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As a mental training consultant, I work with athletes participating in all sorts of sports and at different levels of competition. We work together to build, train and improve their mental game with the goal of enhancing their performances. One common challenge I see is around the practice of goal setting. Goal setting is one of those strategies that we all hear about, maybe we learn about it in school or work and it seems so simple. Yet, many of us don’t really know how to use it effectively.

Does the example of the New Years’ resolution come to mind? Yes, I think we are all guilty of setting a goal December 31st - only to be a distant memory and disappointments come February (or is it mid-January?).
For this blog I wanted to cover some of the basic “how to’s” for goal setting and common challenges that can often derail your progress and motivation. To start, goal setting is the process in which we identify a desired outcome and specific actions that will give us the best chance to achieve it. There is an abundance of research supporting the practice of goal setting demonstrating a positive effect on improving performance in golf. The most important goals identified included improving performance overall and increasing the enjoyment of playing.

There are three types of goals that golfers can use to help direct focus, change behavior and improve performance:

OUTCOME GOALS: These focus on a result of an event. Beating another competitor or finishing in a certain spot in competition. This type of goal is also dependant on the ability of your competition which is often not within your control.

EX: “I want to win my match play round today.”

PERFORMANCE GOALS: These are focused on achieving standards in performance for you. Competitors’ performances are not considered so these types of goals are within your control.

EX: “I want to par this hole today since I got a bogey last time out.”

PROCESS GOALS: These focus on the actions that a golfer would take to help improve performance and achieve their goal.

EX: “I want to execute my pre-shot routine for each shot.”

Identifying an outcome goal is a good place to start. Think if it as a tiered system where it acts as the foundation of your plan; however, once it is set, move on and put your energy and focus on the performance and process goals. Many golfers get too focused on the outcome which can make them anxious and thus forgetting to attend to the actions that will help them reach that goal. An example might be to break 100. This is a great goal to have but then shift your focus to the little steps you can do to help you get as close to or achieving this result. You will notice that it helps keep you in the moment with your focus rather than thinking ahead too much or in the past. Do the work and the results will take care of themselves.

There are many tips to help guide this process. The acronym “SMARTER” is one way to remember to consider some important points in goal getting:

Let’s say your goal is to break 100/90/80/70.
State your goal in a positive way: “I want to/will break 100/90/80/70” We want to keep a positive light rather than a negative one like “don’t three putt”.

Specific. Be specific when you identify your goal.

EX: “I want to increase my level of confidence at the first tee-box when I’m in a tournament. I’d like to feel about an 8 out of 10”

Measurable: You want your goals to be something you can quantify and actually see a difference.

EX: “I want to two-putt or less for 90% of my round.”

Actions: What are the actual tasks you can do to help reach your goal?

EX: “I will video tape my chipping and share it to my coach.”

Realistic: You want your goals to be achievable with some work. This is where you want to identify your current level of ability on the task you are working to improve. This will allow you to set goals that will stretch you to grow and not discourage you in defeat by an impossible mission.

EX: “I can reach the green from here 5 out of 10 times, so I would like to reach it 7 out of 10 times”

Timely: Goals can be set for short term or long term timelines. A golfers’ long term goals are supported by a series of short term progressive goals.

EX: “I want to work my putting for next weeks’ tournament. So I will practice this Monday, Wednesday and Friday for 30 minutes.”

Evaluate: This is often where goal setting gets forgotten. Make the decision on when to revisit your goal and the action steps you are taking to determine if they are working for you. If they are, then pat yourself on the back, notice the small steps of success you are making! Allow yourself to feel the motivation and confidence and keep working at it! If the action steps are not working, then what can you learn and make appropriate adjustments. Take time to re-evaluate and determine if there are some new challenges that have come up. Find a way to work around them or work with them and create new action steps to keep you going towards your goal.

Record: Writing down your goal doesn’t have to take a lot of time. Creating a goal journal is helpful in keeping track of your progress, challenges and plans. Deciding on a routine of recording your experiences after range time or rounds can be a valuable tool to increase your learning. Share your goals with others to help increase your accountability and support to stick with the challenge!

Some common mistakes that golfers do with goal setting are:
Setting too many goals. Set one to two goals at a time and short term to keep you fresh and focused.
Failing to adjust goals. As in the SMARTER acronym, Evaluate. Short term goals can include a goal at each practice round. Evaluate after the round to see if you there is a desire to adjust the goal. This is especially handy when you get injured and want to set new goals for recovery.

Setting goals based on someone else’s desires. Set your own goals based on your needs and abilities and the ownership you have will help your motivation. Share them with a coach or friend to see if they agree and have other insights.

Not setting goals at all. It is difficult sometimes to start goal setting when it isn’t your habit. Many people have had little success in the past doing it, felt too pressured with results or feel too spontaneous for goal setting so they abandon the practice. Goal setting actually saves time and provides the clarity around your purpose, your planning and discipline to stay on task.

