Improve Your Mental Toughness In Golf, Part II (Video) - by Pete Styles
Improve Your Mental Toughness In Golf, Part II (Video) - by Pete Styles

One of the piece of advice that a lot of golfers get when they go out in the golf course people just say to them, “Just be confident you can do it.” Well I say well and good but where do you get confidence from you can’t buy it, you can’t manufacture it, you can’t even just think about being confident. Confidence is gained by understanding the fundamentals of the game by understanding your technique and it’s really gained on the practice tee. Standing there on the practice tee repeating the same shot over and over again, that’s where you get confidence from. Knowing in your own mind the ability that you have to hit that ball that you want to hit under pressure on the golf course, because I’ve done it 100 times in practice I have the confidence that I’m going to be able to do it for real life on the golf course.

The next thing that you got to really focus when you go out in the golf course is that the conditions aren’t always going to be the same. Every time you go and play there might be some bumpy greens, there might be some strong winds; there might be a soft squashy golf course. The thing you have to notice is that that’s the same golf course for everybody no one really gets a bad drawer in golf. You know the weather might change slightly but apart from that the golf course is going be the same for everybody. So you’ve just got tot accept that, you’ve got to learn to deal with the things you can change but accept the things that you can’t change. So if the golf course is bumpy and difficult and there’s a wind blowing that’s the same for everybody. So just get out there and enjoy it, and accept the challenge.

The other thing I think you should be focusing on is when you watch the best players in the world play, you often can’t really whether the guy’s about to win the tournament or whether his about to go home on the Friday night missing the cup. They almost walk around the golf course with just a poker face on. In fact some golfers are often told they’re sort of too distant, they’re not engaging with the fans, they’re not exciting enough. Because they just walk around the golf course almost you know not talking to anybody, monosyllabic, eyes straight forwards just looking around and you know someone like David Devour with his glasses on, his hat pulled down, you can’t really engage with the guy because his just a bit too focused. So if you’re out on the golf course try and make sure tat when you’re playing you’re not sort of showing too many emotions, you’re not angry, you’re not upset, you’re not sad. You’re just in the zone, if you had a bogey or you’ve had a birdie try and level out your mental approach somewhat.

Another area that I’d like you to focus on is when you’re actually playing; you focus a lot more on the process of playing rather than the outcome of what shots you get. So when you’re playing your shots, the swing is much more about having one or two simple mental keys to your set up so it’s maybe just temple or smoothness. So smooth swing and away she goes. And we’re not going to get too focused on the mental approach sorry the technical approach of where did the ball land and don’t hit it over here and don’t hit it over here. Focus much more on just the process of a nice smooth golf swing and that will really help you produce some much better shots. If you can do that your mental toughness will really improve and the last thing really is stay positive, stay in the zone, stay happy about what you do. Don’t let any negative self talk happen, you’ll hit good shots, you’ll hit bad shots, stay on even keel. If it’s a bad shot don’t worry about it walk quickly to get up to the golf ball set yourself the challenge of getting it back in play. Make sure you don’t make anything worse than a bogey and be in the positive frame of mind all the time. Golf is a very tough mental sport; if you can overcome it as mental game you’ll improve your golf, improve score and enjoy it far more.

 2013-04-03

One of the piece of advice that a lot of golfers get when they go out in the golf course people just say to them, “Just be confident you can do it.” Well I say well and good but where do you get confidence from you can’t buy it, you can’t manufacture it, you can’t even just think about being confident. Confidence is gained by understanding the fundamentals of the game by understanding your technique and it’s really gained on the practice tee. Standing there on the practice tee repeating the same shot over and over again, that’s where you get confidence from. Knowing in your own mind the ability that you have to hit that ball that you want to hit under pressure on the golf course, because I’ve done it 100 times in practice I have the confidence that I’m going to be able to do it for real life on the golf course.

The next thing that you got to really focus when you go out in the golf course is that the conditions aren’t always going to be the same. Every time you go and play there might be some bumpy greens, there might be some strong winds; there might be a soft squashy golf course. The thing you have to notice is that that’s the same golf course for everybody no one really gets a bad drawer in golf. You know the weather might change slightly but apart from that the golf course is going be the same for everybody. So you’ve just got tot accept that, you’ve got to learn to deal with the things you can change but accept the things that you can’t change. So if the golf course is bumpy and difficult and there’s a wind blowing that’s the same for everybody. So just get out there and enjoy it, and accept the challenge.

The other thing I think you should be focusing on is when you watch the best players in the world play, you often can’t really whether the guy’s about to win the tournament or whether his about to go home on the Friday night missing the cup. They almost walk around the golf course with just a poker face on. In fact some golfers are often told they’re sort of too distant, they’re not engaging with the fans, they’re not exciting enough. Because they just walk around the golf course almost you know not talking to anybody, monosyllabic, eyes straight forwards just looking around and you know someone like David Devour with his glasses on, his hat pulled down, you can’t really engage with the guy because his just a bit too focused. So if you’re out on the golf course try and make sure tat when you’re playing you’re not sort of showing too many emotions, you’re not angry, you’re not upset, you’re not sad. You’re just in the zone, if you had a bogey or you’ve had a birdie try and level out your mental approach somewhat.

Another area that I’d like you to focus on is when you’re actually playing; you focus a lot more on the process of playing rather than the outcome of what shots you get. So when you’re playing your shots, the swing is much more about having one or two simple mental keys to your set up so it’s maybe just temple or smoothness. So smooth swing and away she goes. And we’re not going to get too focused on the mental approach sorry the technical approach of where did the ball land and don’t hit it over here and don’t hit it over here. Focus much more on just the process of a nice smooth golf swing and that will really help you produce some much better shots. If you can do that your mental toughness will really improve and the last thing really is stay positive, stay in the zone, stay happy about what you do. Don’t let any negative self talk happen, you’ll hit good shots, you’ll hit bad shots, stay on even keel. If it’s a bad shot don’t worry about it walk quickly to get up to the golf ball set yourself the challenge of getting it back in play. Make sure you don’t make anything worse than a bogey and be in the positive frame of mind all the time. Golf is a very tough mental sport; if you can overcome it as mental game you’ll improve your golf, improve score and enjoy it far more.