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Golf Tips for Shutting Off The Conscious Mind:

Shut off the Conscious Mind on the Course
Patrick J. Cohn, Ph.D.

The goal of practice is to develop a repeatable swing so you have confidence you can hit your targets on the course. Practicing the correct swing is paramount. That's why instruction is so important if you practice the wrong swing, you're just wasting time. I ask players to split their time between working on the swing and practicing target golf. If you spend all your time on the range and the putting green working on your golf swing and putting stroke, the tendency is to practice them on the golf course. And that's exactly what you want to avoid if your goal is to score your best. Once you have a repeatable golf swing that you have confidence in, you are ready to focus on playing target golf.

Today, there is an overabundance of technical information on how to swing the club and play golf. Every instructor has his or her own method or philosophy. The likely result is too many options and a lot of confused golfers. Find an instructor whose ideas you like and trust. The more methods (from various teachers or books) you try to combine into practice, the harder it will be to develop a repeatable swing. Stay with one teacher, one method, and one style of teaching.

Part of practice should be devoted to conscious swing analysis and part to free-form target practice. What do I mean? In a learning mode, when the goal is to improve your swing, your cognitive mind is very active. You are very conscious of positions of the club during the swing. You are self-analyzing the swing and making judgments about how well you are doing. Your mind is busy comparing the outcome of each swing to the desired outcome. You correct as you go and give yourself verbal commands on how to make the right swing.

Target golf practice is less analytical, less judgmental, and less conscious. The goal is to rely on what you have practiced and trust that you can make an effective swing. You shut down the conscious, trying mind and let your vision and feel take over. This style of practice is more specific to what you must do on the golf course to score your best. Your focus should be on the target instead of the swing, the feel and tempo of the swing instead of path or positions. Target-golf practice should be saved for the second half of each practice session and for pre-round warm up, given how difficult it is to turn off the conscious analytical mind when you step off the range and go to the first tee.

This article is adapted from Dr. Cohn's Book, Going Low: How to Break Your Individual Golf Scoring Barrier.

Dr. Patrick J. Cohn is a master mental game coach who works with golfers of all levels including PGA and LPGA Tour players. Visit Peaksports.com to gain access to over 400 exclusive mental game articles, audio programs, and interviews with athletes and coaches to enhance your golf potential: or call 888-742-7225.

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