We are instinctive beings set up to FEEL. In our cortex, our hands occupy more space than our legs, arms and feet. We therefore have a lot of hardware capacity for feel and touch. I believe that effective golf psychology needs to go further than simple mental golf tips. It needs to help you develop your mental golf software to be like the very best, in order to make the most of this thing called FEEL.

So what is FEEL? It’s a term used so frequently in golf and yet so rarely adequately explained. Which feeling are we talking about? The inner feelings your body gets from gripping the club and the feel of your body as it swings and strikes the ball? Or the outer feelings of extending your awareness out of your body to the club head and connecting to your target, so that however you swing, the ball will somehow end up there?

From my perspective, FEEL is the depth of your awareness of BOTH of the above. “Inner Feel” lets you know how sound your structure, balance and swing mechanics are. “Outer Feel” stops your internal chatter and lets your body know where to play the ball to. Both are needed for great golf.

Here are two of my latest golf psychology exercises to develop each of them.

Exercise 1 – Inner Feel

1. Put a tee peg in the green as a target
2. Line up your putt
3. Putt with your eyes closed
4. Before opening your eyes, decide whether you hit the tee peg, went short, long, left or right
5. Open your eyes to see your result.
6. The important thing is not whether you hit the tee peg or not, it is your accuracy of prediction. Track your % accuracy of prediction over time to measure how your Inner Feel is progressing.

Exercise 2 – Outer Feel

The aim here is to become 100% present to the shot. This means not thinking about your last shot, your next shot, your score, your competitors or your lunch! It means silencing your mind to become AWARE of your connection with the target.

1. Imagine now that you are about to play an iron shot to a specific green
2. Before you play the shot in your mind, picture its flight. In your mind, stroke the line your ball will travel on through the air and on the grass all the way to the target.
3. When you touch the target, feel a connection with the flight line and target in the centre of your body
4. Maintaining this connection, imagine addressing the ball, seeing a line pass from the back of the ball along the flight trajectory of the ball, landing, and then stopping at the target. See and feel this connection simultaneously so your body knows exactly what is required.
5. Use this process in your practice before you play each shot to increase your Outer Feel. You will find the game simpler and more enjoyable than ever!

Golf psychology has done a lot to develop mental golf tips for feel. However, it really is just scratching the surface, so my aim is to help you go deeper into feeling your game than ever before. Sign up for my free newsletter to receive a series of 6 free audio tipcasts with to help you do this.

Love every shot!

Adam Sprackling

Mental Golf Coach