As Jack Says, confidence is probably the most important factor in playing golf to your potential.

Better players simply have more belief in their ability to execute the shot required, which helps them achieve it with more regularity. They see only a positive outcome for every shot, which allows the body to swing freely and aggressively at the target. More importantly, when they play a poor shot, it does not affect the way they play the next one. The opposite of this is negative thinking and fear of failure, causing the body to tense up and be defensive, resulting in a timid swing without fluidity. When you consider the golf swing lasts a couple of seconds, even the slightest amount of hesitation or lack of confidence will result in a poor shot. Then a compounding affect occurs, where more and more confidence is lost with each poor shot.

Something that all PGA Tour players have in common is confidence. They all have the same swagger and confident demeanor. They don’t get affected when they hit bad shots because they know how counter-productive this is. They’ve trained their minds to prevent this happening. Some of this confidence comes from hitting A LOT of golf balls and winning a lot of tournaments, but some comes from knowing how to control the mind and how to shut out negativity. If we follow some basic rules, we too can work on a process to build unwavering confidence. While golfers know the end result of increased confidence, few know how to acquire and build it. Here a few things you can do EASILY to improve your confidence and lower your scores.

1. Don’t be Self Critical. If you start to beat yourself up over your mistakes, you will reduce your positivity and it will be hard to regain it before your next and “most important” shot. Learn from your mistakes at the end of the round. Remember the quote: “Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.” With each round you become a more experienced golfer however you play. You can’t get rid of negative thoughts, only replace them with positive ones. The more positive your thinking, the fewer detrimental negative thoughts you will have.

2. Don’t Give Yourself Technical Feedback on the Golf Course. Giving yourself technical feedback diminishes your confidence because you are admitting to yourself that you doubt your golf swing. As Bob Rotella says, “If you are trying to tell your body how to swing, you are telling yourself you don’t know how to swing.” Thinking about technique takes your focus away from what is ultimately important: hitting the ball to a specific target with a clearly visualized path. As I mentioned earlier, the golf swing takes place during a couple of seconds, so even the slightest thought about your body movement will cause you to lose focus on the shot itself.

3. Visualize and Feel. The more vividly you can see a shot and the less you see what you fear, the more your body will respond to the positive visual stimulus. Every shot should have a purpose. Synchronizing the body and mind with a clearly defined objective will increase confidence. Hogan used to say he only hit 3-4 shots each round exactly as he intended, but it was having commitment to the shot he visualized that made the others not too far off line.

4. Develop a Strong Shot Routine. When you have a good routine, even when you are in a high pressure situation you can feel confident you have approached the shot correctly. Your fundamentals are right and you have mentally and physically rehearsed the shot. This is the time to compose yourself and feel prepared and confident ahead of pulling the trigger. An additional part of the routine should be the next tip of how you react to the shot.

5. React Indifferently to Bad Shots. Holding on to poor shots is extremely counter-productive. The longer we hold onto them, the more frustrated we become and the longer it will take to regain that lost confidence. One of the keys to becoming a better player is quickly letting go of the past and staying in the present. After all, the present is where we need to be to give every shot our best intention. If you hit a bad shot, look up to the sky or focus on the beauty of your surroundings. Quickly realizing the relative insignificance of what happened will put it in perspective and allow you to move on immediately.

6. Take Yourself Out of Your Comfort Zone. Overcoming nerves, doubt and fear and succeeding will make you stronger and more confident. When you put yourself in situations where you are out of your comfort zone and pulling through will increase your confidence in the longer term. Rely on your routine under pressure and try is as often as you can.

7. Change Your Goals. Make the “process” of hitting good golf shots your goal for the round instead of shooting your best score. Focus on executing your routine of Analysis, Visualization, Feel and Trust will help your game in the longer-term instead of judging your performance by your score.

8. Focus On What You Did Well. When you finish your round, be honest with yourself about what you need to work on but think mostly about what you did well. The more you can re-live those great shots you played the more confident you will become. Breed confidence by thinking of the positives.

9. Make Your Practice More About Developing Visualization and Feel. Synchronizing your body and mind when you are practicing will make you less likely to think about technique on the golf course and more about the shot required. Hit as many different shots as you can instead of hitting to the same target and change clubs often.

10. Believe in Yourself! There is simply no reason not to.

Like what you read and want to take this type of coaching to the course and practice area? If so, you can listen to the Golf State of Mind CD and mp3, which is full of tips such as those above. It’s a comprehensive guide to learning the optimal mental approach to golf.

Technorati Tags: confident golf, mental game of golf, mental game tips

Golfers tend to think that if they could play every shot as if it were in practice, they would see a huge improvement in their scores.

This just simply isn’t true. The first and most important thing to understand here is that this energy, which we perceive to be negative, can be harnessed into a positive force more powerful that you can ever imagine.

Whether it be fear of poor play in front of playing partners, not playing to your own expectations or not playing well in that big competition, there are several reasons which give you that emotion we call “nerves”. You get nervous because what you are doing means a lot to you and you are greatly concerned by what might happen in the future. This in itself could be considered a positive. But we immediately think nerves are bad because we are used to associating them with fear and doubt, and then ultimately not playing to our potential.

If we can start putting a positive association with those feelings, we will no longer fear them but play better as a result.

Realize this – you will never “get rid of nerves”, you will just learn how to use them to become a better player. The best players in the world actually welcome nerves, as it increases their intensity and focus. It lets them know they are in contention and in a mental state that makes them capable of playing their best. Experience with managing this emotion and turning it into a positive will allow you to start realizing your potential as a golfer.

None of us know exactly what we are capable of doing or becoming in this world. But what we can say for sure, is that if we never leave our “comfort zone” we will never find out just how good we can be.

When we are out of our comfort zone we are in the realm of the unknown and this feeling of being frightened (or nervous) tells us this. Nerves tell us we are about to break into new possibilities and reach new scoring levels. You have to embrace it and realize this is the state you will be in when you break your best score or win that competition.

Think about this the next time you experience nervous feelings.

Being as prepared as you can be for each shot will increase your confidence and reduce negative interferences such as doubt and fear. But the feelings of nerves will give you that level of focus and awareness that you can never feel when you are practicing. Your senses are far more powerful.

A well practiced and disciplined shot routine is a great way to take you into the zone and keep you in the present moment. For me it’s a huge part of a good mental game and playing your best golf. If we can focus on the steps of our routine instead of our fears, we will feel more confident and make a better execution. You can even introduce breathing methods to relax you if you find this helps. Making it a habit to be focused on a positive intention for the shot instead of thinking about negative possibilities, or the past or future, is the key to getting better.

In addition, our practice of golf as a more visual and feel based game instead of a technical one, will gradually reduce our tendency to think about our swing mechanics which is another major cause of doubt on the golf course. As Bob Rotella tells us “Confidence is playing with your eyes”.

Change your perspective of nerves from a negative to a positve and you will get better playing with them. Think about nerves, not as something that will hold you back in the future, but as something that will give you positive energy in the present. You are only feeling nervous because you are not in your comfort zone which is exactly what we need to break out of in order to get better.

Like what you read and want to sign up for my free Mental Game eBook and 4 week course of Game Improvement eLessons? If so, please sign up below:

Technorati Tags: better golf, Mental Game, mental game of golf, nerves