Respond don’t react: The Shot You Can Always Control You can’t control bad bounces or missed putts but you can control your response. Here’s how to turn reaction into resilience. Pressure, setbacks, and unforeseen outcomes are built into any round of golf. A bad bounce, an opponent’s good fortune and careless mistakes can happen at any time. In fact, the unpredictable nature of the game is one of its main
The train of negative thoughts and unwanted emotions can arrive into the station of our mind and body at any time, but we don’t need to climb aboard. If you don’t master your emotions for golf, there’ll be an interplay of these thoughts and emotions making them bigger, leading to an inability to think clearly and create tension in your body. This can then mean that you fail to reproduce
It’s that time of year again! Time for a fresh start and creating a new, better, happier you in 2025. Most people set goals every year, but because these goals and New Year’s resolutions rely too much on willpower alone, they often fade and we quickly lose the motivation we had at the beginning of January. Having been a Performance Coach for over 15 years I’ve seen it all, and
Many golfers who explore mental coaching for golf think that improving their Pre Shot Routine, Self Talk and Focus is all they need to do to make long lasting improvement to their mental game and get better at coping with pressure in golf. But there’s a lot more to it… Although these are important, these more “cognitive” in the moment mental game strategies, will only get you so far. The
If your desired internal state during your next round is fearlessness, contentment and confidence, then read this article about an approach to create freedom that has helped my players improve performance in tournaments. Fear is in the imagination Since the emotion of fear comes from predicting something that hasn’t happened yet, you could say that it only exists in your imagination and it’s not actually real. Because it’s somewhere in
In the world of golf, where every shot counts and mental composure is critical, breathwork for golfers is one of the most underused — yet most powerful — performance tools available. From Olympic athletes to Navy SEALs, elite performers train their breathing to regulate the nervous system, sharpen focus, and stay composed under pressure. For golfers, the ability to control your breath can mean the difference between a calm, confident
Better focus in golf is all about having a clear process to follow and then learning how to control your attention. We can’t simply can’t fully apply ourselves to continued improvement without being able to do this, and here’s how to do it: Better Focus in Golf: Having a Clear Intention Focus in golf is when your intention for your focus is currently aligned with what you are actually directing
“I just tell myself positive affirmations on certain tee shots or when I’m feeling nervous and it calms me down.” – PGA Tour winner Max Homa Most players think that confidence comes solely from past success, but they’re wrong. A huge part of your confidence comes from what you say to yourself about yourself in relation to the challenge in front of you. I.e., your “self talk”. If you were
Controlling Emotions in Golf with Self Awareness or “Mindfulness” “Being your best means creating a space between stimulus and response, and in that space you have the freedom and power to choose a response that is in alignment with your values and goals.” – George Mumford Part of doing the “Inner Work” for golf is reflecting on your rounds and identifying the events that can trigger the thoughts, feelings and
Whether it’s after a bad shot or a bad round, sometimes (in the words of Ted Lasso), it’s best to “be a Goldfish” and have a 10 second memory. But this is easier said than done and requires the use of some mental game techniques, which I’m going to share with you in this week’s lesson. Good shots are easy to move on from (in fact you want to stay