Goal setting helps golfers direct their attention to specific performance elements to achieve their targets and fosters motivation and perseverance through preparation and planning. Remember goal setting is something to be practiced just like any other mental or physical skill. It isn’t a perfect system but it sure gives you a better chance at experiencing success.

We hear these two words so often from ourselves and others while playing, but do you really know how to relax? …and if you do, are you consistently successful at it? I know it sounds strange and often when I work with golfers, they are a bit embarrassed to admit they may not know how, or that they do know how but, “it doesn’t always work.”
So I wanted to address the topic of physical psych-down techniques, most specifically, learning to relax. Our “optimal intensity” is a term used to describe the level of arousal that allows an athlete to perform at their best. Sometimes when playing we can get into a place of “overintensity” which we know can cause us psychological and physical challenges impacting our performance. The Mind-Body connection at work.

The first step is to raise your awareness around your intensity levels. This will help you understand your “symptoms” of overintensity, what situations may be triggers for you, why do you get that way in the first place and what can you do about it. Think of a time when you were playing really well, felt focused, having fun, not thinking much and feeling confident. What was your intensity like? Now think of a time when you were playing poorly, frustrated, “nothing went my way” kind of rounds. How was your intensity different? What did you notice was different for you?
Most often, when you are playing well you feel confident, relaxed and at ease. When you are struggling, we are “gripping” and tight. Golfers report that they feel more pressure, muscle tension, are short-fused, negative in their thinking and focus more on things that are out of their control.

One of the biggest contributing factors of overintensity is the lack of confidence. This is a huge area to talk about and I will focus on it in my next blog, but for our topic of relaxation, it plays to how much faith you have in your ability to succeed, how you perceive situations and the resulting physical impact your body may feel.

Sometimes it’s best to just slow the world down and regroup mentally and physically. In some of my previous blogs, I’ve shared ways to help you refocus your thoughts to be more productive. Let’s look at some ways to “refocus” our body.

Breath control is one of the most simple yet powerful tools you can use. Controlled breathing provides oxygen to the blood and helps remove fatigue promoting carbon-dioxide from your muscles. It also allows provides a healthy distraction from negative feelings and thoughts.

In my last blog I introduced the “belly breath”. Imagining that you “start” your inhale down behind your belly-button. Filling the lungs from bottom to top if you will. Then exhaling to empty the lungs from top to bottom – ending back behind your belly button. An easy way to practice breath control for relaxation is to remember the 1:2 ratio. Breathe in for a count of 2 and breathe out for a count of 4. Doubling the time to exhale deepens the relaxation. You can even focus on the way the air feels entering your nose, transitioning in your lungs and how it feels exiting through your lips. Be curious how this may be able to fit into your pre-shot routine. Try it now several times and see what you notice about your body.

Another technique that is used to promote relaxation in our body is called progressive muscle relaxation (PMR). The idea behind this is to progress through tension-relaxation cycles helping you feel muscle tension and then letting it go.
An example:

Focus on certain group of muscles in your body, let’s say your toes and feet. You could be seated, laying down or sitting. Breathing in deeply from your belly and filling your lungs. At the “top” of the breath, curl your toes tightly and hold for a count of 5. Then slowly release the tension with your exhale for a count of 10. Repeat. You will be able to notice the difference between the two levels of intensity. You would then continue to progress through the different muscle groups as you make your way up to the top of your head. Please be careful not to tense so much to cause cramping or light-headedness. Keep it at a level that is safe for you.

Here’s an example of how to use PMR on the course:
Standing at your cart, or on the tee box or on your walk to your ball, focus on your hands and arms as the hang to your side. Take a deep belly breath in and tighten your fists and arms for a count to 5, then release them. I mean really let them relax. Imagine the tension melt away as much as you can while you exhale to a count of 10.
Do this several times if you feel you are anxious or frustrated. This will recognize the tension and allow it to release. Take the time to notice where you may be holding the most tension in your body. Shoulders? You can do the same by shrugging them and releasing the tension to the same breathing and counts. This can allow you to prepare for your shot by slowing things down mentally and give you a great chance to execute the shot you want with less muscle tension.

Like all mental skills, PMR is to be practiced. Once you get more comfortable with this routine you can begin to omit the tension phase and just focus on the relaxation aspect. You can even incorporate soothing self-talk as you exhale to help enhance the relaxation. Words such as “easy”, “relax”, “let go” can have a calming effect.

One last tip for you is to remember to smile. Literally! Smile and hold it! Research shows us that smiling can alter the blood flow in our brain and produce a calming feeling from the release of certain neurochemicals. If you are feeling frustrated or tense, find a way to laugh and smile and find the positive in what you are doing or the situation you’re facing. Remember golf is supposed to be fun too! I hope you have a few friends you can play with to help you keep this tip handy and to add to the enjoyment of the game.

