The Sport Psychiatrist and Golf
Document Type
Review
Publication Date
1-1-2005
Description
The interrupted pace of golf provides a unique challenge for competitive golfer. Solid pre-performance routines provide excellent tools for managing common mental errors. Athletic zone states, which may be a subset of flow phenomena, may be understood by looking at models of dissociation and hypnosis. Acute performance failure occurs at even the highest levels of professional golf, and the authors posit three etiologies. Panicking is characterized by autonomic hyperarousal, the player's mind going blank, and the player reverting to instinct. In contrast, in choking, an individual no longer relies on instinct but rather thinks consciously about what was previously a learned behavior (explicit monitoring), resulting in the loss of fluidity. And finally, the "yips" a more extreme form of choking, is characterized by the focal dystonia model. Sport psychologists and psychiatrists will benefit from staying informed about research in cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and applied sport psychology. The concept of a mental health continuum provides the sport psychiatrists and psychologist a guide to evaluate the golfer and refer to the appropriate expert. The authors contend to our sport medicine colleagues that professional golfers and athletes in general are well-served by consulting well-trained and experienced sport psychiatrists.
Citation Information
Clark, Terrence P.; Tofler, Ian R.; and Lardon, Michael T.. 2005. The Sport Psychiatrist and Golf. Clinics in Sports Medicine. Vol.24(4 SPEC. ISS.). 959-971. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csm.2005.04.001 PMID: 16169456 ISSN: 0278-5919