FREE COPY: "How To Solve Your Golf Problems" 190 pg. digitized book.
FREE VIDEO TRAINING SERIES:
  • Perfecting your swing
  • More distance
  • Secret chipping, putting techniques.

We your privacy :)

Overcoming Swing-Killing Nerves In Golf

 

I have been playing golf for 40 years and coached athletes since I was 18.  I have studied the mental side of sports performance, in particular golf, the whole time.  If you do any reading of golf books or take advice from good players and sports psychologists, you WILL hear something like this:

Play one shot at a time

Let go of the outcome

Get in the present moment

Just swing like you do on your practice swing

Mimic easy-going players like Fred Couples or Ernie Els

etc.  Right?

What IS the point of all of this?  What does it accomplish?

It’s to get over the swing-killing nerves in your golf game.

Let me answer the details of how to do that by going first to a friendly game of tennis I was playing with my younger son, now 16, who doesn’t play golf. He loves tennis though and has been playing on his high school team and steadily improving every month.

Now, I consistently tell my boys:  “You are going to be better than me” and other such encouraging words to let them know I believe in them to achieve their goals.  (Parents of young athletes, this is a great tool for you, by the way. More inspiration for youth sports at mentaltoughnesstrainer.com).  But, I usually don’t let them win. I want them to win fair and square and feel good about that when it happens.

As it is, I’m a fair tennis player and enjoy it occasionally now.  For those of you that don’t play tennis, you should know that it has many similarities to golf.

Anyway, during one match with my son, I was up quite a bit and if things didn’t change, I was going to win and we were going to be done very soon.

I wanted to keep playing competitively like this and so I declared to myself that I was going to start hitting the ball harder, going for passing shots, trying all kinds of wild things I wouldn’t normally try and generally, play like we were just rallying (practicing hitting the ball back and forth).  All of this in an effort to let him come back…and maybe to win.

I remember the distinct feeling of going against my principle of not letting my sons beat me, and then saying to myself that I’m going to play crazily anyway so he can come back and win. That somehow, in my mind, that was ok because I wasn’t “technically” letting him win. You see,  I WASNT going to hit balls out of bounds or miss shots on purpose or anything like that. I just played more carefree and even reckless. I secretly wanted him to beat me but I wasn’t going to “tank” the match.

I’ll bet you know what I’m going to say next, huh?

Yep, I started playing amazing and actually sped up the process of beating him.  I was totally shocked at how good I could play this game! It was quite surreal.

After the game, I told my son what I did and we had a long talk about how he could switch his mind into such an attitude when he is playing matches.

…and I’ve been playing around with this idea ever since.

Now, on the surface, this seems simplistic right?  Just tell yourself that this round of golf you are playing doesn’t matter or that it’s just a practice round or something like that.

What was it really during my tennis match that flicked the switch in my body that freed me up to play so well?

That is the key.

Well, I’m sorry to say I don’t have a definitive answer for you. If I did, I would be rich because every athlete on the planet would be at my door.   Overcoming performance anxiety (and this is exactly what we’re talking about) is the holy grail of golfers mental game and ultimately, their scores.

I do have some thoughts for you here that I want to share that may unlock this inner power for you.  For now, you just want to CONSIDER what I write here.  Let these thoughts percolate and sink in.  Don’t be in a hurry to “make it happen” your next round and apply it right away. This didn’t all happen overnight for me and I’m still working on bringing this to the golf course more consistently.

So, I think the real key is in TRULY BELIEVING that you don’t care about winning.  You can’t fake out your body, you have to really mean it. That switch I mentioned in my tennis match is “The idea that you really, truly, have to think that it would be great if your competitor would beat you.”

In fact, as I was playing my son, I was thinking about how I was going to congratulate him afterwards and how good he was going to feel about himself and how good that would make me feel to see him shine like that. (Having kids teaches us so many things).

Let’s bring this back to golf as it all hit me again as I was watching the Masters this year.  Bubba Watson was in a tight match with Jordan Spieth during the final round on Sunday.  And I heard it from the announcer:

Bubba said in an interview that if he doesn’t win that he would be very happy to have Jordan Spieth win.  Here’s another Bubba quote from a news article after the third round:

“I’ve won one, so I’ve got that going for me. If I play bad I still have a green jacket.”

Now, of course, you say. That’s easy for Bubba to relax and not care. He’d already won a Masters…

That’s right. And that was his advantage that Sunday and it got him his second green jacket. But I don’t think that’s the key…

Because I’ve never heard anyone talk about how he said he would be very happy if Jordan Spieth won.  I can’t find the quote in any news article but I promise you I heard it with my own ears.

Can you imagine playing your next competitive round where you actually wished your competition well….seriously and truly?

Try this your next round and let me know what happens. Have fun with it. Don’t push it, just experience it.  Go with it without any expectations of it helping you win anything. Remember, you’ve got to TRULY believe it in order for it to have the desired effect.

In the meantime, I’m going to continue exploring this for you and report what I come up with as I continue working with golfers and other athletes in person.

Love to see your comments below,

Greens and fairways,

Craig

SequenceGolf.com
9 Lake Bellevue Dr. #214
Bellevue WA 98005 USA

 

 

 

 

 

8 Responses

  1. Peter Sykes says:

    Excellent tip. I always play better once I have ‘given up’ trying to win,particularly when I’ve blown two or three holes and know I am out of contention! Then it all all comes together. Wish I could get that thought at the beginning of my round. Welcome back Craig…..good stuff!

    • Craig Sigl says:

      Thanks Peter,

      Isn’t it funny how we do that? I believe you CAN do that at the beginning of your round. Keep working it.

      Greens and Fairways,

      Craig

  2. Laren says:

    I appreciate the direction that this tip takes. It is interesting how many of us seem to experience what Peter has sighted in his comment. There are only a few players that display the “when the going gets tough, the tough get going” capability. It would be interesting to know what mentally happens to the winner type player.
    I will try applying the advice and see how it goes.
    Thanks Craig.

    • Craig Sigl says:

      Hi Laren,

      It’s such a simple concept right? Why don’t we do it then?

      On the other hand, I think it’s fair to say that there are plenty of people who do well with the “tough” concept.
      Everyone is different and it’s up to us to find what works for our mind. I’ll keep pumping out ideas….

      Greens and fairways,

      Craig

      SequenceGolf.com
      9 Lake Bellevue Dr. #214
      Bellevue WA 98005 USA

  3. Mark says:

    I’m sure I’ll be able to use this. I am still fighting the “outcome” when I play, though I am improving on that. This concept might be what finally takes me out of that mindset completely.
    Glad to see this mental game tip – looking forward to more!

  4. Rodney says:

    I hate that you gave this tip, because i had this same mind changing event and approach to my gopf game several years
    ago, i was playing in a golf tournament that was a score plus putts tournament, well i started with two 3 putt double bogeys
    and figured i was done immediately and completely out of contention. so i told the guy in the cart with me that i was going to just try and have fun, well to make a long story short, i won the tounament with a record low score, and on the drive home thinking about what just happened it hit me that it was when i changed my mindset after the second hole and just played without thinking about it i played unbelievable, and that approach not only works in golf, but in alot of aspects in my life

    • Craig Sigl says:

      Hi Rodney,
      You cracked me up laughing with your comment…lol. You are so right that it can work in other areas besides golf. Thank you so much for sharing with all of us.
      Greens and fairways,

      Craig

      SequenceGolf.com
      9 Lake Bellevue Dr. #214
      Bellevue WA 98005 USA

Leave a Reply

*