Golf!! How important is mental preparation?

Being a golfer myself, this article is very easy to write as I can relate heavily to it, hopefully all you budding golfers out there, will be able to as well.

Golf is a confidence sport, when its going good its great but when it goes bad it can make you feel like it’s the end of the world. The following passage is taken from an interview with Rory Mcilroy...

"You know I need that cockiness, the self-belief, arrogance, swagger, whatever you want to call it, I need that on the golf course to bring the best out of myself. So you know once I leave the golf course, you know that all gets left there."

This outlines the importance of mental preparation in golf, this is something Rory has developed over the years as a professional golfer to help him deal with the pressures on the course.

One of the most evident examples of mental preparation in golf is the players pre shot routines, this is something which if you analyse carefully is different for every golfer from amateur to professional, we all have our own way of getting our self mentally prepared to take the golf shot. Using a high profile example of Justin Rose, his pre shot routine is very specific as he will line up the target with his club held up, shut his left eye and focus on the target with his right one, address the ball and square his body up to the target and then trust his swing. This prepares him for the shot and what’s interesting about his routine is that if he doesn't complete all of the pre shot routine, he doesn't feel as comfortable playing the shot, outlining its importance within his game, other examples include as I like to call it the Jason Dufner 'wiggle' just before he plays his shot and finally Bubba Watson encouraging the crowd to be as loud as possible while he plays his shot.

Bob Rotella is a high profile golf psychologist who has worked with the like of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickleson, he outlines the importance of mental preparation nicely...

"Having control of your mind and using it properly can separate you from the competition, whether it's at your club or on the PGA Tour. I believe every golfer has the potential to be much better than he or she is, and that using the mind is one essential way to improve. You will never know if you have the ability to be the best player in the world, or the best player in your club, unless you commit yourself to developing both your physical and mental skills."

Any golfer will know that sometimes, no matter how much practise you've put in at the range, on the practise course or even at home in your garden, golf doesn’t always go to plan. You can have one of the best rounds of your life one day where everything clicks and then the next time you play it’s the worst you've ever played, although you may not think it at the time, this becomes a very important and beneficial armour in a golfers locker in terms of mental preparation. I use Padraig Harrington as a high profile example his pre shot routine involves self-talk, more importantly it’s the type of self-talk he uses. Padraig says to himself before every shot "whatever happens, I will accept it and go from there" this allows him to narrow his field of attention and swing with freedom. I believe too many golfers including myself put too much pressure on themselves before a shot, this has a linear correlation with performance and shot outcome. However for example if you have hit your tee shot down the middle of the fairway and your now left with a 150 yard approach shot to a tough green, something as simple as saying to yourself 'ok my first shot was good, onto the next shot now' can make a difference, not always but even if it doesn't it shows that your mentally preparing your body a mind for the next shot and this is an important factor in any sport if you want to succeed.

Hopefully you have enjoyed this article, I know from my point of view there are so many concepts I could have brought into this piece but I didn't want to bore you all so i picked in my point of view the most evident ones. If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to send your views in.

Many thanks

Lyle Kirkham

#sport #ball #Golf #Getpsyched