Golf Flow

in psychology goes something to the effect that “behavior causes behavior.” What we mean is that human behavior has a tendency to repeat itself, and it doesn’t need any help to do it. It’s an interesting thing to consider, especially from a golf perspective. Think of the following: people who are nice are generally and consistently nice. The “niceness” repeats itself. People with a quick temper tend to have a quick temper consistently. Freud actually coined a term, “repetition compulsion,” to describe this repetition of behavior and life patterns. I am sure you would be surprised if Steve Stricker began throwing clubs, if Matt Kuchar began scowling, if Shaquille O’Neal began making free throws, or if politicians began to make good decisions. Why? Because behavior leads to more of the same kind of behavior, so the habits that we develop are important to pay attention to. Generally, they are going to repeat.
    This is why it is important to ignore results (especially early in the year) and pay attention to how you are “seeing the game” (another thing you always hear me say). If you spend the first month really working on the rhythm of your routine, how free you can be, and not getting negative, then you can see how going deeper into the season you can just get better and better. That’s our plan—to get you right back where you were your first few years on Tour. Get back to (1) finding your
feels
, (2) feeling
free
(forget score), (3) working really hard to lower your
expectations
, and (4)
forgiving
yourself.
    I am so happy to see you getting back into form. . . .
    ----

Chapter 9
Confidence to Achieve Sustained Success
    The most important tool in an athlete’s psychological arsenal may be confidence, or what psychologists now call self-efficacy. The importance of an athlete’s confidence has become so accepted in athletic domains that it borders on being a worn-out theme. Haven’t we all recently watched a sporting event in which the announcer, at a critical juncture in the contest, takes a moment to inform us that the losing team or athlete seems to “have lost confidence” or that a reenergized competitor has “regained her confidence”?
    Despite such clichés, confidence in sport is essential to success. Boston Celtics head coach Doc Rivers has spoken eloquently about the importance of constantly feeding and strengthening his team’s confidence, a tactic that has no doubt contributed to the six division titles and the 2008 NBA Championship that the Celtics have won under his guidance. College football coach Urban Meyer, who through 2009 had the highest winning percentage in the history of the NCAA, has advocated fast-paced offenses. When asked why he slowed his offense down with quarterback Tim Tebow at the helm, he spoke to the importance of allowing his players to stay in the huddle as long as possible with Tebow because his confidence was contagious to the team.
    As important as confidence is in basketball and football, I believe that it is amplified in the game of golf. Here is how Jack Nicklaus put it:
What I do know is that inner certitude about one’s abilities is a golfer’s primary weapon, if only because it’s the strongest defense against the enormous pressures the game imposes once a player is in a position to win. Golf’s gentlemanly code requires that you always hide self-assuredness very carefully. But hide it or not, you’ll never get very far without it.
    Although the importance of confidence in sport has always been acknowledged, it wasn’t until relatively recently that psychologists were able to isolate and categorize the specific types of experiences that develop confidence, as well as the particular channels through which it enhances performance. Because of those breakthroughs, we are no longer restricted merely to stating the obvious, which is to say that confidence is important. Now, we can specify why it is important. Even better, we can explain how confidence is developed and how it can be nurtured and maintained. Great leaps have been made in the field of psychology by researchers who spend time exploring this mental judgment.
    Although human beings are born with varying personality traits and temperaments, self-efficacy is something that we acquire as we navigate through the tasks and activities of life. When we succeed at something, particularly at something difficult, the feeling that accompanies that success is naturally accompanied by the belief