As part of a strategic partnership, Mass Golf and KOHR Golf are excited to provide resources to junior members of Mass Golf as well as parents and guardians of juniors interested in the game. This page will be regularly updated with new blog posts each month.
Exclusive content below has been created by KOHR’s team of professionals that center around mental preparedness, fitness, and golf skill improvement.
For the average golfer, improving their game can often feel like a daunting task. Between juggling work, family, and other commitments, finding time for practice and lessons can be challenging. However, an often-overlooked resource for improvement is right in front of them: watching the PGA Tour. This week, it is the US Open at Pinehurst, it will be a difficult task for all the players and caddies. Here’s how tuning in to professional golf tournaments can help you elevate your game.
1. Learning from the Best
When you watch the PGA Tour, you’re seeing the best golfers in the world in action. Observing their techniques, swings, and strategies can be incredibly educational. Pay attention to how pros handle different situations on the course. Notice their setup, grip, stance, and alignment. These fundamentals are crucial for any golfer, and watching professionals can help reinforce proper techniques.
For instance, notice how Rory McIlroy sets up his drives or how Jordan Spieth approaches his putts. Notice their eyes, notice their mannerisms, and see what common traits pros seem to have, usually those are ones to model your own game after. Take those mental notes and try to incorporate similar methods into your practice routine. Even subtle changes can make a significant difference in your game.
2. Course Management and Strategy
One of the most critical aspects of golf is course management—knowing when to play aggressively and when to play it safe. The PGA Tour (and LIV?) provides a masterclass in strategic thinking. Watch how pros and their caddies navigate the course, especially during challenging conditions. They often opt for less risky shots to avoid trouble and save strokes, rather than always going for the pin.
Learning to think strategically about your own game can lead to better decision-making on the course. For example, if you often find yourself in trouble by trying to hit long, risky shots, watching how pros manage their game can teach you the value of playing smart.
3. Mental Toughness
Golf is as much a mental game as it is a physical one. The pressure of performing in front of large crowds and under intense competition can be immense. Watching how PGA Tour players maintain their composure and focus can be inspiring and educational. Notice how they handle setbacks, stay calm under pressure, and recover from bad shots.
This mental toughness is something that average golfers can develop. Learning to stay positive or neutral in your thoughts and focused, regardless of how your round is going, can lead to better performance. Try to adopt the same mental strategies you observe in the pros, such as deep breathing techniques or visualization, Jason Day is a good one for this.
4. Understanding the Rules and Etiquette
Watching the PGA Tour also provides a great opportunity to learn more about the rules and etiquette of golf. Professional golfers adhere to strict rules and demonstrate excellent sportsmanship. Understanding these aspects of the game can enhance your own experience and make you a more knowledgeable and respectful player.
For example, notice how pros handle rules infractions or how they conduct themselves when waiting for their turn. This awareness can help you become a more considerate and informed golfer.
5. Inspiration and Motivation
Finally, watching the PGA Tour can be incredibly motivating. Seeing the dedication, skill, and perseverance of professional golfers can inspire you to put more effort into your own game. It can remind you why you love golf and reignite your passion for improvement.
Set small, achievable goals based on what you observe. Whether it’s improving your short game, increasing driving accuracy, or simply having a better attitude on the course, use the pros as motivation to keep pushing forward.
Parenting young athletes, especially golfers, involves a delicate balance of support and guidance. Unlike other sports, golf tournaments rarely remind parents to keep their cool. Growing up playing hockey, I often saw rinks filled with signs like “It’s just a game” or “Let them play.” Although such reminders aren’t posted at golf tournaments, it’s crucial for parents, often acting as their child’s caddy, to foster a positive and effective environment for their budding golfer.
One common mistake is over-coaching. Many parents fall into the trap of giving too much technical advice during the game. If your child is already receiving professional lessons, they have specific techniques and mindsets they’re working on. Bombarding them with additional instructions can overwhelm them and disrupt their focus. Think about Tiger Woods in 2005: if his caddy had overloaded him with advice before his crucial putt, he likely wouldn’t have made it. The key is to keep things simple and focused, aligning with the practices of respected coaches.
Negative criticism is another pitfall. Scolding a child for a poor shot, like telling them they left the club face open, only adds pressure. Instead, parents should aim to alleviate stress by focusing on the next shot. Maintaining a neutral mindset, as described in Trevor Moawad’s book “It Takes What It Takes,” can be very effective. This approach involves staying present and objective, avoiding dwelling on past mistakes or unrealistically positive thinking. For example, after a challenging putt, a parent might say, “We have a long putt ahead on fast greens. What’s your read?” This keeps the child focused and prepared. Although it’s easier said than done, we can at least try.
During a tee shot, the thoughts you convey to your child should center on the start line and visualizing the ball flight. Professional caddies provide factual, non-opinionated information, allowing the player to make the best decision. This includes details like yardages, wind, and possible landing spots. Bob Rotella, a renowned sports psychologist, praises the idea of a blank mind. As hard as it may seem, a clear mind allows golfers to focus on where they want the ball to go and hit the shot.
In summary, the role of a parent in their child’s golf journey is to offer support, maintain simplicity in guidance, and encourage a neutral, forward-thinking mindset. This creates a positive environment that nurtures the child’s development and love for the game. In my lessons, I aim to educate parents of juniors if they need it or if they ask. It truly doesn’t matter what the lesson contents are if they are contradicted or overshadowed by external pressure. If you kill their love for the game, they are less likely to put their best foot forward and make an effort to improve.
-Coach Dan
Golf isn’t just about the perfect swing or a low score; it’s a journey that demands more from young golfers aspiring to play at collegiate or professional levels. To excel, it’s important to look beyond immediate results and focus on building character and adopting a mindset that embraces growth and long-term thinking. Insights from Dr. Carol Dweck’s “Mindset” and Simon Sinek’s “The Infinite Game” offer invaluable guidance on this journey.
Dr. Carol Dweck’s “Mindset” explores the powerful impact of adopting a growth mindset. This mindset, which is all about believing that abilities and intelligence can be developed through dedication and hard work, is crucial for young golfers. It fosters resilience and a love for learning—two qualities essential for navigating the ups and downs of a golfing career. Take Michael Jordan, for instance. He wasn’t initially the best player on his high school basketball team, but his growth mindset propelled him to continually improve, embrace challenges, and persist through setbacks. For young golfers, the lesson here is clear: rather than obsessing over current skill levels or scores, consistent improvement and learning from every round, every swing, is key.
Simon Sinek’s “The Infinite Game” introduces the idea of playing with an infinite mindset—seeing success as a continuous journey rather than a finite goal. This perspective is particularly relevant in golf, a sport that demands mental fortitude and embraces unpredictability. Key elements from Sinek’s philosophy can be game-changers for young golfers. Having a “Just Cause” can be a powerful motivator. Whether it’s representing their communities, inspiring others, or simply pursuing the pure joy of the game, having a higher purpose can drive them through tough times.
But let’s not forget the importance of character in this mix. Traits such as patience, self-confidence, discipline, and many others are not just the hallmarks of a good golfer but of a well-rounded individual. Golf teaches patience like few other sports can. It’s about maintaining composure during a bad round and thoughtfully planning what to do next. Self-confidence is built through a growth mindset, where challenges are seen as opportunities to grow rather than threats to self-worth. Discipline, which is all about consistent practice and adherence to technique, translates to other areas of life, fostering a well-rounded individual. Additionally, traits like perseverance, humility, and integrity are equally important. Perseverance helps golfers push through difficult times, humility keeps them grounded, and integrity ensures they play the game with honor.
The foundation for becoming a great golfer often starts at home. How young golfers are fostered in their daily lives plays a crucial role in their development. Are they making their bed every morning, showing discipline? Are they saying thank you and demonstrating gratitude? Are they being praised for their effort rather than just the outcome? These small acts of character at home build the traits that help them thrive on the course. Respect, kindness, and responsibility are also cultivated in the family environment. Respect for others and the game, kindness in interactions, and a sense of responsibility in their actions contribute significantly to their growth as complete individuals.
