Instruction
Unlocking Your True Golf Potential Is a Mindset
Golf is such a great sport for anyone who wants to challenge themselves in an enjoyable manor, but sometimes we can become our own worst enemy when we are trying to improve our game. We often can be easily frustrated when we don’t live up to the expectations of the skill level at which we feel we should play. I’ve seen grown men and women act like spoiled children, almost crying with frustration on the golf course when their game isn’t going as they planned.
Yes, having a competitive mindset is healthy and a necessary part of growth. When a mindset is so fragile and juvenile that golfers easily allow themselves to become frustrated, however, they put themselves into a self-destructive state of mind that affects their body. They overflow their systems with a stress hormone called cortisol, which causes their body to go into “fight-or-flight” mode. It’s a great state to be in if you need to fight for your life or sprint away from a hungry tiger. The downfall is that cortisol overwhelms your body’s vital organs that are necessary for immediate survival, and at the same time, it shuts off your body’s other organs that are necessary for surviving your round of golf. The fight-or-flight state of mind will also put a damper on your ability to make rational decisions, which can be difficult enough for some of us on the golf course already.
Here’s the thing; golf is challenging… period. If you didn’t find it challenging, you probably wouldn’t enjoy playing golf so much. It’s kind of a catch 22; the very reason we enjoy golf so much is the challenge, though we become self-destructive if we find it too challenging or if things don’t go according to plan during our round.
We all have basic expectations of who we think we are and what we are expecting from ourselves before we start our round. If you’re a scratch golfer, you will expect that you will play your round somewhere close to par. Whatever level your play, you expect to play at a skill level that’s familiar to you. The moment you begin to play much better than what you feel is your current skill set, you will be in uncharted territory. You may get kind of excited and anxious, causing you to begin to overanalyze the situation. That may cause you to fumble.
The same goes if you are playing poorly and much worse than you are familiar with. You are again put outside of your comfort zone and will need to adjust your way of thinking to cope with it.
On top of carrying the burden of our own expectations around with us, most people also carry the burden of being over-concerned with what other people might think of them on the course. They want to look good, and this causes them to get trapped in a mindset that is only focused on results instead of improvement. So instead of daring to challenge themselves at the risk of looking bad if they don’t play well, they’d rather stay in their comfort zone and play it safe so that at the end of the day they will still feel comfortable with who they are. This makes it much more likely that golfers will focus on not screwing up instead of trying to get better.
Unlocking your true potential is a mindset, and it starts with you accepting what has happened and not worrying about what “might” happen (and most likely won’t happen if you’d just stop worrying about it). This mindset is all about losing your sense of self image. That person you think you are is preventing you from reaching your potential. If you want to play your best, quite simply, you have to lose that image of who you feel you are when you play golf. You can’t let the past or future own you, because it will prevent you from pushing your envelope of performance. Lose those expectations of what you think your current skill set is and play in the now, one shot at a time.
Many top athletes and musicians describe this state of mind as being in what is called the “zone” or the “pocket” of performance. You might have experienced this state of mind before, on or off the golf course. Being in the “zone” is a moment or moments in time when you aren’t concerned with anything except the task at hand. Your focus is so deep that you are unaware of any distractions, noise, or concerns of looking bad in front of others.
Being in the zone is for many a feeling of losing their sense of time and their sense of self, which makes perfect sense. Time is controlled by the part of our brain called the pre-frontal cortex, which is also the part of the brain that is self-critical and creates doubt in our ability.
Developing a mindset that allows you to tap into the zone so you can unlock your true potential happens when you get out of your own way. Stop being concerned with the results of here and now and start focusing on the process of improvement. Nobody gets there overnight, so get invested in the long haul so that when you are on the golf course you don’t trap yourself in a mindset that is full of expectations and frustration. You will play your best golf when you lose your sense of self and are engaged in the enjoyment of the challenge of each shot.
Developing this mindset is a skill that can be developed just like any other skill set on the golf course, and for most of us, it’s probably the most important part of our game that we need to work on. Your potential is out there, and only you have the ability to reach it. But you can only achieve it by having self-belief in your abilities and the drive to get up every time you get knocked down. The process to achieving your potential will come with the mindset and the drive of accepting what has happened so that you can keep moving forward.
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Like Jordan Spieth, trying to go to a bowed wrist at the top or in the downswing to square the club is placing you in a dangerous position for your lead wrist; you are one tree root or deep rough situation away from a nasty injury that could easily require surgery. Don’t let this be you.
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Some call the image on the left laid off, but if you are hitting a fade, this could be a perfect backswing for it! Same for across the line for a draw! Stop racking your brain with perceived mistakes and simply match backswing to shot shape!
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My golf learning began with this simple fact – if you don’t have a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, it is practically impossible for your body to execute a fundamentally sound golf swing. I’m still a big believer that the golf swing is much easier to execute if you begin with the proper hold on the club.
As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.
The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.
Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply. Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:
Mis-aligned hands
By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.
The position of the grip in the upper/left hand
I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean. Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.
To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.
Too much lower (right) hand on the club
It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.
Gripping too tightly
Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.
So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.
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Ryan
Sep 3, 2017 at 4:46 pm
I read until the word MANOR. I can’t suffer someone who doesn’t know the difference.
