There's a mental performance technique in the sport of baseball known as "win the next pitch".
It's a simple technique employed by coaches at all levels but is extremely effective in helping players stay focused and dialed into the mental side of their game.
It can be applied to both pitchers and hitters, and is designed to keep you calm, taking the player through an at bat one pitch at a time, regardless of outcome.
If done correctly, it keeps the player laser focused and prevents negative mental thoughts from creeping in and does so by zooming in and trying to win every single pitch.
In the disc golf world, I regularly see players talk about the struggles with their mental game and how it can derail an entire round, and even last weeks on end.
We've also all played with a player, or been the player, who allows one or two bad shots to completely unravel an entire hole, or even worse an entire round or tournament.
I've seen this affect players in MA4 all the way up to the pro tour.
They turn their attention to one bad spit out, an unfortunate roll away, a missed putt, a throw out of bounds, not hitting a gap, the list goes on and on, but the result is the same...
That 1 errors becomes 2 errors, and 3 errors, and before you know it the player has lost control of their emotions.
They either try to do too much to make up for the error, or they're so focused on the errors being made that they become completely removed from the next shot and can't execute up to their ability.
And they're miserable on top of it, sometimes bringing down the entire mood and energy of the whole group.
The "wheels come off" as some would say.
So, the golden question...
How can we fix this?
In this article, instead of learning to "Win the Next Pitch", I'm going to teach you how to "Win the Next Shot" with 8 simple steps.
In short, these steps are:
Be Confident!- choose a shot or strategy and stick with it
Visualize the shot- close your eyes and see yourself executing the perfect shot with the perfect outcome
Get ahead- Try your best to start off each hole with the ideal tee off, have a good strategy for putting yourself in the best situation more often
Focus on what you can control- you can't control the outcome of a shot, only the shot you chose, so keep your focus there
Use positive self talk- avoid externalizing negative thoughts and be your own hype man (or woman) with positive thoughts and talk
Play to your strengths- Do what you do well, avoid what you do poorly
Practice and Prepare- Be intentional about your practice, and focus on strengthening your weaknesses and preparing for your upcoming tournaments
Assess and Reflect- Use self examination to push yourself to new heights
If I've piqued your interest, continue reading as I break down each of these steps in full detail.
By the end you be ready to not just win your next shot, but every shot you take!
Let's get started!
Be Confident
Winning the next shot, and every shot after that starts entirely with confidence.
If you are not confident in your abilities, then you will have a weak foundation for every other step that we'll be discussing in this article.
So how does one build confidence?
Some may have more natural confidence in their abilities, but largely speaking confidence in your abilities is going to come from having a deep understanding of your game and skillset.
And learning your skill set all comes down to practicing often and with intention.
If you need help with this, please be sure to check out our Complete Practice System, where we go over how to understand your game, your skill set, your discs, and how to set up practices to help improve your game.
When you know your game, you know what you can and cannot execute. This will help you in 2 different ways:
First, you will know what shot to commit to because you will know what you are and aren't capable of.
For example, you're not going to try and throw 400 feet down a narrow tunnel if you know your maximum throwing distance is 300 feet. So knowing your game helps with shot selection.
Second, is that when you do commit to a shot, knowing your game will give you the confidence that you will be able to execute that shot.
So if that same tunnel is only 250 feet, you'll be confident in your ability to nail it.
This brings up full circle back to Step 1,
To win your next shot, BE CONFIDENT.
Visualize the Shot
Step 2 of winning your next shot is to visualize your desired outcome.
Visualization in sports (and life) has been widely studied and shown to help athletes in achieving their athletic goals, and disc golf is no exception.
Before taking the shot you have committed to, take a deep breath and visualize yourself throwing the shot with the perfect outcome.
Don't just think about what you want to happen, close your eyes and imagine it.
See yourself executing perfect form and then watching your disc flying through the air on the exact line you intended, hitting every gap you want it to, and landing in the exact spot you want.
The more details the better! If you're throwing a blue disc, then make sure that's the disc you're watching in your mind.
When it comes to putting, imagine yourself lining up the putt and watching that disc crash into the chains in the perfect spot and falling into the basket.
You don't need to draw attention to yourself when going through this routine, just take a few seconds before your throw or putt. This can be done while the player before you is taking their throw, or quickly when you step up to take your shot.
