Assess Your Efforts to Be Your Best!
Looking to get the most out of your golf game? All great players, not just those who are trying to be, remain in perpetual pursuit of maximizing all aspects of their game and self so that the whole of their game can be at its best.
What better example than Tiger Woods, who regardless of income, ranking, most recent victory, or current new record always has something he is determined to improve. These parts entail far more than increasing his accuracy off the T or gaining greater control of his emotions, both of which have gotten considerable amounts of his attention even after proving himself a champion. They also include his training to increase strength and endurance; surgery to improve vision; and even carefully scheduling time off (at the risk of being criticized) for adequate rest and personal time away from golf. All his efforts are balanced in a personalized way to meet his own needs and directed toward the performance and outcome goals he has set.
As just one example, almost immediately after winning the 2000 PGA Championship at Valhalla, Tiger identified what in his game he needed to improve. He then spent most of the following day working on these things before traveling to the subsequent event, the WGC-NEC Invitational at Firestone Country Club. He won by 11 strokes!
Even if you do not aspire to be the world’s greatest golfer, there are steps you can take to maximize your game, meet your own goals and be the best golfer you can be. Take a few moments to assess the quality of your own efforts toward playing your best golf.
Components for Reaching Your Potential
We have organized the contributors to peak performance into four key areas. This will allow you to make a quick check of the quality of your current efforts. Keep in mind that when you are tweaking your game, the approach, balance, and amount of time you put into these areas is ever-changing. They will be as individual to you as your personality, athletic ability, learning style, physical and mental condition, stage of development and goals. It is our hope that in reviewing the following areas and descriptions, this newsletter will give you a simple start toward organizing, refining, or confirming your own steps toward achieving your golf potential.
No matter what your goals or how much time you have available for golf, if your objective is to get the most out of your game you need to direct some quality effort toward each of these areas.
Following is a brief description of each area followed by a checklist of steps to help you quickly assess your current efforts. Review and consider how you would rate yourself on a 1-10 scale for each question. Use the results to help set goals for maximizing your performance and helping you reach your golfing potential.
Physical Skills
This is the composite of your natural and trained skills, the fundamentals of your physical game. These evolve and fluctuate over your lifetime of playing golf, sometimes getting worse before they get better! Playing your best requires that you keep your skills sharp, develop new skills as you progress, and continually learn from your experiences with a balance of practice and lessons that best fits your personality and your learning style.
Rate the following questions/prompts on a 1-10 scale.
1. I have defined, or am in the process of defining, my style of play, my fundamentals and am committed to developing them rather than continuing to cycle through the many styles and theories of others.
2. I have found a golf coach that compliments my efforts by “being my eyes”, “speaking my language” and teaching my style of play. This teacher understands my style, such as: my tendency to left-brain mechanics and logic or to right-brain concepts and feel; toward dominant, shorter aggressive swings or to passive, smoother, longer swings; toward needing small amounts of information often, or large amounts of information less frequently.
3. I monitor my play so that at any given time I have an idea of where I would rate my skills with each of my clubs on a one-to-ten scale (relative to my best game).
4. I set goals for my practice and my lessons based on these ratings and plan quality time to accomplish them.
5. I practice with a goal in mind, seldom out of boredom, guilt, to escape problems or to punish myself for bad play.
6. I emphasize quality over quantity when I practice. If I am too tired, frustrated or angry for quality, I delay my practice.
7. I am aware of and act on the signs of under-practicing, such as poor performance confidence, and the signs of over-practicing, such as excessively mechanical swings and strokes.
8. I take all these and other necessary steps to try and keep my over-all physical skills above a 5 on my own one-to-ten scale.
Mental Skills
This encompasses your basic understanding of the mental skills that are required for golf and your ability to use them. Developing your mental pre-shot routine and the ability to narrow your focus for each shot are examples. These skills include identifying your own strengths and weaknesses; setting relevant and challenging goals for each competitive round; thinking like a champion regardless of your challenges; and learning from your experiences. Maximizing your mental skills is key to reaching your potential in golf.
1. I have taken time to gain insights into the personality traits required for golf. I have a clear understanding of my own personal strengths and weaknesses. For example: I understand whether I am an extrovert and need skills for narrowing my focus over the ball or whether I am a perfectionist and need to learn to use “margins-for-error” to let go of bad shots quickly.
2. I have taken the time to set outcome goals for my golf considering a defined period of time. These goals may include reducing my stroke average, increasing greens in regulation, reducing putting averages, achieving specific rankings or qualifying for certain events.
