Why Keep a Golfing Journal?

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We firmly believe at the Mind Caddy.
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If there's one single thing that you could begin to do that would have the biggest impact on your game from developing the mental side of the game it would be this it would be keeping a regular journal.
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Why is that so potentially so important to your game?
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Well, from over 30 years of coaching the game, now my biggest hope for any player is that what happens is you begin to understand the single most important person in the equation of golf improvement and that is yourself.
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Important person in the equation of golf improvement and that is yourself.
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It's often so difficult to see the wood for the trees when we're trying to improve and, yes, information from other coaches is valuable and good concepts are important, but ultimately it's you out there on the golf course playing the shots.
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It's you out there trying to win competitions.
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It's you out there trying to put scores together when you're not playing particularly well and the game is challenging you.
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And what a journal does?
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It allows you to start to reflect more effectively and it's in these reflections that you start to understand the patterns and habits that you personally currently have and also, if you embark on some changes, what those new patterns and habits are starting to do for your game.
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When we just play a round of golf and let that day settle in our mind and it stays in the mind, we really often miss the nuggets of gold, in the sense that the difference that will happen when you start to consistently write in a journal, you'll, you'll, you'll start to see these patterns emerging, you'll start to gain such a greater understanding of yourself that the simple habit of completing a round of golf and the journal your mind caddy journal maybe maybe in the car or it may be at home but get into the habit of completing your round and then just asking yourself a few key questions that we found really beneficial in terms of reflection.
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One of the questions, very simply, is what were the three best shots today?
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And the very act of asking that question and reflecting on that day that you've just had, the experience that you've just had.
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You have to sift through the shots that you've hit and often what happens when we play poorly, we don't think we've hit any good shots.
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When we play well, we just often lump the whole round together and we don't really drill down into the ingredients of success.
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Success leaves a trail behind, but we don't often look for it.
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So, by asking the question, what were the three best shots today?
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And reflecting on that, whatever you then recall, you rehearse.
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So by actually writing down and cataloging the things that you do when you play good shots, what are the images that you had in your mind, what are some of the feelings in your swing, what are some of the processes that you perhaps went through that are really resonating for you, you're starting to capture your essential golfing DNA.
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You're starting to capture the specific ingredients that lead to you being more successful as a golfer.
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And then what happens?
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Also, as you write down the three good shots, you really solidify the memory of those experiences, and that's so important because our default mechanism from an evolutionary perspective in terms of memory is we're far more inclined to remember the bad stuff as opposed to the good stuff.
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It was likened by a neuroscientist called Hanson, rick Hanson, who talked about the idea of Teflon and Velcro, in the sense that good experiences tend to slip away like eggs off a Teflon pan or food off a Teflon pan, whereas negative experiences we tend to cling on to them.
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It's like it's like a holding mechanism, like a Velcro effect, unless we do something specifically about that and writing down the good shots tends to create more of a Velcro effect for the good stuff and we become less attached to the poor shots and the poor outcomes.
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We start to seek out the good shots that we've hit.
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We start to want to remember more of the good shots that we've hit.
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We start to want to remember more of the good shots that we've hit.
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We change the default mechanism of the brain.
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So as you start to do that, you're not only starting to get the ingredients that make up your, your golfing dna that unlock your potential, but you're starting also to remember more of the good shots.
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And as you think about this, it makes sense because what you're trying to build up is a whole library of positive experiences, of actual real-world experiences, of real-world examples where you've hit good shots.
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So oftentimes, what you'll get with this my players that have reported back on this over the years have said they start to experience more times when they stand on a tee and they get a certain sensation that it's going to be a good shot.
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Or they stand on a, on a, on a, an approach to it, to a green, where you get a sensation that it's going to be a good shot because you've catalogued those good experiences.
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We all understand the reverse of that can happen.
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We've all experienced that where you've had a bad experience on a hole, you've hit some poor shots, and then you start to get on to that tee, you start to have that approach and those memories come flooding back.
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The negative memories have a hold over us.
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So you're wanting to reverse that and then the other thing that you can do is ask three powerful questions and this was something I know that pia Nielsen, the great coach of one of the best woman golfer of all time, annika Sorensen, always used to use as a reflection tool after a round of golf.
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And that was the three questions good, better and how.
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So what was good today?
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So that doesn't just include the shots that you've hit.
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As we've already stated, with the three shots good, what was good today could be the way that you have been on the golf course.
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How were you as an individual?
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What was your attitude like?
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How good a playing partner were you?
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How did you deal with the setbacks that came along?
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How did you deal with some of the bad luck that you maybe had?
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What was your response to a three putt?
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What was your response to slow play, what was good today?
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To again write it down in the journal.
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It starts to reinforce the behaviors that you want and then asking the question what needs to be better?
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You know we're not saying here just live in a Pollyanna world where all you do is think about the good stuff.
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We're actually being realistic with this and saying that if you then ask yourself the question, what needs to be better it's a very dynamic question to ask you're not.
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You're not just focusing on what was wrong, but you're asking yourself what needs to be better.
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So you can home in on again some specific areas.
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Was it your pace with your putting?
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Was it it your bunker play?
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Was it your decision making off the tee?
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Again, this is such an individual thing.
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This is why the importance of personal reflection is so important.
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And then, perhaps most importantly, when you've asked the better question and you've written those things down, you ask yourself the final question how good, better?
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How?
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How is what are you actually going to do about it?
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If bunkers are really an issue, why is that what?
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What is the problem that you need to solve?
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Do you have a, an incorrect concept, do you not?
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Are you not applying the golf club correctly to the to the sand?
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Do you?
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Do you have a certain flaw in your technique?
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It may be that you need a specific bunker lesson from a perhaps a short game coach.
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Or again, if you, if you're struggling off the tee, is there a specific shot that keeps coming out time and time again that you need some technical intervention?
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So whilst this, the mind caddy, is about your attitude and your mental approach, it ties in perfectly with you beginning to understand what technical skills you need to enhance.
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Remember the key premise that we've talked so much about, that this game is number one about developing skills, specific golfing skills and specific shots that you want to play, but then being able to access those skills.
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And by keeping a journal, you're much more likely to be specific about the skills that you need to develop.
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But then, perhaps even more importantly, you start to understand what it is that you need to do to access those skills.
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So, if you do nothing else this year, take action, join the rest of the Mindcaddy community and start to develop this journaling effect that can be so profoundly beneficial for your game.
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Not only will you find it helps you golf, but I'm sure many of you, once you start to do this on a consistent basis, you'll see the benefits of it, not just for your golf, but in other areas of your life as well.