How do you practice focusing?
First, you have to concentrate on something. It can be anything. Choose something around your home and focus on it. When you notice your mind starting to wander, bring your attention back to whatever it is you are focusing on. This can be very hard to do at first!
Try to work up to focusing on something for one minute, then two, then three, and so on. This exercise will greatly enhance your mind’s ability to focus and wall out distractions.
Another part of the mental game of golf is learning how to recognize when you are becoming frustrated and angry. To be a successful golfer you will need to refuse to ride the emotional roller coaster.
You should only think of the shot at hand. Don’t think of the whole game in its entirety, or the shot you may have to make three holes away, or how a shot is similar to one you fumbled weeks ago. All of that is just a distraction and if you ride this emotional roller coaster, golf won’t be enjoyable.
Focus on the shot at hand and give your mind a rest before you move on to the next shot.
When you begin to feel yourself becoming upset, stop. Take a deep breath and think about what it is that is upsetting you. Then, look at the big picture. Golf is just a game. Is it really worth becoming upset over? Doesn’t becoming upset only make you tense, which impairs your swing?
By recognizing when you are frustrated or angry, and pinpointing why, it can help minimize those feelings and put them in their rightful place—instead of letting them control you.
Another side of the mental game that you really need to understand is that most professional golfers report that when they become obsessed with shooting a low score—their scores often end up higher.
Don’t misunderstand, of course shooting a low score on a round of golf is the goal, but becoming obsessed with it can greatly hinder your game and make you play worse. Why? You are defining your success by your score, which is something you can’t control.
Think about it, if you could control how you shoot and you could always shoot a low score, then what would the challenge be?
When you set yourself up and become focused on getting a low score, all you really are doing is creating anxiety within yourself. As you’ve learned, being calm, relaxed, and at peace is what enhances your swing.
Take the approach that you will conquer the things you can control—such as your swing techniques, learning how to read the greens properly, and so on. This is what will eventually lower your golf score.
Work hard to develop the mentality that your success as a golfer isn’t determined by your score. Rather, it’s determined by how calm you can remain and how you are working toward the small things that will affect your score.
Mental Routines
Many successful golfers have mental routines they go through before they take a shot. Having mental routines improves the golfer’s focus and keeps him grounded.
If you watch golf professionals close enough you may be able to recognize each one’s pre-shot routines. A particular golfer may do things such as touching his face, walking a certain way toward the teeing area when he is going to address the ball, rituals he takes before a putt, and so on. While we can’t know what’s in their minds, picking up on a professional’s routines can be fairly easy—if you watch them long enough.
You should seriously consider coming up with a mental routine of your own. A pre-shot routine can be whatever you want it to be. It may be a set of thoughts, movements, checkpoints, etc. Mental routines are as personal as the individual who makes them, and one person’s mental routines won’t work for another because each person’s psyche is different.
Having a pre-shot routine can keep you from wasting time psychoanalyzing what you should do and it can keep your mind from chasing rabbits—which can produce stress in the mind and body. And, as you know by now, stress in the body can hinder the golf swing.
If you start working on and developing your pre-shot routine you’ll no doubt find that your scores will improve and you’ll become a more consistent golfer. With that said, don’t look at your mental routine as a magic wand. Just look at it as something that can better your game once it becomes second nature to you on the course.