"Taking Your Head Out Of The Game!"
It’s not a matter of “if” it will happen, but a matter of “when” it will happen. Of course, it happens to all of us so you don’t have to feel like you’re alone. Maybe you’re even going through it right now.
We all go through a period when we start defeating ourselves instead of the golf course. When we start to second guess, or over analyze, every shot, every approach, every club choice or trying to “improve” our swing. The monster hit me when I was trying to, ironically enough, lose a few strokes off my game and get ready for a local community tournament. I spent every minute I could practicing to shave off a pesky two to three strokes. Nothing too drastic.
But, I started to evaluate every single aspect of my game. I just knew that there was something that I was doing wrong that I could easily take off a couple of extra strokes. I became so obsessed with what I thought I was doing wrong that I started believing that everything I was doing was wrong. After all those days of practice, when the day of the tournament came around, I played the absolute worse three rounds of golf in my life. I ended up a +18 and finished almost last.
But, that was a good thing.
It made me realize a few things about this game we all love so passionately. It’s what I call my five point process to getting your head out of the game. Why Do I Need My Head Out Of The Game? To answer that, let’s go back to the tournament.
To get ready, I was spending all my time practicing parts of my game that I had severely over analyzed. I didn’t think my initial tee shot was good enough to get me the distance I thought I needed. I didn’t think that my putt was good enough so I practiced with a different putter and from long distances to help lower my score.
I didn’t trust the abilities and skills I already had and tried playing with my head rather than with my clubs. I really thought that the only way to lower my score was to completely change the way I played. Hey change is good right?
Not always.
It’s not a matter of “if” it will happen, but a matter of “when” it will happen. Of course, it happens to all of us so you don’t have to feel like you’re alone. Maybe you’re even going through it right now.
We all go through a period when we start defeating ourselves instead of the golf course. When we start to second guess, or over analyze, every shot, every approach, every club choice or trying to “improve” our swing. The monster hit me when I was trying to, ironically enough, lose a few strokes off my game and get ready for a local community tournament. I spent every minute I could practicing to shave off a pesky two to three strokes. Nothing too drastic.
But, I started to evaluate every single aspect of my game. I just knew that there was something that I was doing wrong that I could easily take off a couple of extra strokes. I became so obsessed with what I thought I was doing wrong that I started believing that everything I was doing was wrong. After all those days of practice, when the day of the tournament came around, I played the absolute worse three rounds of golf in my life. I ended up a +18 and finished almost last.
But, that was a good thing.
It made me realize a few things about this game we all love so passionately. It’s what I call my five point process to getting your head out of the game. Why Do I Need My Head Out Of The Game? To answer that, let’s go back to the tournament.
To get ready, I was spending all my time practicing parts of my game that I had severely over analyzed. I didn’t think my initial tee shot was good enough to get me the distance I thought I needed. I didn’t think that my putt was good enough so I practiced with a different putter and from long distances to help lower my score.
I didn’t trust the abilities and skills I already had and tried playing with my head rather than with my clubs. I really thought that the only way to lower my score was to completely change the way I played. Hey change is good right?
Not always.
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