[Photo: Klaus Vedfelt]
You probably have a pre-shot routine to get your body and mind ready for the shot you’re about to hit. But have you ever considered a post-shot routine? Dr Carly Hunt, a sports and performance psychologist, says that having a post-shot routine can help you nimbly move from one shot to the next.
“I think it’s overlooked,” Dr Hunt, who played Division I college golf at Georgetown, says. “Everybody wants to be able to bounce back quickly, and we know some different strategies and skills that help people do that, but when you put it into your own, personalised routine, then it becomes more automatic, just like your pre-shot routine.”
If you don’t have a post-shot routine, you’re opening yourself up to a host of post-shot reactions. Whether that’s a slammed club or a curse word, what you do after a bad shot can either set you up for a better shot or send you down a vortex of more bad shots. Dr. Hunt says that if you develop a post-shot routine, you’ll have something to go back to each time. You’ll know how to react after bad shots and good ones.
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“People feel like it’s empowering because it gives them something to come back to,” Dr Hunt says. “A standard ingredient is to act neutral or happy after every shot. Stand tall, look up and around. If it was a bad shot, say, ‘The ball went there; I can handle it.’ If it was a good shot, smile, have a positive gesture to take it in. Don’t be a perfectionist. If you think it onto the green, great, celebrate that. Based on how the shot goes, be neutral or savour it. Because savouring the positive builds confidence and registers it in your brain.”
Dr Hunt has seen her own students improve their emotional regulation on the course after implementing a post-shot routine.
She says it’s not just about what you say to yourself, though. It’s also helpful to have a physical motion as part of the routine. In the same way a player would waggle in the pre-shot routine, Dr Hunt undoes the velcro of her glove after every shot in her post-shot routine.
“I talk about un-velcroing my glove,” Dr Hunt says. “I’ve been doing that since junior golf and that sound, to this day, relaxes me, because I’ve associated it over time, that it means I’m taking a mental break.”
That’s the final step of the post-shot routine: taking a mental break.
“Between shots is the best time to intentionally, emotionally regulate,” Dr Hunt says. “Let’s say you don’t have a great shot. You do this post-shot routine: You respond in a poised way. You’ve done your physical cue, and then, mentally, it’s a good idea to have a plan for not thinking about golf. Experience the moment with the senses. Golfers can be totally lost in thought, into the future or into the past. Instead, feel your feet on the ground, notice the physical reality of the moment. Feel the breeze on your face, listen to the birds chirping.”
That is your mental break. And before you know it, you’ll be back to your ball, starting your pre-shot routine. And after having gone through the steps of the post-shot routine, you’ll probably enter that pre-shot routine in a better headspace than usual.
