You’re no doubt familiar with the following situation: you’re having a great round, hitting the greens in regulation, and nailing putts that on most days would be iffy. It looks like you are on your way to a great score, and best of all you are playing with a group of folks who you are especially eager to impress.
It’s all going so well.
And then it happens.
The blow-up occurs. You shank the drive and your recovery shot is even worse. Pretty soon you are putting for double bogey and you yip up and miss that one, too.
It all happened so fast; what was shaping up like a career round on the golf course is in the toilet in an instant. And worst of all, it isn’t over.
It happens to all golfers, from the top tour professionals to the weekend duffers. What separates the former from the latter is the mental fortitude to recover. To put the bad-hole nightmare behind them and take the next shot as if nothing had happened. One great hole does not a good round make, and so too, one lousy hole doesn’t have to ruin a good round. You just have to make a quick and simple mental recovery.
Easier said than done. Much easier.
But it’s possible for golfers of any stripe to improve their ability to handle the mental strains of golf. Here are a few tips I’ve picked up over the years, that I’ve committed to memory, but admittedly struggle with implementing when my inevitable meltdown occurs.
Go through the motions.
Breathe Deeply and Calm Down
This isn’t just about golf technique; start with the most primal human motions. Breathe. Failure to maintain a rhythmic breathing sequence can cause a myriad of other physical defects that will hamper your golf game. It helps if you have already practiced some breathing exercises in the past and incorporated them into your golf fitness routine.
Breathing exercises? Sound silly? Well, it’s not. Proper breathing is elemental to any productive routine and successful athletic performance, and as such, it is something that most certainly should be practiced.
Beyond breathing, there are other basic routines you can force yourself into that can help should you suddenly find yourself in the midst of a meltdown. Proper posture is a good start, and I’m not just talking about your golf stance.
Correct Posture is Vital
Golfers, much like the rest of humanity, tend to droop their shoulders and drop their heads down when something goes wrong. Force yourself to do the opposite; keep your head held high, your walking pace normal, and your shoulders erect as though you just shot a hole-in-one instead of a shot-in-the-pond.
Mental Focus
If you can’t make it, fake it. Adjust your actions and your mental focus after a poor shot to match those that would be occurring if you just nailed the perfect landing spot on your approach shot.
If this proves too hard to do – and it often will be – then you have to do something else that will break the cycle of negativity that will be pervading your brain (and by association your game). Get away from the group banter and try to relax as you set your mind to a specific task such as cleaning your ball or clubs, and better yet, start thinking about your strategy for the next hole, leaving the debacle of the previous hole behind.
Whatever you can do to buy yourself a couple minutes to get the discouraging and depressing thoughts out of your mind can help immensely. Breaking the progression of negative thoughts is sometimes all it takes to put you in a more positive frame of mind.
As with any and all aspects of your golf game, your mental recovery will get better each time you successfully do it. Practice makes perfect and much in the same way that you needed to practice hitting draws over and over and over again before you cured your slice, you’ll need to practice your recovery procedure repeatedly before you’ll see a marked improvement.
But over time, you’ll find yourself increasingly able to put a bad shot, a bad hole, or a bad round behind you.
Until of course, you don’t. Which will happen, too. At this point, you’ll just have to go back to square one. Click on Minigolf Hamburg and Location Hamburg