Positive self talk, a key tool for playing great golf

Over time, and as I have learnt more about certain psychological concepts such as conscious autosuggestion, or the principle of reinforcement, I have become convinced of the power of positive self talk when used before and during a round of golf.

What happens is that, as we have discussed many times, the ability to hit great golf shots depends on our capacity to synchronize our mind and body.

The unconscious mind (controlled by the right side of the brain) manages our body movements with tremendous precision and efficacy, including, of course, the golf swing.

When we hit bad golf shots, it´s normally when the conscious mind (controlled by the left side of the brain) takes control of our body movements. The problem is that the conscious mind is a very limited processor in terms of managing our movements and, yes, does a very bad job of running the golf swing.

Additionally to doing a fantastic job of managing our golf swing, the unconscious mind is also superb at capturing depth perception and at acquiring target consciousness, key elements for performance on the golf course.

Then, there happens to be a spectacular tool that can help, enormously, to achieve the necessary synchronization between our body and our powerful unconscious mind.

None other than positive self talk.

Some of my recommendations for using positive self talk are the following:

The first point is to understand that what we are trying to do, is consciously influence, or "suggest", to our powerful unconscious mind that we want to play great golf, today, and that we want to hit each shot very synchronized in body and mind.

The second point is that our self talk (that can be spoken or silent) must be amiable, relaxed, almost as if we were talking to a very young child. The unconscious mind does not UNDERSTAND or COMPREHEND "dictatorial", rough or "strong" talk.

Also the tone must always be very positive; never with anger, or negativity.

Before getting to the course, I suggest that the player take a few minutes to think a bit about what he expects for his day of golf. I propose he should say, out loud, or think things such as the following:

"It´s a great day for playing great golf. I see myself hitting excellent shots. I am very loose and very into it every time I hit. I feel everything will be easy and that I will plan my shots very well. My short game will work very well".

The objective of this type of suggestion is very clear, and originates from the laws of conscious autosuggestion. The relevant one, in this case, is the law of UNCONSCIOUS FINALITY and it states that when an objective or finality is suggested, the unconscious mind will do everything it can to make it happen.

So before we start play, positive self talk regarding what we want to happen can be very useful.

Now, when we our round two things can happen:

1. We can play our first holes well, or very well. In this case our self talk should be of the following style:

"What a great start to a great day!!!!! I´m playing so well !!!! Let´s keep rolling.....just hitting excellent golf shots"

In this scenario I recommend that we celebrate our good shots with emotion (out loud or in silence). Including those good putts that didn´t drop by millimeters.

What we are doing here is to "reinforce" our good performance and consciously send a message, or image, of what we want to keep on doing, to our unconscious mind. This is very consistent with another law of conscious autosuggestion, the law of CONCENTRATED ATTENTION OR REPETITION that says that each time our attention is concentrated on an idea, time and time again, this idea spontaneously tends to become a reality.

The objective of utilizing emotion to celebrate our good shots is in line with yet another law of conscious autosuggestion. That is the law of DOMINANT EFFECT, and that states that a strong emotion or suggestion tends to replace a weaker one, and that one with stronger emotion has a better chance of  "staying recorded", for a longer period of time, in our unconscious mind.

2. We start paying badly or below standard:

In this scenario our self talk must be "amiable", patient and "hopeful", more or less as follows:

"It´s OK. My game will come back. Things will work out. With patience good shots will come and so will pars and birdies. We will fight back".

This is THE critical moment in a round of golf.

If we do the contrary and become frustrated or angry, we will only be sending a deadly negative message to our unconscious mind. And our self talk tends to go negative like the following:

"Cook, you are a rotten golfer. You just don´t know how to hit a golf shot. I don´t understand why you came out to play today".

Most probably, in this scenario, we will play poor golf all day as the unconscious mind does not distinguish that we really don´t mean what we are saying, and will only do it´s best to comply with our "prophecy" of poor golf, and does it´s utmost to help us do just that.

The other thing we have to do our best to avoid is instructions, or self talk, that is over demanding, or with too much intensity. Before or during play. For example:

"Today I will play the Club Championship qualifier. What I want most in life is to qualify. What I want most in life is to win the Club Championship".


Greg Norman wanted the ´96 Masters too badly

This is the worst thing one can do, as another of the laws of conscious autosuggestion, the law of REVERSE EFFECT, is very clear in stating that when excess effort is placed in trying to reach a goal, less is the probability of achieving the desired objective.

Well, all in all, in my opinion and experience, positive self talk can be a great tool to enable us to reach the desired mind body synchronization, for great shot making and great scores, specially when big time pressure hits.

What is very clear, of course, is that each golfer must find his/her own positive self talk "scripts", the ones that will best work for her/him.