Trusting your golf swing

Golfers everywhere are looking for the inner belief that they are going to make a good shot. This inner belief is what leads to confidence and ultimately better scores – so it’s worth exploring this concept further.

It is a magical feeling when you’re over a shot and you know with every fibre of your being that you are about to be successful. In these all but elusive moments the game is easy, fun and good score are just a matter of turning up!

Great play is almost always partnered by trusting your golf swing. Unfortunately golfers haven’t learned how to do this consistently.

We trust ourselves everyday, performing tasks, that if we sat down and thought about them, we would realise they require equal amounts of dexterity and trust as our silly golf swing.

What about the trust required in driving a car? You have to obey the road rules, watch out for bad drivers, control a vehicle moving up to 100 kilometres an hour with other cars passing you within a metre or so and not to mention changing gears and all the other fine motor skills required in maneuvering the car.

I played recently with a surgeon. This doctor spends most of his days performing miracles and changing people’s lives. Put a golf club in his hands and he turns into a scared and doubt ridden golfer. He has no trust in his ability to hole a one metre putt – despite what he could do in the operating room.

So why don’t golfers trust themselves out on the links and learn to experience the confidence, fun and performance of other skills?

It’s because we don’t allow ourselves to trust. We are too preoccupied with technique and performance. And if I can make a bolder statement, we’re obsessed with perfection to the point we’re scared of making mistakes. So there’s little freedom. No flow. And almost no chance of decent play.

When you learn to let go and hit the ball, you are trusting your instincts to make contact with the ball. Letting go is the foundation of building trust in your golf game.

Letting go requires a conscious effort (at first – ultimately this should happen subconsciously) to stop concerning yourself with swing, sand, water, trees, out of bound markers and score. Your attention must be on what you want to achieve – then to step up and do your best to achieve that goal.

Letting go and having faith that the ball will be struck well builds trust. When you can take this mindset to the golf course you build confidence. Later, you will start playing better golf under pressure – more confidence surges through your body. The final step is to realise that letting go, playing without concern or worry is better than any other method you’ve tried in the past. This final step I’ve termed “removing the straight jacket” and can only happen when you can swing without fear or concern. This level allows you to become bullet-proof and your golf can reach a level you never thought possible.

I can’t promise you’ll play your best golf all of the time. This is not possible. But learning to trust and let go will maximise your chances of playing better golf. In my next lesson I’ll share some thoughts and further ideas on trusting your golf swing.