The Golfers Mental Edge Reviewed – My Interview with Dr. Patrick Cohn
Not playing what you think is your “A” game can suck the fun right out of golf…
As a golf game lover you want to play well… very much so. This can lead to tightening up and actually playing this game much worse!
You see this pattern all the time….
You work your tail off, expect a lot from yourself on the course, and then want to win (heck, just score good) really bad. Sounds good so far, right?
But here’s the problem. All this wanting to play well and high expectations can cause your mental game to unravel even before you hit your first tee shot!
After my personal chat with Dr. Patrick Cohn recently of Peak Sports, I learned that I wanting so badly to play golf well… I further realized that this also causes me (and no doubt, yourself) to play with fear… the fear of failure… Damn, I hate that!
We tighten up, get anxious about results, and lose any trust we had in practice.
As Dr. Patrick Cohn explained to me… “It gets even worse for many of my students”… “After a blow up hole, missing an easy putt or an up and down, most of us find ourselves getting frustrated or worse – trying harder to not make more mistakes.”
I immediately understood that this leads you to want the round to be over fast because you’re not having fun. Crap… been there, done that!
So… how can we have more fun on the golf course?
Yani Tseng, top in the world in women’s golf and past defending champion at the McDonalds LPGA Championship, thinks fun is the name of the game when it comes to playing well:
“The harder you try the worse you can get. My mental golf game was not there for a period of time. My brain just (kept) going down. My expectations were too high in 2008. I just wanted to try so hard and win so hard and it wasn’t working. So now I adjust my mindset and just go out and have fun,” said Tseng.
Myself, I find fun and pressure are polar opposites in golf. The more you [and I] pressure ourself to play well -and the harder we try, the tougher it is to shoot low scores and, of course, we’re not having fun now.
However, let’s face it… having more fun is easier said than done.
But the first place to start is to remove the pressures and expectations to always be perfect or play your best. And “fun” doesn’t have to always come from playing great.
Tap into what excites you on the golf course besides winning within yourself. If you simply replace the ‘must be perfect’ thought patterns with simple… gratitude for allowing yourself to ‘enjoy’ the moments of the game, you just might discover a simple, yet powerful tool to add to your bag.
I’ve applied this technique and within a few holes on my first round out I was (surprisingly) able to connect to my ‘happy’ self and removed my perfection outcome attitude. And, it felt comfortable as it released a good deal of my tension, which did allow for better shots.
Yet, getting past the… “it’s ok to have fun” thought pattern took a few holes, especially when one starts out with a couple of bad hits. But, once you break the mold and really connect to your fun’ness’… well, anyway… give it a go next time out to see what you discover.
If you want, chip on over to The Golfers Mental Edge and, for sure, listen in (above) on the portion of the talk I had with Dr. Patrick… btw, get in on my email list and receive a copy of the free eBook… “Stepping Up To The Ball With Confidence” – and from time to time you’ll also receive (complete) insightful conversations with other leading mental golf professionals.
To Your Better Experience on the Course…
Enjoy Your Game!
-Michael
the Mental Golf Psychology Review
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