Uncovering Mental Shanks That Impact Your Golf Game

In this episode,Kathy offers invaluable insights into the concept of 'mental shanks'—negative thoughts that sidetrack us both on and off the golf course.

She explains how these thoughts are akin to shanking a golf ball; they move us sideways or backward rather than forward.

Kathy emphasizes the importance of recognizing and addressing these mental shanks to prevent them from becoming detrimental habits.

Through intentionality and awareness, golfers can pivot away from unhelpful thoughts to improve both their mental and golf game.

Listeners are encouraged to identify and minimize their mental shanks to create better outcomes in their lives. Listen in and discover the thoughts that you do not want to rehearse and practice so that you can move forward with your golf.

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Above Par. I'm your host, Kathy Hartwood. I show you how to take more of your talent to the golf course without practicing harder, taking more lessons, or buying new equipment. I show you how to end the frustration of underperforming so you can start playing to your potential. This is where you are going to learn how to think above par so you can play below par. Let's get to it. Hello my golf friend. Welcome back to Think Above Par. I hope you're having an amazing summer. Thinking well, playing well, feeling great on the golf course. Not all the time. We don't always feel great on the golf course, but it's so valuable to know that you get to pivot away from that and feel and think a different way. If you choose to. If you're listening to this podcast, you know you've got that choice. Golf is not always fun. Not every shot. We sign up to be disappointed and frustrated, right? When we tee off, it's a possibility. Sometimes we just seem so shocked that it happens. But it's how long you stay there that is up to you. How long you stay in that place or get frazzled or get the rug pulled out from underneath you, all of that is under your control, regardless of how you play and how you score. And so today, what I want to talk about are mental shanks. So it's a term, it works for my brain. It's a way of me connecting what a shank is with what a mental shank is. Because most golfers, I think all golfers know what a shank is. In case you don't, I'm going to define it. So a shank in golf, in the golf swing, a golf shot, a shank is really a shot that's hit off of the hazel with an iron. And we can define it in certain ways, besides the literal term of it going off the hazel of the club instead of the center of the face or the toe or the bottom, anywhere. It's going off the hazel. And because it does, it goes sideways. So it is a shot that goes sideways. It represents a mechanical error. It can affect your score and it can affect how you feel. We're usually not very thrilled and proud of a shank. If it is repeated enough times, it becomes a habit. It becomes something that you own. You get to keep. So most of us don't want to shank the ball. I don't know anybody who wants to really shank the ball on purpose. Okay, and I say, I don't really know. I did once in junior golf, New York State junior golf tournament, my friend Jamie challenged me on the closest to the pin contest to purposely shank the ball as a joke. And I was 13, I don't know. And I did. Like so I went up there and I tried to shank it and I deliberately shanked it.