Being a better player develops from being a better human being in everyday life. This infinite mindset approach ensures that young golfers are not only technically proficient but also mentally and emotionally prepared for the challenges ahead. Excelling at a collegiate or professional level isn’t just about perfecting their swing. By embracing a growth mindset, as highlighted by Dr. Carol Dweck, and adopting an infinite mindset, as advocated by Simon Sinek, young golfers can cultivate resilience, patience, self-confidence, discipline, and other crucial traits. Ultimately, these qualities will make them not only better golfers but also complete individuals, ready to face life’s challenges both on and off the course.
-Coach Mai
Golf is as much a mental game as it is a physical one. A powerful tool often overlooked by many golfers is the shot journal. This simple practice can transform your mindset, reinforce positives, and build lasting confidence on the course.
A good shot journal is a place to record every successful shot you make. By writing down these moments, you reinforce the positives in your game. Each entry is a reminder of what you’re capable of, helping to shift your focus from what can go wrong to what has gone right.
Imagine spending a year documenting your best shots. Each drive that found the fairway, evey approach that nestled close to the pin, and those perfect putts sinking into the hole. Over time, this collection becomes a powerful mental resource. Instead of stepping onto the course hoping to play well, you can read through your journal and relive those successful moments.
Before your next round, take a few minutes to read through your shot journal. Relive each great shot in vivid detail. Feel the same confidence and satisfaction you felt in those moments. This mental rehearsal can dramatically improve your mindset, as it’s much easier to play with confidence when you have a tangible reminder of your capabilities.
The best way to do this: Write down what you felt, what you saw and what you heard during your journal entry, truly helping you relive the shot.
The practice of maintaining a shot journal not only reinforces positives but also builds a foundation of confidence. Golfers often fall into the trap of focusing on what can go wrong. This negative mindset can be a significant barrier to success. By contrast, reading about your past successes helps you approach the game with a positive, confident attitude.
Imagine the impact of consistently documenting your best shots over a year. Before each round, you read through your journal and relive every good shot rather than dwelling on past mistakes or worrying about potential mishaps. This shift in focus is the best way to build and sustain confidence. It transforms your mindset from “I hope I play well” to “I know I can play well.”
In conclusion, a good shot journal is more than just a record of your game; it’s a tool for mental fortitude. It reinforces positives, helps you relive success, and builds the confidence needed to perform at your best. Start your good shot journal today and experience the power of focusing on your strengths.
By: Iain Highfield
Managing Expectations for a Better Golf Experience
Think back to your last round of golf. What stands out the most? For a few, it might be a perfect tee shot or a long birdie putt. But for many, it’s likely the chunked wedge or the three-putt bogey.
Golfers often say things like, “I left a few shots out there” or “I could have shot a 75, but…”. These comments usually stem from two common mistakes: dwelling on errors and having unrealistic expectations. By managing our expectations, we can enjoy the game more and potentially play better.
Our tendency to focus on the negatives isn’t entirely our fault. According to a study by Elizabeth A. Kensinger, negative emotions enhance memory formation more than positive ones. This means our bad shots are more vivid and easier to recall. Thus, managing expectations is crucial for a balanced emotional response.
To redefine what a good golf shot is, let’s rely on data:
These stats might surprise you and help reset your expectations. TV broadcasts only show the best shots, skewing our perception of what’s normal.
Understanding these statistics helps us realize that many of our shots are average or better, deserving celebration rather than frustration. By aligning our expectations with reality, we can enjoy our rounds more and improve our performance. Positive and neutral emotions enhance our ability to handle adversity, leading to more fun and lower scores.
For more insights, explore works by experts like Mark Brodie, Lou Stagner, and Scott Fawcett. The better you understand the game, the more you can appreciate your own play and enjoy every round.
OR get more ‘Positive’ on the course by reaching out to myself or Iain Highfield. We can help you with your mental game for golf with small but effective interventions like a good shot journal.
Have fun out there, – Coach Brandon
Silence the Chimp through training like a Navy Seal
To qualify for the elite ranks of the Navy Seals you must first pass through the notorious Hell Week. Living up to the deeply ominous name, this consists of five-and-a-half days of cold, wet and brutally demanding operational training, while existing on fewer than four hours of sleep.
Hell Week tests physical endurance, mental toughness, your tolerance for pain, cold and fatigue, teamwork, attitude and, essentially, your ability to perform under the highest imaginable physical and mental stress. In a nutshell it is an intense and unforgiving examination of determination and desire – so much so that, on average, only 25% of candidates make it through Hell Week. It is, without question, the toughest training regime in the U.S. Military and prepares its participants for the extreme situations they’re likely to face on deployment.
Training, whether it’s for covert military operations or tidying up your short game, is key to being the best you can be. That’s not to say you should go and sit the icy sea for 5 hours at time and cut your sleep to an hour a day. What I am suggesting though is that you should introduce a new element into your training – stress and at KOHR Golf Academy we LOVE to put our students under stress in practice, it helps them prepare for the stressors they will face during tournament play.
Click here to listen to Iain and his guest discuss all things performance on the KOHR Podcast.
Click here for a FREE eBook on the mental game of golf written by KOHR coach Iain Highfield
To read more about Iain and his published books click here to view his Amazon authors page
During this KOHR Golf Blog Series we’ve talked about introducing elements of tension awareness, distraction techniques and reactionary golf swings that draw on images or feelings to silence the Chimp and help you Execute as shot with confidence. But how will these newly acquired skills stand up when we apply stress to the process? By learning to perform your newly discovered thought process under stressful circumstances, you’ll create positive performance memories to recall and utilize every time you play.
How it works
Step 1: A great way to create stress is to attempt to put the body through a similar physiology to what it will face under pressure. We can do this, quite simply, by running.
By shuttle running in-between shots and progressing through the below levels it can help us learn to deal with the physiological and psychological stresses we face on the golf course.
Level 1 = no target
Level 2 = a single target
Level 3 = random targets
Level 4 = random targets, random lies
Level 5 = speed golf on the course with outcome targets for shots, number of holes and times
HOW DOES IT HELP
This challenge is inspired by basketball players ‘running suicides’ (a base-line to base-line sprint) with the addition of a golf shot. When you run you step out of your optimum mental state, helping you learn to use your approach to the ball to return yourself quickly to ‘the zone’.
A great way to get back into state is to use diaphragm breathing as shown in the pictures, breathing in through the nose for 4 seconds, belly fills with air, out through the mouth, air is released from the belly.
Silence the Chimp by taking away time
It often perplexes elite athletes such as baseball players that they can hit an eye-wateringly fast-moving ball with such accuracy and yet they perpetually struggle to make contact with a stationary golf ball. There are a number of possible explanations for this, some scientific, some common sense and some outrageously inaccurate.
For the sake of this article, and in an attempt to bring the matter back to our internal buddy the Chimp, we’ll assume the common sense approach that suggests having less time to think actually enhances our reaction.
It’s impossible to make the exact same golf swing every time, therefore there must be reactionary elements contained in a golf shot. When we play our best golf, a contributing factor is we access optimal degrees of freedom in our movements, allowing us to react in a similar way to our Major League slugger. This sense of fluidity reduces the impedance in our swing motion that is often created, ironically enough, by us trying to perfect the mechanics off our movements.
At KOHR Golf Academy we use the following mental game drill, known as ‘Drop, Set, Hit’ to help students create feelings and memories in training that we can then transition onto the golf course in the form of process goals.
Click here to listen to Iain and his guest discuss all things performance on the KOHR Podcast.
Click here for a FREE eBook on the mental game of golf written by KOHR coach Iain Highfield
To read more about Iain and his published books click here to view his Amazon authors page
How it works
Step 1: To warm up for this challenge play it with no target. First ask a friend or coach to drop a ball, shouting ‘Drop’ as they do it. At this signal you must shout ‘Set’ (as you set up to the ball) and ‘Hit’ as you begin your takeaway.
