Your Attention Changes Before Your Swing Does
Most better players believe they're preparing for the shot they're about to hit. But before they ever begin preparing, their attention may already be somewhere else.
Your playing partners are great company. The conversation is enjoyable, but it's also engaging. And engaging conversations have a way of staying with you longer than you realize.
Maybe you're trying to remember something from your last lesson. Maybe you're thinking about the score, wondering what happened on the previous hole, replaying the putt you just missed, thinking about the hole you never seem to play well, trying to remember a swing thought, or wondering where this shot might leave you.
Most players never realize how many things are competing for their attention before they ever prepare for the shot in front of them.
And none of it feels unusual.
It feels like golf.
The player believes they're getting ready for the shot. But their attention is quietly moving from one thing to another, sometimes without them ever realizing it.
The better the player, the more information they often have available. Past experiences, course management, strategy, expectations, and swing thoughts all compete for attention. None of these things seem important on their own. They're simply part of playing golf.
Which is exactly why most players never stop to consider how much of their attention has already been pulled away before they ever prepare for the shot.
One Tour Tested Truth
Your swing isn't the only thing preparing for the shot.
Your attention is too.
What the Research Shows
Research in sport psychology and cognitive science has shown that attention is a limited resource. Performance can be influenced when attention is drawn toward competing thoughts, memories, goals, or other sources of information rather than remaining directed toward the task at hand. Research on expert performance under pressure consistently identifies attentional control as an important part of skilled performance.
Research
Furley, Memmert & Schmid — Working Memory, Attentional Control, and Expertise in Sports
Schweickle et al. — Performance Under Pressure in Sport: A Position Statement from Exercise and Sports Science Australia
Continue Reading
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Why Doesn't Practice Transfer to the Golf Course?
Why Am I So Inconsistent?
I Lost My Swing.