“I have worked with Graeme McDowell on his mental game for over five years.  In that time some NLP techniques have proven invaluable to our progress.  The culmination of a US Open win does suggest that any golfer wanting to become the best they can be NEEDS to train BOTH technique and mind.  It is with this combination that you will become the best player that you can possibly be.”

The quote above is one sent to me by Karl Morris, a highly sought after mental skills coach who uses NLP as part of his coaching.  Karl has helped improve the performances of many great players on the European men’s golf tour, including the 2010 US Open winner Graeme McDowell.

That athletes applying NLP concepts to help them achieve on the world stage is not new, however there seems to remain a bit of a mystique around NLP.

Essentially NLP is a field of study based on performance excellence.  Its application extends across sport, business and personal development into all areas of life.

Athletes looking for ways to improve their performance through development of mental and emotional skills use concepts taken from the fields of sports psychology or NLP to gain a competitive advantage.  Every year it is becoming more common for golfers to work on their mental skills just as they work on improving their technical skills with their coach.  The results constantly affirm that this is the way of the future.

An example of how this might work is in the area of self-talk.  We constantly carry on conversations in our heads.  Often the self-talk, particularly when facing pressure situations can do more harm than good when it is not productive and moving us toward our outcome.  Why do this when negative self-talk can be so destructive?  This is a question the athletes ask themselves…

Sometimes the reason is linked to a concept known as a secondary gain.  To explain I’ll use the example of a golfer who has a huge fear of public speaking.  Our hypothetical golfer will do almost anything to avoid having to speak in front of other people, including unconsciously sabotaging their round of golf.

Let’s say the fear of having to make a speech is so great that when they are in a position to win a golf tournament, something always seems to happen that they don’t win.  It could be that the fear of having to make a speech overrides the desired outcome of winning the tournament.  This usually doesn’t occur as a conscious decision, but is massively frustrating for the golfer until it is resolved.

The gain in winning the tournament is prize money, accolades, trophies, sponsorship and everything else that goes with winning.  However the secondary gain is ‘safety’ at not having to make a speech.  The secondary gain is so powerful that it can regularly lead to the player being beaten.

NLP and sports psychology explore the concept of secondary gain and help the athlete to recognise and overcome it.  Of course this is only one of countless ways in which both NLP and sports psychology can be used to enhance performance.  The gains usually positively impact other areas of the athlete’s life as well.

I wonder how many of you recognise that this could be the breakthrough understanding that is an ‘aha’ moment to explain your journey?

Whether the concept of secondary gain has been something Karl and Graeme have worked on together is unknown.  What is known is that the work they have done together has reaped the reward of one of golf’s most sought after titles.