Step 2: After getting a feel for the challenge, the word ‘hit’ should be changed with something more ‘feeling based’, creating a positive sensation related to the golf shot or images of the shot and/or target.
These words, spoken out loud, silence the inner Chimp from processing any surrounding negative elements. Meanwhile, by reducing the reaction time we also sweep away that outcome fear that athletes like our baseball player simply doesn’t have the time to recognize.
The ultimate goal of this challenge is for you to not only gain feelings of freedom and flow in your game, but to also actively discover feelings and images you can store in your brain, helping you maintain a focus that brings you ever closer to your intention.
We can build up the intensity of this challenge by working through the following levels:
Level 1 = a single target
Level 2 = random targets
Level 3 = random targets and shot shaping
Level 4 = golf course approach shots, short game and putting
HOW DOES IT HELP
This challenge provides very little time for you to be subjected to elements that create technical paralysis or negative self-talk that can occur when you’re allowed to dwell on a shot and all its associated outcome baggage.
This challenge can help you create a powerful process goal that can be used in the Execution phase of the OSVEA 5 components of a golf shot.
To learn more about KOHR Golf contact Academy Director, Iain Highfield, iain@teamkohr.com Cell 3529788322
Silence the Chimp by distracting him
This task can be as easy as 1,2,3.
For the inner Chimp to be effective, it’s evolved in such a way that it can only focus on one thing at a time. Therefore if we provide something for the Chimp to focus on, it can free up our brain and body and help us take a step toward our intention – namely, getting the ball in the hole.
One of the most effective ways we teach students to distract the negative brain at KOHR Golf Academy is for the player to simply practice counting as they hit. In fact, in my experience, there are many performance variations and benefits that counting can become the catalyst for. There are also many ways that we can train this skill and I’d suggest attempting them all to find which one works best for you.
Ultimately, the focus of the challenge is to assess not only how effectively you can employ a distraction technique, but also gain a sense of how this simple process can help you achieve flow, gain rhythm and reduce tension.
How it works
Step 1: Count to 20 out loud, listen to how it sounds and feel how the numbers flow from your body.
Step 2: Then begin to count as you take practice swings with an imaginary club, walking towards an imaginary golf ball (still counting) and taking a swing. Again notice how the sound of the counting flows – was it any different to when you simply counted out loud? If so repeat the process, trying to make the two states feel the same.
Step 3: When you’ve successfully matched the feeling of the count, add a club and pay attention to the timing, flow, feelings and rhythm as you pass through your routine counting out loud.
Step 4: By now you may feel like you have achieved a state of flow and rhythm to what you are doing – for example your 1,2,3 may be your practice swing; 4,5,6 is when you stare at the target; 7,8,9,10 is when you walk to and address the ball; 11, 12 is your waggle; 13, 14 your backswing and 15 is your down swing. As soon as you have created a similar sequence, now you can add the ball.
Click here to listen to Iain and his guest discuss all things performance on the KOHR Podcast.
Click here for a FREE eBook on the mental game of golf written by KOHR coach Iain Highfield
To read more about Iain and his published books click here to view his Amazon authors page
Now the real challenge is to keep the flow of the numbers, feelings and how the number sounds the same as before you introduced the ball. However, I should probably remind you that lurking inside this innocuous looking ball is your old friend, the Chimp. The ball will trigger your negative and protectively anxious mind, and if you’re not careful your focus can easily shift from the process of building flow to the outcome of the shot.
Once rhythm and flow is established and ball striking feels solid, you can pass through the 4 levels detailed below to increase your retention of these skills and enable you to more effectively transfer them to the course.
Level 1 = hit while counting out loud
Level 2 = coach/friend and player count alternate numbers
Level 3 = introduce target and random targets while counting
Level 4 = on course counting throughout the swing
HOW DOES IT HELP
As you develop the ability to count your way throughout the shot it becomes impossible for your negative thoughts to occur, as your inner Chimp is only able to process one thing at a time (in this instance it would be the numbers). Silencing our Chimp will also significantly reduce the chance of technical impedance in the shot.
This Process goal can become an integral part of your Execution component of the 5 step OSVEA process.
To learn more about KOHR Golf contact Academy Director, Iain Highfield, iain@teamkohr.com Cell 3529788322
Silence the Chimp with tension awareness
By Iain Highfield, KOHR Academy Director
Visualization in golfing terms could be classed as feeling, seeing or hearing the shot you are about to hit. This simple exercise can help you build tension awareness and create an effective process goal, helping you to silence the unhelpful screeches of your inner Chimp. It can be a productive exercise, particularly for players with a propensity to ‘tense up’ under a perceived pressure – ferociously squeezing the club over the last few holes every time victory is in sight.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation Technique has been used by elite athletes for years and is scientifically proven to enhance performance. Simply put it’s the systematic tensing of particular muscle groups in your body, releasing the tension in order to recognize and appreciate how your muscles feel when relaxed.
This express version of the technique can be used as part of your practice routine, helping transform it into a more purposeful warm-up. By quantifying the feelings it provides, you can create a process goal that keeps you in the moment, silences the Chimp and leads to far more fluid swing motion.
Click here to listen to Iain and his guest discuss all things performance on the KOHR Podcast.
Click here for a FREE eBook on the mental game of golf written by KOHR coach Iain Highfield
To read more about Iain and his published books click here to view his Amazon authors page
How it works
Step 1: Place your club on the floor at your feet and relax your jaw, neck, shoulders, hands and abs. We’ll refer to this state as ‘level zero tension’.
Step 2: Now slowly dial up tension in each of these areas of your body from zero to level 2, 4 then 6 going all the way to maximum tension (your level 10) in each of these body parts.
Step 3: Repeat this process 5-6 times and then pick up your golf club and immediately make some practice swings, with the tempo and speed you desire to have when you’re on the course. As you do this try to quantify the level of tension in your hands and in your jaw – assign a number from your scale for the tension you feel in these parts of your body. It may help to close your eyes to enhance the sensations of your practice swing.
Step 4: After completing several practice swings, the ball is introduced only at the point when you feel your tension levels are properly under control.
Step 5: When the ball is introduced, you’re effectively going to sign a mental contract with yourself – committing to a swing that maintains a certain level of hand or jaw tension. Don’t be afraid to change the levels and find your optimum. (Also, a handy way to maintain low jaw tension is to balance a potato chip between your teeth.)
We can build up the intensity of this challenge by working through the following levels:
Level 1 = No target
Level 2 = one target
Level 3 = random targets
Level 4 = random targets and shot shapes
HOW DOES IT HELP
By forcing you to recognize how the body acts and reacts under tension you become able to manage it and gain fluid movement. Through this tension management technique you’re able to identify an optimum level that you are then able to take into competition, in the form of a process goal, and silence the Chimp. This Process goal can become an integral part of your Visualization and or Execution segments of the 5 step OSVEA process.
To learn more about KOHR Golf contact Academy Director, Iain Highfield, iain@teamkohr.com Cell 3529788322
Golf’s mental game: A Caveman, a Chimp and a Golfer walk into a bar
By Iain Highfield, KOHR Academy Director
Once upon a (long, long) time ago there were two cavemen – let’s call them Tiger and Phil.
One day, these two Neolithic rascals were out hunting for food when they walked past a big, ominous cave.
As Phil strolled jauntily past the mouth of the cave, a huge lion leapt out and gobbled him up like a Jolly Rancher. Witnessing this, our friend Tiger turned around and ran squealing back to the camp.
The next day Tiger had to go hunting again – cave folk are notoriously hungry characters. Just like the day before he walked the same route, in exactly the same manner – except for one significant difference.
This time, as he approached the mouth of the cave, he experienced a strange sensation. His prehistoric man sense was tingling, he felt tense, his heart thumped. Confused by this sudden rush of apprehension he tripped over a nearby dinosaur egg, an act which focused his mind ever more intently on the strange reactions in his body.
