Dave Johnston, B.A., Psychology
Director of Golf Instruction
Author: Just Hit The Damn Ball!
Co-Creator:
Ultimate Golf: A Simple System to A Consistent Golf Swing
and
How to Fix Your Slice Forever!
MENTAL ROADBLOCKS TO CONSISTENCY
Despite quantum advances in golf club technology and free access to unlimited instruction from high profile instructors, the median score for the once-a-week golfer in North America is 92. This figure hasn’t changed appreciably in twenty years!
Have you heard the axiom that golf is ninety percent mental? If the game is primarily “in your head”, then why is ninety percent of golf instruction obsessed with proper technique?
In this brief overview, you will see two (unconscious) beliefs that create mental roadblocks for golfers at every level. Are you ready to unlock your true potential?
Overview
The implicit assumption in standard golf instruction is that a perfect swing will produce perfect results. There is no such thing as a perfect swing. This is the first mental roadblock to improvement. Obviously, you need a knowledge of basic swing mechanics, but with competent instruction and a little due diligence, you can master these in a month.
When I first meet a student, I ask him/her if they’ve taken lessons before. The majority say yes and start to recite a litany of swing faults. Invariably, they describe the technical prerequisites of the swing; head down, left elbow straight, swing slow, shift the weight, turn the shoulders, cock the wrists....
Any of the above sound familiar?
Every avid golfer has enough knowledge of swing mechanics to break ninety. Let’s take a look at two common beliefs or misconceptions that create mental roadblocks to improvement.
What is the one thing every golfer wants but never feels they have?
Answer: Consistency.
How would you define consistency?
Consistency is based on expectations. A low handicap golfer has higher expectations than a golfer who struggles to break one hundred. Makes perfect sense, right? The biggest mental roadblock to consistency is equating consistency with perfection.
What does that mean?
Let’s define a perfect shot as hitting the “sweetspot”. Every golfer has, on occasion, hit a perfect shot; it’s one of those effortless shots you couldn’t hit any better. The essence of the game is discovering the formula to re-create those shots.
Take a moment and recall your last perfect shot. Most of my students can recall the feeling of perfect contact but struggle to remember the actual thought process preceding the shot.
Did you keep your head down or lock your left elbow or transfer the weight faster or pronate the wrists sooner, or…
The answer isn’t trying to remember what you did, but rather “forgetting” what you are supposed to do for half a second and just hit the damn ball!
Perfect shots are a fortuitous accident that often occur when we least expect it.
Perhaps you were trying to layup to a water hazard and hit the ball twenty yards further than intended. Maybe you were wrapped up in a conversation and didn’t realize it was your turn. No time to think. Just stand up and hit the ball. Boom! Two hundred and fifty yards right down the middle of the fairway.
How did you do that? The answer always seems just out of reach.
Nine times out of ten, the more you think about proper technique, the poorer the results. When you equate consistency with perfection, you’re trapped in an endless cycle of fault-finding and error correction.
If perfect shots aren’t the criteria, how do we define consistency? Let’s look at three basic shots; a poor shot,
a mis-hit and a perfect shot.
How would you define a poor shot?
Let’s define a poor shot as one that costs you a stroke. This definition works for all skill levels.
If you hit a shot out of bounds and lose a stroke, that’s a poor shot. If you hit a shot into a water hazard and take a penalty stroke, that’s a poor shot. If you take three shots to get out of a bunker… you get the idea.
Regardless of skill level, a poor shot costs you a stroke.
So far, we’ve defined a poor shot. How about the less than perfect shots? These are the shots that are less than perfect but don’t cost you a stroke. Let’s label these in-between shots as mis-hits.
What’s the difference between a poor shot and a mis-hit? A mis-hit costs you direction and/or distance but doesn’t automatically cost you a stroke. You have a chance to recover.
For example, a mis-hit Drive might land in the rough, but not out of bounds. A mis-hit iron shot might end up in a bunker. Any shot that doesn’t automatically cost you a stroke is a mis-hit.
What’s the point?
Obviously, the definition of a mis-hit depends on skill level, but the common thread is this: at every skill level, the majority of shots are mis-hits.
Consistency is a measure of the quantity and quality of mis-hits.
How do we monitor your progress? Simple. We need a system to keep track of the mis-hits. When you reduce the number or severity, you are more consistent.
Make sense so far? Here are two simple steps that enables you to track your progress.
Step One :
Stop comparing your score to par. Accept mis-hits as inevitable. Make your own scorecard and revise it as you improve. Allow yourself ten mis-hits to start. As you improve, reduce the number of acceptable mis-hits.
Step Two:
Create a rating system. Take a notebook with you and rate every shot out of ten. Rate the shots on quality of contact – not results. How often have you hit a solid shot that hit a rock and veered out of bounds? You can only control the quality of contact. Results are in the hands of the Golf God.
How does the above help you keep track of consistency?
After the game, total your shot quality score. The higher the total, the better the quality of the mis-hits and obviously, the better your mis-hits, the lower your actual score.
Summary
The majority of once-a-week golfers struggle to break ninety consistently. Any golfer with reasonable athletic ability has the potential to score in the eighties. The biggest roadblock to improvement is the belief that technical perfection is the key to consistency. Once you have solid swing fundamentals, the key to consistency is improving the quality of the mis-hits.
The rating system will help you focus on the next shot, instead of falling into the bottomless trap of fault-finding and error correction.
In the next article, you will learn the secret to effective practice.
Thanks for reading!