Lack of Focus. How to overcome?

[sandwedge]

I think a lack of focus on every shot is one of the things that is killing my game (A mediocre swing is the other but that is for another thread). Sometimes I just step up to the ball and go through the motions without concentrating. This escalates when I hit a bad shot because I just hurry up and hit another bad shot. It seems like the game just speeds up. It usually continues until I get to the next hole.

I need to find a way to shut out everything else around me and concentrate only on my next shot. I have worked on my preshot routine but it hasn't helped much. Does anyone have any tips that would help? Any books or anything that you have read that can help me with my focus and concentration so I can just zone in on my next shot and slow things down?

I have read a lot of Rotella's stuff and it has helped me not get so pissed off when I am playing poorly. I don't think it is a confidence things as much as it is a lack of focus.

Anybody else have this problem?

[MCDavis]

My best rounds are when I focus on enjoying myself. If I focus on my swing, or my score, or the last bad shot, it all falls apart.

Have fun, accept that there will be bad shots BEFORE you tee off on #1, and your mindset will improve.

Works for me, anyway.

[ol-crank]

I don't know the solution. I sometimes can concentrate on a small patch of grass behind the ball to keep my mind in the game, or keep my head down, but it has never worked for a whole game. I think that working on a solid routine for every shot might be the answer for me so that when I start my backswing I have gone through my weight shift, shoulder turn, and so on in the practice swings and hopefully I can just "let er go" from the top of my swing.

[limpalong]

Many of those who play this game at the professional level will attest to one common trait... The ability of put the last shot out of your mind and look to the next. The only shot you can control on the course is the next. Once the ball has left the clubface, it's over... done... finished!!!

Too many struggling players find themselves trapped in paralysis through over-analysis. We try to analyze why the last shot went left, or two greens ago we blew the putt way past the hole, or three fairways ago we topped our fairway wood... Until you can put all this data collection out of your mind and only look forward to the next shot, you will struggle!

Our minds become so cluttered. I've been married to the same beautiful lady for 42 years. She has been extremely tolerant of my golf addiction. Yet, there are days I have "tested" thiings by heading to the course when I could tell she would rather me have stayed home. The days I have attempted to play with the subconscience voice telling me I shouldn't be out there result in a disastrous round. The mind simply cannot digest family issues... work issues... three fairway ago issues.

Do you focus on driving your automobile? I, certainly, hope so! How many accidents, this past few years, have been attributed to the use of a cell phone while driving? So many have been injured and killed, many localities are banning the use of cell phone while driving. You need to concentrate... focus on your driving to be safe. You need to focus on your golf game to be successful.

Now, using that same analogy of driving an auto, are you focused on the intersection 3 block ago... focused on the school zone you slowed for a mile before... focused on the ambulance that you pulled over for yesterday... Of course not!!! You better be focused on what's in front of you. You better be focused on where you need to turn next. You better be focused on on-coming traffic. Hence, as you play this game, let it become so reactionary that you only see what's ahead. Clean out the mind of yesterday, of 5 mintues ago, and walk up to the shot looking only ahead. Therein lies the secret of focusing on golf.

[JEFF4i]

If you are trying to focus...

Every drip, every ounce, every single inkling of focus on the shot at hand. Not the last, and only the next if you are playing this shot for it. And even then, only this shot. Go to a place in your head where its just you and the ball.

[Sandy]

It's something I struggle with myself, and know it's something I can overcome - I played cricket for many years which is similar in that it involves long periods of standing around in the field broken up by moments of intense concentration. You can't concentrate as hard as you need to the whole time, and eventually I became good at 'switching off' when I had no need to be concentrating, but equally good as making sure I was zoned in when I needed to be.

The psychological tip that works best for me in golf is the idea of a 'commitment zone' around the ball - a 6ft circle or whatever works for you that you only step into when you're ready to play the shot, and once you're in there you focus only on the shot in hand. I find this works really well as it gives you an easy way to switch on and off again, and also focuses your mind on having a job to do. The fact you have to make the conscious decision to go into 'make a shot' mode is a good trigger for a pre-shot routine too, and knowing that you have to make the shot before you can step back out keeps your focus good until the shot it played.

[SCGolfer]

SW, try Gio Valientes book Fearless Golf. It gives you ways to concentrate on the course, what to concentrate on before you address the ball and stuff. I know people always recommend different books but after reading this and using the techniques he teaches I dropped about 5 shots. This spring I read it again after having trouble staying focused and breaking 80, I broke 80 6 out of my next 8 rounds. It is a great book.


Jason

[sandwedge]

Thanks for everyone's advice. I will try it all and see what works.

SC, I have that book at home but haven't read it yet. I am going to start it tonight.

