Illusions of Competence

Video Transcript

All golfers want to improve. The reason you are watching this tape is because you want to improve your mind, your mental game. Training is the key to getting better. We all know from statistics that golf is probably the worst sport in terms of the specificity of its training for its performance criteria. The National Golf Foundation has on record the handicaps of all golfers and it is clear that golfers do not improve. Why don't they improve with the new technologies the new access on video and internet, the wonderful teachers that we have? It is probably because there are some very basic training errors that are made by golfers. What are these errors? The first one that I want to talk to you about is what I call illusions of competence or illusions of confidence. When you stand on the range and you hit a 5-iron 40 or 50 times, you leave the range at the end of the day thinking that I am hitting it pretty good. Then you walk to the first tee and things don't work out that great for you. You think, oh, I must be mentally weak or I am not a good competitor. The fact is that you cheated yourself. You used an illusion of competence to guess how well you were going to play. They key is to make your training more game like. Make your training as specific as it can be for the conditions that you are going to compete under.

Dr. Fran Pirozzolo
Baylor College of Medicine
One Baylor Plaza
Houston, TX 77030

Fran Pirozzolo is the mental coach to many PGA Tour Pros and is a performance coach for the New York Yankees. He is also the author of The Putter's Pocket Companion.

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