The one thing about golf is that once you are on the course it is only you out there. That is unless you are a Tour Player. Tour Players have caddies. The carry the bag, make sure the player has what they need. Keep the equipment clean. But most importantly they exchange advice with the player on club choices, reading greens and shaping shots. But the most important thing a caddie does is act as a coach out there during the round. They help keep their player stay in it when things go bad and not get overly confident when thing are going good. They are there to support their player and let them know that they can do it. When we are out there playing our weekend round many time we talk to ourselves about what we want or don’t want to happen. We also have a few words for ourselves when we start to play poorly. The problem is that when that happens we don’t use positive talk like a caddie or a coach would. We usually use negative self talk. This will only lead to poor results.
The last thing a caddie would say to a player that missed a shot is “ Nice shot pal! You stink!” They would use more positive words like.” That’s okay, we can still make Par on this hole.” The point here is we need to always be positive and when we are sooner or later things will move in a positive direction. I know it’s not easy. Especially when you just hit one in the water or out of bounds. We have to remind ourselves that Golf is a tough game and the odds of hitting a perfect shot every time is very low. If we can minimize our errors mentally we will have a better chance of making better shots. If we don’t we can know that it is part of the game. This takes the pressure off and allows you to play tension. The less tension the freely we can Swing in balance and tempo. This too leads to better shots. So the next time you are playing if you hit a poor shot try to be positive. Think of when you hit a pure shot and leave that in your mind. The more you think positive the more positive effect it will have over your game. The more you have negative self talk the worse you will play. I know I always try to recall when I hit a perfect shot. How did I feel when that happened? Positive and happy. But when I hit a bad shot I felt frustrated and upset. So I try to think of the time I hit a great shot. I also try to smile. Believe it or not it is hard to feel upset when you smile. I know it sounds crazy but give it a try the next time you play. Keep that smile on your face between shots good or bad and watch how over time and practice with this your overall game will improve. It’s all in your attitude and that believe it or not is the one thing with practice and we can control to be consistent with. We all want consistency in our golf game. So practice this when you play. Positive self talk build confidence and make us feel better then we are doing at the moment. Like the old saying goes “Fake it till you make it!”
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