Golf Psychology

ANTICIPATE OR EXPECT?

Jeff Troesch — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:34:00 GMT

As with many things when using language, there are sometimes subtle but important differences between words. I’d like to explore the difference between anticipation and expectation, and apply this to golf. The reason why I think this distinction is important is that I respectfully disagree with some in my industry who suggest to players that they should expect to play well, and expect to win. My issue with this is that I believe that while expectations can create a positive anticipation, I also believe that when people have enough trials of not getting what they expect, there is a more significant negative response. For some players these negative responses are sometimes more difficult to overcome.

In other words:

To expect… for many means to get the outcome that they “should” get.

To anticipate… for many means to see the outcome that they “want” to get.

How is any of this important to your golf training and your golf performance?

When helping a player prepare for an event or a round or even a particular shot (when I’m caddying) I want the player to be anticipating the best will happen. This helps the player to see a picture in his mind of that which he wants to create. Anticipating a positive outcome might mean things like seeing the shape of the shot, visualizing the ball rolling into the cup, picturing oneself on the phone after an event excitedly talking about how they won. I believe these types of exercises create a positive internal environment that actually influence whether or not these types of positive things occur.

However, an expectation that these things will happen regularly bring on a sense of worry or anxiety for some players- “What if I don’t get that outcome”?- and for some creates a standard of performance that is expected by themselves or somebody else. This tendency leads to many players thinking about how they should have played or ought to have hit the ball- the kind of thinking that puts some players on a negative mental spiral.

In order to stay enthusiastic and excited and hopeful, anticipate that something good is going to happen!

Are You Fully Committed?

Jeff Troesch — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 13:42:00 GMT

Many young golfers have been exposed to the mental concept of “trusting” themselves on the course. The ultimate place to be as a player is to be so confident in your game that you can simply “trust your swing” or “free it up” as many of my fellow mental game gurus would advocate. That sounds good in theory, but how do you trust your swing if you’re struggling? How do you trust you’re going to make this putt if you’ve missed four like it previously? How do you trust that you’ve made the correct club selection?

The answer is that you don’t need to trust. I’d like you to trust, and I’d love it if all the players with whom I work trusted their games completely. This would make their mind less cluttered, create less worry, and probably inspire them to new heights of confidence. However, virtually 100% of the players with whom I’ve worked over 18 years in the field of mental training have times when they don’t trust one aspect of their game or another. This includes juniors, college players, and PGA Tour professionals.

When you don’t have compete trust, that’s when commitment becomes important. You see, committing to a plan of action, a shot selection, or a putting line, and actually striking the ball with authority helps develop trust. Without commitment, there is the tendency to be mentally distracted, have doubts, and second-guess yourself prior to executing. While the full trust that all will be well may not be achieved, with commitment you give yourself the best chance for something good to happen. As Payne Stewart was quoted as saying, “better to commit to the wrong thing in golf than to be uncommitted to the correct thing.”

So, put in practical terms, how can you implement this notion into your game?

If you are in between clubs on a shot, pick one, be decisive, and commit fully to that choice.
If you aren’t sure if the putt breaks six inches or ten inches left to right, choose one and make an authoritative stroke.
Begin to recognize how many times you’ve hit a shot without being committed, and challenge yourself to pull the trigger only after you’ve eliminated the other options out of your mind.

Every time you’re on the golf course is an opportunity for you to get feedback about yourself as a player, and the most accurate feedback you’ll receive is when you’ve made full commitments to the shots that you hit, and then make adjustments for the future. Without that, you may never trust certain aspects of your game, no matter how regularly you practice or play.

Go For a Solid ACE

Jeff Troesch — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:55:00 GMT

Players regularly attend our golf schools expressing frustration about a wide assortment of things with their game. Among them are: inconsistency in their swing, not being able to take their practice shots onto the course, an array of putting difficulties, dealing with slow players, how wind or cold hampers their play. There is one thing that is common to all of these scenarios, as well as the hundreds of others not mentioned here. That common thread is that none of these things are completely within the player’s control.

Even for the professional and elite amateurs with whom I work there is an irrational notion that the harder one works and/or the more knowledge one gains about this game should somehow translate into having control over this game. When confronted directly with this, anyone who plays this game would admit they don’t have control over it. Yet, time and time again, people allow themselves to get caught up and distracted by the nuances of this game over which they don’t have complete control.

