10 Critical Areas In The Golf Mental Game

When it comes to golf, the mental game is highly recognized as being a big factor. We conducted a survey to find out what you, the golfer, thought about regarding the ingredients for successful golf. One of the questions was, "What percentage of golf do you feel is mental?" The interesting results revealed that the better players (from professional golfers to single digit handicappers) stated that 90 percent of the game was mental for them. The trends in the data showed that as the handicaps got higher, the less important the golfer regarded the mental game for golf success. Other studies we have conducted showed that regardless of the level of golfing skill, the mental game is very much an important part of the successful ingredient. For example, a beginner might be a very good athlete but is experiencing difficulty hitting the golf ball with consistency and accuracy. If this athlete gets angry at the fact that his skill with golf is not up to his standards, he is likely to not be relaxed and will tend to rush the next shot, etc...., resulting in an even worse performance as time continues. Can you see how real this is?

It is important to know what makes up the mental game. Through studies conducted by psychologists, it has been revealed that the key areas of the mental game include the following areas: acceptance, patience, anger management, focus, stress tolerance, confidence, self perception, self belief, locus of control and optimism. Wow, many areas to the mental game!!! These are all emotional skills that need to be developed, slowly but surely in order to have the optimal mental game. Beyond this information, we conducted yet another study to show that 99% of mental game questions can be pointed to three of these ten emotional skills. Confidence is one of these three key emotional constructs and it makes sense why the golfing population is most often requesting a solution for confidence.

The next question might be where to learn more about these areas and how to develop any of the areas that might be weak? Generally, you could search out each of the ten areas and find boat loads of information on each of them and also many helpful articles on how to develop each emotional skill. Although the articles might not be golf related for all ten constructs, the emotion is still the same. Hence, as you increase your ability to accept an unwanted situation or circumstance in your life that you've been presented with, you will also be developing your ability to accept the shot that you sliced out of bounds or the 3 foot putt you missed. Why accept it? Acceptance is going to keep you out of the past and allow you the best possibility of staying in the present moment. The present moment is the place you want to be for the next shot in order to have the best possibility for success. Each emotion is valuable and has an impact on a neighboring emotion. Hence, take some time to look into the emotional equation to golf's mental game and regardless of your skill level, it will positively impact your game.

By: Ian McMillan

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Want to learn more about the golf mental game? Visit my website at www.GetGolfConfidence.com for helpful tips on building golf confidence and more information about the mental game of golf.