Instruction
6 fundamental steps to building your mental game
A big problem I see with golfers is that most players understand the importance of the mental game to performance, but don’t know how to develop it. There’s a lot of work required to build the necessary mental skills, just like there’s a lot of work that goes into building a proper golf swing.
Similar to the physical game, there’s a lot of information out there about the mental/emotional game that offers short-term tips, tricks and shortcuts. While those ploys are seductive, they aren’t a long-term solution.
Instead, we need to build a strong mental foundation from which we can build upon. Building the right foundation and then shaping that based on our strengths, limitations and triggers is the way to create sustainable performance and a stable mental/emotional platform.
So how can you begin to work on your mental game each day so that you build it over time and it becomes a core strength? Below are keys to develop a long-lasting, stable mental approach to play your best golf.
The 6 fundamentals
Follow these steps to building a strong mental golf game:
- What’s your plan? Create a plan for exactly what you want and what you want to achieve in the game. What would you like to do and what might be the steps to accomplish it? So many players have no direction, no timelines and do not know what they want — so there is constant frustration and a feeling like they are on a treadmill, going nowhere. Have a plan and a long-term direction.
- Why do you play? It seems simple, but it is an important question to support your plan. The best, most authentic reasons for playing are because you love the game and enjoy the feeling you get from it. If these are your reasons, keep them fresh in your mind and be careful not to get caught up in all the negative little details that can distract you from these genuine purposes.
- Assess, assess, assess. Knowing where you are is important in taking the steps to improvement. We assess every athlete to understand where he or she might be mentally/emotionally and it provides a starting point in creating a development plan. Do you know exactly what you need mentally/emotionally so you can create your own plan? We use the Emotional Intelligence Sports Inventory (ESi) at newedgeperformance.org to help us get initial baseline readings from which we can build a game plan.
- Reflect. It’s very important to use the information you are creating in your game to always move forward. Take the lessons from each practice session and each round and evaluate what specific areas need work. The best players take at least one lesson from every practice session or round and apply it moving forward. Ask yourself what you learned from each of your sessions and rounds and how this information can be adapted moving forward.
- Create your own “emotional caddie.” Build your own positive support system — an environment within yourself that you can play in. The tendency for most players is to be negative and self-critical. Learn to build a conscience and voice that supports what you do and is your own best friend. Download my book, free to you, to learn more about building your emotional caddie. See johnhaime.com for download: Chapters 7 and 8.
- Always build confidence. Understand what confidence is, threats to your confidence, when you might have confidence and when you don’t, and create a plan to proactively build it. Fear is often the antithesis of confidence. What causes fear in your game and prevents you from having a positive, proactive, confident approach?
There are many skills required to having a solid, positive, authentic mental/emotional approach. Like the golf swing and the physical skills required to play the game, however, the fundamentals and foundation are the backbone of this part of your game, too. With a solid foundation and structure, you will still encounter the unavoidable low points, but you will have the skills to navigate these points and move out of them quickly.
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Crazy how we used to teach to lock up the lower body to coil the upper body around it for perceived speed? All we got were sore backs and an enriched medical community! See here why this was pure nonsense!
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While there are many golfers who barely know where the practice (I don’t like calling it a “driving”) range is located, there are many who find it a place of adventure, discovery and fun. I’m in the latter group, which could be accented by the fact that I make my living in this industry. But then, I’ve always been a “ball beater,” since I was a kid, but now I approach my practice sessions with more purpose and excitement. There’s no question that practice is the key to improvement in anything, so today’s topic is on making practice as much fun as playing.
As long as I can remember, I’ve loved the range, and always embrace the challenge of learning new ways to make a golf ball do what I would like it to do. So, today I’m sharing my “top 5” tips for making practice fun and productive.
- Have a mission/goal/objective. Whether it is a practice range session or practice time on the course, make sure you have a clearly defined objective…how else will you know how you’re doing? It might be to work on iron trajectory, or finding out why you’ve developed a push with your driver. Could be to learn how to hit a little softer lob shot or a knockdown pitch. But practice with a purpose …always.
- Don’t just “do”…observe. There are two elements of learning something new. The first is to figure out what it is you need to change. Then you work toward that solution. If your practice session is to address that push with the driver, hit a few shots to start out, and rather than try to fix it, make those first few your “lab rats”. Focus on what your swing is doing. Do you feel anything different? Check your alignment carefully, and your ball position. After each shot, step away and process what you think you felt during the swing.
