Avoid These Six Golf Mental Mistakes

Golf is a mental sport as well as a physical one. Avoiding the mental mistakes outlined will boost your confidence and performance on the course. Mental mistakes include doubting your instincts, letting bad shots rattle you, watching your score, ignoring your Strengths, losing focus to easily, having unrealistic expectations, and thinking too much.

Every golfer makes mental mistakes, whether they are using putters, drivers, or tees. Limiting them is the easiest way to lower your score and boost your confidence round after round. But golf is a complex sport, and even professional athletes struggle to find the best way to approach each shot. Any golfer can improve their mental game if they learn how to overcome the mental mistakes listed below.

Each golfer has their own talents and skills they can use on the course, but it’s easy to abandon them when facing new challenges. This is a trap that golfers of all skill levels fall into.

Instead of using their Strengths to take a comfortable shot, they try something new. You can push your body to add an extra 20 yards to a drive, but you’ll also destroy your accuracy. Well there’s nothing wrong with trying new skills, save them for practice. Otherwise, you’re hurt your confidence handicap.

Confidence is vital for athletic success, but having too much or too little will only work against you. Overconfident golfers try to many risky shots, and their scores reflect their recklessness. Insecure players won’t do their best, either, their confidence is vital for the athletic performance. Doubting your swing or approach only means you’ll fail more often. If you aren’t relaxed, your stiff muscles and limbs will lead to less accurate parts and shorter drives.

It’s normal to struggle with confidence when you’re first learning a new sport, or testing your limits. Try to think about your performance honestly, and take notes if you need to. It’s harder to miss judge your abilities when you measure them accurately. Often, pushing your limits slowly means you don’t need to make drastic adjustments as you create better strategies and execute them.

It’s easy to ignore your instincts, especially when they conflict with traditional wisdom. Golfers use popular strategies because they work, but sometimes using them won’t feel right, and it’s OK to try something else.

If you play enough rounds you develop your own golfing instincts. There’s always new skills and strategies to learn, and you shouldn’t discount your feelings just because you want to try and an Orthodox approach.

Every golfer takes in accurate shots, and while you can learn from your mistakes, it’s also easy to over compensate. If, for example, your last drive sailed too far to the left, don’t make major adjustments for the next hole.  If you do,your sail will probably drive right.

Practicing bad shots at your favorite driving range and practice facility will help you learn how to adjust to a  comfortable environment. Aim for specific goals, and then make small changes when you fail. Keeping track of your bad shots and how you adjusted means your’ll adapt more easily when you aren’t playing your best.

Making a good shot means using the right strategy and coordinating your body. Focusing on how your shots could go wrong will only distract you. And even if you don’t make a terrible shot, you won’t make your best one.

Instead, try to make a good shot every time this will help you focus on only a few points, instead of fighting a crowd of competing distractions. If you start worrying about making mistakes stop and relax create a routine that helps calm your nerves and stick to it.