Mental vs Physical
Has my focus on the physical side of golf come at the expense of my mental game?
Let’s start with a simple example, my ball flight. My ball tends to apex at over 120 feet. Any wind needs to be accounted for, and my best shots into the wind tend to fall well short of target. I’ve discussed fixing this issue, and have been working on a less intensive solution of developing a ¾ knockdown swing. It’s gone well in the simulator.
I recently found myself into the wind with 170 yards on a par three. After a little deliberation, I decided to field test the knock down shot. It went pin high, and I managed to get up and down for par. Have I added a new shot to my arsenal, or just created another decision to make every time I have a mid iron into a green? Long term, it’s a good shot for me to have, but it comes at the cost in the short term. I have added a shot I don’t fully trust, and the only way to learn to trust it is to hit it frequently on the golf course.
As an amateur golfer, few of my rounds have actual stakes. Even the club rounds I play I am not particularly worried about the outcome. To compare it to music, most of my rounds are rehearsals and very few are performances. This is a hobby, and I do not want to eliminate parts that I enjoy in pursuit of perfect rounds, but it makes me wonder:
If we took my dispersion from the range from my warm up and basic practice on the range and charted them around the course, would my results be better than they are now? We do not need to dive into Schrodinger’s cat here, but are my attempts to improve on the course and my focus on hitting the ball as well as I can actually hurting my chances of success?
Looking at my best round from last year, it did not have miracle shots or drained putts from 50 feet away. I had a putt for par on every hole, and my mistakes never killed my round. I made one birdie all day, and it was the result of missing a 6 foot putt for eagle. I made 13 pars, 4 bogeys and 1 birdie. The biggest mistake I made all day was a wedge over the back of the green from 70 yards. The second biggest mistake was a 3 putt. My physical game was solid but not groundbreaking. My game was good enough, and it did not need to be perfect.
Last season, I only had a few other rounds in the 70s. This is not due to my inability to hit a stinger. It is simply a lack of consistency and focus. It is a failure to accept the game I have. Instead, I have a tendency to fight it. DECADE helped me better select targets, and accept that a par is a great score for any hole. For me, I need to take the next step in my mental game and embrace my abilities and play the game I have that day.
The very basic conclusion is that I simply need to play the shot ahead of me, and stay “task oriented”. Hit the shots I know I have, commit to smart targets and swing at a target instead of targeting a swing. This is not new ground. It is something I am getting better at, but will be a work in progress for the foreseeable future. Picking the best target, making a golf swing, accepting the results and moving on.
The bigger idea is my need to reduce my overall noise in my golf game. I’ve done a decent job on the course, but it applies to my practice as well. I touched on this concept last time in terms of not bringing swing thoughts to the golf course, but I am realizing now it is more than that. I need to shift my focus to building consistency in my practice that can carry over onto the golf course.
I am at a point where small incremental improvements are my best path forward. This includes my practice. I need to put in work building consistency and not trying to reinvent my swing. Basically, I need to make my mistakes punish me less, vs trying to master the perfect swing. More than anything, I need to focus on my mental game and continue to sharpen it.
Currently, the majority of my mistakes on the course come from mental mistakes, and not from swing flaws. The two are related,of course, but my worst swings come when I am not committed to the shot I am hitting. If that is the case, I cannot possibly judge issues in my swing. I need to fully commit to a better mental game, and play a few rounds with full commitment before I can properly identify the actual flaws in my physical game.
My goal for the next few weeks is to be fully engaged mentally on every golf shot. From there, I can better assess what parts of my game are lacking on the skill side, and where I can improve on the mental side. I am not going to ignore the physical side of the game, but simply try to worry about it less. I want to see how good my best mental round can be, and figure out what part of my games need the most work when I am at my best. We will see how it goes.
What kind of reading on the mental game have you done?
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