Taking Baby Steps To Improve Your Golf Slump (Video) - by Pete Styles
Taking Baby Steps To Improve Your Golf Slump (Video) - by Pete Styles

Now depending on how bad and how deep your golf slump is might depend on how long and how quickly it’s going to take you to get back to your original level or if you will ever get to your original level or even above and better than your original level. So let’s consider you’re a 10 handicap golfer and suddenly you start shooting to a 25 handicap level. You can say you’re 15 shots away from playing good golf and those 15 shots are going to feel pretty depressing when you’re out on the golf course. You’re going to feel like wanting to give up at that point. But if we can try and turn you around out of your slump, hopefully you can start to see some light at the end of the tunnel, start to see some positive things happening on the golf course. But it would unrealistic to expect that the second that we start to improve and we start to feel like we’re coming out of the slump that we immediately get back to playing to a 10 handicap again. You’re not going to see those 15 extra shots just disappear overnight, particularly if you’ve been in a slump for quite a while.

What you might start to feel is actually you start to feel like you’re playing better and you start to feel more positive about your game even though your scores don’t necessarily improve. A lot of it can depend on what got you into the slump in the first place. If it was one part of your game that got you into the slump, you might think, “Okay, well now I’ve at least got my putting right. My putting was the reason why I’m in a slump. I’ve now got my putting sorted that should be daylight at the end of the tunnel which should start to get me out of the slump.” And as long as that’s there, the other part of your game will start to follow suit. But really we’re talking about taking baby steps, looking at a longer period of time and thinking well if I can start shooting maybe within 12 shots of my original level then 10 shots the next week and then back, back, back, back, just try and get to original level and improving your golf all the time until you get back to that 10 handicap. But let’s think about this. Let’s not just be satisfied at stopping at that 10 handicap. Let’s use that positivity about feeling of improving every time you go out on the golf course to play. Let’s feel like we can get better than the 10 handicap we once were. Maybe this slump can actually have a positive outcome that every time you go out and play you feel better about it, you enjoy it more, you’re practicing hard, you’re working with a coach more to get yourself back to that 10 handicap. Let’s keep going, let’s see if we can get that handicap down to 9, 8, 7, 6, whatever it might be. Don’t just think, “Oh, I’m back to my 10 handicap level now I can throw the towel and I can stop taking the lessons, I can stop practicing twice a week and I’m just happy playing to 10 handicap level.” See whether you can keep going and see how good you can be and you never know that slump as long as you take those baby steps to get out of it, keep those baby steps going. That slump might actually prove to be positive. 2016-09-30

Now depending on how bad and how deep your golf slump is might depend on how long and how quickly it’s going to take you to get back to your original level or if you will ever get to your original level or even above and better than your original level. So let’s consider you’re a 10 handicap golfer and suddenly you start shooting to a 25 handicap level. You can say you’re 15 shots away from playing good golf and those 15 shots are going to feel pretty depressing when you’re out on the golf course. You’re going to feel like wanting to give up at that point. But if we can try and turn you around out of your slump, hopefully you can start to see some light at the end of the tunnel, start to see some positive things happening on the golf course. But it would unrealistic to expect that the second that we start to improve and we start to feel like we’re coming out of the slump that we immediately get back to playing to a 10 handicap again. You’re not going to see those 15 extra shots just disappear overnight, particularly if you’ve been in a slump for quite a while.

What you might start to feel is actually you start to feel like you’re playing better and you start to feel more positive about your game even though your scores don’t necessarily improve. A lot of it can depend on what got you into the slump in the first place. If it was one part of your game that got you into the slump, you might think, “Okay, well now I’ve at least got my putting right. My putting was the reason why I’m in a slump. I’ve now got my putting sorted that should be daylight at the end of the tunnel which should start to get me out of the slump.” And as long as that’s there, the other part of your game will start to follow suit. But really we’re talking about taking baby steps, looking at a longer period of time and thinking well if I can start shooting maybe within 12 shots of my original level then 10 shots the next week and then back, back, back, back, just try and get to original level and improving your golf all the time until you get back to that 10 handicap.

But let’s think about this. Let’s not just be satisfied at stopping at that 10 handicap. Let’s use that positivity about feeling of improving every time you go out on the golf course to play. Let’s feel like we can get better than the 10 handicap we once were. Maybe this slump can actually have a positive outcome that every time you go out and play you feel better about it, you enjoy it more, you’re practicing hard, you’re working with a coach more to get yourself back to that 10 handicap. Let’s keep going, let’s see if we can get that handicap down to 9, 8, 7, 6, whatever it might be. Don’t just think, “Oh, I’m back to my 10 handicap level now I can throw the towel and I can stop taking the lessons, I can stop practicing twice a week and I’m just happy playing to 10 handicap level.”

See whether you can keep going and see how good you can be and you never know that slump as long as you take those baby steps to get out of it, keep those baby steps going. That slump might actually prove to be positive.