Psi...Pys...Psy...You can't even
spell it, let alone use psychology in your game - or can you? The
top pros pay thousands of dollars for expert analysis and detailed
advice on how to develop the mental side of their game - and I say
all it takes is a bit of common sense and a little know how - and
I can do that for you ( - free, but please give generously if you
see me at the 19th!)
May the Force be with you - and your 3 wood!
It is obvious to everyone that
mental attitude, thought processes, the inner self and various other
psychological mysteries can seriously affect performance - especially
in a game like golf with its fine margins, high levels of uncertainty
and interminable bad bounces - what isn't so obvious to everyone
is that this can be changed. You can fight back against these dark
mental forces, this satanic synaptic tyranny - just read on.
Try to imagine you're having a
bad day on the golf course (not difficult for most of us!) - you
couldn't hit Seve's ego from 10 yards with a pitching wedge - how
do you react as the round wears on. Do you:
1. respond in a silly, reckless, cavalier manner - by accepting
the fact that it's a bad day - by recognising that there may be
more poor shots to come - by getting control of the situation and
plodding on calmly?
2. take a common-sense golfer's approach, responding to each little
setback - by earmarking the offending club for a watery end or planning
to turn it into a tree decoration - by letting the emotion well
up inside to a cathartic crescendo releasing years of buried stress
and striking fear into the hearts of anyone within a mile radius
- by deriding the course, your equipment, your partner, yourself,
or all of these?
The namby-pamby route; can't possibly
work can it, because everyone takes the other approach - they take
firm control getting powered and pumped up - they think of wreaking
havoc and exacting physical revenge on clubs or course - they get
really wound up in perfect time for the tee-shot from hell just
around the corner. So, if this is the route to recovery why does
play get worse and Titleist shares rise - is it an equipment manufacturer's
conspiracy?
Maybe the nambies have something.
All behaviour has consequence and in exacting physical activities
like golf so does thought. Yes, that's exactly what I'm suggesting
- how you are thinking over the ball will influence the outcome
of the shot. Worse still - thought processes like behaviour are
reinforced by long-term repetition over time and by short term successes.
The time you snapped the putter over your knee on the 13th green
and then hit the best drive ever on the 14th ingrains the idea that
smashing clubs helps - but hold on, how many times does it not work
and lead to an awful round, expense, inconvenience and sniggers
at the 19th?
The concept of consequential outcome
drives our thinking and our behaviour but patterns can be laid down
which lead to the needle becoming stuck - with thought patterns
and behaviour being repeated automatically in response to specific
stimuli - like a bad golf shot - instead of in response to a consideration
of consequence. In this way bad habits are ingrained and mistakes
are repeated over and over again - a self-defeating inevitability
encroaches into our approach to golf - even into life itself. But
do not despair - hold off advertising the clubs in the local rag
assuming you can resist the temptation to hammer them into shards
of metal (or graphite!) - help is at hand the process of thought
and associated behaviours can be changed.
The golfer visits a pro to benefit
from his technical knowledge but also to tap into his professional
awareness of problems which are unseen to the self - the consequence
of hidden action and habitual behaviour - and can only be uncovered
by The Pro's analytical eye. The same principle can be applied by
the self to thought processes and behaviours which have become problematic
and self-defeating on the golf course but which are as well hidden
from the self as a technical swing fault which requires the pro's
attention.
The first and most important step
is to recognise the problem and then identify the thoughts and behaviours
which are causing the difficulty. The trick is to monitor or analyse
your own thoughts and behaviours and relate them to consequences.
In this way you can build up an understanding of the relationship
between specific emotions, feelings and actions and their effect
on your game. It may not be an overnight procedure but without this
sound baseline awareness nothing can be done - you need to reveal
and make sense of what hasn't been making sense because of its hidden,
habitual and automatic nature. Right, enough of the gobbledegook
- I'll keep the rest for fee paying clients rather than waste it
on mere net surfing free-loaders; lets get down to the nitty gritty
what can you actually do?
Follow this simple A,B,C structure
analysis. Make a positive attempt to monitor and store information
at appropriate moments during a round of golf as follows :
Situation
A. what was I doing?
hitting a tee shot; playing out of rough; putting
Action
of Thought
B. what was I thinking and feeling; how was I behaving?
frustrated; tense; uncertain; confident; happy; miserable; in control
rushing; cruising; storming; club-throwing
Consequence
C. what happened next; what were the consequences?
where did the ball go
how did it affect me; how did I feel afterwards
As you collect evidence you will
be able to build simple consequential maps and identify the chain
of events. The trick is to manage the unhelpful and encourage the
helpful. Then watch your handicap drop!
