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By: Gregg Steinberg, WGCA contributing writer
While confidence is an essential ingredient for successful golf, it is as fickle as an eight-year-old boy in a candy store. One moment he wants to try the sweet Gummy Bears and the next he will gobble up the sour chews. Birdies can give you a sweet air of invincibility while a series of bogeys can make you sour on your golf ability.
As he stood on the 13th tee on Sunday, Fabian Gomez had reached 20 under par at the Sony Open. He knew he had the championship within his grasp.
Then he proceeded to bogey both the 13th and 14th holes. Fabian could have lost his confidence and fallen into a downward spiral of negativity. But instead, he rebounded and finished with an amazing birdie putt on the 72nd hole to finish at 20 under par and into a playoff, which he won over Brandt Snedeker.
Once you begin to lose your confidence, it is difficult to gain that sweet feeling back again. When this happens, it seems as if the game has become your enemy. All you think about is the trouble rather than focusing on the desired result.
Like Fabian Gomez, to play at your best under pressure, you must be able to keep your confidence, regardless of how easily the bogeys seem to be appearing on your card. You can keep your confidence with the following key strategies:
1) Believe that confidence is your choice. Regardless of how badly you
are playing and scoring, confidence is always your choice. You can continually make a statement such as “I choose to be confident” to beat away those negative thoughts.
2) Keep a confidence journal. Every time you had a great round, write
down how you were feeling and thinking. Keep this journal in your golf bag and look at it throughout the round to get a great jolt of confidence
3) Have a golden nugget. A golden nugget is a visualization of a great
shot. Perhaps it was that 5-iron that you nutted last week to three inches. Before the round, visualize this shot over and over again so that when you hit a few shots, you will remember this golden moment and it will boost your confidence.
Centuries ago, the renowned philosopher Rene Descartes wrote that we have the capacity to think whatever we choose. That human truth is the same today. You always have the choice to have a great attitude or terrible one. If you make the right choice, the chances are much greater that you will become the player you always wanted to be.
(Bio: Dr. Gregg Steinberg is a professor of sports psychology at Austin Peay State University. He has been ranked by Golf Digest as one of the world’s greatest sports psychologists and has worked with many PGA Tour players, including Brandt Snedeker, Brian Gay and many more. He is the head sports psychologist for the International Golf Psychology Association. To help your mental game, visit www.masteringgolfpsychology.com to see some free videos and articles.)
By: Dave Hill WGCA contributing writer
A photograph is a still shot in our minds, a suspension of time, a memory that gives and helps of live. This article will be short.
I recently lost someone close, a pillar of stability in our family. It is in these times as humans we reflect about life. None of us know our destiny. Our past offers options; we can learn from, dwell on and/or cherish our history. It is the present, however, most worthy of embracing.
There is presently a 70-year ongoing Harvard study about happiness.
Seven decades earlier, researchers asked a large group of young boys from an impoverished Boston neighborhood what they believe would help lead them to a happy and fulfilling life. Not surprisingly, they all answered, in some form or another, bar none: To be rich/successful and/or famous. We’d likely hear the same answers from our youth today.
Four generations of researchers later, the study has revealed a conclusive finding amongst the many kids within who are now in their eighties, only one finding in spite of the plethora of careers and socio-economic standing of the study’s participants. As it turns out, some had very successful careers and others remained impoverished. Some became wealthy, and even one became president of the United States.
Again, in spite of where one stood in their respective life 70 years forward, the only characteristic in common attributing to each individual’s fulfillment regarding a happy life was the personal relationships they fostered with others throughout their lives. Some were in the past and based upon fond memories. Earlier, I mentioned cherishing the past. The research participants didn’t cherish the past at all. They cherish the present to provide the best memories.
I lost a family member, I lost a friend, I lost one of my brethren (he, too, was a golf professional) and I lost a golfing partner. The memories are fond.
We are lucky we work in a profession that most call a hobby or a lifestyle. Some are young getting started, others are in the midst of their careers, while others are seasoned veterans. Whether young, old, or somewhere in between, the next time you are out teaching or playing the game, remember there are two relationships you are nurturing: one with an individual and one with the game.
There is only one thing more satisfying than seeing the look of exuberance of a student or a playing partner hitting the perfect shot.
It is the knowledge of you knowing they have taken a snapshot of the ball in a still-frame as it reaches its apex as it inevitably toward its intended target. You know this because this is the essence of the game you have lived many times. Everything feels right as the ball leaves the club and your eyes focus in on the hurtling sphere, and the present moment becomes etched in your memory forever. Cherish the shot and enjoy the happiness the photograph provides forever.
Having studied very successful golf instructors for many years, I have discovered one important trait that they all have in common that you do not see with the average golf teacher.
This one thing goes right to the heart of how human beings learn physical motion. For the sake of space and your boredom, I won’t go deep into motor skill learning. The simplest way to understand how we learn motion is to think of how you learned to eat, drive or brush your teeth.
Motor skill learning in its most basic form is repetitive motion that is learned and captured in the nerves that connect the brain to the muscles. Having spent most of the last twenty years helping golf professionals learn to improve their teaching skills, the one thing I have noticed more than any other shortcoming is the lack of understanding how the dynamic of motor skill learning works.
So, what is this one trait? Besides the obvious, which is the ability to communicate well, the one trait is the understanding that human beings learn from feel.
Successful instructors not only verbally explain the motion, but they actually interact with the student by helping them physically make the motion. New or inexperienced instructors spend the majority or even all of their instruction time verbally teaching the student. While all of us that teach the game have the desire to help people play better golf, we need to understand better how humans learn.
Therefore, it is not a lack of caring or effort on the part of teacher. It is simply a lack of education. Either through experience, education or even trial and error, successful instructors understand what the famous instructor Gary Wiren said forty years ago: “A golfer needs to clearly feel and understand what he or she is trying to do. Even more simply put, golf is a game of feel. “
Our main purpose as golf instructors trying to help our students improve is to teach what the motion should feel like. The only truly effective way to do that is to physically move them or the club while attached to them. Teach feel. Some of us can watch and imitate. A very, very small percentage can read it and then translate the written word into motion. But the vast majority of us need to be taught how the correct motion feels. Watching instructors attempting to help their students, I see them way too frequently attempt to talk their students into a better motion, commanding verbally, “Don’t do this or don’t do that.”
Back to our basic motor skill learning. As we make a movement, the human brain is wired to learn motion so as to repeat that motion eventually on a subconscious level. Think of having to learn to use your fork and spoon from the beginning every time you ate a meal. That would make for some long dinners. Try this simple motion. Take your hand from a positon of resting it on a table and use your index finger to touch the tip of your nose. This simple motion has six million possible motion variances; that’s correct, six million. Therefore, one aspect of simple survival for us is our ability to learn motion.
Next time you are giving a lesson, ask yourself, “How much am I talking and not showing?” Understandably, some are apprehensive to physically help their students. That is completely understandable. But an important step of improving your instruction is to get over that fear and just do it. They can’t release the energy of the club head through impact? They have never felt their hands stay solid through impact on a chip or putt? Help them swing the club slowly through impact, teaching them to feel the correct movement. Trust me, the reward and response you get from your students from teaching feel will surprise you.