Then he remembered. Hold on. This is where caveman Phil got gobbled down like a Jolly Rancher. I should probably be careful.
Of course, this tale is not merely applicable to our caveman friends, its applicable to some pretty fundamental aspects of modern day life. Every day, innate human survival mechanisms that have evolved in our brain fire off feelings in our body like an alarm system designed to keep us alive. We stop at red lights for fear of getting slammed into by a truck. If we climb a ladder we get a trusty companion to secure the base. We don’t accept candy from sinister looking men.
This innate human survival mechanism (that I often refer to as the Chimp) is a vital component of human ascendency, a key factor in our rise to become the planet’s most dominant, if not always most responsible, species.
Oddly, this very same mechanism, so fundamental to our evolution and endurance, can also be a significant weakness on the golf course. And if you don’t believe me, simply ask Doug Sanders about his experience in the 1970 Open, Jean Van der Velde about 1999 or Adam Scott about 2013. The very instinct that has kept these three men alive throughout all the hazards of modern life, became activated when they were on the edge history – and torpedoed their chance of glory. Their brains sensed an imminent ‘danger’, failing to distinguish golf from that red light or wobbly ladder. And because these three experienced professionals did not have the processes to regulate this response, the only thing their minds had rescued them from was the sort of injuries you get from lifting trophies and receiving too many pats on the back.
For now, let’s focus on the example of the ladder. With someone we trust holding the base while we climb, our thoughts are of safety, stability and support. This creates a palpable sense of confidence and relaxation, helping us ascend to the top of the ladder and retrieve, I don’t know, let’s say a kitten from the roof. From a position of certainty and safety, we achieve our goal.
Golf is no different. The key to having a strong mental game is, quite simply, developing the ability to match our thoughts and feelings to our intentions.
The athletes I work with at the KOHR Golf Academy learn a simple 5-step process to help them achieve this internal synchronicity on the golf course.
OSVEA – an acronym for Options, Selection, Visualization, Execution and Acceptance – acts as a framework, guiding players to create a process focused, totally malleable mind. Process focused thinking helps reduce the ‘noise’ made by the innate human survival mechanism (or Chimp) and triggers a response in the body to create feelings of calm, control and relaxation. This physiological response enables a golfer to swing the club more efficiently and brings them closer to their intended outcome – whether that’s winning a Tour event, national selection, triumphing the Sunday medal or reducing their handicap.
Examine any golfer not in possession of process focus and you quickly understand the adverse effect it can have on performance. Outcomes, like winning events and medals, are uncontrollable. We can’t expect to control a concept so fickle and intangible as winning. You can’t control the subjective thoughts and feelings of a national selector. And you certainly can’t control what your pal Bob shoots in the local medal to snatch the trophy.
Click here for a FREE eBook on the mental game of golf written by KOHR coach Iain Highfield
To read more about Iain and his published books click here to view his Amazon authors page
The brain knows how little control we have over these outcomes. So, when we allow our mind to be penetrated by thoughts of ‘what if’ or ‘if only’, we wake the Chimp. Threatened by these impending goals, the Chimp feels exposed, precisely as he would if we were about to cross a busy road. His only response to this is to cause a fuss – a fuss that our body responds to with a classic stress response. Now, gripped by the Chimp’s anxieties, our relaxed fluid swings are a million miles away, our grip is clammy and strangled, our shoulders tighten and our heart pounds. Cumulatively, this adds up to one fundamental state: we are now a long way from achieving our intentions.
So, now we know the impact the Chimp can have on a golfer, over the next few blogs I’ll provide practical mental tools that myself and the team of coaches at KOHR Golf Academy use to help students learn to use their mind so they can move towards their intended goals when they play competitive golf.
But, before we get into this, here’s a challenge to conduct before the next article. Take a red pen with you onto the golf course every time you play competitively. Each time you have an ‘outcome thought’ pertaining to the past or the future (for example: ‘I cant believe I made double’, ‘I’ve got to make par’, ‘ don’t 3 putt!’) put a red dot on your hand and add up the dots at the end of the round. The reason I ask you to do this is not to shock you by the frequency of these debilitating thoughts, but rather because any positive psychological change begins with psychological awareness. In other words, an inky red hand is a great place to start our journey to silence to Chimp.
Click here to listen to Iain and his guest discuss all things performance on the KOHR Podcast.
To learn more about KOHR Golf contact Academy Director, Iain Highfield, iain@teamkohr.com Cell 3529788322
The Number 1 factor a child needs to succeed on and off the golf course.
By Iain Highfield – KOHR Academy Director
The Marshmallow Experiment
At Stanford University, in the 1960s, a team of researchers, led by Professor Walter Mischel, set out to explore the ability of young children to defer their gratification, and the implications that this ability, or the lack of it, might have for their development.
Hundreds of four year old children were tested by being put in a room alone with a marshmallow. “If it’s still here when I get back,” a researcher told them, “you will get another.” The researchers were then absent from the room for fifteen minutes, during which time 2 out of 3 of the children tested ate the marshmallow.
If the research had concluded at this point, its findings might well have been dismissed as neither surprising nor particularly interesting. But the marshmallow experiment was to become world famous because of the followup study that Mischel conducted with his child subjects when they reached the age of 18.
The Most Important Factor for Success
Without exception, those who had not eaten the marshmallow had become successful and well motivated students.
They had achieved good grades, had ambitious career plans, and enjoyed good relationships with their teachers, coaches, and peers. This success in school was also reflected in generally good physical health, social skills, and a robust response to stress.
By contrast, a significant portion of those who had eaten the marshmallow were struggling with lower grades and other problems; many had failed to make it to college or had dropped out of high school
With these kinds of results, which have since been confirmed in a number of followup studies, it’s perhaps not surprising that the ability to defer gratification has been described as “the most important factor for success.”
To watch the marshmallow experiment click here
But what does all of this mean for you?
It simply means that you are still in the room with the “marshmallow.” Just because you have been educated, inspired, and began to practically apply positive change into your environment, it does not mean that you will become instantly gratified. The process of creating positive change is a long one, and the gratification you will derive from this will be worth the wait.
And if you’re thinking that this wait could be too long, take some inspiration from Brian Banks.
Click here to download KOHR Golf’s FREE eBook ‘ Effective Parenting in Organized Sports’.
Who Is Brian Banks?
Brian Banks is a man who did not eat the marshmallow. His marshmallow was cruelly taken away from him for over a decade, but his story is one of resilience, inspiration, and an exorbitant delay of gratification that I believe we can all benefit from knowing.
What Mr. Banks went through, you would not wish on your worst enemy, but the resilience he showed must have calloused his mind in a way that most of us reading this book would not be able to fathom. You would not desire in any way, shape, or form to have the experience that Mr. Banks did, but if you could select some of the mental strength that arose from the experience, it would probably help you create some positive change in your life.
The 2018 film, Brian Banks, is an inspirational drama about a young high school football player who is falsely accused of rape and sent to jail. After spending some time in prison, he was released at the age of 27 years old, on parole, and living as a registered sex offender in Long Beach, California.
Brian Banks dreamed of one day making his way to the NFL, something that was particularly difficult given his current circumstances. Not only that, but new laws also required him to wear an ankle monitor at all times. When you also consider that he had to stay at least 2,000 feet away from schools and any public gathering spots, it’s easy to see why achieving that dream of becoming a professional football player was more or less impossible. Thankfully, Brian didn’t see it that way.
Brian approached the California Innocence Project to help clear his name. One day, after getting a Facebook friend request from his accuser, he put his mind to work and devised a scheme to trick her into confessing on tape that the rape in question had never actually happened.
Brian Banks fought like hell to achieve a new trial and, eventually, he was able to cast enough doubt on the situation to convince a judge to finally overturn his conviction. After triumphantly cutting off his ankle bracelet, he got his shot to try out for the Seattle Seahawks… and didn’t make it, partly due to his declining health as a result of spending so much time in prison.
