mind percentage and the game

Two of the most asked questions to a sport psychologist or peak performance coach are :-

1. Why can’t I take my practice game to a match game?
2. Why do the commentators on T.V. keep saying “It is all in the mind” when you don’t think it is?

I will answer the first question later in the year on my blog.

My answer to question two will be in two parts.

1) I have never read from any text book what I classify as my answer but there are bits and bats on the subject, however, I have never known anyone answer the question to my satisfaction. In trying to illustrate my answer I am going to take the sport of golf. Hundreds of books have been written on the mind and golf and I have read quite a few of them. One of the best I have come across is called “The inner game of golf” by Timothy Gallwey. He also wrote “The inner game of tennis”.

Suppose we have a young 25 year old (say David) who is progressing in the business world and his fellow workmates or his superior keep asking him to have a round of golf. He keeps giving excuses because he has never played and doesn’t want to show himself up. One day his superior tells him he is going to have a company golfing day where he is going to invite his top clients. He needs David to accompany one of these clients David goes into panic mode! He has played pitch & putt in his younger days and has watched golf on the T.V. and he knows how it is played. He decides to go for lessons with the golf professional at his local club and the professional shows him how to hold the clubs, how to swing etc. David goes off to the driving range with all this knowledge in his head and hits a couple of hundred golf balls; out of those he only hits around 10 correctly. There is so much to think about – feet ,hands, hips, shoulder, arms, keeping his head still, now he is in panic 2 mode. At this stage I would think his mental attitude to the game, temperament, fear and doubt would be approximately about 25% , whilst 75% of his concentration will be on his technique. Until he can subconsciously get his swing etcetera i.e. without thinking about it consciously, this takes time and practice. What I am suggesting is that whilst you are learning a game you can’t employ the mental side of the game whilst you are still learning the basic techniques. Once you have learnt the techniques and they are embedded in your subconscious then the mental side of golf becomes 95% -98% of the game.

Part two will follow on my next blog.