Golf: Where Sport Psychology’s Impact Shines Brightest
To think just physical training will lead to you consistently performing near your potential is out of the question.
In what ways does a sport psychology coach help a golfer strengthen their mental game?
It oftentimes comes down to focus.
Read on to learn how to focus effectively throughout a round of golf.
How to Consistently Optimize Focus During Golf
Understanding how the brain works is important.
Naturally, your mind will wander to distractions, the past, and the future. Not being able to notice this and bring yourself back to optimized focus will hurt your game overall, but also generate frustration about the past and/or worry when thinking about the future.
The first step in optimizing focus is always having strong awareness. Without awareness, you can’t do anything to improve your thoughts.
Try adding in a component to your pre-shot routine that forces you to be aware of your thoughts. If you’re stepping up to putt with pessimistic and unhelpful thoughts, you’d like to be aware of those ahead of time so they don’t disrupt your accuracy, confidence, and performance.
Specifically, as you start walking up to analyze the putt you’re about to attempt, ask yourself “how’s my mental game feeling?” and answer on a scale of 1-3.
1: I’m losing it, I wish I was home.
2: I’m not feeling great, but also not horrible…
3: I’m feeling good, let’s do this.
Once you’ve checked in, you know what type of mental work you need (or don’t need).
Should you check-in and discover your brain is running a million miles a minute and not thinking effectively, ask yourself another question:
What’s important now?
This question, as simple as it sounds, forces you to focus on relevant and helpful information. Answers won’t be difficult to find - maintain proper posture, read the green and take 2 belly breaths, for example.
Eliminating thoughts isn’t what we’re going for. Instead, sport psychology coaches are more focused on replacing ineffective thoughts with effective ones. “What’s important now?” or W.I.N. is a fast pass to improving the quality of your thoughts.
Additionally, as you go through this exercise, you’re activating the prefrontal cortex in your brain. This is important because it’s responsible for decision making, problem-solving, and being rational. Doing so dampens the emotions you feel in the moment, leading to less intense frustration and worry.
There are so many mental obstacles throughout a round of golf that many athletes have difficulty getting around. This tool is something you can use in many ways, especially in practice, to start building new, mentally strong habits to implement into your game.