Summer is now in full swing and the courses are a buzz with locals, tourists and tournaments. Whether you are sneaking in a round during the week or are the weekend warrior, chances are pretty good that unless you book a foursome yourself, or have the magical but unique opportunity to play a round solo, you will be paired with people you don’t know. I have always found this to be an interesting and underestimated element to playing golf.

Golf is a very self-centered game in many ways. Let’s be real, when we go out to play – our focus is really on our own game. However, we can find ourselves impacted by the play of others or more specifically, the behavior of others. You may find the others very pleasant and with good knowledge of golf etiquette…or you may not. How many times have you found yourself paired up with “that guy”?

Let’s identify the types of guys (or girls) who become an “environmental variable” that test your mental game…
· “Advise guy/girl”: That guy/girl that feels the need to give you advice on how to fix your swing, or what you did wrong but slices everything they hit.
· “Slow as molasses guy/girl”: That guy/girl who pays more attention to their own game and overly long routines rather than keeping up or noticing the pace of the game.
· “Over-intense guy/girl “: That guy/girl who freaks out in attention-getting drama after every shot they take exclaiming things like, “Wow, that never happens!” (and then inspects the club as if it were the culprit).
· “Excuse guy/girl”: That guy/girl who have an excuse for every poor shot they take and makes sure you hear it and get it.
· “Annoyingly complimentary or comment-y guy/girl” : That guy/girl who squirts out a compliment the second you hit the ball (“That was GREAT!”) as it finds its way to the bottom of the water. “Aw, you’re not going to like that!” Hmmm – you’re right.
· “Bickering couple guy/girl”: The couple who has one dominant player and proceeds to instruct, insult and embarrass the other with frustration.

So, can you add any more to this list? I’m sure you have experienced these and other kinds of distractions when playing a round. With each of these scenarios, our patience and focus can be challenged. It is very easy to get caught up in the negative energy we feel from being around these behaviors. So how do you manage yourself when playing with “that guy”?

A key for all mental skills success is awareness and preparation. If you know you will likely get paired with strangers or even certain friends that you know have some of these habits, it’s a good idea to prepare and practice how you want to respond ahead of time. One way is to identify the things that trigger your stress levels and notice the impact it plays on your game. Thinking about situations ahead of time may help you get in touch with how you have felt in the past and how you may feel again. Then notice how your game is affected. Do you become more focused on the comment or person rather than your game, and then execute a poor shot? Ask yourself a few questions: How have you handled situations like this in the past? What can you do to get back on track when you’re distracted? What worked for you? What didn’t? This will help you really understand how you react and help you in coming up with a plan to respond in a more productive way.

A quick way to check in with your stress level is to do the “numbers test”. Ask yourself when you are playing well and performing well mentally - what number would you rate that feeling between one and ten? Ten being high and positive. Some might say, “An eight”. When you are playing poorly and can’t get it together mentally – what number would you give yourself then? “A 4”. So you have a performance range between 4 and 8. Nothing very scientific here but keep those numbers in mind.

When you encounter these types of environmental distractions, use it as a cue to check in with yourself. What number do you feel you are experiencing? If you notice that it’s closer to the four, then you can choose to do something about it. A common response I hear from golfers is, “I’ll just block it out.” You can try, but it’s very difficult to do. I often relate it back to trying to hold a big ball underwater – you can get it under the water, but it takes a lot of energy to keep it down, and if you let it go it comes back full force into your face! Blocking something out really only attends to the mental aspect of the stressor, but you miss attending to the physical aspect that often shows up as tension.

To help raise that number:
Physically: Relax. Really. Deep belly breaths. Place your hand on your belly button and practice initiating your breathing from behind your belly button. Inhale to fill your lungs to the top, and exhale to empty them all the way back down to your belly button. Take your time on this and allow the pace and rhythm of your breathing to slow down. What do you notice about your body and mind just by doing this a few times? I realize you don’t have a lot of time to do this on the course, but with practice you will get better at it and feel the calming effects in just a few breaths. I’ll write more about relaxation in my next blog, but this is a good start!

Mentally: Focus. This is where routines and task-oriented self-talk come in very handy. Allow your focus to not block something out – but rather go to something. Go to an action thought such as, “let it go” or “easy”. Begin your pre-shot routines and allow yourself to be in that moment to take that specific shot.

By narrowing down your focus and energy to just that shot, you will increase your chances of executing the shot you want and be more open to the outcome.
Another way to approach these types of challenges is to be accepting to them and see them as an opportunity. What?? But did you hear what that guy said to me about that last shot?? He said I was too “hands-y”! Think of it as your own “adversity training” session. If you can prepare and practice your responses in these situations, think of the benefits it may have for you. If you can get through the front nine and find ways to minimize your focus on them, then you’ll feel more prepared going into the back nine. Perhaps you’ll feel more confident when you encounter these distractions in the future and knowing that you may be more equipped to deal with these distractions compared to your competition! So let “over-intense guy” bring his best. The difference could win you the longest drive competition or closest to the hole in the company tournament! Let’s just hope for some good prizes!