Golf Swing Commitment
How many of you recognize the following scenario: a golfer addresses the ball on the first tee, focused on hitting a good opening drive. A moment later, the ball sails off with a weak fade into the trees on the right. The rest of the foursome encourages a “morning mulligan” so a second ball is teed up and we then see a great drive down the middle. Striding off the tee, that golfer dismisses what happened by announcing “same golfer, more experience.” If asked to explain what just happened, we might hear “I just did not make a committed swing the first time like I did on the second shot.”
Learning to play better golf is learning to swing with that “second shot commitment” on the first shot. We all want to make committed swings every time but we don’t. What gets in our way? Uncommitted swings occasionally appear with advanced golfers, while intermediate and beginner golfers make uncommitted swings frequently. Since an uncommitted swing can send the ball anywhere, we have to ask ourselves “what can we do to decrease the number of those uncommitted swings?”
A committed golf swing feels like an engaged, unified athletic motion which embodies the best we are capable of at whatever technical level we play. An uncommitted swing is a tentative swing that may look and feel incomplete, awkward, out of tempo, or out of balance.
The next time you make an uncommitted swing (or putting stroke), instead of just walking away dismissively, ask yourself “What was going on in my head or heart that kept me from committing to that swing?’ The first response of many golfers is to deny that they were thinking of anything negative. However, if we look honestly at ourselves after an uncommitted swing, we will likely encounter one (or more) of the following mental or emotional issues that resulted in an uncommitted swing:
Uncertainty. We can have uncertainty about target, trajectory, landing spot for pitch shots, line and speed for putts, what club to use, how to modify the swing for difficult lies or bunkers.
Fear. It’s “human nature” to fear repeating past misses, and that fear grows when the miss just happened a few holes before. Golfers focused on score or the results of a match are likely to harbor fears of ruining the sore or losing the match.
Feeling overwhelmed. There is already a lot of going on in a round of golf without adding the burden of expectations from yourself or others. Other factors that can feel overwhelming emerge from the stress of competition, and at some point everyone can feel the stress of facing water hazards, deep bunkers, narrow fairways, or out of bounds markers. We can also create our own overload by having too many swing thoughts.
“What if ” thinking. This type of thinking puts your focus on what could happen if you miss (instead of the positive elements of your pre shot routine). For example, “If I go too far past the hole, I could putt right off this green.”
Magical thinking. Maybe if I don’t think of anything, if I just get up and swing, then everything is going to work out. I should just be able to take good swings because I did last time I played.
Fortunately, there are solutions to each of these swing commitment killers. Many of the solutions are not too difficult to implement. If the patterns are long-standing (which is usually the case or you would have fixed it for yourself by now) you may benefit from some mental golf coaching.