Mental Game
There’s No Such Thing As Bad Weather, Just Poor Preparation
“There’s no such thing as bad weather, just poor preparation.” – Unknown This is one of my all time favorite quotes. The idea is simple: as long as you are prepared, you can handle anything that comes your way. For golfers, when the quote is taken literally, preparing for “bad weather” might include having the proper gear if it’s going to rain. For example, having a waterproo...
Mental Game Advice to Juniors from the Men’s World #1
As a Clinical Psychologist, I have found that pre and post-round interviews provide some of the greatest insight into the minds of professional golfers. In a recent interview before his win at the Saudi International, Dustin Johnson, the current men’s world number one, was asked what one piece of advice he would give aspiring junior golfers and I was pleasantly surprised by his answer. Dusti...
You become what you think!
Just because you think it, it doesn’t mean it’s true. The things we think about ourselves are just thoughts, they are not truths, or facts. If you make the mistake of believing the things that you say about yourself are facts, you can find yourself stuck in an identity that will guide your behavior in ways not helpful to your performance. For example, I played with someone recently, who after ...
Your Target Might Not Be What You Think!
The inability to control one’s attention is a common problem that plagues golfers at every level from professional to amateurs. We think we are focused on one thing when in fact our attention is fixed on something else, and unless we know that that’s happening, that “something else” will become our new target. Let me give you a classic example, you’re standing on the tee box ready to...
The Heat is On: How the rising temperatures affect our mental game
Few years back, I had the opportunity to play a local Connecticut Open qualifier with Ivan Lendl. For those of you who don’t know Lendl, he is considered by many (including myself) to be one of the best men’s tennis players of all time. He was ranked world No. 1 for 270 weeks at the peak of his career, and won 94 singles titles including 8 grand slams. I loved watching tennis growing up and I ...
