not easy to hit out off. He could easily have ended up in the creek, pitching onto the green for an un-guaranteed par. The conservative route wouldn’t have brought bogey into play unless something disastrous had happened.
If we take a look at the risk vs the reward, it wasn’t a smart play.
Now to the average golfer. The average already has a hard enough time making smart decisions on the course. Most golfers I play with are constantly making decisions that bring double bogey or worse routinely into play. They could not only score much better, but take many headaches out of their rounds if they knew how to make better decisions, but they don’t know. When faced with a choice like Phil’s, many golfers would try the hero shot because if they can just pull it off, they’ll get a nice ego boost. More than likely though, they’ll end up with a big number and wonder why the can’t break 100, 90 or 80. This is where Game Sense comes in. It teaches you how to make the best decisions on the course. Get that understanding and you can expertly avoid trouble and give yourself stress free pars.
Have you ever had a stress free round of golf?
Apr 15th
Do you rush to the first tee?
What are your rounds of golf like? Do you rush to the tee without much of warmup, maybe passing by the practice putting green to take a couple of putts?
Do you then wonder if the number of balls you have in your golf bag are going to last the whole round or whether you’ll need to reload at the turn?
Do you know that you can expect a numer of double bogeys and worse along with a few three putts and feel he inevitable coming?
Stress Free Golf
I want to offer you an alternative. I want you to imagine stress free round. What would it look like for you?
For me, a stress free round means no scores worse than bogey. It means at least a par putt on every hole with a few putts for birdie thrown into the mix. It means that my misses end up somewhere near the green where I have an easy chip or pitch onto the green for my par putt. And it means no three putts.
Does this sound like a sweet dream to you? I want to tell you that it is possible.
What it takes
I had a round like this a few days ago. What did it take? It took making good decisions.
A good decision on the golf course is one where if you pull your intended shot off you are in a good position to score, and if you don’t pull the shot off you are still in a good position to score because the area where you missed your shot has not brought a high number into play.
Sounds easy but most golfers don’t know how to do this and it is not their fault. The golf industry glamorizes distance instead of good decision making. And it’s understandable. Distance sells equipment. Good decision making does not.
The other reason most golfers don’t know about it is their teachers don’t suggest it. Golfers generally take lessons to fix their swing not to learn how to score and there is a big difference.
That stress free round showed me how fun and easy golf can really be. My goal is to play stress free golf. I encourage you to try it, you can learn the strategies here .