But over the next year, after training harder than he could have ever thought possible, Brian got signed by the Atlanta Falcons.
Part of the reason why both the film and the real life story of Brian Banks are so inspirational is because they highlight something that far too many people just don’t want to think about these days—a delay of gratification. Yes, I’m sure if you’d asked Brian, he would have preferred a more conventional approach to achieving his dream of one day playing in the NFL. But that wasn’t what life had in store for him.
This insane example of the delaying of gratification only made Brian stronger. It increased his motivation and his will to succeed exponentially. Armed with that superhuman motivation, he was able to bring his vision of his own ideal future to life, albeit in a very unfortunate and unexpected way.
But that superhuman motivation was now arguably much greater than if he had followed a more standard pathway to success. He didn’t let a major setback keep him down for very long; he used it as fuel to carve out an even better future for himself, which is something that we could all stand to remember every now and again.
The reason I share this with you is that we will all have our own “Brian Banks moments.” If you are going to move from frustration to fulfillment, and create positive change in your life, on that journey, the one where you have to stay process focused no matter what, you will need some “Brian Banks resilience” to help you through your challenges.
Just being process focused is not enough. Just reading these words and then shifting your mindset is a great start, but if you expect instant success and a smooth journey to happiness and fulfillment, you are in for a shock.
The key to positive change is to be like Brian—being able to stick to your process for as long as needed and during the hardest of times.
In my experience, being successful immediately and gaining the outcomes you desire, can be a bigger problem than delaying gratification.
If you don’t believe me, ask Batman.
Click here to listen to Iain and his guest discuss all things performance on the KOHR Podcast.
Your Victory Has Defeated You
I had the honor of going to London to see the great Eric Thomas speak. Within the context of an incredibly straightforward speech—not to mention with the aid of an incredibly unlikely metaphor—he really changed my perspective on things, in more ways than one.
For those of you who may be unfamiliar with him, Eric Thomas is a critically acclaimed author. He’s an educator, a pastor, and a Ph.D. He’s a world renowned speaker, something that I can personally attest to.
You may have heard of him by his other name: ET, the hiphop preacher. His own personal story is one filled with strife and adversity, both of which make it all the more impressive. He was born to a single, teenage mother and eventually dropped out of high school. He was homeless, living on the streets of Detroit, for nearly two years. During this time, he met a preacher who inspired him to return to school and change his life, something that always stuck with him and that he personally tries to do for as many people as possible on a daily basis.
He spent 12 years working toward an undergraduate degree and, at the same time, he set up a program to help underprivileged youth, in his new home of Huntsville, Alabama. In 2003, he returned to Michigan and took a job at Michigan State University. During this time, he worked his way up as a senior pastor at A Place of Change Ministries, in Lansing, and soon began his career in earnest as a motivational speaker. He’s written a wide array of different books and has developed a massive social media presence, both of which allow him to bring his inspiring story and his message of positivity to millions of people around the world on a daily basis.
I have studied Thomas, and have consumed and applied a lot of his material. Watching him speak is an amazing experience rife with constant goosebumps and the dropping of knowledge bombs when he is on stage. One of the most impactful things I heard him say, in London, was inspired by Christopher Nolan’s, The Dark Knight Rises.
ET asked a simple question: Are you Bane, or are you Batman?
In that movie, during a climactic showdown, Bane tells Batman, “Your victory has defeated you,” something that absolutely shatters his worldview and sense of himself. In a phrase, Bane is able to take a hardened vigilante millionaire and turn his own sense of motivation against him.
I thought it was a powerful point because it’s something you see happen in real life—people who do achieve success very quickly, the ones that are not required to delay gratification, often let this instantaneous success, or victory as Bane calls it, become their defeat as they expect that it will always be this easy, and forgo the dealing with adversity that often accompanies delayed gratification.
This is the opposite of what happened to Brian Banks, and what the marshmallow experiment concluded.
Always stay motivated through success and delayed gratification. Always keep going no matter how near or far success may seem. If you don’t, you’ll soon find yourself left behind by someone else who better understood this simple yet critical message, even if it took them over a decade to get there, like it did Mr. Banks.
Click here for a FREE eBook on the mental game of golf written by KOHR coach Iain Highfield
To learn more about KOHR Golf contact Academy Director, Iain Highfield, iain@teamkohr.com Cell 3529788322
By Iain Highfield – KOHR Academy Director
The answer to this question, admittedly one that the KOHR Coaching team have all spent time trying to solve is a framework that helps coaches and players think and practice in a way that will lead to the retention and transfer of golfing skill.
The KOHR Coaching Team have accumulated thousands of hours coaching golf at all levels, studying sports psychology, the learning sciences and – most importantly – spending time with some of the greatest minds in, not only professional golf, but also many other fields of human performance. And what that has given us is a distillation of this vast bank of knowledge that makes it practical (and digestible) for you to become a better golfer where, and when, it matters most.
‘Rather than reasoning by analogy you boil things down to the most fundamental truths you can imagine, and you reason up from there. This will help you figure out if something really makes sense.’ Elon Musk
Following in the footsteps of old Musky, our decade of investigating, learning and investigating some more has led us to our fundamental golfing truth:
‘learning happens via cognitive stress’
So, again with a little inspiration from the Musketeer, we ‘reasoned up’ from this truth. In other
words, we asked what actually creates that fundamental state of cognitive stress. The answer… spacing, variability and challenge
To forget is to remember.
Now, even though this may seem like the kind of empty, pseudo-zen nonsense you’ll see written over pictures of sunsets – it’s a central pillar of human learning.
By incorporating the spacing effect to your training, you are effectively increasing the time you take between each rep.
This creates cognitive stress as your brain – or more specifically, your working memory – is challenged to recall previous successful reps (more so than if there is little or no time between shots). So, rather than simply machine-gunning balls down the range, you are actively teaching your brain to induce a deeper degree of learning,
A very basic example of this could be instead of hitting the same shot 20 times in a row as fast as you can, limiting yourself to hitting 1 ball a minute for 20 minutes – which, admittedly, may sound like a nightmare to range-ragers.
Some significant neurobiological research from Stanford University has provided a bit of bad news for the way most people practice golf – namely, the evidence that suggests our brains need variety if we are going to learn.
In other, more golfy, terms, learning through repetition is, in most scenarios, ineffective.
Instead, constantly changing the nature and application of tasks is vital for successfully learning and mastering any new movement – such as a golf swing – as this conscious variance is far better when it comes to engaging memory recall and creating cognitive stress.
So, rather than hitting 20 balls with the same club to the same target, the variability effect demands that you mix things up – changing your club and target regularly and repeatedly.
The Optimal Challenge Point
Increasing the spacing and variability in your practice will in turn increase the challenge point it presents. So, the more space and variability your training contains the higher the challenge point – and the more purposeful and rewarding that practice session has become.
Setting outcome goals is another way to elevate your own challenge point – with more complex and testing self-targeting representing a higher challenge point.
If we combine some of the scenarios from our spacing and variability effects, and embellish it with outcome goals we have already created the conditions of cognitive stress.
So, for example…
If we hit 20 balls in 20 minutes
AND we change our club and our target every two balls
AND we award ourselves with a point every time the ball is struck from the center of the club face AND if we set ourselves a target to achieve 14 points within those 20 balls
THEN we are in the state of cognitive stress and therefore, a state of learning
At KOHR golf we teach all our the students the power of understanding and applying spacing, variability and challenge.
Click here to see a team KOHR practice challenge that incorporates the above
‘We also teach the KOHR Students to be able to answer the following question,
Am I training to learn or am I training to perform?’
At KOHR Golf we class training to learn as stimulating the connections in the brain that help you learn to move the club in a desired motion. Scientists may call this synaptogenesis. Golfers may call this making a swing change stick!
