One of the biggest variables that effect your development as a player can be the way you evaluate your practice and play. Remembering this tip to react as a scientist rather than a judge can go a long way toward helping speed your learning curve.

A scientist looks at every experiment as an opportunity to gather information and learn from the information gathered. What variables might be manipulated to get a different result in the next experiment? With that purposeful manipulation, what is the new outcome? To a scientist, there is no “good” or “bad” result. All results simply are as they are, and these results become the feedback mechanism from which something different is tried or previous variables are replicated.

Contrast this with the way a judge would view these “experiments”. Results are good or bad, right or wrong, horrible or terrific, so- so or “OK”. There is a lot of emphasis on labeling the result, and less emphasis on the process that created the result. Are you a scientist or a judge when it comes to evaluating your own golf performance?

The best golfers in the world understand how important it is to examine defeat, recognize mistakes, and pull apart miscues. They do this in a way that is methodical and constructively critical. Golfers who think less healthily will simply be critical and this criticism can lead to little or no learning and growing. All this process does is diminish confidence, tear apart your self- image, and inhibit your ability to change and effectively integrate lessons into your game.

This golf tip was contributed by Jeff Troesch. Jeff was the previous Director of Sports Psychology for the David Leadbetter Academies. As an internationally recognized expert in the field of mental skills training and performance enhancement, he now consults with several touring professionals and amateur players - assisting them in the creation of optimal training plans and developmental strategies. Jeff is a strong advocate of one of the best selling mental golf tools and resources available through the internet, the Mental Golf Profile.