Page 74 - Las Vegas Golf & Leisure SPRING 2018

[ LEISUR E ]

MEN T AL G AME

CONFIDENCE

COLUMN BY MARK CHENEY

Mark Cheney is a Certified Mental Performance
Consultant (CMPC) and member of the Association for
Applied Sport Psychology (AASP). For 20 years, he has
helped performers do what they love to do, better.
You can learn more at www.CoachMarkCheney.com
or by following him on twitter @CoachMarkCheney.

T H INK OF I T LIK E AN INV E S T MEN T

O n a recent trip to the golf course, I

observed the following:

• A player hitting driver over and over
on the practice tee prior to her round.
“I’ve got to hit this so I can have some
confidence,” she says.

• Another player rapidly stroking three- CONFIDENCE
foot putts, reaching for the misses
before they even stop rolling, so he PERFORMANCE
can “build some confidence” before
competing.

• A third player refusing to hit a partic-
ular club in their bag because, “I’m just
not confident in this club.”

What’s going on here? The players in the
examples above fall into the belief that confi- PERFORMANCE
dence comes from past performance.

It goes like this: CONFIDENCE

If I have confidence, I’ll play well,
and if I play well, I’ll have more
confidence.

The loop works as long as a player is
playing well. Unfortunately, there are inherent A MOD EL W I T H A T R AP
traps to this model.

72 LVG&L SPRING 2018 W W W.L ASVEGASGOLFANDLEISURE.COM