Common sense

I often hear the line that sport psychology is “just common sense”. I would go even further and say that the best sport psychologists I’ve seen achieve success with players largely as a result of helping players to think in the language of common sense more regularly.

From my experience with golfers, when it comes to competition or perceived pressure situations “common sense” isn’t very common. The player who is able to think clearly (and objectively) about future decisions and previous shots in the height of competition has a huge advantage towards playing successful golf.

I’m very keen on post-round reviews; one reason is for the opportunity to assess the best shots of the day, round-stats and areas needed to work on. In addition, and perhaps more importantly is the short time spent assessing the quality of a player’s decision making and response to shots: How much common sense were you applying to your decisions and post-shot thoughts today? What would be the “common sense” response in a particular situation?