Mental Approach To Golf

Need to Learn How to Improve Your Mental Game? Who You Gonna Call?

Over the last 60 years technological advances in clubs and balls have helped golfers hit the ball farther and straighter than any time in history. The science of bio-mechanics has identified the perfect swing for every body type and improvements in error detection equipment help professionals pinpoint exactly where a golfer’s swing deviates from the ideal. How much have golfers, as a whole, improved their ability to score? According to the USGA, NADA! Both amateurs and professionals alike still score, on average, exactly the same as their counterparts of six decades ago. Not to minimize the great strides a small percentage of golfers make in their own journey, one would expect that these advances would lead to lower scores. They haven’t. In fact, USGA statistics show, that as a whole, golfers don’t improve after the third year in the game.

So what’s the answer. Experts from a variety of disciplines inside and outside of golf, including teaching professionals, Sport Psychologists, Sports Vision Specialists, Sport Nutritionists, Fitness Specialists and more have tried to solve this perplexing dilemma. While each can provide assistance to specific golfers, none provide across-the-board relief. Even if a golfer improves every area listed above they still may not score any better than they do today. So who you gonna call to help you improve your scoring ability?

A Better Mental Approach To Golf

I have dedicated my entire adult life to answering this question and have identified a number of factors that affect performance. They include:
* the way we train
* the way we live our lives
* the differences between practice ranges and golf courses
* a lack of understanding and skill and the optimal mental approach to golf
* physical conditioning, nutrition, and dehydration
* pre-round preparation
* improper fitting clubs.

All of these factors affect performance directly and indirectly through state of mind and attentional focus. Very few professionals ever consider attentional focus, especially when practicing physical skills and those that do never direct it properly. When hitting balls, the only place to focus one’s attention should be on the target. This has a tremendous impact in how, how much, and how often we train. In upcoming articles I will address each of these factors, highlight the problems they cause, the effects on their mental approach to golf and attentional focus and offer solutions to help your improve state of mind, attentional focus, and ultimately your performance.

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Dr. Tony Piparo

Dr. Piparo has 25 years experience as a teaching professional, 15 as a head pro. He has also worked the last 20 years as a Sport Psychology Consultant, working with golfers of all ages and ability levels, from beginner to seasoned professional and elite level amateur. He earned his doctorate in 1992 from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and winning the American Psychological Association’s Dissertation of the Year Honors for his work on concentration and performance in golf. He has a Masters from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in Kinesiology (Study of Human Movement) with emphasis in Biomechanics, Motor Learning, and Sports Vision as they apply to golf. He also has a Masters in Educational Evaluation and Development, specializing in Learning Theory. Dr. Piparo’s education training and field experience allowed him to study the golf performance needs from both inside and outside the sport to develop the most effective, efficient, and comprehensive training system available to date. His programs and protocols are a benefit to all golfers and he is capable of assisting the individual needs of each golfer he works with. His books include Kingdom of the Tiger: A Golfer’s Guide to Playing in The Zone, Master the Art and Science of Putting and his latest collaboration with Colin Cromack, Target Oriented Golf: Training the Eyes, Mind, and Body for Success, all of which can be purchased here at www.golfstateofmind.com.

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