Your 15th Club

In every sport you hear players talk about “staying mentally focused”, “keeping their head in the game”, or “visualizing the success” among a myriad of other such quotes. These quotes are all different and individual ways to explain the process of mental visualization, which is a product of mental training.

How important is mental training? It has been proven over and over again that the mind is the winning difference. Not only is it the winning difference for top amateurs and professional athletes, but it could be shat is missing from you reaching pinnacles of success at whatever level you strive toward.

First of all, “What is mental training?” Mental training is the discipline of mental practice, imagery, visualization, and positive self-talk; all being used separately and collectively to rehearse your best golf. Mental practice simply means repeating a task in your mind without any movement from your body. Just think about practicing your putting, bunker play, irons, and driver sitting quietly in a room.

Two major reasons come to mind as to why we don’t spend more time doing this. First, many of us have a hard time truly believing psychological practice can as much as physical practice. In recent years this topic has gained more notice. More books and talk show programs have provided more exposure and increased our awareness. I have found that most people just do not understand how to do it, and the discipline it takes to do it.

Second, most of us have a hard time finding the time to sit quietly. The world just seems to get faster and faster. We are always dashing from one appointment to the next. Our schedules are tight, and we have commitments in every direction. We are programmed for action. Go here, do this, hit balls, run errands, etc. Sound familiar? Even with a hectic schedule there are many opportunities throughout the day we could do some mental training. Here are just a few examples: waiting at the Dr.’s office, in line at the grocery store, at the DMV (or any waiting for that matter), first thing in the morning after you wake up, just before you go to sleep (and there is real power in this), in the bath or the sauna, on your way to work in that dreaded traffic (you might find it therapeutic), or maybe just before, during, or after a meal by yourself. Make it a habit and you will reap the rewards.

Imagery is a very specific and a focused type of mental practice and it uses all of the senses to create an experience in the mind. Visualization is just one part of this experience. Close your eyes and picture yourself in the 1st tee of your favorite course. Create your group – who are you playing with? What is the weather like? Can you smell your playing partner’s cigar? See yourself confidently walking up to the tee, bending over and teeing it up, picking out your landing area, taking a smooth relaxed practice swing, then set up, repeat the feel, and then smack!……. an arching drive right down the middle 275-280 yards. It takes some time to create a picture of yourself that you’ll be able to repeat over and over. In the beginning it helps to imitate a favorite player with whom you may identify. Remember the great thing about mental practice is that you are the programmer.

Imagery becomes the key to the learning process. Many athletes imitate or model the actions of other athletes, and use this for their own “mental film”. Imagery is based upon memory and we can create what we want from whatever pieces of memory we chose.

Let’s consider how important the memory is. You have just gotten the fourth tee after “suprisingly” paring the first three holes. You suddenly remember last week you got to this hole and then proceeded to knock two tee shots out of bounds right. Now, what are your chances of making a smooth effortless tee shot here? Your memory, your imagery is not going to be real positive. That is because that’s all you have on your “mental film”. Now if during the last week, you would have reprogrammed your memory and practiced hitting great tee shots off this tee box, your odds have just switched to your favor. You would have a greater likelihood of a successful outcome with the more positive mental imagery in place.

One further note, and just as dangerous of an activity, is the practice of verbalizing a negative experience – and particularly in a repetitive nature. For instance, following the example above in the previous week you probably told someone about your “stupidity”, or “bad luck” and graphically described how “you were even par after three and then proceeded to blow two O.B……etc”. It is human nature that we share all our negative, and we usually are fueling our memory with lots of emotion as we do it. This is very destructive and just increases the difficulty of improving and reinforcing the “good” shots and feelings you are trying to implement.

I strongly recommend you try to avoid the temptation of describing the ugly, and only repeat what you did well. Emotionalize only the positive, and only allow the positive to be at the forefront of your memory. This takes incredible discipline and practice at first, but you will eventually reap the rewards. It will be of much more value than spending another $400 on a new driver. You may not have a lot of time to practice, but if you use what little time you do have wisely, you will hit better golf shots and improve your game.

Happy Golfing!

Jacqui McSorley is co-author of Golf Guide for Parents and Players, along with Johnny Gonzales. She played professionally on the Japan LPGA Tour and currently is an avid supporter of the golf community in northern San Diego county, as she started an LPGA-USGA Girls Golf site.