Tag: mental game

This elite Iowa high school wrestler has a secret for building mental strength — playing golf

“It helps a lot,” he said. “You’ve gotta be mentally strong and can’t let things get to you.”

It was the Iowa boys wrestling class 3A state semifinals and Southeast Polk’s Carter Pearson and Norwalk’s Tyler Harper were set to square off.

Pearson was undoubtedly the heavy favorite, sitting as the No. 1 seed, 40-1 on the season and one of the hottest names in recruiting circles in his sophomore year.

Across from him, however, was Harper, who earned the No. 4 seed in his first appearance in the boys state tournament. Despite this being his first time, he was undeterred in his pursuit to make a run in the tournament.

It showed in the match, as Harper engaged in some hand fighting and dumped Pearson down for a pin in just 18 seconds to advance to the 106-pound final.

“I knew if I was on the bottom half of the bracket, I would make it to the finals,” Harper said after beating Pearson. “I made it either way, but it was just a tougher opponent to go through (on the top half of the bracket).”

Pearson went on to finish in third place at 106 pounds and Harper finished second behind Iowa City West’s Alexander Pierce. After the loss, Pearson was admittedly devastated. He saw a chance to win his first state title slip from his fingers.

“It was really unexpected,” Pearson said. “It really sucked, but I had to start working hard so stuff like that doesn’t happen again.”

His wrestling skills and technique weren’t the issue. The majority of his offseason work didn’t have to be done there. For Pearson, it was the mental aspect of the sport that he needed to work on. Particularly his confidence.

So what did Pearson do to work on that? He turned to his other passion: golf.

“You’ve got to be mentally strong”

Anyone who plays golf regularly knows how frustrating it can be. That drive off the tee into the woods, the putt that didn’t have enough juice to make the hole or a shot into the pond are all enough to make a person channel their inner “Happy Gilmore.” So, it might be a bit confusing why Pearson turned to golf to help improve his mental game.

In reality, it makes a ton of sense when you consider the comparables between golf and wrestling. Five hours on the course isn’t all that different from an all-day tournament and whether you are out on the green or on the wrestling mat, you’re on your own. You don’t have a teammate who can clean up your mistake, it’s you vs. the world.

“It helps a lot,” Pearson said. “You gotta be mentally strong and can’t let things get to you.”

Pearson has always had the itch to golf, but he didn’t officially join the golf team at Southeast Polk until his sophomore year. Scott Powell, his golf coach, said he’s got as much talent as any of his teammates. Despite being a smaller guy, he can drive the ball about 275 yards, flexing a bit of that wrestling strength he’s gained over the years.

“He’s definitely not afraid to go for it,” Powell said. “He’s the one that if there’s a debate on hitting a driver or something else, he’s hitting a driver. He’s a go-for-it kind of kid and he can hit the ball quite a way, especially for his size.”

He’s also an incredibly cerebral athlete on the course and the mat. He’s got over a 4.0 grade-point average according to his coaches, so it makes quite a bit of sense. In both wrestling and golf, he sees shots and opportunities that others don’t. Whether it’s a crafty chip onto the putting green or seeing a vulnerability in an opposing wrestler, his mix of power and vision makes him very difficult to compete against.

“Carter can see the obstacles that are in front of him and piece together a good plan for what’s the best way to attack that,” Powell said. “At the end of the day, he might save him a stroke or two and be the difference in a top-five finish or a top-20 finish and that’s kind of what separated him from some of the other guys this year.”

The focus for him was always going to be on wrestling and still is, but he joined golf looking to take his mind off wrestling and try to prevent burnout. Unfortunately for him, the golf postseason and the traditional ramp-up for the wrestling season coincide. In his first year on the golf team, Powell said Pearson had a difficult time in that balancing act toward the latter half of the season. As a result, he wasn’t on the final team that participated at the state tournament.

But after an offseason of work in wrestling and golf this summer, Powell’s choice for the lineup was a no-brainer.

“Last year, Carter was a guy fighting for a spot,” Powell said. “This year, there was a there’s no way you could leave Carter out of the lineup. He cemented himself.”

He did so by shooting a career-low 71 on 18 holes, averaging 78 per outing this season. His performances helped push the team to a third-place finish at the state tournament.

His biggest area of growth? His mental dexterity.

