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What do you think of as you swing the golf club?

Now when I ask golfers this question the answers I get vary enormously. Some players say they think of nothing. Thinking of nothing is great and very achievable when you are relaxed. However when the pressure is on, the same players often find it really difficult to stop thinking about their swing.
Some say they focus on their take away or a certain movement in their swing or a movement of the body or the golf club. Perhaps you use one of the many swing tips available in every magazine you read and every golfer has a tip he will happily pass on to you. If you are using your own swing tip then often it will be a reminder of a part of your swing that your mind tells you is the most likely to let you down. So you focus on something in your swing that you are worried or concerned about.

If you do not trust yourself to let go and swing freely, if there is any doubt, too much thinking, anxiety or any lack of trust in your swing, then there is a loss of focus. Poor focus ruins a golf swing.

For most players, as soon as they hit a few bad shots, they begin to search for a new tip to focus on and so they go around and around in circles looking for the elusive answer to the unsolvable problem. They spend hours on the range “looking for something”. Then they “find something” that works and hang their hopes on it for a while, until inevitably, it breaks down again.

It is like losing your keys in the basement and looking for them upstairs because the light is better.

In reality tips don’t work. You do. Your trust in the tip made it work by allowing you to swing with a relaxed and concentrated mind. Your ability to develop this relaxed concentrated state of mind is the most important skill you can develop as a golfer. This master skill underpins peak performance.

The reason some golfers play well in practice but can’t do it in tournament play is that they lose their ability to stay relaxed and concentrated in tournament play. Consequently their swing breaks down and so they blame their technique. It is not always technique.

Understanding the relationship between your ability to relax and concentrate and your performance, is what my coaching is all about.

Focus on one simple thing. Don’t try hard to perform the move. Observe how much you do it. This subtle difference is vital to good focus and good performance. Contact me for further details on how to apply this knowledge practically.