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Sports Psychology!
Why
Mental Training Should Begin on the First Day..
Most
parents want their children to enjoy and be successful in sports.
They spend time and money in helping their child have the best chance of
becoming a good golfer. Unfortunately they also spend a lot of time
either trying to be the child’s coach or acting like the
"practice police". Parents can become very active and
supportive in the mental side of training.
It
is almost always a mistake to become either officially or unofficially
the child’s physical trainer or coach. This usually a bad
idea because first you probably are not qualified to teach golf. Twenty
years of lessons is not the criteria for being your child’s coach, nor
is the fact that you have won the club championship three times. It is
much better to be the child’s biggest fan and supporter than it is to
be his or her trainer. You can help the child in the mental area of golf
by learning all you can about how the mental game disrupts and also
enhances physical performance. While it is true that no amount of mental
training can make up for improper or incomplete basic skills, it is also
true that most golfers add five to ten strokes to each and every round
because of mental errors.
The
mental game begins with the big picture. Golf is a game and
should be played for fun. Sometimes the fun is postpones while you go
through hours of practice and slow physical improvement. But
nevertheless, it is fun when you have begun to master the physical
skills and you are improving in competition. Competition is the reward
for good practice and without good practice, mental or physical, there
will be no payday and therefore a lot less fun. The process of learning
includes failure. As a friend of mine likes to say, "When you fall
on your face you are still moving forward."
Most
people, let alone children, seem to not understand that it is not what
happens to you but how you respond that matters. When a child
learns golf it would be most helpful for the child to also learn that
making themselves upset adds nothing good to the situation and usually
greatly reduces their ability to play at their best. How marvelous it
would be to teach each child to not make things worse than they are by
thinking of it in the worst possible way. There are few things as
important as controlling our thinking. In golf a child can become very
frustrated and even quit the game because of how bad they make it when
they play poorly or compare themselves with other more physically
developed children.
It is vital to help the child accept themselves as
they are and enjoy getting better. This process has to come from both
the coach and the parents. This attitude is not taught by telling the
child what to do. This attitude is taught by the parents and coach
acting like it is true and being consistent about it. If your attitude
says this is awful then the child will learn that it must really be
awful. If you act like it is unpleasant, but not a big deal then they
will believe that that is what it is. How good or bad sports are for a
child is determined by the adults around the child.
Children
have a natural tendency to use imagination and imagery. This
is perfect for learning the proper ways of mental rehearsal and
preparation. The parents should read books on how to use mental imagery
and teach the child, with the verbal support of the coach or trainer,
age appropriate ways of mentally preparing to play comfortably and well.
This imagery is also used to prepare for the unusual and potentially
troublesome situations that can easily throw a child’s game off. If
you are prepared mentally very little can force you off your best game.
Learning
the mental game, and how to control your responses,
will go a long way toward eliminating the frustrations, hassles
and slumps that make it hard to keep going while learning a complex game
like golf. But once mastered, there is little else that can help and
support the child’s mastery of this wonderful game as much as mental
training.
Bob Phillips,
Ph.D.
Clinical and Golf
Psychologist
Sports Psychology
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Content provided by
Bob Phillips,
Ph.D.
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