Memory Lapses In Golf

If you learned the basics of playing golf at a young age you probably find that you easily revert to your natural swing throughout later years. Other golfers who did not have the distinct advantage of learning whilst young do not have such a firm "memory" of their natural swing or ball striking ability.

Memory lapses are a common occurrence in golf. You can go out onto the range and hit balls well but find that this doesn’t happen on the course. You can start a round of golf with a few relatively good shots but then find that things go downhill from there. You can go through stages of being a "hot" putter, yet at other times your distance perception is way off. You can be forgiven for wondering what it is that you have forgotten to do.

How come golfers are so forgetful of what it is that they need to do to be able to swing well? Golfers often quip that it takes them 17 holes of golf to work out what it is that they have been doing wrong. During the preceding three and a half hours those same golfers have been dealing with a situation whereby every shot has been a surprise!

During that time they no doubt went through a series of things that they "tweaked". Their thoughts have no doubt focused upon their grip, alignment, backswing, follow through, hip turns, weight transference, and so on. Throughout all of this they have been asking themselves "What did I forget to do?"

There is one thing that they sure as hell forgot to do throughout this process. They forgot the basic foundation of their mental game. Clear focus, trust, confidence, belief and commitment do not make an appearance whilst your thoughts are questioning your swing and second guessing yourself as to what you have forgotten to do.

Ironically, what they forgot to do probably began with a lack of clear mental focus. Without this a golfer will rarely put a good swing upon the ball. And the more a golfer questions what it is that they have forgotten to do the more unpredictable and inconsistent their golf becomes.

If you know your game well and you are well informed about the physics of the golf swing, club face angles and so on then you will be able to make a few beneficial "tweaks" during the course of your game. When you hit a bad shot and you can quickly answer the question of "What happened there?" then you can make an informed adjustment to your next swing.

But if that answer does not come to you quickly, or is not obvious to you, you are best steering clear of making such adjustments. Rather, play with what you have, apply clear mental focus, commit fully to your shot choices and think about making tweaks at a later time, whilst on the range.

In doing this you will usually find that your game miraculously improves all on its own, without you having to do anything at all. Why so? Because the task you have set out to achieve with your mental focus and commitment involuntarily leads to an unconscious improvement in your technique.

Roseanna Leaton, avid golfer and specialist in golf hypnosis mp3s and author of the GolferWithin golf mind training system.

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