At KOHR Golf Academy Training to perform is about finding ways to adapt to the environmental demands and psychological stresses of the golf course and competition. Performance experts would suggest players who can do this can access a state of ‘flow’. The golfer might state they finally can ‘take their range game to the golf course.
The goal of performance practice is not to develop the perfect repeatable swing, it is to develop a generalized motor program (your swing) that you then must learn to adapt to the environmental demands of the golf course.
Golf is, after all, a problem-solving task in which the problem involves sending the ball from point A toward point B.
The solution to the problem involves a process that requires situational awareness, perception, movement planning, retrieving a motor program and adapting the motor program from memory – all before the swing is executed.
During competitive play a golfer has to do all of this while adapting to the demands of the environment (the wind or an uneven lie being prime examples) not to mention the stresses contributed by the competition and its outcomes. And these stresses are all relative, whether it’s a putt for your first major victory, tour card or the lowest net score in the Sunday medal, that stress response is still going to fire.
So if you truly want to be able to take your range game to the golf course, the answer is to inject more performance Games into your practice.
Click here for a FREE eBook that details some of KOHR’s very best golf games.
To learn more about KOHR Golf contact Academy Director, Iain Highfield, iain@teamkohr.com Cell 3529788322
Who is Kai Knight? And what can we learn from him?
By Iain Highfield, KOHR Academy Director
A bespectacled and slightly built classical violinist might at first sight seem an odd choice of inspirational speaker for one of America’s top NFL teams.
But coach Pete Carroll knew exactly what he was doing when he invited Kai Kight to talk to his Seattle Seahawks following their bruising loss in 2015’s Super Bowl XLIX.
The Humiliation of the Seattle Seahawks
Defending champions, the Seahawks, had built a ten point advantage by the end of the third quarter, but they let this slip to allow their opponents, the New England Patriots, a 28–24 lead as the game approached its climax.
With a minute to go, however, the Seahawks had driven to within a yard of the Patriots’ line and seemed certain to score. What followed was one of the most iconic Super Bowl moments, as the final touchdown pass was brilliantly intercepted in the end zone, to the evident disbelief of Carroll and his players.
Pundits were quick to condemn the play Carroll had called, and as if to twist the knife in the wound, Super Bowl XLIX was and remains the highest rating TV broadcast in history, so the Seahawks humiliation could hardly have been more public or more universal.
Kai Kight’s Story of Panic and Paralyzing Stage Fright
Now, of course, the Seahawks had not suddenly become a poor team, nor Carroll a poor coach, but their confidence had been shattered, and it was Kight’s task to help them rebuild it. And he did it very effectively, by telling them his own story of recovery from paralyzing stage fright.
Kight related how, in the early days of his career, he had suffered from such extreme anxiety that he had sometimes felt compelled to cancel performances rather than face the ordeal. What he was feeling was something far more intense than the familiar butterflies in the stomach; it was something more like a fullblown panic attack, during which he would find his whole body almost frozen with fear.
Even if he did manage to begin a performance, he would anticipate the more difficult passages of the work so intensely that his hands would freeze up when he got to them. His natural reaction was to try, try and try again until he got it right, but by then he had lost the attention of his audience and destroyed the emotional impact of the performance.
At the root of his problem, which Kight came to understand, was that since early childhood, his identity as a person had been wrapped up in his identity as a violinist. So when he stood up on stage, he was exposing not just his technical skills but his entire being to the scrutiny and criticism of the audience.
It was hardly surprising that he felt under pressure.
Why the Search for Technical Perfection Is a Dead End
The road to recovery began with some great advice from an enlightened teacher, who told him that technical mistakes should not be allowed to detract from the impact and the purpose of the performance. A great musical performance is not defined by executing every single note or sequence without error. That kind of technical perfection is hardly ever attained, even by the greatest virtuosos.
The most memorable and successful performances are achieved by creating and maintaining an energy and an emotional connection with the audience, and by adapting seamlessly to inevitable errors without disturbing its flow.
Once he understood this, Kight made some simple but fundamental changes to the way he practiced and prepared.
Building Confidence with the Right Kind of Practice
Previously, he had rehearsed by going through whole pieces of music in a silent room, repeating them again and again until satisfied that he could reproduce every note and sequence almost unconsciously. It’s an approach that puts a premium on hard work, dedication, and the ability to persevere through long hours of tedium, which every elite performer requires.
Unfortunately, though, it is a very ineffective way of preparing for live performances, because these seldom if ever happen outside of the ideal conditions of the practice room.
It’s why it proved so difficult for the Seahawks to reproduce a play in the last minute of the Super Bowl, which they had no doubt executed perfectly hundreds of times in practice. And at a less exalted level, it’s why so many weekend golfers, who hit the ball beautifully on the range, find themselves utterly unable to transfer these skills to the course.
At root, the problem is that confidence built on perfect reps, in perfect conditions, is extremely fragile and apt to crumble alarmingly when confronted with the more testing problems of competition or live performance.
The answer, as Kai Kight puts it, is to “add some chaos to practice,” to make it resemble as closely as possible the conditions of actual play.
So, Kight began to add some distractions; for example, by playing background music in his practice room or deliberately beginning a piece on the wrong note to see how quickly he could get back on track.
Success Through the Conscious Pursuit of Resilience
In this way, he began to see practice not so much as essential to the pursuit of an always elusive technical perfection, but as an opportunity to develop confidence in the face of difficulty and distraction. This is a message we deliver to our students at the KOHR Golf Academy.
Click here to listen to Iain and his guest discuss all things performance on the KOHR Podcast.
This conscious development of his resilience has been transformative for Kight, who now not only finds himself able to perform without a tremor in front of large live audiences, but has also become a much sought after motivational speaker.
His central insight for athletes at all levels, and indeed for people in all walks of life, is that confidence and resilience are not qualities that you either do or do not have, or which are confined to a special breed of elite performers.
Much less are they attributes derived from the subconscious mind, to be obtained through mysterious psychological exercises or positive thinking. They should rather be thought of as mental skills that can and should be trained in exactly the same way as physical and technical skills—by well-structured and purposeful practice. Something the coaching team pride ourselves on at KOHR Golf.
How do you create these kinds of practices? You guessed it: You change your environment. The environments that Kai and Sara were exposed to shaped their mindset to embrace failure. This is critical if you want to create positive change in your world. .
Stop Searching for Confidence and Build Resilience
Before we begin the process of shaping an environment that embraces failure, you must first end your fruitless quest for confidence.
If you had to make a list of all the things that people say you need to be successful, confidence would undoubtedly be right at the top.
Confidence is that feeling—some might say a firm trust—that your own abilities are enough to help you accomplish anything you put your mind to. You take the value of your potential as an absolute fact, and know beyond the shadow of a doubt that if you simply apply yourself, success becomes a foregone conclusion—which, of course, is problematic, considering that life doesn’t necessarily always work out that way.
This is what ultimately leads to failures that are so absolutely shattering.
Instead of desiring confidence, there’s another psychological skill that can help someone become that ideal version of themselves. It’s a mental skill that can also be applied to not only your daily tasks but to the very environment you surround yourself with:
A willingness to fail and deal with adversity.
When most people go on their quest for confidence, they think it means that they need to be “perfect.” That’s what they’re really trying to achieve—a state at which they can do no wrong. It’s a state that exists only as a fantasy, but by assuming it to be true, they also remove their own willingness to be criticized or critiqued. They become averse to taking risks because of the fear of failure that sets in.
Ironically, criticism and failure are big parts of how we become those best versions of ourselves in the first place.
Click here for a FREE golf practice plan.
This FREE eBook will provide you golf practice tasks that will help you practice like Kai Knight.
We are shaped by so many different things in life to believe that confidence is the key to success. Our friends and family members, general conversation, the media—you name the source; you’ve probably heard that confidence is the answer to everything at some point. Thankfully, that simply isn’t true. Your willingness to embrace failure and deal with adversity should not only be at the core of your future successes, but at the core of your processes and eventually your happiness. At KOHR Golf we use the following exercise to prepare our students to deal with adversity.
