The best way to follow a bad shot with another bad shot is to lose your cool. Even 1 minute spent berating yourself is a minute that could have been spent thinking about the swing you just made to identify the cause of the error and to then make the practice swing or 2 that will set it right for the next swing.
To this end we must organize our thoughts to quickly find and repair our errors, rather than waste our time and mental energy being angry. Then, until we are ready to hit the ball again, focus only on finding the ball and deciding what we must do to recover. Once the plan for the recovery shot is formulated it is important to make a few practice swings to both feel the swing that will create the correct ball flight, as well as to rehearse the errorless swing we have found the repairs for previously. This way we will have a far better chance of excecuting the recovery swing properly and not making the same error in the swing that got us into trouble in the first place. It is these repitition of similar swing errors that reinforce the mistake into habit.
It is often the failure to remember the repairs that we have decided to make and then to put those thoughts into play as we plan the next shot. Then the planned recovery shot containing the error creates another bad shot further complicating the hole.
Always remember the error you found in your earlier swings and make practice swings to feel the correct way that you want to swing the club. This way we will minimize the repeating of errors. It is the repitition of errors that creates frustration and the loss of “cool”.
Learn this and you will not only play better, you will also feel better about yourself and make your playing partners a lot happier to play with you. A frustrated an angry player not only plays worse, he also makes his friends unhappy.