Vombie
Aug 30, 2017 at 7:18 pm
Be the duck yo
Bob Jones
Aug 30, 2017 at 2:38 pm
All pep talk, no substance. How about telling us HOW to develop the mindset you recommend? That would be useful.
mark
Aug 30, 2017 at 10:35 am
I played with an 82 year old this past week. We played from our tees, he played up at his tees. 5800 yards. His swing is what an 82 year old swing would be. Plays 5 days a week. This player shot 68/69 in a two day tournament. WOW. He believed in his-self. That’s all I can say….Wouldn’t believed it if I didn’t see it. I’m working on in-locking my brain….82 years old shoots 68/69. That’s money!
alan b
Aug 30, 2017 at 1:56 am
Click on Adam Stevenson’s name and you will discover 7 great articles he posted on GolfWRX. He is a next generation golf instructor who appreciates physical fitness through his TPI certification.
If your body is stiff and decrepit please don’t attempt golf, unless you commit yourself to intensive physical conditioning and golf-specific training. Just reading about it and trying it a few times doesn’t count.
Steve S
Aug 30, 2017 at 9:44 am
I have an old, stiff, decrepit body and I play to a 10-11. I would be a single digit if my eyes were better and I could still read greens. At 66 I’m playing the best golf of my life(from the white tees) because I have adapted my swing to my physical limitations and don’t attempt “low percentage” shots. This has virtually eliminated “blow up” holes for me. Do I have an occasional bad day, of course. But I have never enjoyed golf more. Part of it is my mental state which tries to savor every shot and every bad joke from my playing partners. As for as physical conditioning I do some light stretching everyday and work around the yard. I never lift anything more than 30lbs without help or mechanical assistance. Keeps my back pain free.
alan b
Aug 30, 2017 at 1:33 am
“…almost every word”? How about:
“Golf is such a great sport for anyone who wants to challenge themselves in an enjoyable manor [sic],…”.
See, this is what happens when you are educated in phonics… your spelling betrays you!
alan b
Aug 30, 2017 at 1:35 am
Oooops ….. comment meant as a reply to Peter Schmitt at the beginning of this topic thread.
alan b
Aug 30, 2017 at 1:29 am
It’s also known as “mind over matter” state of mind. However this only works for near scratch golfers who have conscious control over their body. They knowingly, consciously practice the parts of the golfswing and then assemble it into and automatic package for testing on the golf course.
You won’t find these ‘players’ playing a prolonged round on the weekends. They secretly play on the weekdays and sometimes only 9 holes with 2 balls during twilight golf because 2 x 9 = 18 holes.
Giving recreational golfers false hope is cruel so just let them buy new clubs and hope for the best. They can’t make a complete commitment to the game so psyching them up with psycho mumbo jumbo is useless, fruitless and plain wrong.
nodoubles22
Aug 29, 2017 at 3:13 pm
I realized this a while back when wondering why I could pull off escape shots – punches from the trees, flop shots, etc. – so much better when practicing them than I did in a “real” round. The conditions were exactly the same, but because I’d purposely put the ball in a bad spot on the course to work on playing from there, I could play the escape shot without the feelings of frustration and anger about the previous poor shot. It’s impossible for me to fully forget about a bad shot during a meaningful round, but I try to remember that the recovery shot will be better if I pretend I’d put the ball there on purpose. It does help a little.
Scott
Aug 29, 2017 at 9:40 am
Is this a way to help yourself play better or except mediocrity?
OK, then how do I take an honest assessment of who I am to unlock my potertial? I agree that I have gotten in my own way. But what is my honest assessment of me as a player, in order to unlock my potential? Am I the guy that has broken par or the guy that has shot in the 90s? If the answer is “yes”, and any given day I could do either, than why bother? If both, high and low scores, are an anomaly, then how is knowing myself going to improve my play?
I think that I just blew my own mind.
Boss
Aug 29, 2017 at 10:59 am
You mean ACCEPT.
No, you didn’t blow your mind. Not even close. That’s why you fail. lol
Woody
Aug 29, 2017 at 8:39 am
Great article, the best line “That person you think you are is preventing you from reaching your potential”. Our own self perceptions are our biggest blocks to improvement and success. What a great article, I throughly enjoyed it.
acemandrake
Aug 29, 2017 at 8:20 am
“But you can only achieve it by having self-belief in your abilities and the drive to get up every time you get knocked down.”
True, but exhausting! Especially in this game where most of us hit more bad shots than good ones.
I guess having (& keeping) realistic expectations would help ?
acemandrake
Aug 29, 2017 at 8:30 am
Is it even possible to play without expectations?
Peter Schmitt
Aug 29, 2017 at 8:15 am
Great article and so very true. Completely agree with almost every word. However, just letting go of expectations and getting in the zone mentally is not a “just do it” kind of thing. Oh, how I wish that were the case, but most days I find myself frustratingly trying to figure out how to just unplug my brain. Knowing something needs to be done and knowing how to do it are two different things.
alan b
Aug 30, 2017 at 1:36 am
“Completely agree with almost every word”? How about:
“Golf is such a great sport for anyone who wants to challenge themselves in an enjoyable manor [sic],…”.
See, this is what happens when you are educated in phonics… your spelling betrays you!
Peter Schmitt
Aug 30, 2017 at 9:12 am
Yeah I did notice that. Hence the word ALMOST in my comment 😉