Stress Inoculation Imagery Task
It doesn’t matter if you’re about to walk into that big business meeting, or if you’re about to take the field for a sporting event, or something else entirely; the secret to success involves the following technique:
Take a moment and simply visualize yourself positively reacting to adversity.
Be prepared for something to go wrong—because something always does. If you’re a golfer, you’re probably going to hit the ball in the trees at some point. It happens to Tiger Woods, and you can be certain it will happen to you too. Jeff Bezos and the late Steve Jobs no doubt had stressful times in the boardroom, and so will you!
Visualizing yourself responding positively to adversity and dealing with failure, will become a more powerful tool in your mental toolbox than picturing the meeting, game, or recital flowing perfectly.
If you’re able to engage in this kind of practical task, you’re able to build the mental representations of resilience necessary to deal with adversity and failure.
Too often, we are seeking and hoping for comfort. I find it astonishing how many athletes are training their minds to see the perfect performance without complimenting this by visualizing their responses to chaos or stress. This results in them being shocked when something unplanned happens, and often they cannot inoculate the stress response, and this inhibits their performance. Part of creating positive change is being process focused, and part of your process needs to be this practical task. If you’re not ready to inoculate stress, you’re not ready to perform to your highest level.
To read more about Iain and his published books click here to view his Amazon authors page
To learn more about KOHR Golf contact Academy Director, Iain Highfield, iain@teamkohr.com Cell 3529788322
The Fisherman’s Tale – The Endless Quest for More
By Iain Highfield, KOHR Academy Director
A rich tourist is walking around a beautiful harbor, and he is texting and checking his emails on his mobile phone. On the odd occasion, he takes a break from his phone to soak in some scenery or feel the cool breeze caress his face.
An old fisherman catches his eye, as his boat is the only one to have docked from the morning fishing trip.
The rich tourist shouts across to the fisherman, “You should stay out longer and catch more fish,” but the fisherman says that his small catch is enough for his family’s needs.
“I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a nap, have a few drinks with friends, play guitar, and sing. I have a full life. Why would I want to stay out on my boat any longer?” replies the fisherman.
The tourist insists, “You should fish longer every day so that you can earn more and buy a bigger boat.”
The tourist’s phone beeps a few times, but he ignores it as he is deeply focused on making the fisherman’s life better.
“And after that?” asks the fisherman.
“Then you can buy more and more boats and open your own plant someday, and produce your own fish, packaged and ready for the supermarket,” replies the tourist.
The fisherman asks, “How long will that take?”
“Twenty to twenty‐five years of super hard work, focus, and dedication,” replies the tourist. “Then you can sell your business for millions of dollars,” he adds.
“What will I do with all that money?” asks the fisherman.
“Well then, you can retire, live near the coast, sleep late, catch a few fish, play with your children, take a nap, drink with friends, play guitar, and sing.”
Why Success Will Not Make You Happy
I, as so many others do, used to measure success in the form of money, titles, cars, watches, bonuses, awards, leaderboards, rankings…
My definition of success used to be the very definition of the word you can find in the Oxford English Dictionary. I was never taught, and I never chose to use happiness as a measure of my success.
The relationship between external success, the achievement of our goals, and our sense of inner happiness and fulfillment is so deeply embedded in our culture that it requires a considerable leap of imagination to even question it.
But according to modern, positive psychologist, Shawn Achor, who explains in his hugely entertaining Ted talk, the traditional view of the relationship between success and happiness is the wrong way around. The problem, says Achor, is that every time you achieve a success, your brain redefines what success looks like. So, for example, the golfer who gets down to scratch will immediately decide that his next success will be becoming a pro. Once a pro, he or she will set their sights on the major tours. As a tour player, they will want to be a winner; as a winner, they will want to win a major; as a major winner, they will want to win multiple majors.
The same applies to a business salesperson that MUST hit their quarter target. Once this is achieved, they will be happier if they hit their stretch target for that quarter. Then maximum bonus becomes the goal, and then top 10 in the sales charts; then they will be happy if they reach the sacred number 1 spot, and then the top salesperson for the year is the goal; then smash all company records; then defend that title…
And so, it can go on, making happiness forever elusive.
Click here to listen to Iain and his guest discuss all things performance on the KOHR Podcast.
The Trouble with Studying Averages
At the root of this problem is the emphasis that statistics based disciplines, such as psychology, place on explaining away the outliers— those experimental results that don’t conform to fashionable theories.
Instead of treating exceptional performers as examples of human potential, they’ve been treated as anomalies, with nothing to teach the average performer.
Educators and coaches have been asking:
“How fast does the average child learn?”
When they should be asking:
“How much can this individual child learn, and how far might they go?”
Traditional classes and group coaching sessions tend, therefore, to be geared to the average performer, and have the effect of pulling everyone back toward that level.
Positive psychology, by contrast, deliberately focuses on the outliers— the above average—and asks how they come to be so far ahead in intellectual and artistic capabilities, or sporting prowess, as the case may be. The idea is not to find out how to move people toward average performance, but to move the entire average up.
Our team of coaches at KOHR have learned a lot from Achor’s work and we make every effort to make this part of our culture at the KOHR Golf Academy?
Flipping the Model
Why Happiness and Success Both Depend on Attitude
It would be only natural to ask in response what a Harvard student could possibly have to be unhappy about, but such a question would be based on a false premise: the assumption that our external world or achievements are predictive of our happiness levels.
In fact, research has shown that 90% of longterm happiness is predicted not by our external world but how the brain processes it; in other words, by our attitude.
So changing the lens can certainly do wonders for our happiness. But this isn’t just a matter of feeling better through positive thinking or affirmation. Changing the way we look at the world can also have a tremendous impact on educational and career outcomes.
When the right positive attitudes are developed, intelligence, creativity, and energy are all enhanced.
The lesson is clear: The pursuit of external goals as a means of achieving the universal desire for happiness is highly unlikely to be effective.
We need to flip the model and focus first on the process of developing positive psychological attitudes and emotions. From this process, the external rewards we desire will follow almost effortlessly.
I opened up this blog by stating that my definition of success was the actual definition of the word, the one that can be found in the Oxford English Dictionary:
Success: the accomplishment of an aim or purpose; the attainment of popularity or profit; a person or thing that achieves desired aims or attains prosperity.
Can I say that Google and the Oxford English Dictionary are wrong? Probably not! And this is good because I am not in the business of being correct. I merely aim to say enough to challenge people to think.
At KOHR we challenge our students to create a new definition of success and as a team of coaches we are constantly highlighting that success is more than playing well:
At KOHR we help our students believe that, “Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self‐satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming. Success is never final; failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts.”
During the season we have students engage in tasks and challenges that can support this message and are a way of creating lasting behavioral change. One of these is the Thought Trainer Journal.
Thought Trainer Journal
How Does It Help?
“The Science of Happiness,” by Shawn Achor (and many other research papers), states that the activities contained in the thought trainer, when combined with exercise, will increase performance, as performance and happiness are intrinsically connected, and a happier person is a higher performer.
Engaging in the activities on the worksheet and having to physically check them off as you do them throughout the day, will create the happiness advantage that Achor advises we all take advantage of.
To read more about Iain and his published books click here to view his Amazon authors page
To learn more about KOHR Golf contact Academy Director, Iain Highfield, iain@teamkohr.com Cell 3529788322
By Iain Highfield, KOHR Academy Director
Inky Johnson is a thankful man.
He’s naturally grateful, as anyone would be, for the precious gifts of a rewarding career, a loving wife, and two beautiful children.
But most of all, he gives thanks for the 9th of September 2006. It was the day his world changed in an instant and forever.
It was the day he nearly died.
“Get that man into the theater. He’s about to die!”
