Would you talk to someone else the way you talk to yourself on the golf course? Chances are, the answer to this question is no. Unfortunately, most people talk to themselves on a golf course in a horrendous manner.

The key to improving your self-talk is improving the questions you are asking yourself.

Currently, you may be asking, what's wrong with me? What's wrong with my swing? Why can't I be more consistent? If you ask these types of questions, you will get some terrible answers.

If you want to improve your golf, improve the quality of your questions.

If you would like more information on how to do this, check out my video series;

The questions you ask on the golf course suck! Ask these instead.

Click the video below to watch Question 9

G'day sports fans! Paul Williamson here again with my series of, "Why your current questions sucks? And what questions can you ask instead to shoot lower scores?

We're up to number nine this time. What we're going to ask about is, "What questions are you asking in between shots? I bet they suck most of the time.I bet you're walking around something like this, "F#@$#@#K, S#$%@T, B##$$^#R! What's wrong with me? Why can't I do this? Why every time when I get a good score going with three holes to go, I just go to water? Why do I always hit it left on this hole, where there's out of bounds all the time?" You're walking down. You're kicking the turf. You're doing this kind of stuff. Terrible questions. Terrible, terrible questions! They're going to keep you very internally focused going to burn up so much mental energy. You've only got a certain amount of mental energy on any given day. If you're trying to concentrate that hard for five hours, you're gonna be burnt out after about an hour. You just can't do it.

So what we're gonna do, we got to kind of switch off between shots.How do you do that? Well, let's ask better questions. What you need is a bit of a trigger. Like for me. It's when I put the club back in the bag. That shots done that last one. So I've read it. I've planned it. I've hit it. I've reviewed it. I've worked out what I might do differently next time or "Hey, that one really worked. I'll make a mental note to make sure I do that next time", put that club in the bag and I'm done.

Now, my next question is, what can I do to just get my mind off this game for the next 2 to 3 minutes? Five minutes while I'm walking to the ball. That's the next question. What can I get my mind onto by going external? What can I notice? One of my best ones was, "What can I talk to my playing partners about?" That's the beauty of golf is that you can talk to them about anything going on. Nothing to do with your golf game to distract you from the bad shot you just hit to get your mind off it. To give yourself time to relax. You almost feel like a bit of an egg timer that you can switch on and off. With your intense concentration inside. We switch it off in between shots, and you just relax and walking around. What can I notice? What's great about this round of golf? What's great about being out on the golf course? Tonnes of great questions there. What can I do to really enjoy these last nine holes? What if I do feel tense in the last three holes? Is it possible that I could play the best three holes in my life? These last three holes when you're feeling that pressure that question is brilliant, POSSIBLE, that word there. Is it possible that I could get a good shot right here? The answer's gotta be yes, but it's quite a neutral question. It's not Pollyanna positive, and it's also not stupidly negative as well, which we know that definitely doesn't work. But positive thinking doesn't really work all that great, either.

What you want to be is present moment, nice and neutral. Play what's in front of you. Give it your best shot, move onto the next problem. That's some things to think about. Have a chat with your playing partners have a drink of water or whatever else you're drinking while you're playing.
Have a banana or whatever else you're eating while you're playing. I know the people who follow me. Aren't these athletes generally? But hey, you can get better at these things and it will help you. So hopefully this video helps you as well hang around for number 10 because this one is going to be a cracker.