The mental portion of the golf game is an important part. Your mind can defeat all the good training with one thought. If you get mad at yourself over your performance it is non-productive and will eat away at your confidence. The next time you catch yourself getting mad or losing your focus remind yourself you did the best you could and let it go.

Just remember when you tell yourself something it is like programming a computer. It remembers. So make is all positive and productive. You don’t want to work against yourself, so choose what you think carefully and make it positive thoughts.

Negative thoughts are a bad habit, but it can be changed. When you start to think a negative thought, tell yourself “stop!” and don’t continue the thought. Instead change it to a positive thought.

Another aspect of the mental game of golf is over-analyzing. If you are the type of player who has a difficulty with the amount of time you have to get ready for your shot. The good thing is you don’t have to make you shot until you are ready to make it. The bad thing is with too much time you will think too much. When you start  over-analyzing every shot and every putt, you will clog the brain. The brain then sends poor signals to the body. Your mind is designed to process only a certain amount of information before it goes into over-load. The best avenue to take is to relax and let your imagination take care of the variables of the shot.

A quiet, non-analytical mind is the type of mind to get into the flow and become engrossed in the execution of the shot. Don’t let past holes get in the way of your concentration on this shot. Focus totally on the shot at hand.

To quiet your mind focus you attention on your breathing while you are preparing for a shot. Let all other thoughts pass and re-focus on your breathing. Try to keep your thoughts about your swing to only one thought such as the rhythm of the swing. If you are a visual player, see the target and let your body hit the shot. Save the analysis for practice drills.