Minnesota Golfer - Directory 2011 - 20

(Qschool
)
Finding Peak Performance
A local sports performance consultant says quality thoughts
can lead to quality golf.
Interview by Joseph Oberle
N
ot every gifted athlete
fulfills his or her
potential.
In
golf,
countless hours on the practice
range don't necessarily guarantee
the desired results on the course.
A sports performance consultant
(SPC) who can diagnose your
game may be able to help. Shaun
Goodsell has helped amateur athletes
and LPGA pros improve their
performance; he shares some insight
into his profession and how
it can help golfers of all abilities get the most out of their game.
Shaun
Goodsell
Q: What exactly is a sports performance consultant?
A: A sports performance consultant gives athletes various tools
to maximize their talents. Mental skills are the primary tools.
Consulting can range from helping people develop the tools and
skills mentally but also helping them organize a team of people
who will work with them, from a personal trainer to a nutritionist
to whatever they need in order to maximize their abilities.
Q: How is an SPC different from a sports psychologist?
A: Sports psychologists are going to narrow their focus around
the mental side and the psychology of performance. They might
do a little more work in looking at family background and if there
are any diagnosable psychological challenges that person needs to
deal with. They will work more on the therapeutic side.
Q: What sort of problems do golfers come to you with?
A: There are three ongoing challenges that golfers have. They
want to avoid the blow-up hole. They're hitting the ball well, have
a bad hole and can't recover. Nine out of 10 times, that's the issue
that comes at me first. Then it's not having played a quality
tournament or a quality round in a while. They've lost their confidence
and don't know how to get it back. The third is during
tournaments, they might deal with an unreasonable amount of
anxiety and not know how to control that.
Q: Do you see common causes behind the problems?
A: Most people, when they are stuck, whether it be in life,
business or sport, their biggest challenge is that they misinterpret
why they are struggling. It helps when somebody can say, " Your
issue isn't confidence, it's over-thinking. There is a difference
between them, even though they look the same. " So how a person
chooses to interpret their challenge is usually the first breakthrough
that occurs.
Q: Can you give an example of what you might talk about?
A: How about a target style of play instead of a target score? Say
you were going to a course with a lot of danger, strategically. Your
round could be more about creating a quality strategy than creating
a quality score. Now your focus is more on how you're going
to do something than what you're going to accomplish. That's an
example of trying to influence someone to take their strength and
remold it into something that will be more workable for them.
That's the skill of reframing.
Q: What about bad swing thoughts?
A: People say, " I don't know what to think on the course. " But
they are actually saying, " I don't know how to use my mind in a
productive fashion. " So I show them the difference between a productive
thought and an unproductive thought. And I create a plan
for how to use productive thinking in their next competition.
People in our society are bent on wanting to think positive. But
positive thinking isn't always the answer. Positive thinking isn't,
at times, any more productive than negative thinking. What you
want to think is descriptively, clearly, specifically or strategically.
None of those are positive or negative, they are descriptive.
Q: Do lower or higher handicappers benefit more from your
services?
A: Any of us playing sports beneath the pro level can benefit. I
see many athletes who lack quality thinking skills. That's the reason
I do this-I want people to learn how to translate athletic success
into life success. There really is a strong correlation between
how you think about your golf game and how you think about
your friends, your marriage, your job. The most quality-thinking
people are usually the most successful people.
( Ask the Expert
18
MINNESOTAGOLFER Directory 2011
www.mngolf.org
COURTESY OF THE MENTAL EDGE
http://www.mngolf.org
Minnesota Golfer - Directory 2011

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