Mastering the Mental Game:
How Your Mind Influences Scoring
Your Mind is Involved on Every Shot
Discover It's Unseen ImpactÂ
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Navigating the Mental Course:Â
Understanding the 3 Levels of Your Mind
The Three Levels of Mind Theory, primarily attributed to Sigmund Freud, provides a comprehensive framework for understanding how different aspects of our mind influence our thoughts, behaviors, and overall performance. Introduced as part of Freud's psychoanalytic theory in the early 20th century, this model categorizes the mind into three distinct levels: Conscious, Subconscious, and Unconscious.
Understanding these three levels of mind helps us recognize the various forces at play within our psyche, enabling us to harness the power of each level for personal growth, improved mental performance, and deeper self-awareness.
At Mental Golf Type, we incorporate these levels of mind into our training, recognizing their role in predicting performance on the course. While your technical skills determine your overall potential and scoring ability, your mental game dictates your day-to-day performance and the consistency of your scores.
Let’s start by providing a quick description of the levels of mind within the MGT paradigm of performance:
The Unconscious Mind: "The Inborn Operating System"
Permanent and Fixed:Â
Your personality is an intrinsic part of your unconscious mind and will never change. Just as "a Mac will always be a Mac and a PC always a PC," your unconscious mind is hardwired with a specific operating system from birth. There are 16 different versions of this inborn operating system, each containing the same core functions but with unique configurations and user manuals to maximize potential.
Your personality creates repeatable and predictable patterns of behavior, ensuring that while situations may vary, your responses remain consistent. Since you can't alter your hard-wired personality, it’s crucial to learn how to work within the system you are designed for.
As you will soon discover, this level of mind is the greatest determiner of your performance in the moment and cumulatively affects your overall score. By understanding and harnessing the power of your unconscious mind, you can leverage these patterns to optimize your performance on the golf course.
The Subconscious Mind: "The Unlimited Hard-Drive"
Amendable and Programmable:
Your subconscious mind operates like a hard drive, storing all memories, experiences, and skills that are not in your conscious awareness but can be easily accessed when needed. It influences your behaviors and responses based on past experiences and learned patterns, shaping habits and automatic reactions.
Programming forms your Self-Concept or Self-Image. This self-image, once established, drives the subconscious mind to maintain congruence. It doesn't judge whether this self-image is positive or negative; it simply supports what it knows.
Your self-image is shaped by what you consistently tell yourself, believe, and experience. This includes:
- Self-statements: “I am…” declarations.
- Beliefs from others: What others, like parents, have told you.
- External influences: Media, books, music, etc.
- Personal experiences: What you believe these experiences mean.
To free yourself of self-limiting beliefs in your subconscious, you must access different brain waves such as Alpha and Theta through methods of Mental Fitness including hypnosis and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). By empowering your subconscious mind, you can significantly enhance your self-image and overall performance.
The Conscious Mind: "Awareness in the Moment"
In Constant Motion and Change:
The conscious mind encompasses all thoughts, memories, feelings, and desires that you are aware of at any given moment. It is responsible for immediate awareness and decision-making processes, allowing you to think rationally and make informed choices.
Throughout your daily life, you are most aware of your "State," which includes your thoughts (internal representation), feelings, and physiology (body language). These elements work together, and changes in one can affect the others to maintain congruence.
Your state is generated by your hardwiring and self-image. For an affirmation to be readily accepted, it needs to align with your self-image. Positive affirmations that match your self-image are easily accepted, while those that contradict it are met with resistance.
By understanding your mind, you can learn to take control of any situation and perform with confidence, turning your thoughts into reality. Â
How The 3 Levels Are Influencing Every Shot
The Mental Performance Sequence Explained:
Filter 1 - The Unconscious Mind: Your Innate OS
This foundational level, influenced by your Mental Golf Type, dictates your automatic response to stimuli. A relaxed mind, using its strengths, operates in "Best Modes," minimizing stress and cortisol impact. A stressed mind shifts into "Stress Modes," triggering cortisol release, which can impair motor skills and swing fluidity.
