What is a Process vs. Outcome Approach in Golf? (Video) - by Pete Styles
What is a Process vs. Outcome Approach in Golf? (Video) - by Pete Styles

Here is a question to ask yourself. If you are standing over a tee shot on the 18th hole when you have got a good score card going and you got a nice wide fairway but it is out of bounce down the right hand side. And you are standing up over the golf ball. The question is what are you thinking about? Are you thinking about the outer bounce first? Are you thinking about the target where you want the ball to land? Or are you thinking about the technique that you are going to use to get it there. For a lot of people if they are honest with themselves they would have to admit that they are thinking about outer bounce. And that’s very much outcome focused. And that isn’t really the best way to play golf. If you are thinking too much about the outcome, you get nervous, your swing technique breaks down and you can cause yourself problems. If when you are setting up to the ball in that tight tee shot situation there with the outer bounce fence. You are thinking about your technique. That’s not too bad. I’ll give you five points out of ten for that. That’s not bad. Because at least you are thinking about the right movements that you want to make to produce the right result. That’s okay, but ideally you would save the really technical information fact when you are on the practice ground and when you are grooving your technique on the practice area. When you are actually out in the golf course your best thing is just to focus on the area you want to run the ball on, which clearly here will be the middle of the fairway. Set with great confidence, one last look at target and then pull the trigger and away you go.

If you’ve practiced well enough your technique will know exactly what to do. You almost need to get your brain to disengage and get out of it’s own way. If you are thinking too hard, your brain gets in the way. If you are thinking about where you don’t want the ball to finish, you probably going to hit the ball over there and you certainly are going to be very tight and tense with fear of hitting a bad shot. The best thing to do is focus on the process of, there is the middle of our fairway, go through, and all the pre-shot routine that I’ve done a hundreds of time before. Set up to it. Dispatch it straight down the middle. Watch it with a nice balance finish and focus on where you do want the ball to finish.

 2013-03-29

Here is a question to ask yourself. If you are standing over a tee shot on the 18th hole when you have got a good score card going and you got a nice wide fairway but it is out of bounce down the right hand side. And you are standing up over the golf ball. The question is what are you thinking about? Are you thinking about the outer bounce first? Are you thinking about the target where you want the ball to land? Or are you thinking about the technique that you are going to use to get it there. For a lot of people if they are honest with themselves they would have to admit that they are thinking about outer bounce. And that’s very much outcome focused. And that isn’t really the best way to play golf. If you are thinking too much about the outcome, you get nervous, your swing technique breaks down and you can cause yourself problems.
If when you are setting up to the ball in that tight tee shot situation there with the outer bounce fence. You are thinking about your technique. That’s not too bad. I’ll give you five points out of ten for that. That’s not bad. Because at least you are thinking about the right movements that you want to make to produce the right result. That’s okay, but ideally you would save the really technical information fact when you are on the practice ground and when you are grooving your technique on the practice area. When you are actually out in the golf course your best thing is just to focus on the area you want to run the ball on, which clearly here will be the middle of the fairway. Set with great confidence, one last look at target and then pull the trigger and away you go.

If you’ve practiced well enough your technique will know exactly what to do. You almost need to get your brain to disengage and get out of it’s own way. If you are thinking too hard, your brain gets in the way. If you are thinking about where you don’t want the ball to finish, you probably going to hit the ball over there and you certainly are going to be very tight and tense with fear of hitting a bad shot. The best thing to do is focus on the process of, there is the middle of our fairway, go through, and all the pre-shot routine that I’ve done a hundreds of time before. Set up to it. Dispatch it straight down the middle. Watch it with a nice balance finish and focus on where you do want the ball to finish.