The more you do it the better you'll get at it and the more effective it will be. This will also add more confidence, further strengthening the foundation started in Step 1.
Get Ahead
While this may seem like a no brainer, Step 3 of winning your next shot is getting ahead right off the tee.
You may be asking...
Shouldn't I be trying to do this for every shot on every hole?
The simple answer is yes, but the deeper answer is that your level of focus should be higher for all tee shots than any other shot.
This spills over not just in the throw itself, but the planning and strategy of the hole.
After the tee off, many of the shots that you take are going to be in reaction to where your first shot landed.
Having a game plan of how you want the hole to go will aid you in visualizing your desired outcome, which will further your confidence in execution of that plan.
By focusing on executing that first shot, when you get ahead you will take some pressure off yourself compared to when things don't go your way.
Ways to win that first shot and get ahead could mean doing things such as discing down and sacrificing distance for accuracy, choosing a shot that is a strength rather than one that is a weakness, or selecting a specific landing zone that sets up a better second shot or putt rather than throwing directly for the basket.
How many times have you tried to rip a disc as hard as you could to get the extra distance, only to miss your line and end up out of position or worse, OB? Or are torn between two shots, one that is your strength and one that you're not as good at but you think will yield better results, only to instantly wish you went with the safer option?
If you're not able to get ahead off the tee, don't panic!
You'll want to try and get back to a good position as soon as possible, but this doesn't mean trying to do too much and making a bad situation worse.
Some of this will come down the situation you're in and how risky you need to be during your tournament or round, but the last thing you'll want to do is have a bad shot and make it worse by trying to do too much and putting yourself in an even worse position.
Often times, taking the one stroke to get back to the fairway and settling for par or bogey is better than trying to save par or birdie and ending up going double or triple bogey.
Bottom line, try to get ahead from the beginning and don't try and make up for bad throws. Simply take a deep breath, do a mental reset, and make the most of the situation.
Remember, the hole is not over so don't try and do too much, stay focused on the game plan and adjust as needed!
Focus On What You Can Control, Forget What You Can't
In disc golf, there are many things that are in your control: The strategy you think will work, the disc you choose, the shot you choose, the line you want to hit, and YOUR MINDSET.
There are also many things you can't control, much of which affect the result of what happens after the disc leaves your hand.
A gust of wind, the weather, a slip on the tee pad or grass, a poor skip, roll away, tree kick, spit out, chain out, negative energy from other players, delays and back ups, and on and on and on.
You also can't change the result of every hole you've already played or the play of your opponents.
As you may have noticed, there are an infinite number of things that you can't control, and only a handful of things that you can control.
Now guess which one most players focus on, and which one the best players focus on.
There's age old wisdom that you're going to see what you're looking for, or what you're focused on.
If all of your focus is on the infinite uncontrollable things on the course, you're going to feel helpless and frustration will grow.
Every tiny thing that doesn't go exactly your way is going to appear bigger than what it is. You'll think that "luck" isn't on your side and start to make decisions that are not aligned with your game plan.
If things really start to spiral, the negativity will take over and you will completely lose sight of the small things you need to focus on for success.
The alternative to this is much better, and much simpler:
Focus only on what you CAN control.
Choose your shot, the disc, the line, and your mindset with intention.
Go through a pre shot routine.
Execute the shot to the best of your ability, assess what happened both right and wrong, and move onto the next shot.
Control the thoughts that go through your head, the reactions you have to your play, and the attitudes of those you're playing with.
You can quickly assess what you may have done differently to mentally store for next time you're in a similar situation, but don't dwell on it.
Don't start questioning anything else unless it directly relates to your next shot.
If your disc skipped or rolled away unexpectedly and you're faced with a similar shot or situation, then absolutely take that into consideration.
But if it doesn't or your next shot is something like a putt, revisit that unexpected happening after your round is over, not when you're supposed to be lining up a different approach shot or a critical putt.
In order to win your next shot,
Focus on what you can control.
Use Positive Self-Talk
In line with focusing on what you can control, you need to get into the practice of using positive self talk, and forget about any idea of negative self talk.
This doesn't mean you need walk around all round talking to yourself in third person, that may get you some unwanted attention from friends and card mates.
But refrain from the intrusive thoughts becoming externalized such as "Oh come on!", "ughhh why did I just do that?!", "I suck!", "stupid blank!", and any other negative combination of words that you can think of or have already heard out on the course.
