Golf Tips for Your Mental Game
For quick and simple proof of the strong connection between mind and golf swing, try the following experiment: Set up to a golf ball and make your swing while thinking about only making contact with the outside half of the ball. Now do the same, but think about hitting only the inside half of the ball. Observe the difference in ball flight. When you think about hitting the outside half, your arms subconsciously extend through impact, closing the club face and creating a right-to-left spin (if you’re a right-handed golfer). When you think about hitting the inside half, your arms subconsciously stay tucked closer to your body through impact, opening the club face and creating a left-to-right spin.
Putting
“Roll” your putts instead of “hitting” them. This thought/visualization will make your putting stroke more fluid and less prone to deceleration, pushing and pulling. Additionally, you’ll be more likely to strike the ball in its center as opposed to its lower or upper half, cutting down on early-putt “hopping” that can start a putt out on the wrong line.
Picking out Targets
Instead of aiming at the green, aim at a specific tree branch behind it. Your target should always be the smallest object visually available to you from your starting point. By narrowing down your target, you’re both consciously and subconsciously raising your standards; a focused mind makes for a focused swing.
Teeing Off
As an addendum to the tip on picking out targets, be cognizant about exactly where you’re aiming when you tee off. Frequently, the tee box will point you in a slightly different direction than where you want to go. Golf course architects create all kinds of optical illusions from the tee box to mess with your mind, so make yourself familiar with the actual dimensions of the fairway, the green, etc.
Club Selection
Don’t let yourself feel obligated to use any specific club at any specific time (with the possible exception of the putter on the putting green), regardless of the distance of the hole, or what you may have paid for your new driver. Hit the club that you know you can hit best. If you have a sensitive ego or a competitive streak (most of us have both), don’t ask your playing partners/opponents what club they’re hitting. If you think your club selection has never been influenced by what others are hitting, you’re probably wrong.
Nutrition
Brain function is hampered when you run out of fuel. Snack on high-energy foods throughout your round. Alcohol, even in small quantities, affects your motor skills (and in larger quantities, your decision-making), so don’t drink (much) during or before the round if your performance is important.
One Shot at a Time
Even more prevalent than the tendency to get ahead of one’s self is the tendency to get behind one’s self, i.e. get caught up in shots and scores that are in the past. It sounds simple, and it is: concentrate on the present. Not the past, not the future. The only shot you can control is the one you’re hitting. It may even be best to keep folding the score card in such a way that you don’t have to look at the scores for holes you’ve already played.
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