3. I have identified the physical skills/goals required to achieve my outcome goals. This might include finding a teacher, improving my accuracy off the T, better organizing my practice, etc.
4. I have identified the mental skills/goals required to achieve my outcome goals. This may include defining steps for strengthening my confidence, learning skills for managing tension, etc.
5. I have a clear understanding of how “champion” golfers think and remain conscience of catching and replacing “average” golfer thoughts as quickly as possible. For example, replacing negative self-talk with positive self-talk, or catching myself when I look ahead or behind and reminding myself to get back to the shot at hand.
6. I commit to working on either mental skills or physical skills in my practice and play, intentionally separating them knowing it is impossible to effectively work on both at the same time. For example: if I am working on a checklist of mechanical thoughts to ingrain a swing change, I cannot possibly do a good mental routine that employs using one simple feel thought to feel my swing.
7. I set a mental goal(s) for every competitive round and I rate how well I achieved the goal after the round. For example, I might have a goal to have great targets and tempo for at least 80% of my shots and putts. At the end of the round I will rate my success, identify distractions and decide what I can improve in my next round.
8. I take all these and other necessary steps to keep my over-all mental skills above a 5 on my own one-to-ten scale.
Equipment
The use of equipment that is best suited to your body and your game. This defines how committed you are to your equipment. And how well you match changes in your equipment with your evolving skills, age, strength, stamina, etc. While equipment can sometimes get expensive, reaching your golf potential requires you to use equipment you’re comfortable with.
1. I currently have (or am finding) equipment that is best suited to my height, strength and style of play. This includes such things as having the correct lie angle for my height, the length of my arms and the way I stand or having the correct shafts, length and stiffness or using the type of ball that best matches my game.
2. I resist tinkering with my equipment when competing, and I avoid a string of changes that can lead to searching for all the answers in my equipment.
3. Once I commit to changing equipment I try to stay committed to my decisions long enough to build confidence in my choices.
4. I judge effectiveness of equipment changes only after I have played with them using my best mental skills.
Physical and Mental Conditioning
This involves: Getting yourself physically fit enough to realistically reach your goals with over-all physical wellness, strength, stamina and flexibility. Getting yourself mentally fit enough to reach your goals with mental wellness, clarity, peace of mind and personal balance.
1. I keep myself in adequate physical condition, flexibility, strength and stamina, to get the most out of my game. An example would be: learning and using strength and flexibility exercises to minimize pain and injury while maximizing abilities to hit the ball. Or developing/maintaining adequate cardiovascular conditioning to match the challenges of my play.
2. I have habits that maximize my mental health and skills to ensure I play my best. This includes such things as getting regular sleep: minimizing the use of drugs, stimulants and alcohol; and eating healthy, balanced and regular meals.
3. I have identified my nutritional needs and have taken steps to meet them. Examples include: identifying protein and/or meal frequency needs with my body chemistry to best maintain even blood sugar, or adequately replacing fluid, mineral and electrolytes lost through perspiration.
4. I keep my golf in balance with the rest of my life, giving quality time and effort to other important areas as well as to golf. Other areas include my relationship, my family, my friends, myself and other responsibilities.
5. I address and attempt to resolve personal problems and conflicts in a healthy and timely manner.
Reaching Your Golf Potential – Summary
Use the space below and the ratings above to define the steps you want to take toward playing your best golf. Transfer these steps to your journal or planner and get started! If you need assistance, consider the suggestions below each area or give us a call.
Physical Skills / Mental Skills
If you have not already done so, we strongly encourage you to read the book, The Eight Traits of Champion Golfers. Either through the simple self-tests in the book, or with the follow-up personality testing and reporting that is available: learn the mental skills for golf; identify your own weak links and learn simple steps for strengthening them.
Equipment
If you are not sure, talk with a qualified teaching professional or trained club fitter who will help you match your needs without the bias of trying to sell you specific equipment. If you are lost in experimentation, try to commit to what you now find most comfortable for at least two weeks before making further changes.
Physical and Mental Conditioning
Consider a research based blood/nutritional analysis and recommendations for diet and supplements to maximize overall wellness. Also consider one of the many available qualified trainers, psychologists and nutritionists who are very skilled in helping you maximize your efforts, (the challenge is sorting them from the many that are not well qualified). We currently offer blood/nutritional analysis and recommendations. We may also recommend qualified professionals we know.
Keeping track of how you stand in all four of the areas described above is key to reaching your potential in golf. If you slack on the physical or mental game, you’re not allowing yourself to reach your potential. If you need help staying on track, leave a comment below or contact us here.