- Make it real. To just rake ball after ball in front of you and pound away is marginally valuable at best. To make practice productive, step away from your hitting station after each shot, rake another ball to the hitting area, then approach the shot as if it was a real one on the course. Pick a target line from behind the ball, meticulously step into your set-up position, take your grip, process your one swing thought and hit it. Then evaluate how you did, based on the shot result and how it felt.
- Challenge yourself. One of my favorite on-course practice games is to spend a few minutes around each green after I’ve played the hole, tossing three balls into various positions in an area off the green. I don’t let myself go to the next tee until I put all three within three feet of the hole. If I don’t, I toss them to another area and do it again. You can do the same thing on the range. Define a challenge and a limited number of shots to achieve it.
- Don’t get in a groove. I was privileged enough to watch Harvey Penick give Tom Kite a golf lesson one day, and was struck by the fact that he would not let Tom hit more than five to six shots in a row with the same club. Tom would hit a few 5-irons, and Mr. Penick would say, “hit the 8”, then “hit the driver.” He changed it up so that Tom would not just find a groove. That paved the way for real learning, Mr. Penick told me.
My “bonus” tip addresses the difference between practicing on the course and keeping a real score. Don’t do both. A practice session is just that. On-course practice is hugely beneficial, and it’s best done by yourself, and at a casual pace. Playing three or four holes in an hour or so, taking time to hit real shots into and around the greens, will do more for your scoring skills than the same amount of range time.
So there you have my five practice tips. I’m sure I could come up with more, but then we always have more time, right?
More from the Wedge Guy
- The Wedge Guy: Anyone can be a better wedge player by doing these simple things
- Wedge Guy: There’s no logic to iron fitting
- The Wedge Guy: Mind the gap
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As someone who has observed rank-and-file recreational golfers for most of my life – over 50 years of it, anyway – I have always been baffled by why so many mid- to high-handicap golfers throw away so many strokes in prime scoring range.
For this purpose, let’s define “prime scoring range” as the distance when you have something less than a full-swing wedge shot ahead of you. Depending on your strength profile, that could be as far as 70 to 80 yards or as close as 30 to 40 yards. But regardless of whether you are trying to break par or 100, your ability to get the ball on the green and close enough to the hole for a one-putt at least some of the time will likely be one of the biggest factors in determining your score for the day.
All too often, I observe golfers hit two or even three wedge shots from prime scoring range before they are on the green — and all too often I see short-range pitch shots leave the golfer with little to no chance of making the putt.
This makes no sense, as attaining a level of reasonable proficiency from short range is not a matter of strength profile at all. But it does take a commitment to learning how to make a repeating and reliable half-swing and doing that repeatedly and consistently absolutely requires you to learn the basic fundamentals of how the body has to move the club back and through the impact zone.
So, let’s get down to the basics to see if I can shed some light on these ultra-important scoring shots.
- Your grip has to be correct. For the club to move back and through correctly, your grip on the club simply must be fundamentally sound. The club is held primarily in the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. Period. The lower hand has to be “passive” to the upper hand, or the mini-swing will become a quick jab at the ball. For any shot, but particularly these short ones, that sound grip is essential for the club to move through impact properly and repeatedly.
- Your posture has to be correct. This means your body is open to the target, feet closer together than even a three-quarter swing, and the ball positioned slightly back of center.
- Your weight should be distributed about 70 percent on your lead foot and stay there through the mini-swing.
- Your hands should be “low” in that your lead arm is hanging naturally from your shoulder, not extended out toward the ball and not too close to the body to allow a smooth turn away and through. Gripping down on the club is helpful, as it gets you “closer to your work.
- This shot is hit with a good rotation of the body, not a “flip” or “jab” with the hands. Controlling these shots with your body core rotation and leading the swing with your body core and lead side will almost ensure proper contact. To hit crisp pitch shots, the hands have to lead the clubhead through impact.
- A great drill for this is to grip your wedge with an alignment rod next to the grip and extending up past your torso. With this in place, you simply have to rotate your body core through the shot, as the rod will hit your lead side and prevent you from flipping the clubhead at the ball. It doesn’t take but a few practice swings with this drill to give you an “ah ha” moment about how wedge shots are played.
- And finally, understand that YOU CANNOT HIT UP ON A GOLF BALL. The ball is sitting on the ground so the clubhead has to be moving down and through impact. I think one of the best ways to think of this is to remember this club is “a wedge.” So, your simple objective is to wedge the club between the ball and the ground. The loft of the wedge WILL make the ball go up, and the bounce of the sole of the wedge will prevent the club from digging.