Not that those occasional utterances won't come out every once in a while, but when they do, try and combat them with positive follow ups such as "on to the next shot", "oh well, I'll make it work", or "I'll make the most of it".
The best alternative, and our intention with the positive self talk strategy is to essentially be your own little private hype man.
As your walking to your lie, or after you visualize your perfect outcome, give yourself a little pep talk. It can be short and sweet such, "Okay (insert name here), you got this", "This is no problem, you've made this shot hundred times before", or "let's drill this putt" are all examples of this in action.
These positive affirmations will help keep you level headed during your round, and help you stay focused on everything else we've discussed so far.
Play To Your Strengths
Our next step is perhaps the last one used directly during your round, and it is to play your game to your strengths.
In other sports I've been a part of, coaches will frequently instruct their athletes to "play our game, don't let them force us to play their game".
This doesn't mean you're playing a different sport than your opponent, but don't allow them to employ their strategy on you. If they want to play fast, don't let them speed you up, if they want to play slow, then push the pace.
Set the tone early and stick to your plan that you practiced all week.
As you go through your round, set up your strategy for every hole and every shot so that it is right in your wheel house, to your strengths.
Avoid situations and shots that you just don't do as well.
If everyone in the tournament is throwing a backhand turnover for a certain shot and you're not good at backhand turnovers, don't do it just because they are and its "THE" play. Instead throw the forehand and practice the turnover shot in your practice time later.
With putting, don't try and run every 40 foot putt if you're not great at them. It's okay to lay up if it's going to save you strokes over the course of an entire tournament.
If you have to utilize a shot you're weaker at, try and make things easier by using a strength to put you in as good of a position as possible, such as aiming for one side of the fairway or basket over another.
During every scored round, play to your strengths, avoid weaknesses when possible, and play YOUR game.
In the long run, you'll win more shots that you're good at, so set yourself up for that success as much as possible.
Practice and Prepare
Building confidence in your game is what all these concepts are built upon, and that confidence is going to come from knowing your abilities, which is learned in time during practice and preparation.
I touched upon it in Step 1, but it is up to you to put in enough practice reps to fully understand your game, including how far you throw and assessing your strengths and weaknesses.
We cover this in our Complete Practice System, but it starts simply with going out and intentionally practicing the things you know you're not good at, and determining a baseline of how far you can throw each and every disc you bag.
Preparation is similar to practice, but is narrowed down to practicing a specific course and common shots that you'll be required to use to succeed on that course.
There's little point in going out to an open field and throwing 12 speed drivers if you don't plan on using that max distance throw in your next tournament. So scout the course you'll be playing at instead and start working on the shots that you do plan on using or the ones that you think you may struggle with the most.
We used the back hand turnover example earlier. If you know that is a shot that will give you the best outcome on that hole, rep it in practice to get comfortable with it and to see if you're consistent enough to use it during your round.
If you find out through practice that you're not confident with it, then you'll have that much more confidence in sticking with your trusty forehand.
Assess and Reflect
As you go through this entire process, you need to constantly be reflecting on what you did right and what you did wrong, what has been going well, and what hasn't been going well.
It is in this constant self examination where you will find the answers to what you need to focus on during practice sessions and what you need to let go of that is holding you back.
Don't blame the conditions, the course, or anything else, but rather take accountability in your play and use it to structure your plan for getting better.
Otherwise, all improvement is left to chance and you never truly get a clear picture as to what is keeping you from achieving your goals.
All too often I see players try and forget about a bad round they had because of conditions they feel were outside of their control.
This is a great strategy for staying mentally leveled, but is a poor one for improving your skills as fast as possible.
Chances are the weather or conditions you had for that round or event will show up again for you at some point, so you're better off reflecting and learning from that experience so that you're better prepared next time.
Most of your opponents will be trying to complain about and forget the nasty conditions as well, so if you're proactive and learn how to beat those conditions, you'll have that much of a leg up on your competition next time.
So always be looking for areas to improve!
And that is how you win the next shot in disc golf!
I know many players want to overlook mindset, but it can be the secret weapon that allows you play at your best and it is 100% in your control if you want it to be!
So get out there are give it a try today, you may surprise yourself and play the round of your life!
Do you have a mental training tip that you like to use when playing disc golf? If so be sure to let us know!
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