Failing to perform in competition is not your fault because our golf culture and industry is constantly giving you bad advice.
They mean well. They certainly want you to play better and enjoy the game more. But somehow when the chips are down, you usually struggle. If the advice was good then you should be playing your best in competition.
So, is it premeditated? Do they know that you will probably struggle even though you are trying to do everything they tell you and use the equipment they recommend? I am sure they are aware that most of us struggle to perform well in competition. This is the norm. It keeps us coming back for more instruction and searching for answers.
They are making money giving the instruction. Players keep coming back. There are occasional rounds of brilliance and slow improvement, some of the time. So they keep dishing it out, like they always have. If you’re not failing in practice, they shouldn’t be failing in competition. They are busy so why change?
It’s kind of like the 800 pound gorilla in the room. We all know about it but nobody is making a big deal about it. In our experience, this is true at every level in golf. It can make you crazy when you consider how things seem to change when you go to compete.
You get a lesson and while on the lesson tee with your Pro, you feel like you understand and the swing is working well. You may be hitting the ball better than ever. You take that thought or instruction and practice it. It’s working. You are expecting good things in the next competition.
Then it is tournament day.
A number of different scenarios are possible. You may warm-up well or not. You may hit the first tee shot well or not. You may play the first few holes really well or not. You may play the front nine well or not. You may play the back nine or most of the back nine well or not.
At some point in the round or the next round, that thing you are doing stops working. It is unexplainable to you. You were going gang busters and then it’s gone. Something is off or wrong. Things aren’t working as good as they were. Your performance confidence drops.
What happened? Was the advice good or not? It had you going better for awhile, so for awhile it was good advice. Since you did not keep it going and play consistently well over time in competition there must be something missing.
And there is…
Repetitive Action Training
They are training you like you are a machine capable of repetitive action. They set you up in a perfect environment to hit the ball or roll the ball well. They tweak and adjust until everything is just right. You hit the ball well many times.
You repeat this action because they promise perfect repetition equals perfect repetition. You are training muscle memory, whatever that means. As if you are a machine and if you can get the set-up and the movements just right then everything will be perfect.
There is one little problem with this scenario, YOU ARE NOT A MACHINE.
You are flesh and bone, muscle and tendon, nerves and brain. You are not the same every day or from moment to moment. Your thoughts change. Emotions come and go. Memories show up. Your level of arousal is changing with the thoughts. Your level of arousal is also changing based on nutrition and physical effort.
Often the instruction you have had pushes you to focus on doing certain things very carefully. This can easily have you operating in a left-brained and mechanical, perfectionist way. You focus on the swing instead of the shot, judging your swing, trying to control it. Too much attention on your shot is very harmful to athletic performance and can disrupt your ideal golf psychology.
They are not teaching you how to train your brain and body to work together to play golf well in competition. Until you learn to control yourself you are not in control of your body or your golf, making failing in competition a lot more likely.
You need Mental Game Training to stop failing in competition
With no understanding of thought control, awareness of arousal and an ability to control it, or an understanding of how to put yourself in the best mode for good ball striking and putting, you have no chance.
A mentally untrained player or one that falls into the mechanical, left-brained trap will not be consistent because the player himself or herself is ever changing and less athletic.
Your arousal has to be optimized for that particular shot. Your thoughts must be controlled to manage emotions so they don’t raise your level of arousal above optimum. The approach to the shot must enable you to be your most athletic while swinging or putting. Careful and defensive are sure signs of left-brained thinking and playing.
So the golf industry has been telling you how to be successful, except they have left out a huge part, how to perform well in competition. The advice is bad because it is not complete. This is not your fault. So failing in competition is not your fault. You are not trying to play poorly, are you? Failing to perform is simply a matter of not accounting for psychological effects.
To start performing as well as you know you can, you need to get the mental game training that we offer. Our Mental Game Builder Package has everything to get you going in a hurry.
Our Mental Pre-Shot Routine video will help you understand the principles of using your left brain and right brain to focus and play your shots athletically. This is one of the most important foundation skills for your mental game.
It is included in our Online Coaching Membership.
To get going in the fastest possible way you can attend one of our intensive Mental Game Training Schools. One weekend, 15+ hours of classroom and on course coaching to understand and start applying the principles of a strong mental game in competition. Follow on support is provided through the Online Coaching System.
Here’s to finally getting complete good advice and no longer failing in competition despite performing well in practice.