So, why is mastering the simple pitch shot so important? Because my bet is that if you count up the strokes in your last round of golf, you’ll likely see that you left several shots out there by…
- Either hitting another wedge shot or chip after having one of these mid-range pitch shots, or
- You did not get the mid-range shot close enough to even have a chance at a makeable putt.
If you will spend even an hour on the range or course with that alignment rod and follow these tips, your scoring average will improve a ton, and getting better with these pitch shots will improve your overall ball striking as well.
More from the Wedge Guy
- Wedge Guy: There’s no logic to iron fitting
- The Wedge Guy: Understanding iron designs, Part 1
- The Wedge Guy: Understanding iron designs, Part 2
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Pingback: 6 fundamental steps to building your mental game - Dan Hansen Golf Instruction
John Haime
Oct 20, 2015 at 4:19 pm
Thanks Dan.
The very best to you!
John
Ale
Oct 15, 2015 at 6:56 am
Hi john I just read your 6 steps and the comments. I am not sure why you need professional credentials as stated in one of the comments . I agree that practical experience is what helps .
My grandson is a junior golfer and at times can’t move forward from a bad shot . Advice from his swing coach that we have had for 3 years helps him and he does not have a degree in psychology. Playing the game as a pro you find out what you need to move on from a bad shot.
Thanks for the advice.
John Haime
Oct 15, 2015 at 8:59 am
Thanks Ale – agreed.
I have found that performance goes far beyond the reaches of sport psychology – sports psyche is a small part of the puzzle. Professional credentials is a good starting point – and a step in the right direction – but applying learning in a very fast paced environment is very different – where results are demanded. Actively listenting, understanding people and what they need is also a skill that can’t really be taught. It really is about lifelong learning, learning from each situation and creating a process that can work in reality – and adapting that process to each athlete or team.
Many of the best people in performance in sports, who generated consistent results, have been the great coaches. John Wooden might be the best example. He created a culture and environment for athletes to play in – and was able to give them what they needed to excel. John grew up on a farm in Indiana, attended Purdue, had great coaching influences (Piggy Lambert at Purdue) and created a new approach at UCLA when he arrived. UCLA was 3-9 in conference when he arrived, had a few average seasons and then won 10 national championships in 12 years.
Thanks very much for the comment and story. The best to your grandson in his development as a golfer.
marcel
Oct 14, 2015 at 10:18 pm
there is a way to this. just go to your GP, tell its your marital issues, get the mental referral and then see shrink. with the shirk focus on mental strength related to golf.
sally
Oct 14, 2015 at 10:54 am
Do you incorporate any mindfulness practices into your teachings?
John Haime
Oct 14, 2015 at 11:00 am
Hi Sally,
Yes, with some performers very effective. Supports our work in self-awareness with the athletes. As you know, being able to focus in the moment is key in high performance. A focus on the past and future can be a major distraction and roadblock for performers depending on the degree.
Thanks for the comment!!
Thom G.
Oct 14, 2015 at 7:01 am
Being a retired Special Operations soldier of over 23 years, I’ve realized that E.I. played/plays a big part on how operators achieve success on missions. Through constant rehearsals, training and a fast paced operational tempo, gun slingers develop techniques to enable them to handle stress, make split second decisions and become highly proficient at their jobs during situations where most “normal” humans would freeze. Thanks for your insightful article.
John Haime
Oct 14, 2015 at 9:31 am
Great to have someone with practical experience make a great comment. You’ve been in the field under fire – so understand the value of controlling emotion and keeping things in perspective under pressure.
Golfer and all athletes have nowhere near this kind of pressure as sports is not life and death. But, the principles of recognizing emotions and managing them under pressure apply.
Thank-you so much for your service. Thanks also for thoughts and pleased you appreciate the article.
CD
Oct 14, 2015 at 3:53 am
I think it’s a good topic area and you have the experience to talk about it. I didn’t like the plug for your own product because it sounds like an independent company ‘we use…’ implying that you’ve looked at other companies products and it’s clearly your company. That’s (extremely) disingenuous (at best). I’m not sure how much $99 is as I don’t live in the states. It sounds expensive for something that is pretty intangible and esoteric.
I think the principles you espouse are very sound but they seem heavy on goal-setting and assessment and less on the content. What about practical steps for building confidence in a variety of golf specific contexts? What about effective suggestions for practice and development that marry technical and mental processes?