unknown 2:56

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

I did it for fun and for a laugh, but otherwise, I can't imagine anytime you're out there playing golf, you would deliberately want to shank the ball for your score. Or if you are scoring, right? Because it doesn't work. People put their hands over their ears when they hear the word shank, like it's a four-letter word. Like don't speak it out loud, don't say it. Like it's contagious. It'll start happening to you. I don't have people come up to me. I had the you know, S word today. They won't say shank out loud. Because we feel like we get a case of the shanks, like where there's one, there's more, there's many. They multiply, they take over, so to speak. Well, what I want to do is I want to make the analogy that you have thought or mental shanks too. And I encourage you to look at it that way. So, what is a mental shank? Well, a mental shank is a thought that goes sideways, it doesn't move you forward, it goes the other direction, a direction that you don't want to go in. It's not useful, it doesn't serve you, it doesn't feel good, it doesn't create a great result for you. It can greatly impact your whole year-round or your day. It affects how you feel. For sure, it affects how you feel. And unless you fix it or mend it or repair it, it be key it can be very unpleasant and create not great results for you. Left unattended, it becomes a habit that you're going to have to spend time, energy, and possibly money fixing, repairing, getting rid of, creating a different habit in its place. So just like you would not go to the range unless you're a Kathy Hart playing in a junior New York State Golf Association tournament, and she gets challenged to deliberately shank the ball on a closest to the pin competition. You do not want to go to the range and deliberately shank a ball. You do not want to go to the range and practice shanks. That would stick out to you like a sore thumb. It'd be something that, uh-oh, I need to fix this right away. I am not gonna let this go. I'm not gonna let this fester, I'm not gonna let it grow and become something that is a part of me and my golf game because it's not useful. So you would not go to the range and practice on purpose a shank. And by the way, this is a side note if you go to the range and you rehearse anything more than three times, maybe four times, you are now creating a habit. So if you go to the range and you practice that shank multiple times, thinking that the next one is gonna go away all by itself, what you're doing is you're likely ingraining that move. So then that's with any move, basically, right? You do not want to mishit a ball multiple times in a row because all you're doing is learning how to mishit a ball. You gotta have some instruction or some drills or some ways of intercepting that before it becomes a habit. But we don't want to do this shot, this particular shot, on purpose because it's so unuseful. Is that a word? Unuseful for our golf game. It doesn't serve us, it doesn't move us forward, it moves us sideways. Thoughts can move us sideways. Thoughts can be not useful for us in the same exact way. But what happens is they don't stick out like a sore thumb dust because we're not aware of them, we're not paying attention. But yet we rehearse them and we become shocked that they become a part of us. And now when we go to mend them, it takes time, it takes energy, might take money for you to fix these thoughts that have become a part of you, but they don't serve you. They don't move you forward, they might move you sideways or even backwards. They don't feel good and you don't know how to fix them, and you don't know how to change them. So it starts, just like with your golf game, I'm noticing that this is not useful for me, this thought. I don't want to repeat it. Because if I repeat it, it's gonna become a habit. And if it becomes a habit, it's not going to create great results for me in my life and my golf game. It's not gonna feel good. I don't want to be that thought. I don't want to be or own how that thought makes me feel and the results that it creates. That starts with awareness. We've got to first say, okay, I see that. That's a shank thought. That's a mental shank. I don't want to think it again. It needs to be that important to you. It you need to put your hands over your ears when you hear some of these thoughts so they don't become habits. This is where we pivot, we mentally pivot to something more useful. This is where you draw a line in the sand and say, I am not going to repeat that thought because I don't want to own it. I don't want that to become part of me and my golf game and my life. Okay, so what's a mental shank? It's any thought that doesn't feel very good and moves you sideways and not forward, moves you backwards and not sideways or forward. Sometimes we can have thoughts that move us backwards, and sideways is actually neutral. At least we're not going backwards. So that can be improvement. They sound like I never finish well. I suck. I'm not good enough. I don't hit it far enough. I'm not a very good putter. I can't put two good rounds together. I can't seem to get my driver in play. I always chunk these shots. I wonder if I'm gonna hit it in the water. Don't hit it in the water, don't hit it out of bounds. Don't skull it, don't top it. Those are mental shanks. They don't produce great results, they don't feel good, they don't produce calm, certain, or confident. And if you repeat them, just like in your golf swing a shank, you're gonna own it. And your brain's gonna pop it up for you as soon as the situation applies. The minute you're standing on that T box, your brain is like, oh, here we go, don't hit out of bounds. You're like, where did that thought come from? Well, it came because you've been practicing it on your mental range.

unknown 9:08

Right?

SPEAKER_00 9:09

You don't have to go to the physical range, you go to your mental range and you just rehearse shots or thoughts over and over again. They either are useful or they're not useful. So you've got to go to your own mental range and rehearse the things that you want to hear and see and feel because of the results that they're going to produce for you. And you get to do that over and over and over again until you own them. And you get to keep playing the game and finding thoughts that don't serve you and listening and being aware of the ones that are mental shanks. And you get to make the decision: do I want to keep it or do I want to chuck it? Do I want to mend it, repair it, or just let it go? But it starts with you being just as aware as you are on the range when you hit a shot like a shank. And you go, uh-oh, this is a problem. I want you to say, uh-oh, this is a problem. This thought doesn't serve me. Alright, my friends, I want you to look for your mental shanks this week in every round. On and off the golf course, we have mental shanks. And ask yourself, do I want to repeat it? Is it useful? Does it work for me? Am I gonna create a great result with this? Right? It's like if you had a platter, uh, appetizer platter, and so someone served in front of you, and if that thought and the things that you got to pick off of that platter were actually thoughts, would you pick that thought and put it into your face? That's how you decide. Do I want that thought or do I want to get rid of it? Is it liver on this appetizer plate, or is it the lobster or the fillet or whatever you like? All right, you get to decide. You are not your thoughts. You are the thinker of your thoughts. Pick the thoughts that you want to think on purpose, and it starts with intentionality and awareness. All right, mental shanks. We want to minimize them and not repeat them. So go find them this week on and off the golf course. All right, my friends, have a beautiful week. And if you want to reach out to me, get on my email list so you can learn more about my programs and what I have coming up, go to KathyHartwood.com forward slash join. All right. Talk to you next week. Bye.