Creating a Character/Persona

I was out at SkyLinks golf course the other day to meet up with Dana about some business we are working on. After being there for about 10 minutes, I quickly found myself in an interesting conversation with one of his professional golf clients, a 27 year old male. Dana had introduced me to this young golfer and we instantly got into various topics about the mental game. We talked about different pressures in golf, self-awareness, what golfers should focus on, so on and so forth. But, one topic he brought up really stuck out to me.

He mentioned a mental game book he read and how the author talked about being able to create a character or persona to get into when competing, such as an actor would when playing a role. This individual would go so far as to create the feeling, the emotion, the drive, the confidence, etc... that this made up golfer would have. Once this persona is defined, the golfer would get into that character when playing golf.

I found this very interesting because I sometimes will have a client create a persona for certain situations when competing. This all depends on the individual being that this is such an abstract concept. I've had a golfer think of being Mariano Rivera when closing out each round. I've had another think of himself as a shooting guard in basketball when putting during competition. Rivera is arguably the best closer in baseball history and a great shooting guard has no conscious when shooting shot after shot. This concept allows the individual golfer to paint his/her own picture on how Rivera would approach a closing situation mentally or how a shooting guard would be mentally tough when going through a tough putting stretch and not let it affect the psyche.

Have you as a golfer ever created a character/persona when playing golf? If so, who or what type of person did you create and was it helpful for your mental game? If you have not, who or what type of character/persona would you create and what would this accomplish for you?

James Boykin, M.S.

What was the name of the book?

I believe the name of the book is "Fearless Golf" by Gio Valiente. From listening to the young golfer, Valiente seems to talk about a lot of the same tools and techniques I teach. He uses different terminology and variations to similar techniques that I often use, but at the end of the day we are delivering similar messages relating to the mental game. This might be a helpful book.

	JamesBoykinM.S. wrote:
	I believe the name of the book is "Fearless Golf" by Gio Valiente. From listening to the young golfer, Valiente seems to talk about a lot of the same tools and techniques I teach. He uses different terminology and variations to similar techniques that I often use, but at the end of the day we are delivering similar messages relating to the mental game. This might be a helpful book.

New to the forum ..... Gio wrote the 4th chapter about me. Very Happy