When I was playing Division III college golf, I went through a particularly uninspiring stretch of putting. Someone advised me to tell myself, ‘I’m the best putter in the world’ each time I set foot on the green. He was trying get me to create confidence so big that it removed any doubt from my mind. He was trying to help me fake it until I made it. I understood all of that, and I appreciated that he was trying to help, but it didn’t work.
I’d get on the green, say that line to myself, and then I’d get confused. The rational part of my brain would chime in and remind me that even though I was a better putter than I’d been showing lately, surely, I was far from the best putter in the world. I was playing DIII after all. If I was the best putter in the world, shouldn’t I be playing up a division or two? If I’m the best putter in the world, how have I missed so many putts? As you can imagine, this is an odd string of thoughts to have as you’re walking to your ball, trying to get a read.
By the time I’d be standing over it, I was rattled and unfocused. I stopped doing it. It clearly didn’t work. But I never fully understood why.
Jason Sousa, a former professional soccer player who now works as a performance coach to high-level athletes of many sports, including golfers, says that elite performers don’t try to be positive, instead, they try to be accurate.
“They use neutral thinking, objective, observable facts that bypass emotional chaos,” Sousa writes. “Elite performance isn’t about being hyped up. It’s about being present.”
Neutral thoughts work better than overly positive thoughts because they don’t create that mental friction I was feeling between reality and what I was trying to convince myself of; known in neuroscience as cognitive dissonance. In my situation, an overly positive thought about being the best putter in the world was so at odds with the reality that I was aware of, that it created more mental stress.
So, instead of saying “I’m the best putter in the world,” I should’ve said neutral statements to myself when I got on the green. Looking around the green, there are plenty of facts to notice:
“I have a downhill putt, it’s going to be fast.”
“My playing partner is going to putt near my line; I need to watch what her ball does so I can learn as much about this line as I can.”
“The miss for this lag putt is short.”
Telling myself I’m the best putter in the world didn’t make me a better putter. But reinforcing facts about the putt at hand can help me hit better putts.
