Keeping Cool
From Focused for Golf by Wayne Glad,
Chip Beck
Coming up to the tee box on 18 with a
chance to make birdie and shoot a 59 is perhaps more pressure than most golfers
encounter in their careers. But because of the nature of the game, every
serious golfer has probably played under pressure at some point.
Some golfers thrive on pressure, and some have a hard time with it. Part of the
difference is genetic makeup—some people seem to have ice water in their veins,
and clutch situations bring out their best. It’s also quite common, though, for
golfers to “choke” under pressure. In this chapter we’ll discuss key principles
that can help even the shakiest golfers deal with pressure.
KEY PRINCIPLE: COPING SKILLS
Playing golf in highly pressurized situations requires the same coping
skills that are helpful for handling other kinds of pressures. These coping
skills help prevent choking and slumping and can help you in breaking out of a
slump.
Whether you’re performing in a boardroom, on the final exam, or out of the
bunker, the skills that psychologists and other scientists have developed to
help people handle stress and cope with adversity greatly help a golfer handle
the many difficulties that occur, and the mounting pressure of playing a round
in competition. Earlier we discussed learning good relaxation and mood-management
skills, and these skills are even more important when you’re in a high-stress
or pressurized situation. Also, we have talked about the tremendous value that
it is for golfers to learn strong imagery skills and practice visualizing what
they are about to do. These skills are even more important when playing to win
the tournament or under other high-pressure circumstances. Regarding
performance under pressure, it’s important to realize that the skills you’ve
been learning to use for playing golf generally are even more important to have
available for use under
high-pressure situations.
There are also character traits that greatly help a person manage stress and
handle pressure, and these are a subset of the cluster of attributes and skills
that have recently come more into focus and have fallen loosely under the label
of “emotional intelligence.” These traits, which we will discuss in some detail
shortly, are in fact skills that can be learned or enhanced. Once learned, they
greatly help you avoid adversity, cope with it when it does occur, take things
in stride, put things behind you, and move on to continue pursuit of golf
improvement or other goals. Without high emotional intelligence, players become
lost when the pressure mounts. They tend to fall apart and see a chance to win
or make the cut disappear as their game vanishes under the pressure.
Choking and slumping are key problems in golf. There are specific techniques to
help a player avoid choking and slumping, and skills that assist a player in
breaking out of the slump when it occasionally happens. It’s important for all
players to realize that going into a slump is unavoidable at some time in their
careers, and that peaks and valleys in one’s game are going to occur no matter
who you are or at what level you play. Whereas development of significant
“antichoking” skills have the potential to eliminate chokes completely, it
doesn’t work quite that way with slumps. Slumps will happen, and the
best you can do is reduce their frequency, depth, and duration, Developing the
patience and emotional strength to ride out your slumps will take you a long
way toward elevating your game and make it consistent, day in and day out.
In the next section, we’ll suggest prescriptions to help handle elevated
pressure on the course and the rising pressures between rounds of a tournament.
Then we’ll suggest ways to help avoid chokes and slumps, and to reduce the
latter when they occur.
Check out "Expose Yourself to Competitive Situations" or "Stay in the Present"
from Focused for Golf
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