Increase Your Golf Performance with this Often Ignored Training

Often cited as the perfect example of a sport where mental performance has a greater impact on results than physical or skill performance, golf is a true psychological game. We can find acknowledgement of this fact throughout the history of the sport. For example, one of the first golf writers, Arnold Haultain, wrote in his 1904 essay on the mystery of golf:

“Golf is a game in which attitude of mind counts for incomparably more than mightiness of muscle”

But what is the psychology of golf?  Our team at CogniGolf has recently completed research that has built a profile of exactly what mental skills are required for golf performance.  Examples include focus, maintaining attention, judging line orientation, managing stress, and ignoring distractions.

So, it’s pretty much a given that we are all aware of the impact of mental skills on golf performance.  However, while the majority of golfers are aware of the need to improve their golf psychology, many do not engage in any form of psychological skills training.

Common causes for under-performance given by golfers, coaches, and analysts include “She didn’t focus,” “I was too tense and nervous,” “He is quite skillful but can’t cope with the stress of competition,” etc.  As the training focus has been on physical and skill performance, the under-performance must be down to a poor mental game.  But, rarely do coaches provide or golfers engage with structured psychological skills training.

Sports Psychology – An Enhancement and Remedy

Most golfers that engage with psychological skills training tend to do so to rectify a performance issue or remedy a dip in form.  Sports psychology is seen as somewhat of a last resort to get through a slump.  While psychological training can be used to “fix” performance issues, it doesn’t necessarily need to be a last resort, nor does it need to focus on fixing a problem.

Golfers who are performing well or do not suffer from issues of concentration or stress etc. can equally benefit from training their mental game as the golfer who, let’s say, has the yips.  Psychological skills training can take your game to the next level.  This happens in much the same way as going to the gym.  An in-form golfer can physically train their bodies in a gym and increase their power, mobility, strength, and reduce the risk of injury (all leading to a greater golfing performance).  Similarly, should an in-form golfer train their mental skills, they will allow that golfer to not alone maintain their performance, but to graduate to a higher level.

Is your Poor Golf Performance Caused by your Mental Game?

Each person is unique, and golfers are no different.  Some golfers have been gifted with an incredible ability to focus or cope with pressure, while others lose concentration or choke.  The former may not require psychological intervention (although you can always improve!).  So, how do you know if your poor performances are physical/skill-based or down to your mental game?  Renowned golf psychologist Dr. Patrick Cohn outlined nine clues that you may require psychological intervention:

1. Your performances in practice are better than during competition.
2. You struggle to perform when others are watching.
3. You have doubts about your golf before or during a round.
4. You feel anxious when you compete.
5. You are unsure about what motivates you to play golf.
6. You only play golf to feel better about yourself as a person.
7. You lose focus during key moments of competition.
8. You have recovered from an injury but your performances have not returned to normal
9. All is good, but you are keen to achieve your full mental potential!

How can Sports Psychology Improve your Golf Performance?

Every individual possesses incredible potential.  This potential lies in a variety of areas, from movement potential, to academic potential, and so on.  Similarly, we all have a great amount of psychological potential.

Take memory for example (let me try to make this boring explanation quick and painless!).  A popular belief is that people can remember between 5 and 9 items in their short-term memory (known as 7 plus or minus 2 – Miller’s law).  So, one person may be able to remember 9 items, while another may be able to remember only 5 items.  However, the person who can only remember 5 items has to potential to improve and remember 7 or even 9 items!

Similarly, other psychological skills like those relevant to golf performance can be improved upon and you can achieve your individual potential.

So, if you want to give yourself every advantage and increase your golf performances, start training your mental game.  You can follow online articles like this at Golficity or our golf psychology series at www.GolfPerform.com.  Or, you can go one step further and meet a sports psychologist to devise a wide-scale mental training program.

Benajmin Franklin’s immortal words outline the only possible outcome of ignoring this training element:

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”

Cover Photo via Flickr