Managing Your Focus for Learning or Performance

Attentional Focus

I see this concept play out in just about every golf lesson I give. It is amazing how quickly golfers recover their strike when I give them an external focus cue. Here are some of the benefits of external focus that have been supported by over 1000 scientific studies:

External Focus

• Closer links to the task
• Less cognitive activity
• More efficient movement (less muscular activity)
• Faster learning and better retention in learning experiments
• Better resilience under pressure

There are clearly times when an internal focus is necessary and optimal for improving your movement quality. Just know that it is likely to affect your coordination and club delivery so you need to be okay with mis-strikes, in the knowledge that you are working on 'movement' and not club delivery and take a long term view to your development of that area.

As we know, golf can be a highly psychological game and not just by way of managing your emotions. Throughout the website, I have included mental concepts and advice that can make all the difference in how you approach the shot/task. These will be highlighted by the Movement Psychology icon above.  

Good luck, play well!