Filter 2 - The Subconscious Mind: The Unlimited Hard-Drive
Your subconscious stores emotions and memories from past performances. A positive mindset fosters "Positive References," enhancing your current state and performance. Conversely, a stressed mind can bring up "Negative References," negatively influencing your state and performance.
Filter 3 - The Conscious Mind: The Action Center
In the present moment, your conscious mind translates mental processes into actions. It’s where the influences of the subconscious and unconscious manifest in your swing and the outcome of your shot.
The Importance of Knowing Your Mental Golf Type
Understanding your Mental Golf Type is essential for managing stress on the course. Historically, golfers haven't had access to this insight, leading to unpredictable performance. Our approach addresses the mind's correct level to foster consistency and relaxation, crucial for optimizing every shot. By knowing your Mental Golf Type, you can better manage stress and harness the power of each mental filter, ensuring you perform at your best on every hole.
Should I work on my swing or mind?
In this video, Giulia Sergas, MGT Certified Coach and a former tour pro who played in the Solheim Cup and the Olympics, shares her insights on developing the swing and the mind. When you understand the role of the mental game, you can begin to maximize it.
How Your Mental Game Impacts Your Scoring:
Understanding Your Mental Sequence for Optimal Golf Performance
Every golf shot you take follows a mental sequence of events. How you navigate this sequence determines your performance on that shot.
Peak Performance and the Mind: Peak performance occurs when your mind is in an optimal state, free of stress and utilizing your natural cognitive strengths. This state results in peak performance because the brain is free of cortisol—the stress hormone that acts as a paralytic on the motor cortex, the part of your brain responsible for movement and executing your golf swing.
The Impact of Stress: Stress acts like a vice grip with varying levels of intensity. Minor stress results in smaller amounts of cortisol, causing slight changes in your swing, such as a minor block. However, intense stress—like fear, anger, or frustration—releases larger amounts of cortisol, leading to significant swing breakdowns, such as a sudden snap hook after hitting beautifully all day.
The First Filter: Stress Test: The first mental filter is essentially a “Stress Test.” Your mind asks, “Is this a threat or not?” If stress initiates your mental sequence and remains unchecked, it will alter your motion and swing. This explains why your swing performance on the range, where there are no consequences, differs from your performance on the course.
Predicting Your Scoring: Visualize this mental sequence with a bell curve over your scoring window. This curve predicts the frequency of performing near your low, average, or high scores, influenced by the interplay between stress, cortisol, and their effects on your game. An untrained mind leads to significant score fluctuations within this window. Typically, most rounds will cluster around your scoring average, with 20% being higher scores and 20% lower scores, making a great round a 1 in 5 occurrence.
Leveraging Your Mental Golf Type: Understanding your Mental Golf Type helps tip the scales towards the lower end of your scoring window more consistently and even shrink your scoring window. By eliminating subtle stressors and utilizing your innate strengths, your brain relaxes, and your body performs naturally. Increasing the number of relaxed shots per round results in your best swings more often, with even mistakes having smaller dispersion, leading to better scoring opportunities.
A Strong Mental Game: A strong mental game means having the highest percentage of shots per round with the least amount of cortisol. By mastering your mental game, you can achieve your best performance on the course consistently.
Explore Our Resources and Get Started
At Mental Golf Type, we offer a range of products and coaching services designed to help players harness the power of their 3 levels of mind for peak performance. Whether you're a seasoned professional, an aspiring golfer, or a weekend warrior our personalized approach can help you unlock your full potential.
Mental Golf Type Fitting
Begin your journey with our comprehensive personality self-assessment.
Training Products
Explore our training programs to enhance your performance and lower your scoresÂ
Personalized Coaching
Work with our expert coaches to develop tailored strategies for mental performance.
Educational Resources
Access a wealth of resources, including webinars, blogs, and podcasts, to learn more.
