THE POWER OF SELF TALK

Most players think that confidence comes solely from past success, but they’re wrong. A huge part of your confidence comes from what you say to yourself about yourself in relation to the challenge in front of you – your ‘self talk’.

By David MacKenzie

your target’, ‘commit to the shot’ or ‘smooth tempo’. Positive self talk, also known as motivational self talk, is giving yourself encouragement by telling yourself things like “you are a great putter”, “you can do it” or “you are great under pressure”.

Decide on better self talk by creating ‘self talk statements’ c Start by thinking of situations that self talk would be helpful i.e., when you are feeling nervous or after a bad shot. c Write 3 positive and 3 neutral self talk statements. Your positive self talk statements must be credible. That is, if you don’t believe it, it’s not going to work. For each one, write down what gives you the right to say that to yourself (i.e., a real experience or achievement). c Practice by saying them out loud and see how they make you feel. Experiment with different words and tones (saying something in monotone will have a different effect that saying it with energy). c Be accountable for your self talk. Score yourself on it out of 10 after each round. How effective was your use of it? Was it more positive/neutral or negative? Would you change any of your statements?

With more intention for your self talk and more self-awareness, you’ll become better at responding to your feelings at what happens in the round with better self talk, rather than reacting with negative self talk. The result will be better control of your mental and emotional state and improved performance.

David MacKenzie is a mental coach and resides in Washington DC, but is originally from Godalming, Surrey. You can find out more about him and his coaching at www.golfstateofmind.com