Why Is It So Hard To Improve Your Golf ?
The purpose of this article is to help you work out why you aren’t enjoying the game as much as perhaps you used to, or why you might have stopped improving.
As you might have read in other articles or heard me say in a conversation, there is one main reason that underlies these issues:
When a human being is struggling, it is usually because they have a belief that isn’t true.
There are numerous confusing concepts and beliefs that many golfers think they need to help them play their best golf more often.
The fewer of these beliefs you have about the game of golf, the easier and more enjoyable you will find it.
Doing the Right Things
If you are keen to improve your golf, you are probably already doing many of the things that mainstream golf instruction says you should be doing in order to get better.
Having some golf lessons.
Working on your swing at the driving range.
Practising your short game and putting.
Thinking about decision making and course management and other aspects of your mental game, such as pre-shot routines or concentration.
This begs the question:
If you’re doing all the things that the experts say you should be doing, why is the experience of golf we are looking for so elusive?
Why is the average golf handicap still around 18. . .
Despite all the time, effort and money golfers spend on trying to improve?
Maybe we’re missing something?
By reading this article you have taken the first step to finding out what that something is. I know that some people will be surprised by the simplicity of what I’m suggesting.
After all, if it were that easy, wouldn’t you have figured it out on your own by now?
I guess you can look at it in one of two ways.
You could be discouraged, even somewhat annoyed when you find out that much have what you have been told, or read about the mental side of the game turns out not to be true.
This is quite common, because unfortunately many of the ideas and theories offered by golf psychologists and performance coaches are pointing in completely the wrong direction.
You might question the veracity of what I’m saying, or go off looking for research, or for more evidence before you accept or reject it.
Please pause for a moment before you do so. Other articles on the site will explain why learning to evaluate and then trust your own experiences, is often more helpful in the long run than depending on the experiences of other people.
What you are looking for is hiding in plain sight!
Why It’s Hard to Improve Your Golf
Most golfers innocently rely on the advice of others, rather than trusting their own instincts and intuition. They have the belief that other people know more than they do.
This overriding of your inner wisdom leads to frustration and a lack of enjoyment, the feeling that ‘it shouldn’t be this difficult’.
Especially when you aren’t playing the golf you know you are capable of.
All of the things you are doing to improve might well be the right things to do.
But there is a reason why they might not be working as well as you had hoped.
There will be beliefs that are getting in the way of you playing with freedom and realising your potential.
Remember, every belief which you question, explore and discard is taking you closer to your true nature, and closer to you realising your true potential as a golfer.
If you have any questions or comments about what you have read here, or if you would like to have a conversation about your golf, please follow the link below to book a discovery call.
Questions to consider: