Turning Golf Frustration Into Golf Elation

More than likely you'll have sworn, cussed or even thrown a club or two after a bad shot. Of course you might not have, but you are a rare individual in that case.

These on course temper tantrums are all demonstrations of frustration, and the more you have tried the more frustrated you are likely to get when things don't work out as you planned.

But ask yourself this - does getting frustrated help you play the next hole better or worse?

Worse, more often than not.

So why do we get so frustrated?

And why do we make such demonstrations of frustration?

Here are a few reasons why:

To show ourselves how much we care

Show others how much we care

You might believe the more you show your frustration, the more it shows how hard you tried.

Lack of control of your state

To punish yourself for failing.

What good does it do?

Not much.

You already know how much you care, and frankly no one else cares how much you care.

Showing your annoyance achieves very little, it uses a lot of energy, and achieves very little.

Golf, played well, is a game of control - controlling your ball, and controlling your state.

Punishing yourself will sooner or later backfire, you'll rebel and this, more often than not, will result in another poor shot or poor round.

Don't believe me?

How many times have you played a hole badly, berated yourself and then played the next hole even worse?! Too often is my guess.

But, far and away the worst consequence of these demonstrations of frustration after doing your best is the emotionalising. The result is you will actually associate bad, negative emotions with doing your best.

It goes like this:

You do your best

You fail

You get upset, unhappy, frustrated - you feel bad

You now have the scenario where you did your best, and the outcome was you ended up feeling bad!

Your subconscious will quickly protect you from this happening again; unfortunately, the solution will be to prevent you trying your best. Your subconscious will sabotage your best in order to protect you from feeling bad when you fail.

So he's your choice: Do your best, get frustrated at failure, gradually avoiding doing your best.

Or

Do your best, accept the outcome. Good or bad. If it's good then celebrate, if it's bad learn from it, get on with it, try your best again.

Here is a great way to make all this work in your favour, and accelerate you progress. The most powerful method you can use to learn from what you do well or badly is using a POST Shot Routine. Not many pros do this and virtually no amateurs do. But after every shot, look at the outcome, assess its success. Consider your technique, set up and above all attitude and you'll learn how to hit fewer poor shots and enjoy more great ones.

And after all isn't that what every player strives for?