Rick Semple

When mental golf practices don't seem to be helping your game, the tendency is to stop using them and chalk it up to mental golf not being right for you or mental golf not working at all. Before you throw in the towel and decide to stop developing and applying these skills, however, ask yourself these four questions:

1. Do I really believe mental golf practices work and can help my game

2. Am I utilizing these skills consistently throughout each round (not just when the "going gets tough")

3. Am I overwhelming myself by trying to change too many mental practices at once

4. Am I putting too much pressure on myself to master these practices and get "instant results" (This was one of my main tendencies when I was beginning the development of my mental game.)

At first, a mantra doesn't sound like something that could be helpful to your golf game, but the more I study and practice mental golf the more I realize the value of tools like this. In its basic form, a mantra is a sentence or phrase that is repeated verbally or mentally to help focus the mind on an idea. This concept can easily be applied to your golf game and can in fact be quite helpful to your mental golf mindset in a number of ways. For one, it's a good way to develop the skill of being focused rather than having "scattered" thinking that is prone to distraction. Using a mantra can help to get you in the habit of consistently staying on track in productive mental golf thinking rather than frequently "switching gears" back and forth from productive, helpful thinking to distracting, unproductive thinking. Overall, using a mantra gives you some good practice in using a mental tool, which is a great way to get started with or expand on the use of mental golf practices.

I want to point out that the idea of using a mantra in your mental golf practice is something different than having swing thoughts. The concept of the mantra in this particular application os to help change a mental habit, like fear, and establish a better way of thinking, whereas swing thoughts are generally related to the physical mechanics of your swing. Also, when it comes to using a mantra for your mental golf, I'm not talking about "mindless" or rote repetition of a phrase, but thoughtful or "mindful" repetition with awareness and sincerity.

In my work with Positive Golf, I get a lot of questions about the hows and whys and the nuts and bolts of using positive mental techniques for golf improvement. It's great to receive these questions because it tells me that a person is taking an extra step to get insight and guidance into techniques that can help their game. We have started to include coverage of these questions in our Positive Golf newsletter in a periodic column titled "Positive Golf Q & A." When we started running this column, even more questions started pouring in! Occasionally, I will include some of these questions and answers in this blog because the topics are universal to so many players and so vital to success with the mental game. If you would like the benefit of seeing Positive Golf questions and answers more often, as well as other real-life insight, tips, and drills to promote positive golf improvement, then check out the details about our free Positive Golf Newsletter. I also invite you to submit a question by posting it on this blog or sending me an email through our website at TheHeartofGolf.com. In the meantime, here's a question from a golfer in Illinois who voices what a lot of other players have wondered about:

Q: Last summer, I started working on my mental game by trying visualization, but it didn't work. How long should it take for mental game techniques to make a difference in improving my gameł

Two things that are key to successfully building a strong mental game and realizing consistent golf improvement are organization and persistence. Organization refers to an organized approach in setting your positive goals and the positive plans to achieve those goals (see blog post from April 4, 2009 for more on positive goals and plans) as well as organization in your practice to make it a more effective "smart practice" or "positive practice." Persistence refers to the stick-to-itiveness to stay with your plans and practice, day after day and week after week. These are the "nuts and bolts" that are at the core of productive change for players at any level. While seemingly basic and simple, they can truly make the difference in whether or not you achieve success. Many a desire for golf improvement has been "lost in the shuffle" of inconsistent thinking and efforts and the lure of the easier path of giving up.

While I continually practice using mental golf techniques and other Positive Golf ideas in all aspects of my game, I also pick one area for particular focus as my Positive Golf Improvement Project for the year. This practice gives structure and focus to my improvement efforts and helps to keep me from getting overwhelmed and "scattered" with too many improvement activities. It also helps me to stick with it and stay on track throughout the season. My wife, a beginning golfer, also picks a Positive Golf Improvement Project for particular focus each season as well. You can read about our previous projects in the archives of this blog. This approach has helped both of us experience more success in achieving our desired changes and improvements to our games than when we took a less formal approach of just saying what we wanted to improve but not having any structure to it. I have referred to the term "smart practice" in this blog before, which is practice with structure and purpose; a similar term of "smart improvement" can be applied to the approach of using a Positive Golf Improvement Project.

