Mini Project 3

Last week I wrote about sports psychology and how it plays a hand in golf. I tried to play around with this idea of doing a rant and I think I have made some improvements on that idea this time around by trying to be more conversational. Last week I talked mainly about how Dr. Gio Valiante breaks golf psychology into “The four C’s”. I spent most of last weeks post talking about concentration (one of the four C’s) and how it plays into golf. Well this week I am going to talk about the remaining three.

Dr. Gio was asked to define confidence and he answered this way, “Confidence is a player’s belief in their ability to perform well in any situation, practice or game. Confidence is derived from a baseline assessment of past performances, training, and preparation. As competency or skill mastery grows, your confidence becomes proportionately stronger. In order for players to develop high levels of confidence, they must have a clear understanding of the factors that boost and undermine their confidence, such as high expectations. Confidence is a core mental game skill because of its importance and relationship to other mental skills.” What does this mean? Basically, Dr. Gio is stating that confidence is drawn from your memories. If a golfer has made a 10 foot long putt thousands of times in practice, he will be likely to succeed in an actual round because he can remember back to all of those times that he has made that exact putt. People ask why practice makes perfect, well THAT’S WHY RIGHT THERE!!

The next thing that Dr. Gio was asked to explain was control. He broke control down into three separate thoughts known as “The Three R’s”. The Three R’s are as follows: Recognize–Regroup–Refocus. What I took from his explanation of these is that one must “Recognize” that he or she has lost control of their emotions. After that one must “Regroup” by interrupting their current train of thought. And finally, “Refocusing” on something positive, such us, all of those 10 foot long putts that were made during practice.

The final part of the conversation with Dr. Gio was focused on commitment. This section can be summarized shortly because it is a fairly simple concept to grasp. When one is committed to something they usually have an interest in it for some reason, this is applicable to golf. When one is playing well during a round of golf, they are engaged and interested in it (therefore they are committed). When you are not playing well it can affect how interested in it you are and how engaged you are in doing well, which will result in you not being as committed to playing your best.

In sum, the four C’s of golf psychology are the best way of understanding the mental side of golf or any other sport. Dr. Gio is a very respected sports psychologist and released a video series from which I quoted him and gathered information for my projects. I hope you have enjoyed reading my projects and if you have any questions please leave them below.