[Eracer]

Originally Posted by SCGolfer

SW, try Gio Valientes book Fearless Golf. It gives you ways to concentrate on the course, what to concentrate on before you address the ball and stuff. I know people always recommend different books but after reading this and using the techniques he teaches I dropped about 5 shots. This spring I read it again after having trouble staying focused and breaking 80, I broke 80 6 out of my next 8 rounds. It is a great book.


Jason

Can't argue with success. I like Dr. Gio. I always listen very carefully to him whenever I see him on TGC. Didn't know he had a book out ("of course he has a book out!") but I'll definitely order it.

Thanks for the recommendation.

[Wi-Golfer]

I have found that the less I concentrate the better I do.
If I take my stance & over analyze what I am attempting to do, usually I end up screwing up. But if I play with a slightly faster tempo & don't dwell so much on exact foot position or something else like that then I play fine.

[cypressperch]

already been said. I like the idea of a shot area that was mentioned where you go in there and concentrate, go through a PRE-SHOT ROUTINE (an absolute must!), execute the shot, then leave the shot area. After leaving the shot area, I think it needs to be added that you DO NOT THINK ABOUT THE NEXT SHOT VERY MUCH, IF AT ALL, UNTIL YOU REACH THE SHOT AREA FOR THE NEXT SHOT. Why do I stress this? Because if you truly think about each and every shot all the while on the course, your brain will be exhausted before you finish the round. Somehow, thinking golf that much is more than the brain can truly handle. So, in order to keep your mind fresh for each shot, you turn off the golf between shots and do stuff like enjoy the beauty of the course and such. Acceptable golf thoughts would be thinking about the positive ways you have played a hole or course or similar course in the past. True, that is thinking golf, but it is not the intense analysis we often get into that results in loss of focus.

The best mental state to be in that I have come across was, I think, in a Rotello book that described a state of "relaxed focus." I am still thinking about having all my golf balls personalized with that term, just as a reminder. Focus by itself probably leads to too much intensity which creates tension in the muscles, anxiety about outcome of the round, etc. So we need to be relaxed. But if we become overly relaxed, we can lose our focus. Thus the goal, according to whomever the writer was, becomes a state of "relaxed focus." And again, if you think continually during the round about all the stuff we sometimes do, we cannot be truly relaxed.

This is something that you have to practice every round. Eventually, you get the hang of it. A huge bonus of relaxed focus is that it is probably the ideal state of mind to enter the mysterious ZONE where our best rounds come from. In the ZONE, we can consciously evaluate and plan the shot because we have focus, then we can turn over to the subconsious the actual execution of the shot because we are also relaxed. It is like we are self-hypnotizing ourselves. The hypnotist gets us to relax rather than yelling at us, "Get hypnotized NOW!!!!" So relax.

Best of luck to you with your game. Sincerely, Cypressperch

[RustyL]

I'm struggling with this same issue. What I have been doing is not driving straight up to the ball...considering noone is on the tee box behind me...I park the cart about 15 yards away from the ball. I talk to myself on my way to the ball " stay focused". Then try my best to relax, when I get relaxed that is when I make my best shots.

[Sandy]

Originally Posted by cypressperch

After leaving the shot area, I think it needs to be added that you DO NOT THINK ABOUT THE NEXT SHOT VERY MUCH, IF AT ALL, UNTIL YOU REACH THE SHOT AREA FOR THE NEXT SHOT. Why do I stress this? Because if you truly think about each and every shot all the while on the course, your brain will be exhausted before you finish the round.

I should have made this clearer in my original post, so thanks for pointing it out Cypressperch!

I'm a firm believer that you have a limited amount of concentration you can use when you play any sport, and the key is knowing how to switch it on and off. In my cricketing days I would sometimes spend 4 or 5 hours out in the field and may have the ball come to me only once or twice a game - but I HAD to be switched on and concentrating when that happens. If I tried to concentrate the whole time I'd have been mentally exhausted and make lots of sloppy mistakes as the game progresses.

The key with the 'commitment zone' is that you do your planning before you step in, club selection, things like that which can be chopped and changed before your swing. The minute you step into the zone, you concentrate on nothing but making the correct swing until you step back out. Once out you can do whatever you need to do to relax, watch the other shots, look for you ball, anything. But inside that zone you have to block out everything but setting up and executing the shot.

[figjam]

I think cypress summed it up in 3 words (he used more but these are the 3 I meant).
Pre
Shot
Routine

It's so important because having a proper pre shot routine helps unclutter your brain of unwanted thoughts and lets you focus on the process of each shot.

Just make sure when you get one you stick to it and don't deviate. The more repetitive the better.

[ezra76]

That's the thing, preshot routine. I'm working on simpifying mine. I pick a target, I like to use a tree and it's "back to target, fire". I'm really trying hard on getting away from swinging too hard. All I want to do is make the swing to hit the ball online with my target. Distance has been predetermined by club selection and I need to trust it. If I'm 165 yds. out with a 7iron, I know my 7iron will get there, no need to try to swing like I'm trying to fly an 8 that far. So far that seems to work well.