What about context? I also think they play upon the desire in us to get better. Which is fine, and a positive attitude and optimism is obviously beneficial. But I think reference surely has to be made to time available and where golf ranks amongst life’s priorities. The tendency is for people to get carried away (especially if they love the game and if they’re in wrx they probably do) with an unrealistic assessment of their ability within the context of everything else in their lives.
John Haime
Oct 14, 2015 at 10:54 am
Hey CD,
I think you’ll find some good info in the other articles I have written for WRX – confidence being one. They should give you some good ideas.
Please note that assessment and goalsetting are critical to performance. They give people starting points (and end points) and a path forward. How do you know what to work on if you don’t assess it? How do you know where you are going if you don’t have a plan and steps to get there? This is the weak point of many athletes. They work and work and have no direction – and wasted alot of time going in circles. The focus of this article is on foundation and fundamentals not specific details. Please follow the articles in the coming months for more.
FYI – I have given you a good article, my best-selling book and directed you to a world-class assessment that we have vetted as one of the best in the industry. Please note there are significant costs to a GOOD assessment. There are some that are online for free – but there is no science and validation behind them. The ESi is validated, has some great science behind it. It is also in a great format for you. It’s certainly a first for me to be called extremely disingenuous. I am only trying to help – and please realize we also have costs and it takes time and energy to produce great content for you – that you consume for free.
Stay tuned for more. Thanks again for your giving your opinion.
CD
Oct 14, 2015 at 4:15 pm
What you say is fine, I’m grateful for your polite response too. I’m not trying to get things for free, no problem at all paying a fair price. I’m also sure your product is excellent and this article has already been very informative and a reminder too – thank you, genuinely. I just think if you say ‘we use’ and then point to your *own* product, that is very disingenuous; it clearly implies some impartiality which isn’t there and it probably detracts from how good (I’m sure) it in fact is. Just be straight.
anon
Oct 13, 2015 at 7:42 pm
Rekt
shimmy
Oct 13, 2015 at 12:25 pm
You should re-write your blurb to say that you’re “one of the world’s leading authorities in the (disputed notion of) Emotional Intelligence”.
John Haime
Oct 13, 2015 at 1:11 pm
Thanks for the comment. Would be great to have your name and background to determine if your comment is worth taking seriously.
Everything can be disputed. Nothing in life is perfect or absolute. The only thing in performance that matters is results. We have the client list and track record to highlight that our interpretation of the principles around “Emotional Intelligence” work and move our performers to higher levels. There is nothing to dispute re: “being smart about emotions”. If you are a performer you know that emotions run the show in performance – so having knowledge and education around them might be a smart thing to do.
Many of the world’s top business leaders and thinkers integrate “Emotional Intelligence” into their cultures and understand the value in leadership. See http://www.billgeorge.org – one of the world’s leading experts on leadership. “Emotional Intelligence” is woven through everything he does and he actively pronounces the importance. Bill is at Harvard, a former successful CEO at Medtronic and comments on leadership on the networks.
Happy to take this offline if you would like more information and resources.
The best to you.
shimmy
Oct 14, 2015 at 11:12 am
Let’s just say that I’m around psychologists every day and I respect their expertise. It’s a little difficult to trust someone who calls himself one of the “world’s leading authorities” in a (controversial) subject when, as far as I can tell, he lacks academic credentials and seems to be here to sell his wares.
I am a performer for a living – not in golf – and I do recognize the importance of a deep understanding of one’s self and how that interacts with success “on stage”. I would just prefer people seek the help of a properly trained psychologist instead of an “interpreter” of psychological concepts.
John Haime
Oct 14, 2015 at 11:37 am
Thanks for the comment Shimmy – probably better to take this offline as mentioned. The social sciences is a long conversation.
Please note that working with athletes and performers is not clinical psychology but coaching. I hire Sports Psychologists on a regular basis and very few have been able to get the results the athletes are looking for. And, as I mention – it’s about results and nothing else. Paper on the wall is great – it gets your foot in the door – but it’s not the real world of results. A pro athlete in his contract year could not care less about educational credentials – they want results and if you don’t produce them – you don’t last.
See Thom’s comment above. Great comment that has value as he is in the field under fire under the most extreme conditions. Certainly gives EI some practical credibility.
Thanks again for your opinion.
BW
Oct 15, 2015 at 7:58 pm
you get what you pay for, bro.