How to become your own coach

How to become your own Coach

When you play badly or hit a bad shot what do you do?
Most people want to know the answer as to why, so that they can “try” not to do it again.

Some people get given advice by playing partners or even guess themselves.
What are the most common things that you think is the cause of your destructive shots?
I bet you will have a list! A list of technical things you do wrong.
Alignment, lifting your head, too quick, coming over the top, not rolling the wrists…….etc, etc, etc.
The truth of the matter is this. Your golf swing must work because you can hit good shots but you are unhappy because it’s not consistent, right?

Well, how about this for an idea? Bad shots appear more when you “try” too hard!

What does trying too hard look or feel like? Well it can do 2 things.
1. You lose your balance at some point in the swing and lose your tempo.
2. You become tense at some point in your swing and lose your tempo.

Either of these 2 things can create the inconsistencies that you feel.

I ask a lot of people this question. Do you know what you do when you play well? (Remember that you have a list of things that you do when you play badly) which list is longer? The playing well list or the playing bad list?

If your list for playing well is very short or you are not quite sure I have some advice. Stop “trying” to do anything and get really clear on what happens in your good shots. Pay TOTAL attention to what you feel, see and hear when you hit a good shot. This needs to go on your to do list at the top and marked as URGENT!

If you don’t know what you do well how on earth are you ever going to repeat it? Oh, and before you say “well I don’t know, I can’t see myself”‘ that’s just an excuse because you haven’t been looking hard enough!

When you hit good shots it feels effortless doesn’t it. To me I would translate that as NOT trying. This will mean that things are happening more sub-consciously and the absence of “trying” means an absence of TENSION. Swinging without tension feels effortless.

Action plan:
Write down a list of things you do when playing well (if there are lots of technical swing thoughts on that list you are deluding yourself but if there are words like target, calm, balanced etc then you are probably on the right track)

When you hit a bad shot don’t pick up the list of swing faults pick up your good shot list instead. This should help you stay in the present and have a positive focus for each shot.

Trust me, this is a much less frustrating way to play the game!