As we have chosen and carried out these golf improvement projects eash season in recent years, the format has evolved into an approach that incorporates all the key elements of Positive Golf that assure more effectiveness and success, including Positive Goals and a Positive Plan that incorporates both mental and physical elements.  Here are the Positive Golf Improvement Projects for 2009 put together by my wife Christy and me using this template. I will post updates on our progress throughout the season and include any new insights and ideas we have learned along the way. We encourage other golfers to use this approach as well and we invite you to share your feedback and experiences on this blog. When you implement a Positive Golf Improvement Project for one key area of your game, you are sure to see the "ripple effect" of positive improvements showing up in other areas of your game as well!

Positive Goal:

To develop a tempo in my swing that is smooth and consistent, versus a jerky hitting at the ball that results from trying too hard.

Positive Plan:

Physical Elements---

- Practice swinging in slow motion.
- Pratice the "playground swing drill" to get the feel of an effortless swing rhythm.
- Check the grip pressure before each swing and tune in to keeping it consistent without extra tightening.
- Practice the "gravity drill" of letting the hands and arms drop down from the backswing with no extra effort and no extra grip pressure.
- Practice using a consistent pre-shot routine that includes one or two relaxed practice swings.

"Positive Practice" is an excellent concept that has helped me experience greater success in my golf improvement. Positive Practice is practice that is organized and focused on specific golf improvement goals rather than just "hitting balls" for an hour or two. What sets it apart is that it has action and direction, like drills and techniques, specifically related to certain goals. Whereas unfocused practice doesn't always lead to change and can actually reinforce incorrect technique, Positive Pracice is more productive and conducive to improvement in the specific areas it is focused upon. You may have heard the term "smart practice" or "practice with a purpose" from prominent teachers like Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott and others. In fact, in their book, "Every Shot Must Have a Purpose," Nilsson and Marriott emphasize that great play begins with thoughtful practice. What I have done is put a positive twist on the "smart practice" idea and incorporated Positive Golf ideas into the practice time to make it mentally focused as well as physically focused. So, along with mechanical drills, I am also tuning in to and tuning up my focus, awareness, confidence, and sense of feel. These are the kinds of things that help make practice time more efficient and effective so you are really making the most of your time on the range and not getting the frustrated feeling later on of "all that practice and I'm still not hitting any better."

"What are the best books to read on mental golf?" I get asked this question a lot, and it's a good one. It tells me that a person is receptive to new ideas and a greater understanding, which are good qualities for a Positive Golfer. You can get mental golf ideas a lot of places (blogs and websites are certainly two of them!), but I still encourage the use of books as a primary source, whether printed or digital, so you can read and re-read the ideas, let them sink in, and then easily go back to them. This reflection and re-visiting are helpful when learning about so many aspects of the game, including the mental side. Books are a great way to build the initial foundation of an understanding of the key concepts of mental golf, and also to expand and enrich this understanding as you progress in your development. Improvement of the mental game, along with the physical game, is a continual evolution whatever your level of experience and achievement. Books were enormously valuable in my early study of the mental game, and they continue to help deepen my understanding, heighten my awareness, and learn new insights and approaches to this day. Here are some of my favorite mental books which I consider "must-reads" for anyone seeking to improve their mental and physical games. There is a good mix of classics and newer titles. I still go back to these for periodic refreshers and reminders:

Like so many people, I have enjoyed watching the Olympic Games for the past 17 days. I have enjoyed viewing them for many reasons, with a primary one being that it helps my golf game. Even though golf is not part of the Olympics at this time, there are still a lot of beneficial things to be learned from a mental and athletic standpoint that can be applied to golf. The ideas and inspiration from athletes in a variety of sports can successfully be applied to golf, and many other aspects of life for that matter. Here are the top five ideas that stood out for me in the past couple of weeks and served as valuable reminders and motivators for my mental golf mindset and golf improvement activities:

1. Look forward, not backward. Let go of misses and mistakes and look forward to positive possibilities and outcomes. Don't dwell on what went wrong because that will hold you back. The past is the past, period.

Did you know that hanging on to bad shots, bad golf moments, and general negativity is one of the most prevalent mental practices that weighs golfers down, holds them back, and leads to less-than-positive golf experiences? It permeates the entire mental golf psyche and distracts from focus, visualization, and awareness. In fact, all of those "could haves," "should haves," and "if onlys" take away from mental energy that could otherwise be put to good use on constructive thoughts that will help your game.

So what exactly is "hanging on?" It is a mental habit of actively keeping thoughts and memories of past negative actions and experiences in mind by dwelling on them, frequently recalling or "replaying" them, and allowing them to linger and fester and take the place of otherwise helpful thoughts and memories.