Golf Is Not A Game Of Perfect

"Bob Rotella is probably currently the most famous sports psychologist out there, still active. He works primarily in the golf world with a huge number of famous golf pros. Bob’s books—he has a series of them—are really easy to read, really practical. He uses a narrative style and tells lots of stories, unlike Gallwey who tells some stories, but has tons of techniques to try. I mean literally dozens upon dozens. I think Bob is not known as a technique guy. He’s more: ‘Let me tell you a story about Padraig Harrington, who I coached at the British Open, and the struggles he had and the advice I gave him, and maybe that’ll help you.’ That’s Bob’s style. I think it’s a really great style. Like I said, it’s very easy reading and it has the ring of truth because he’s in the trenches every single day, and has a huge amount of credibility. In a minute, we’ll talk about the other golf book, Zen Putting by Dr Joseph Parent. And if you compare Zen Putting to Gallwey’s Inner Game of Golf , the latter has very few stories, but lots of techniques. Parent’s book has a good number of stories and a huge number of techniques. And then Bob Rotella’s books have fewer techniques and exercises, but he is a compendium of stories, very well told, each with little nuggets of psychological truth that golfers can use. Right. So Bob makes a distinction between the ‘training’ mentality and the ‘trusting’ mentality. He has a lot of clients—and I have the same kind of group—that train like crazy. I’ve got people on Team USA, I’ve got people on Team GB in different sports. Usually, those people have a very high drive and a huge work ethic and they leave nothing to chance. But the problem is, if they’re having a challenge, they train in the lead-up to their event too consciously. They’re thinking their way through their training. They’re telling themselves what to do; they’re reminding themselves what not to do. They’re still in telling-themselves-what-to-do mode, and that is the opposite of a trusting mentality. For example, if you had a tennis ball there and I said, ‘Pick up the ball, please, and start playing catch with the ball,’ I’m sure you could just flip it up and catch it and back and forth. I do that with clients all the time. Then I say, ‘Let’s pause a minute. Now, did you tell yourself how to do that or did you just do it?’ And of course they say, ‘I just did it.’ The same way we brush our teeth or feed ourselves with a fork. All of that is natural. That’s the trusting mentality that Bob talks about. Here’s the way he operationalizes that. Both of the mentalities, or mindsets, whatever you want to call them, are good. He calls them training versus trusting. I break them down into three: I’ve got learning, I’ve got training, I’ve got performing. But his are training and trusting. When you get near an event, you have to get out of the conscious mindset—that’s a training mentality, and you’ve got to get into a trusting mentality. So, for example, two weeks out from the championship, instead of continuing to tinker with their game, or remembering what the coach said, or what they saw on a YouTube video, or what’s on their checklist, or in their notes, they let all that go. They say, ‘Alright, for better or worse, I’m going to play today’s round as if I’m in a tournament. I’m going to trust what I’ve got.’ Now they’re allowed to tweak it a tiny bit, but not at a conscious level. There’s the distinction between Rotella’s training mentality and trusting mentality."