One way I recommend that players focus on those few things over which they do have control is by remembering the acronym ACE. Attitude, concentration, and effort (ACE) are the only things over which we have control in golf (and in life!). On the scorecard, I have the player give him or herself a score in each of these categories on a hole-by-hole basis. On a 1-10 scale, with ten being the highest, I want players to attend to and work on these three factors as they play casual or competitive rounds of golf.

What we see is a tremendous correlation between high ACE scores and lower stroke scores. The more we focus on that over which we have control, the less frustration, anxiety, worry and anger we will have on the course. This regularly translates into lower scores and a higher level of enjoyment of the game.

Obviously, simply attending to the ACE variables is not going to overcome a poor swing, the fact that the players in the group in front of you are slow, or the fact that the wind is blowing 30 mph. What reminding ourselves of ACE does do, however, is put us in the proper mind set to do all that we can to play the best that we can in that moment, whatever the conditions, and leave the rest for others to worry about!

Assess, Don’t Guess

Jeff Troesch — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:58:00 GMT

With Spring upon us, this is the time that many junior golfers have slowed down their golf involvement after a hectic year of tournament play. In most parts of the country, high school golf has already begun.

From a mental perspective, now is a great time for the players to sit back and take some accounting of what has been going well with their game and what has been going less than well. At times, in the middle of competitive season, it seems as though players are too busy to really work on specific elements of their game. For some it feels like there is a constant “bandaging” of their game in order to get it ready for the next event.

In order to get better, it is essential that players take time to assess where their game is and create a plan of action on how they will get better over the winter. To that end, we want to make sure the player is assessing, not guessing!

Being back in school means less time to work on the game, so it is important that the time devoted to golf is spent wisely and the efforts are productive and efficient. Make sure that the assessments of the game are specific, purposeful, and honest. Get feedback from the friends who know your game, from your parents, and from your instructor, to get a comprehensive sense of where your strengths and weaknesses lie. Then put together a plan to attack those areas of weakness and continue to build the strengths!

Below is a form (Golf-Evaluation-Form.PDF attached to this post) that you could fill out and ask your “advisory team” to fill out to see where you stand on some key elements of the game. I hope this helps you continue to grow and improve as a player!

Are You Taking Enough Risk with Golf?

Jeff Troesch — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 13:06:00 GMT

Risk-taking is an essential element in growing as a person and as a golfer.

While it is true that taking unnecessary risks has the potential to create unwanted outcomes, learning to discern between necessary and unnecessary risks can make the difference between reaching your potential as a player or falling short. Some golfers consistently like to “play it safe” and stay so much in their comfort zone that they never grow or stretch themselves. These people feel frightened or “off balance” when they approach unfamiliar territory. They are so worried about a future “bad” outcome like a missed shot or a lost opportunity that they sacrifice their development as a player in order to hit a safer shot today.

How do you get better if you keep doing the same things day after day, year after year?

Metaphorically, hugging first base will never allow you to take a chance at stealing second. At some point in every person’s golf career (and life!) there comes a time to cautiously step away from the familiar and encounter the unknown. Yes, it is true that you can “get thrown out” if you try to steal second. It is also true that you can either make it to that next level, or at a minimum, learn from the experience of “going for it” and use that information to push toward more growth on another occasion.

Many players leave their driver in the bag on holes where a driver is the obvious play. Others “hate” their 3-iron or sand wedge or putter, and don’t trust those clubs when they’re in their hands. Invariably, after I ask the players with whom I work to rate their confidence in each respective club, what follows is typically an admission that the time spent practicing with the clubs or on the shots disliked is far less than the time spent hitting balls with the favorite clubs.

How will you ever get confident with the clubs if you don’t practice with them regularly?

My advice- if you’re playing for big money or something incredibly significant, play in your comfort zone and do whatever it takes to score low. If you’re not in this type of circumstance, challenge yourself to use clubs and shots that you don’t like, so that in time you learn how to trust these as well. Perhaps in that day you might not score as well as you might have otherwise, but what you have done instead is make an investment in the future growth of your game!

Are You a Scientist or a Judge When it Comes to Evaluating Your Golf Performance?

Jeff Troesch — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 19:36:00 GMT

One of the biggest variables that effect your development as a player can be the way you evaluate your practice and play. Remembering this tip to react as a scientist rather than a judge can go a long way toward helping speed your learning curve.

A scientist looks at every experiment as an opportunity to gather information and learn from the information gathered. What variables might be manipulated to get a different result in the next experiment? With that purposeful manipulation, what is the new outcome? To a scientist, there is no “good” or “bad” result.

