Trust Yourself Not Your Swing

The advice to “Trust your swing” is taken as self -evident and rarely questioned.  Yet, when we try to figure out exactly how to do this, there are no simple  instructions.    It’s almost as mysterious as trying to figure out how to “empty your mind.”  Trust is not easily operationalized.  Even for accomplished players who have put in years of work to create a repetitive golf swing, there are issues with reliability, especially under pressure.  Trust alone is no guarantee that the next swing is going to go well, because the golf swing is so complex and is influenced by thoughts and emotions.  The golf swing is very fickle and not always a trustworthy partner.

So, instead of trying to learn how to “trust your swing,” start learning more about how to “trust yourself.”  The way to learn to increase trust in yourself is by investing more attention in creating and then following your pre shot routine (PSR).  This requires doing the work to be sure that your PSR contains the necessary key elements to optimize physical, emotional and cognitive performance.  It will likely include one or two key swing thought(s) or “feels” along with positive mental and emotional keys. Without a PSR discipline, you may as well pray for a good swing outcome.  Bobby Jones said that “even the most expert player finds only rarely that he can trust his swing entirely to habit and instinct.” OK, there may be certain times that giving oneself over to a higher power feels like the right thing to do.

A good swing is much more likely to emerge when you fully engage in your PSR, which then warrants having trust in yourself.   Trust, like faith, may be abandoned at the first sign of difficulties.  However, you can restore it by re-committing to your process.