Let us begin with a few myth busters…
Myths -
1) If you have a perfect golf swing you’ll have a perfect game.
2) You can buy a better game with the latest in gadgetry.
3) Technology has lowered golfers scores.
Most every golfer subscribes to these beliefs in one way or another. The entire golf instruction, training aid, and golf club making market bear this out. Golf magazines, tv shows, and article after article offer tips, fixes, cures and virtually every imaginable training aid conceivable to craft the perfect swing. All with the pretense that ‘hardware alone’ will have you playing better golf.
Well has it worked? Let’s take a look…
In 1978, 75% of all golfers never broke 90 – so barely 25% ever shot in the 80’s.
In 2004, a full 26 years later, after the advent of 460CC drivers with 45″ multi-kick point shafts, cavity back irons, balls that prevent hooks and slices, and world class instruction from the smartest minds in the buzz, that number has been increased by a whopping 3%!
Now a full 28% of all golfers have broken 90. But hey, let’s cut the industry some slack, there’s only been 90+ billion spent on golf equipment over that time! That doesn’t include lessons or training aids! All that technology and collective wisdom and this is how far we’ve come…impressive, huh.
Seriously, any other business that produced numbers like these for their customers would be out of business. But the golfing public has an insatiable appetite that an ever growing horde of manufacturers and marketers are more than willing to feed.
As golfers, we are bombarded with instruction tips, training options, and product offerings that will have your head spinning faster than a shanking streak.
Where’s the moral you ask?
We all need to fulfill that important human craving of getting better at what we love. Yet where we place our attention to achieve this goal is what has to change. Our core beliefs about what causes improvement should be based on reality, not myths. They should empower us, not encourage wishful thinking and needlessly empty our wallets.
“So if it isn’t gear that makes us better maybe it’s lessons,” did I hear you say? Certainly lessons are an asset and obviously accelerate your skill development, but they’re not absolutely essential either. Ask Lee Trevino, Jim Furyk, Chris Dimarco and countless others who are self taught. And I think we can all agree that there isn’t much robot “pretty” about any of their swings, however, they work! Golf ain’t a beauty contest.
In the final analysis, there is only one area that promotes the quickest and most lasting change in any golfers game. And what’s interesting about it is this is the only area that doesn’t cost a penny to use, yet almost no-one uses it.
That area is the often quoted 6 inches between your ears! Your mind. The mental game of golf. Using your mind in a strategic, methodical and focused way is the surest method of lowering your scores. Period.
If you want to run out and spend $500 on a new driver and another $1000 or more on irons to make you play better, go for it. You might be that one in a million that changes the statistics. I realize we’ll all buy nice gear once in a while but we can’t buy it with a belief that this will seriously lower our scores.
After my recent experience with Wade Pearse’s, Golf Mental Game, I’m discovering that he probably won’t be sponsored by Taylor Made or Nike any time soon. You see, he doesn’t help sell much golf equipment… His approach to lowering your handicap, improving your swing, and increasing your satisfaction leans towards inner change before outer gains. Ahhh… now we’re talking the mental side.
True improvement only begins when we first assess where we are in relation to our goal. Then we must take an inventory of all the things that have actually produced measurable results. Which means no denial! We can’t hope to move our game to the next level by hanging on to a lie. If you do then that’s what Wade calls a real “hanging lie”. And that is the worst lie in golf.
Each and every one of us has the innate ability to tap our own potential and transform any part of our lives, including golf. We just require the right road map and a good compass to keep us on target.
It’s time to wake up and smell the Bent-grass or the myths that cloud our brains will keep us believing we can buy a better game.
Wade Pearse is a Peak Performance Golf Coach. Having spent 7 years researching and applying the most advanced mental game techniques available he identified what actually produces lower scores and increases overall performance. Using these strategies he lowered his own handicap from a 26 to a 3 without any golf lessons. He walks his talk.
Check out his Golf Mental Game for more mental golf tips and tricks and a complimentary self assessment.
Btw… be sure to grab your free eBook on “Stepping Up To The Ball With Confidence” and also receive other insightful golfs tips as part of being in the eClub.
Your partner in pursuit of a better game of golf…
Michael Lofton
http://thementalgolfpsychologyreview.com
I very much agree with your emphasis on the importance of self-defined goals and would only add, the behavorial skills required for achievement of these goals.
My own background in Cognitive Behavioral Psychology and specifically Rotter’s Social Learning Theory (e.g., the first cognitive behavioral psychological model) emphasizes goal directed behaviors and their specific relation to specific reinforcements. Example: If the reinforcement you seek is breaking 80, you need the skills required for this, contrasted with skills required for breaking 100.
Golf is mostly a game, but one reflecting stylistic and personal approaches to challenge, on and off the course. The personal skills applied in golf (i.e., dealing with frustration, breathing, tension management, etc.) all bear directly on how we deal with stress and conflict off the course. As a Clinical and Sport Psychologist, I have always emphasized sports as tools for personal progress over “winning within competitive environments”.
At the risk of promoting my own work, I have dealt with most of these subjects in my book Teeing Off With The Masters: A Sport Psychology Novel, and would very much welcome your feedback.
Best regards,
Ray