All results simply are as they are, and these results become the feedback mechanism from which something different is tried or previous variables are replicated. Contrast this with the way a judge would view these “experiments”. Results are good or bad, right or wrong, horrible or terrific, so-so or “OK”. There is a lot of emphasis on labeling the result, and less emphasis on the process that created the result. Are you a scientist or a judge when it comes to evaluating your own golf performance?

The best golfers in the world understand how important it is to examine defeat, recognize mistakes, and pull apart miscues. They do this in a way that is methodical and constructively critical. Golfers who think less healthily will simply be critical and this criticism can lead to little or no learning and growing. All this process does is diminish confidence, tear apart your self-image, and inhibit your ability to change and effectively integrate lessons into your game.

When Thomas Edison was asked by a reporter how it felt to fail over 1,000 times before figuring out how to invent the light bulb, Edison was reported to have responded, “Sir, I never failed, I now know over 1,000 ways how not to create a light bulb.” Edison the scientist, as a golfer, might have responded to having played poorly in a tournament or hit some poor golf shots in a similar fashion. “OK, I now know that going for this par-5 in two is unrealistic for me. Next time I’ll lay up and play to the safer side of the fairway”.

See if you can evolve to the point where you think, “OK, I now know that swing thought, that strategy, that tactic, that game plan, doesn’t work well, what adjustments will I make the next time I’m faced with this situation?” Typically, this evaluation begins with the two words, “next time”. Rather than what you should have or could have done, thinking about the changes that you will institute “next time” can be much more beneficial.

This “scientific” approach will help you evaluate your game in an effective, positive, and constructive manner, and perhaps most importantly help you enjoy your game even more!

Is It Your Golf State or Trait That Matters Most?

Jeff Troesch — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 19:56:00 GMT

It is very common among golfers on the driving range or putting green to ask themselves questions following a typical warm up session including, "How am I hitting my irons today?" "What's the driver doing?" "How is my putter...(read more)

Training For Golf Combines Technical, Physical, Mechanical and Tactical

Jeff Troesch — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 18:48:00 GMT

When most golfers think of the elements of the game upon which they want to improve, the vast majority think in terms of either technical elements or think about outcome. "I want to make more putts." "I want to hit more fairways."...(read more)

4 Easy Ways to Take Your Golf Practice to the Course

Jeff Troesch — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 18:47:00 GMT

One of the most common concerns expressed by golfers is "how come I can hit the ball so well on the range but have a difficult time replicating this on the golf course?" When left on their own to try to figure this question out, many people...(read more)

5 Keys to Mental Toughness for Golfers

Jeff Troesch — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 18:41:00 GMT

If you have any interest in seeing first hand the impact that mental toughness has on sport performance, go no further than the PGA or LPGA Qualifying tournaments or "Q-School". Each year for the past several years, I have worked with players...(read more)

Are Your Outcomes Too Important?

GolfPsych — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 18:12:00 GMT

"I knew that if I could shoot 68 today, I would probably win, but it just wasn't to be." "Everytime I have a good front nine, I blow it on the back nine." "Breaking 80 is my goal, but everytime I get close my game falls apart...(read more)

Are You Too Aroused for Good Golf?

GolfPsych — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 18:12:00 GMT

(Another reason we say the Mind is Golf's Natural Enemy) We are not talking about sexual arousal although sexual arousal would not be good for your golf either. Quite often others are more aware of your state of arousal than you are. They may be telling...(read more)

You're Thinking About Your Swing Too Much

GolfPsych — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 18:10:00 GMT

(The Second Reason the Mind is Golf's Natural Enemy) The mind and body are directly and closely connected. Any action or movement must begin in the mind and instructions are then transmitted to the body. Most of the time this happens without any attention...(read more)

The Main Reason the Mind is Golf's Natural Enemy?

GolfPsych — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 18:09:00 GMT

Countless books and articles have been written about how to swing the club, putt and play short game shots; how to manage the course and how to think to play well. You have an enormous appetite for this information because you want to play better and...(read more)

The Mind-Golf's Natural Enemy Raised its Ugly Head at Winged Foot

GolfPsych — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 18:04:00 GMT

The truth of this statement was never more apparent than at the conclusion of the 2006 United States Open Golf Championship at Winged Foot, where two of the World's top ranked golfers failed to finish in a manner to which they are accustomed. They...(read more)