Golf Psychology - does it work?

[kickerr101]

Hi there,
One day i can go out and play great, the next i hack my way around. Does anyone know much about golf psychology? How do i get into it? What are the best techniques / teachers out there?
Thanks for your help with this.
Steve

[Coluejack]

I think the best person to teach you golf psychology is yourself... I'll get on the course and start trying to do all these crazy, difficult shots that probably aren't actually in my bag, and slowly the course will start to play me rather than the other way around.. I do think psychology plays a big role in golf, but I think you can limit it.

One of the major things I do on every swing is envisioning the proper technique and ideal swing each time I stand over a ball. I take a practice swing to loosen, but even when I am taking my practice swing I am thinking about exactly how perfect the right swing will propel the ball towards the hole. If you get busy thinking about your proper swing, you may stop thinking about the big traps by the hole, or the water sitting off to the left. If there is a professional golfer that swings somewhat like you, think about their rhythm and pendulum as you take your practice swing and try to emulate their speed and smoothness.

All the great golf movies have something in them regarding mind games. Tin Cup had him throwing all his change into his left pocket with a tee in his ear to get rid of the shanks. Baggar Vance talked about the field, envisioning a shortened hole with no one around, searching for the one true swing. It's pretty fancy the way they describe it, but it gets the point across. The people who try to change their mechanics on every shot are the people who lose strokes. Concentrate on making the swing you know you can make, and work on changing your swing on the practice range.

[Dad-2-3]

Give the book "Zen Golf" by Dr. Joseph Parent a read. It's a rather simple read, and has helped me immensly with the mental side of golf.

[doctork]

I take a practice swing to loosen, but even when I am taking my practice swing I am thinking about exactly how perfect the right swing will propel the ball towards the hole.

Fancy way of saying that is "process vs. outcome thinking," and it's the foundation of pretty much all golf/performance psyche. Basically, you control those aspects that you can -- preshot routine, setup, swing -- everything up until the ball is struck. If you fulfill all the steps in your process, you've done all you can. The outcome is what it is.

I'd suggest checking out the author mentioned above as well as Bob Rotella. The golf books section on this forum likely has some thoughts on this as well. Cheers, DoctorK

[noefi13b]

I've just started to read up on the mental game side of things and it has opened my eyes to a whole way of thinking on the course that, while obvious, I wasn't doing it...

I've just finished reading Golf is not a game of Pefect by Bob Rotella.. Got a round tomorrow so will see how it goes...

Try this thread for some good book suggestions http://thesandtrap.com/forum/threads...ychology-books

[jamo]

Like a lot of things in Psych, if you want it to work and you think it works, it will work.

[Brakkus]

The Inner Game Of Golf by Tim Gallwey is a fascinating read,and also his book on Tennis crosses over well to golf too because there is a whole section on how to go about making technical changes without mental interference.
I also found Craig Sigl helpful,he also replied to mail I sent which is always a good sign,he has a site call breaking 80.

I find confidence is the one thing that will do wonders in your game.Hit the shots where you feel you could never miss them.If you can't hit them go out and practice the shots you can't.Standing over a ball knowing you can hit a shot will put you in the right frame of mind.If you can't hit it telling yourself you are a great golfer or visualising a career shot won't help.
Like mechanics,mind mechanics can convolute golf too,so the more simple you make it,the freer you will feel

[swingslowly]

I found that the book by the psychologist that worked with darren clark was pretty useful