Anger Management in Golf

Anger management in golf has got to be one of the main game killers that plague many golfers. It definitely hurts more rounds than it helps! Let's have a gander at some of the insidious symptoms and side affects of uncontrolled anger....

Throwing clubs

Holding on to previous bad shots and swings

Inability to focus

Loss of joy from the game

Negatively affects playing partners' games

Easily distracted

One of the many drawbacks to playing with anger, and perhaps the most damaging aspect, is we become completely unable to tap our potential. To play with confidence.

Anger is a state that has tremendous emotional intensity and dominates our attention. This makes it impossible to have a clear, calm, focused awareness of what it is we actually want to do.

The nature of anger is to fixate our attention on what we don't want.

This is the single greatest path to playing consistently poor golf yet it is completely avoidable. Our internal states are the drivers of our behaviors. You will become skilled at managing your state as we continue developing your inner game.

Since our actions are state dependent and our results flow from those actions, doesn't it make sense to monitor your state? And to learn ways to be in the best state possible while you play each round?

Anger is an addiction

Applying anger management in golf is like dealing with any other habit or emotion. We design a new behavior that more appropriately reflects what we want to experience.

If you want to completely eliminate anger form your game and transform it into intense focus check out the mental game program.

So instead of the conditioned anger response you can naturally experience calm and move immediately toward how to improve next time.

Most mental game coaching recommends making "in round" changes and to work at dropping anger from your game this way. My experience with clients and myself is that this is short term at best. Attempting this is trying to fix something "after the fact".

It's kind of like a guy being wheeled into emergency with blood flowing from his stomach and the doctor saying "Geez, that's a deep cut! Hey, if you avoid getting cut you won't bleed so much!" And then he places a band aid on his stomach...

I believe in pre-round mental rehearsal. Attempting to make a change while we're "in anger" is unlikely to work since the emotional intensity of anger precludes access to any reasonable thought!

My approach to managing anger in golf is focused on making lasting change that transforms your entire game. Each and every change is systemic and positively influences every other area of your game.

Making one change enhances the effectiveness of any other changes you make. It's the true way to make permanent change.

Practice developing good states and behaviors in your day to day life

So what you want to do first is look at your anger as simply another habit. The mind functions by way of habit and we make our way through each day via the multitude of habits we have accumulated throughout our lives.

The challenge in becoming someone who operates at a high level is to be aware when our habits are becoming performance killing ruts!

Pouring cream in your cup before you pour the coffee in is a habit. As putting your left golf shoe on before your right is. Today and for as long as you choose, do the opposite of what you typically do in some of your more routine tasks. Nothing major, just stuff you normally do without thinking much about.

Put your other shoe on first. Take a different route as you drive to the store and pay attention to things around you. Allow your playing partner(s) to hit first off the tee. What you are doing is beginning to break simple habits and provide your mind with options.

This is the key. What you want is to design several different ways to respond to a bad swing, bad shot or bad break.

This requires mental imagery exercises that can be done in the comfort of your bed just before sleep. How easy can it be? I have designed a program that can be done on 5 minutes a day while lying in bed! You can check it out right now and eliminate anger from your game forever.

This was not done simply to make it easy, although it definitely is. There is a scientific reason for this. The mind is in one of its most responsive and receptive states just prior to sleep. So by applying the techniques in this way we accelerate our integration of the strategies.

Bottom line: You eliminate anger from your game and are able to play with confidence, focus and calmness. By applying a few simple mental game techniques of anger management in golf you naturally and effortlessly tap your potential instead of playing golf on the emotional roller coaster.

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