What is Mental Toughness – and How Do You Achieve it?

What is Mental Toughness – and How Do You Achieve It?

Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional.  I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website.  The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time!  Please post your comments below.  Keep it clean and tasteful.  We are here to learn from one another!

Mental Toughness has been defined by Wikipedia as “A collection of attributes that allow a person to persevere through difficult circumstances (such as difficult training or difficult competitive situations in games) and emerge without losing confidence. In recent decades, coaches, sports psychologists, sports commentators, and business leaders.”

Mental Toughness is evident when I see golfers play their very best, no matter what the circumstances or distractions.  People like Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Raymond Floyd, Tiger Woods, and Jack Nicklaus come to mind.

The aim of mental coaching.

The aim of mental game coaching is to help players gain better access to the skills they’ve developed in practice, whatever the situation.

That’s what mental toughness is all about.

Getting over the ball and having a quiet, but focused, mind and a feeling of confidence in what is about to happen.

Trusting your swing mechanics so you don’t have to think about them.

It’s all subconscious.

Your swing becomes a reaction to what’s in front of you, not a series of technical thoughts.

That little coach inside your head is no longer needed and has disappeared.

As a mental game coach, if I can get my players into this state of mind over every shot, I’ve done a good job.

But how do you achieve this?

• Learning skills Consciously
• Learning to swing Subconsciously
• Building a strong Self Image

Learning how to achieve a better mental game is about working on the last 2 areas.

Meditation is part and parcel of getting to the correct mental state!

We’ve all been there. You find something on the range and your swing just clicks.  Every ball, arrow straight or with a little draw.  You’ve cracked it.

Scratch golf awaits…  But on the course, that same swing is nowhere to be found.  Unfortunately, the golf course is not like the driving range.

There are consequences. There are other players. There’s pressure.  It’s not as easy to access that free flowing swing.

But this is where mental game training comes in.

How you access your best swings is through a good process, a blueprint if you will. Having a plan will give you more confidence right off the bat.

Your “Process” is like building layers, with each one you get closer to the state of mind you need to be in at the moment you take the club away from the ball.

You need the conscious thought in order to access the subconscious control.

This is what’s in my blue-print for success, which you’re getting a taste of here. If you want to jump right into my program, click here.

There are 2 reasons that golfers are not able to access that “range game” on the course

• The way they practice (more simulation is needed)
• Not having a strong enough process during the round to access the Golf State of Mind

To read how to access your true “Mental Game Blueprint” go here!

Source :  David MacKenzie  of Golf State of Mind.

Pictures : xploitme   Keith Allison   Hartwig HKD

Thanks for reading – What is Mental Toughness – and How Do You Achieve it?

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