Playing in a football game for the University of Tennessee, Volunteers against the US Air Force, Inky was poleaxed when what should have been a straightforward tackle turned into a sickening helmet to helmet collision. Blacking out for a moment as the force of the impact drove all the air from his body, Inky lay on the ground unable to move as panicking teammates urged him to get up.
Rushed to the hospital, Inky had just undergone a CAT scan when a doctor shouted, “Get that man into the theater. He’s about to die!” Sure enough, he had a life threatening internal bleed and needed immediate surgery.
When Inky came round, his doctor told him there was good news and bad news. The good news, as Inky had already worked out, was that he was still alive. The bad news was that serious and irreparable nerve damage to his right shoulder meant that he would probably never play football again.
“Doc, You Don’t Know Me”
“No disrespect, Doc,” replied Inky quietly, “but you don’t know me.” And he didn’t.
The prognosis would have been a heavy blow for any athletically gifted, ambitious 20 year old. But it was especially devastating for Inky. Just weeks before, his coach had told him that he was in line for a top 30 place in the NFL draft. All he had to do was complete ten more games for the Volunteers, and he would be, as Inky puts it, “an automatic multimillionaire,” in fulfillment of the dream he had pursued with extraordinary single-mindedness since the age of six years old.
Growing up in the troubled Kirkwood neighborhood of Atlanta, Inky was the son of a teenage single mom—one of six kids who shared a home with up to eight frequently imprisoned uncles.
Click here to listen to Iain and his guest discuss all things performance on the KOHR Podcast.
A Dream of Playing in the NFL
From his earliest years, he dreamed of a career in the NFL as a way of escaping the drugs and gangs of Kirkwood. By the age of seven, he was training every night with his cousins, sprinting from light pole to light pole in the dark streets, instinctively understanding that the key to success lies in patient engagement in consistent action.
Inky’s persistence paid off when he was spotted training in the street, by a coach who signed him up to take part in organized football. But that was just the beginning of an extraordinary journey. After the end of team practice, Inky would have to wait alone for his mom to collect him after she finished her shift at Wendy’s, at 10 or 10:30 at night.
“Mom, You’ll Never Work Another Day in Your Life”
Rather than going straight home, Inky would persuade his mom to shine the car headlights onto the training field and wait while he went through yet more drills. As tired as they both were, catching his mother’s eye helped motivate him to persevere. “If I get to the NFL,” he would often tell her, “you’ll never work another day in your life.”
The most important lesson Inky got from his mom was to finish what you start; and in his opinion, one of the major problems in today’s world is that too many people get involved in things and then quit, either because they find out they don’t like the people they have to work with, or because the process isn’t what they thought it would be.
More fundamentally, people quit, or put in far less effort than they’re capable of, because they don’t have a strong sense of pride or purpose in what they’re doing. And without a higher motivation above and beyond mere ego satisfaction, it’s all too easy to quit when faced with even relatively minor obstacles.
Why Giving 100% Was as Natural as Breathing
For Inky, the intense drive to provide a better life for his mom and siblings, his focus from an early age on the process of practice, and above all, his pride in himself as an individual with the power to impose his will on his circumstances, meant that it was as natural as breathing for him to give 100% when he got to the University of Tennessee.
And it was natural, too, for him to treat his injury as an opportunity rather than a terrible misfortune; a chance to repay those who had invested in him, and to tell his remarkable story to the world.
So although his doctor might not have known him, the rest of the world now certainly does. Inky was quickly in huge demand as an inspirational speaker for Fortune 500 corporations, sports teams, schools, and churches, and he now holds a Master’s in Sports Psychology from the University of Tennessee, specializing in mentoring young athletes and people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
There could be no better use of his talents, because while Inky is unquestionably an outstanding individual, his story, and particularly the way he set about achieving his goals, holds some very valuable lessons for everyone.
ONLINE: More About Iain’s Published Books | LISTEN: KOHR Podcast on Performance
Matching the “How” to the “What” – Unearthing the “Process”
All the KOHR Golf Academy students that I am blessed to work with understand that their task is to think carefully about their outcome and process goals, placing particular emphasis on process.
Another good way to think about goals is to ask students what they want (outcome) and how they are going to get it (process).
At KOHR Golf Academy we are never dismissive of what students say they want to achieve, no matter how unrealistic it may seem that the gawky kid might one day win the Open Championship, be the CEO of a fortune 500 company, or in Ink’s case, play in the NFL. Everyone has to start somewhere.
The task for a KOHR coach is not to be realistic; it is rather to make sure that the student’s process goals are appropriate to the outcome goals they have set themselves—that the how matches the what. It should be obvious, for example, that a young golfer whose outcome goal is to play the PGA Tour, but whose process goal is to practice for a couple of hours a week, is unlikely to succeed. But of course, there will be many far less obvious misalignments that need to be corrected.
Determining your Why – The Most Important Key to Strong Motivation
The final and perhaps the most important piece of the goal setting jigsaw is to ask the student to carefully consider why it is that they want to pursue their outcome and process goals.
Most KOHR students will find the question puzzling at first. Perhaps they’ll respond that they have to practice because their parents, teachers, or coaches say so. Or they may point out the obvious attractions of status and financial rewards that come with winning trophies or winning on the PGA Tour.
But it’s my job as KOHR’s mental performance coach to dig a little deeper, because the research evidence is clear that the most powerful and resilient motivation comes from those internal sources that are generated and owned by the individual. These may include the enjoyment of practicing and playing for their own sake, the challenge and excitement of competition, and the pride that comes with the development of high levels of skill. Strong internal motivations may also include, as in Inky Johnson’s case, an urgent desire to provide for and be an example to others that are faced with the adversity of poverty.
Inky’s Personal “Why” and the Triumph of the Individual over Circumstance
Inky Johnson is by any standards a remarkable human being, but his powerful story carries important lessons for people of far more ordinary capabilities.
Faced with the sudden and irreversible loss of the NFL dream he had cherished for so long, Inky might easily have fallen prey to anger, bitterness, and “why me” resentment. But his lifelong focus on process, starting with his nightly races from light pole to light pole, had given him the inner strength and psychological excellence he needed in order not to quit. It was, as he says, the process that saved his life.
More important still, his early experience of adversity had endowed him with an acute and invincible sense of why he was setting out on this path. “You’ll never work another day in your life,” he had told his mother, and motivation like that is not to be extinguished by the mere loss of an external goal, no matter how dearly cherished.
There is no “why me” for Inky; only a far more powerful “why not me” attitude, which has allowed him not only to accept appalling misfortune but also to achieve outstanding external successes, albeit that they are very different from those of which he dreamed for so long.
If Inky had conditioned himself, like so many do, to focus on what he wanted from his life, his ability to deal with this level of adversity would be nonexistent, and he would have been another potential that had the legitimate excuse of injury blocking them from achieving their lifelong goals. But Inky is different to most of society. His psychological habits, ones that he has trained since the tender age of six, mental patterns, his focus on his process (how), and his purpose (why), enabled him to pivot in the midst of adversity and launch a career that I am sure fulfills him spiritually and emotionally, and allowed the promises he made to himself, when he looked deep into his mother’s eyes, to come true.
WARNING: I watched this video with my cat, and it became a lion!
“What, How, Why” Goals
It was simple for Inky; at six, he decided what he wanted, how he was going to get there, and why he wanted it.
What = Play in the NFL.
How = Run light pole to light pole; give it all he has got; stay behind after training and do extra work while his mother is working; never cheat; study film on opposing teams.
Why = The look in his mother’s eyes; the desire to show the people in his family that looked up to him that they do not have to be in and out of jail like their uncles.
Inky lived and breathed his how and his why.
To read more about Iain and his published books click here to view his Amazon authors page
To learn more about KOHR Golf contact Academy Director, Iain Highfield, iain@teamkohr.com Cell (352) 978-8322
KOHR Golf will be hosting junior golf open houses in May and June where Juniors can try out the KOHR Academy programming for FREE!
CLICK HERE to reserve a spot at one of the open house events.
