Sport psychology...

Also deals with incessant self talk.

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'sport psychology'

In the last few years sport psychology has addressed the question of silencing the critical self talk that we hear during our pre-shot routines. This destructive critic shows up inconspicuously and is often disguised as a helping voice.

We have little tolerance for our playing partners when they make comments during our play and would start a world war for this at the drop of a pin. (Could you imagine your reaction to a comment like, "I bet you miss.")

However we tolerate unending harassment from our inner voice that has the impertinence to barrage us with endless recollections of past failures.

I notice this most when I am putting and it verges on the ridiculous when I get to those three to four footers. I could hear my inner voice advising me of my tendancy to pull these to the left. It's absurd and I actually listen to this and sometimes thank it for the warning.

At my worst I was totally unaware of this voice and when I became more attentive could not believe the incessant barraging that was coming from it. All of this occurred before I adopted a drill to silence it.

For this drill, I sought out some natural activities; throwing or catching a ball or simply throwing/bowling a golf ball towards a hole. I noticed with these that I was using similar mechanics but there was little or no interference from my inner voice.

Why was it so easy to perform these in near silence? Our mission is the same, to bowl the ball as close to the hole as possible. The difference is we are not so obsessed with the end result during the swing or preparation to swing.

Try this for yourself and you will experience a quiet inner voice and a much higher level of fun. I often work with groups of total beginners and it always shocks me how extremely diverse their judgement of a twenty foot putt is.

I find from a group of six perhaps one will judge it quite well but the rest will vary from far too short to far too long. I find the difference between the shortest ball and longest ball can often be more than twice the distance of the initial putt.

I then ask them to throw/bowl the ball to the same target and the results are immediately four times better. When they return to putting and are advised to use their putter with a similar action to how they just bowled, their putting improves immediately.

I have however been playing this game for over 30 years and have, until recently, not noticed this destructive commentator. So how can it be silenced? Initially it is crucial to be aware of this voice and then adopt a trick to silence it.

Dave Pelz has his metronome drill where you putt to the tempo that suits your own personality. Tum - Tum, tick - t1ck and so on. I have tried this and have had a certain level of success but the voice still gets through.

My personal silencer is to hum a note (hmmm-m) at a level that is only audible to myself and I can immediately pick up any interference coming from my inner voice.

I now do this with every putt, on the practice green and on the course, and although at first the interference was higher under pressure, I am now performing with much lower levels and having much more fun and success.

This drill can of course be used for every shot and I find that the humming picks up all interference. I would suggest that you try and test this on the practice ground before testing it on the course.

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'sport psychology'