I know I told you to forget about the outcomes. Focus only on the process. Do your bit from the time you reach the ball to the time you let it go. Be the ball, Danny.
There's a bit of paradox here. If we want to play our best, we have to be in the present, but if we want to improve our best, we have to look at what is missing. I stand by everything that has be put up here about the process being the way to get the most out of your game. That being said, if we really want to improve, we have to do some analysis of the outcomes.
This analysis must be handled carefully, and the timing of it may be critical based on the golfer's personality and beliefs. Some phychologists suggest the golfer should do his routine, let the shot go, go find it, repeat steps one and two. All this would be done without any judgement about the outcomes. The ultimate definition of playing the game. This approach may be the best to take for certain types of golfers. Any analysis would be done in the form of debriefing after the round.
One of the pitfalls of this method is failing to recognize patterns. By not doing any analysis during the round, you may limit your ability to adjust to the conditions. You might neglect to recognize a habitual miss that you have the ability to fix quickly and easily.
Another method would be to completely separate the shotmaking process from the result. Once you have the result, compare it to what you had planned. If you get a different result than you wanted, try to assign a cause, without making any judgements about yourself. An objective analysis. What factor or factors resulted in the miss. Did you perform a good process? Did you make a good swing? How was the contact? Did you hit the right club? Did you read the wind correctly? Did you figure the yardage? Did you read the lie? Did you get the spin or release correct?
Once you have assigned a cause, file it in the data set for use in the next shot. It is critical that you avoid attaching emotion to these outcomes (unless they are positive).
The most common pitfall is to hit one bad shot and get into trying to fix the swing. I would recommend avoiding this until you have hit at least three of the same shots in a row. Even then, be careful.
The more the analysis is about fitting your game to the golf course, the more likely it is to help.
I'm going to introduce a concept called "Trying it on." Not every method fits every golfer. You think of a few different solutions to your issue, then you "try on" each one. The concept allows you to make a change for a brief period without making a huge commitment. If the method works for you in the short term, you can decide you want to take the steps to make it permanent.
I trust that your questions will help to define these issues further. The purpose of this thread is to open a discussion of outcomes and to try to find the causes. To try to teach you how to think critically on the golf course. I invite you to describe a shot and its outcome that is different than what you had planned. We can try to figure out what you could have done differently.
HB
P.S. One shot at a time. If we're going all 18, I'm going to go get a cart.
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