Mental Game Goals

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Okay, golfers in this one, we're going to talk about mental goals.

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So it's very easy for golfers to come up with swing fields and goals, like,

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okay, I want

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to hit more fairways.

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I want to hit more greens.

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But when I always say, hey, what's your mental goal for today?

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I always got a blank stare from my high school and college kids and some of my

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older clients

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as well.

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So we're going to talk about some of the common mental goals.

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So mental goals are essentially process goals or identity goals.

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I could think of it as, okay, I'm going to have a really good pre shot routine.

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I'm going to have a really good clear aiming process, or it could be an

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identity goal.

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You know, today I'm going to be the golfer who is like fearless on every shot.

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Today I'm going to be the golfer who leaves bad shots in the past and gets

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ready for the

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next shot.

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I want to have a clear theme or goal just like I want to have one clear swing

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bar.

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So here are some common ones that I give, but this is not exhaustive.

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You can come up with your own.

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Having clear aim or target awareness prior to walking up to the golf balls and

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not getting

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over the ball and then trying to aim but having a clear aim before him.

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Not carrying over previous shots.

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So I just hit a bad shot, I go up and I rush the putt and I miss it because I

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was thinking

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about the first putt that I hit too far by, whatever it might be.

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This is a great one for a lot of golfers, especially a lot of type A's who have

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a hard

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time letting go of a bad shot.

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Next, no backtracking on the process steps.

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So if you recall in the process steps, we are going to play in the shot, we are

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going

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to aim the shot, we're going to execute the shot, and we are going to react to

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the shot.

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We want to make sure that we're not walking up to the ball, still thinking

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about aim.

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Getting ready to swing, wondering is this the right club, did the wind just

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change?

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I want to be making sure that I'm not allowed to backtrack in my process.

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Keeping one swing thought through the whole round or even just keeping one

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swing thought

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through the entire swing.

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So some golfers have a hard time, because they don't practice it, but they have

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a hard

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time committing to one swing thought that we're going to make for the entire

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swing.

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Usually what will happen is sometimes they're thinking about the grip and then

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they think

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about, oh, what did Tyler tell me six months ago, oh yeah, this other time I

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was focusing

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on my unhinged and I was hitting it really well, but I haven't thought about

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that in

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a while, and they keep shifting thoughts.

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So having some clarity of what I'm going to think about, which I figured out

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during

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my week of practice or more likely during my warmup, that can be a great mental

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game

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goal.

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Keeping clarity of the swing until the finish.

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So some golfers kind of get in the habit of stopping their swing thought right

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at impact

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through there versus having a goal of where I want to get to in the finish can

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ultimately

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smooth out some release things, smooth out some posture things, smooth out some

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slides

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and things like that.

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So that can be a really good mental game goal that's relatively easy to play

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with.

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Managing the time in between shots.

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This is an easy one and give some other strategies like breathing or stress

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reduction, or you

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can just be social and talk with your playing partner, but some golfers,

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especially tournament

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golfers, that's not always their favorite option.

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But it is almost impossible to maintain intense focus for the entire four hour

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round.

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So you want to make sure that you're managing the time in between shots and not

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running

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yourself into the ground.

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Getting the shot out loud, I like doing this one with golfers, I don't

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recommend you do

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it in a tournament, but if you've practiced it, what golfers often find is that

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it forces

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them to not backtrack, it forces them to go through the steps.

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So basically looking at the lie and the slope, looking at the wind, and when

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looking at the

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lie, instead of just judging it like, man, that's a bad lie, or hey, that ball

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's a good

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lie.

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I want you to be more descriptive in how that lie is going to affect the shot.

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It would be like, okay, that ball is sitting down, there's a compagrass behind

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it.

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I'm going to want, like I have to make sure that I'm not too shallow coming

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into the ball.

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I'm going to have to come down a little bit steeper.

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I might want to move the ball back in order to accommodate that, but now it's

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not going

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to get spin, so it's going to come out low, so I might take more or lost.

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Okay, I've boiled that down.

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That can be a great process goal, it's just making sure that I get committed to

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each

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shot, or that I run in a little bit better process.

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And one that I just thought of here when I was talking about kind of managing

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the time

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in between, managing my nutrition or my hydration, so making sure that I drink

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enough water,

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so you know, a swig of water after every shot, or making sure that I plan out

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when my food

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is going to be like what I'm going to eat and when I'm going to eat, that can

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be another

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good one.

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In conclusion, don't neglect your mental game goals.

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You want to work on them in tandem, so while you're working on improving your

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swing and

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building your stock tour swing, you also want to learn how to play more smart

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golf.

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And part of that is learning to apply some of these mental game strategies when

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you play.

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That will help you not just be a great swinger of the golf club or a great

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range golfer,

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but a great golfer on the golf course.

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Everyone who knows how to play and get the ball in the hole.