• Having doubts during a round can cost you a lot of shots

You’re standing on the tee of the 10th hole. You’ve played half of the course and you think, “I can’t believe how well I’m playing today. If I can avoid mistakes, I’ll get the best scorecard of my life.” Suddenly you become a cautious player, you shorten the backswing, hit bad shots, and you end up with a hefty scorecard.

Has it ever happened to you? Now try to remember the best round of your golfing life… that day you were on the WAVE. Your shots were superb and your putt smoothly drove home one ball after another. You were relaxed and confident, without forcing the swing. It happened quite naturally. You just knew that every shot was going to be successful.

Maybe you’ve had very few of these days, but surely you’d like to have more. From MyGolfWay.com, this section of psychology applied to golf hopes to help you improve your mental game and be more consistent in your results.

Generally a round of golf will last more than four hours. During that time thousands of thoughts pass through our minds. Some typically interrupt our good game, “I hope I won’t do a slice!”, “I hate these 1 metre putts!”, “this shot is very easy, I hope I don’t miss”, “who was the joker who put this bunker in the middle of the fairway” and more. Some of these surely sound familiar.

There are several reasons why thoughts like these affect your game. The thought “I have just got to hole this one!” creates added pressure. So don’t be surprised by reactions like taking longer than usual, changing your routine, or adding more tension to your swing and then spoiling the shot. Too often your thoughts are focused on what you don’t want to do rather than what to do. Imagine yourself preparing to drive into a narrow fairway, with water on one side and a forest on the other of where your ball should land. Doubts arise, and you start thinking about the problems of being off line. As a result, you change your usual relaxed swing and the ball ends up just where you didn’t want.

In other situations you may just be thinking too much about the result, instead of thinking about what you need to do to get it. Remember those rounds in which you played a fantastic set of 9 holes and you imagined a great card. Then, you started to think about the final result in the usual pre-shot routine, didn’t you? you started taking longer to hit your putts on the green, and you finished up going from glory to disaster in the second 9 holes.

Whatever your level, beginner, medium or low handicap, even professional, the mental side of golf always plays a key role in the result of your scorecard. According to Jack Nicklaus, the success on any golf shot depends 10% on the technique, 40% on set-up and 50% on mental preparation. Being effective in our mental preparation is the key to being on the WAVE. Are you on the WAVE?

Javier Alvarez has a Degree in Psychology and a Degree in Physical Activity Science and Sports.

 

Por Javier Alvarez