Building Confidence
August 08, 2020
We’ve all been there. Stood over the ball with absolutely no idea where it is going to go, scared to pull the trigger. But why do we beat ourselves up to the point of checking the eBay going rate for the driver, giving up golf and taking up tiddlywinks?!
If you really want to get to know someone, take them out on a golf course. By the end of the round that ice cool work colleague is now a screaming shouting ball of rage on the verge of a breakdown. Golf is meant to be good for your mental health, but is it really? While out on the course I go through that many emotions I have self-diagnosed myself with golf-bipolar.
“You’re not good enough to get that wound up” it’s probably the best but most infuriating advice we could ever receive. Of course, it is spot on but when you know you aren’t playing to your potential it’s easy to get down when your game is under fire out in the trenches.
How do we reset and regain our confidence? That is the journey I am embarking on. Without a handicap reduction since May 2019 and steadily increasing from 4.4 in July 2016 to 6.9 today, I’ve decided it has to stop. It’s time to reset, assess the reasons why and to change my mindset.
My weekly golf schedule up until now has consisted of a mid-week and Saturday competition. If I was lucky, I might have squeezed in a few holes on the Friday night. - Let’s start with the midweek medal.
After a full day at work I rush to the golf club, arrive 15 minutes before my time still needing to check in and get changed. With no time for a practice swing or to catch my breath following a hairy drive to the golf club I tee up and kick off the round with a double bogey. At some point towards the middle of the round I begin to settle in and loosen off but I’m chasing birdies already after continuing my miserable start and using all my shots in the opening 6 or 7 holes. As we get to the 9th hole it’s now almost 7 o’clock and I am absolutely starving. I rummage through my bad and usually find a cereal bar or perhaps a once melted and now reformed mutant looking mars bar. The sugar kick starts my round and I find some form with a few pars and maybe even a birdie gets me thinking I might scrape buffer and get to the weekend with my handicap intact, “this is going to be a good week” I tell myself.
Then, disaster strikes!
With the evening sun at the dreaded height. Queue; “keep an eye on this one”, as I connect, I know it’s gone right but I’m blinded by the suns 100,000 lumens as I look for it. I turn to my playing partner to ask if they saw it. *texting* “lost it in the sun mate” my heartrate is back to that starting point. I reload and send another one out there into the suns furnace lottery. With no sign of the first my round is back in tatters and yet again I’ve failed to press the stop button on the 0.1 bus.
Friday’s round didn’t materialise this week. My grand plans of practice and a few holes were highjacked by the offer of a pint which turned into 5 and a stinking headache. Ideal preparation for my “must play well” Saturday competition. Its déjà vu, a shakey start, promising middle part after a hangover curing beer from the halfway house. Then the collapse as my mind turns to food, beers and football coupons.
What’s my issue? The simple answer is, I’m not holding myself accountable for my poor form. Instead of actively trying to make a change I am playing in a way which suggests I don’t care and get myself down in a way which says I care too much!
For the past two or three weeks I have limited my competition play and substituted with practice and nine holes with the aim of building some confidence and rediscover my form.
It’s been a revelation hitting balls from a grass range. The instant feedback from divot depth and direction is invaluable. Standard range matts are great for beginners but they are too forgiving as you can get away with hitting it a little heavy. Out on the turf there’s no hiding coupled with having to go and pick my balls up myself. I find myself more focused leading to an instant improvement in my dispersion and ball striking. I usually hit around 50 balls with a couple alignment sticks. As you can see below one is purely for alignment and the other is there to help me shallow my swing and encourage not coming over the top.
My practice in the short game area is simple but probably the most important as it’s the area I have struggled the most. Fats, thins, dubs you name it; I’ve probably hit it or even double hit it on occasion! Recently, I have been chucking 25 balls down at 5 sperate stations around the green. I haven’t been putting them in horrible lies intentionally but the confidence from repetition has naturally made playing from tricky lies less daunting. I have developed a new pre shot routine with my focus on keeping my right elbow connected to the body better and rotating to the target with my weight on my left side. Instead of focusing on my connection with the ground in my practice swing I am now standing a few yards behind the ball and taking my practice swings while looking at my landing area before stepping to address the ball. This method seems to be helping me rediscover my feel as I am now focused on landing area and not just the strike which has previously led to me subconsciously not aiming for anything and just generally hitting poor chips even if the strike was good. Aim small, miss small.
Heading out for a quick nine holes my only intention is putting turning my practice into habit and play without a card in my hand to relieve myself of any pressure to perform. So far things have been promising, I have gotten rid of the disaster holes and I am just enjoying being out there often accompanied by That Peter Crouch Podcast or something from Exposure Ninja which is a digital marketing podcast. Switching off between shots is so important to rest the mind and keep a settled heart rate. It’s also the reason why it is becoming more common to see a tour player with their best mate or partner on the bag these days.
Conveniently, the putting green is beside the last green so I stop here for an unknown amount of time. This is the drill I intentionally put the pressure on 3,6,9. I pick a putt with a little break but nothing too severe and place 3 tees down at 3, 6 and 9 feet. I hit three putts from each and move to the next level after holing three in a row. If I miss, I move back to the previous tee. After holing 3 in a row from each distance I up the stakes. One ball from each distance and I can’t leave until I have holed all three in a row. The benefits of this drill are seen out on the course. I’m not afraid of the short putts therefore, I see myself hitting putts better and passed the hole on more occasions which inevitably leads to more putts being holed….if I can read a green.
Apparently, it takes 6 weeks to make something a habit so I need to commit myself to this new practice routine but I already see the rewards in sight so I’m hopeful I can stick to it. I don’t plan to change my approach on competition day in the sense that I won’t be turning up hours before to hit balls and putt etc. Because the reality is, I just don’t have the time right now. But, by putting these steps in place to prepare in a better way building up to a competition I feel confident that my mindset and confidence will improve when it comes to teeing it up with a card in my hand.
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