“I’d say a year or two ago, that was a bigger problem,” Powell said. “We might take that bigger number on a hole here or there. This year, he’s done a much better job. His talent has always been there, but now we’re doing a better job of thinking through around staying level with it.”

The dividends of that growth on the golf course are now paying off on the wrestling mat. He’s entering the state tournament at 35-0 at 120 pounds this year, with the most impressive outing of his career coming at the state dual tournament just over a week ago.

Tied at zero entering the second period of the final match, Pearson had a tough ride on Bettendorf’s Jake Knight for nearly a minute, but Knight managed to escape. In overtime, Pearson had Knight in a front headlock with about 20 seconds to go. Knight suddenly tried a very risky move by shooting to Pearson’s left leg, so Pearson capitalized by toppling him over for a win by fall.

“I was riding tough on top earlier, so he probably didn’t want to go back down,” Pearson said. “He had to try something, but I just got it done.”

Making a one-time state champion feel like he needs to take a shot to prevent being on bottom again is leaps and bounds ahead of where Pearson was last year. His confidence exuded in that moment against one of the state’s best wrestlers. Even Knight had to show his respect, making sure to give him a tap on the rear on a job well done following the bout.

That growth has earned the attention of not only the state’s high school wrestling community but the college realm as well. Pearson said the attention he got on the first day he was allowed to be contacted by coaches was “crazy” back this summer, earning attention from power-five programs like Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa State. Being the great student he is as well, he’s taken visits to Cornell and Columbia to wrestle and study engineering if he remains on that path.

He and Southeast Polk are front-runners in their respective title races at the boys state wrestling tournament, which runs Wednesday through Saturday. If Pearson wants a chance to come out on top this time, his confidence is going to have to continue through the end of the tournament.

“He’s the only one that holds himself back,” Southeast Polk wrestling coach Jake Agnitsch said. “He’s awesome, he deserves it. Hopefully, we can keep this train rolling.”

Eli McKown covers high school sports and wrestling for the Des Moines Register. Contact him at Emckown@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @EMcKown23.

New to golf? Here are 5 tips to make golf less intimidating

New to golf? Here are 5 tips to make golf less intimidating

Golf can be extremely intimidating when you first start to take a liking to it. There are so many unanswered questions on where to start and how to progress.

At the end of the day, golf is a game. It can get frustrating. You’ll want to quit every other day, but those rewarding shots keep you begging for more. You won’t become Tiger Woods overnight, but the process is humbling and rewarding.

We all were once new to golf. Whether you are working with a coach or trying to navigate the ins and outs on your own, Golfweek has five tips to get you playing confidently and happily.

Why professional golfers seek out mental performance coaches vs. sports psychologists

Often times golfers struggle with the pressures of the game and may not even realize it.

It’s no secret that great golf comes from between the ears. Often times golfers struggle with the pressures of the game and may not even realize it. There are many factors that go into the mental game of golf like how you talk to yourself or how you visualize a shot.

Jamie Glazier is an Australian Mental Performance Coach (NLP Master Practitioner), specializing in the sport of golf for nearly 20 years. We asked him why some golfers prefer to seek mental performance coaches vs. sports psychologists.

Sports psychology and mental performance coaching can overlap at times, but both practices focus on enhancing an athlete’s cognitive performance and ability to remain focused and calm during high-pressure situations. All athletes face systemic elements that play an important role of an athlete’s performance.

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This topic is controversial to some. but you may be wondering what that main differences of the two are. It’s important to note that mental performance coaches are not psychologists.

“I would clarify the difference by saying a sports psychologist comes from a clinical background that targets any persistent or distressing life problems that can cause stress, anxiety, or depression,” said Glazier. “A Mental Performance Coach focuses more on looking at where the athlete currently is at, their cognitive behaviors and looking forward to what the athlete would like to achieve or what patterns they would like to change.”

Many golfers seek out Mental Performance Coaches over sports psychologists because they provide a more practical structure to the athletes mental game training program. They can provide exercises to help build a specific cognitive function that can aid the golfer in closing out a round of golf without letting the pressure interrupt a streak of good play.

Some players may solely want to focus on the sport and don’t have any past trauma or outside issues they want to address and don’t need the psychology aspect of help.

“Some of the key areas I work in with a golfer are expectation management, enhancing focus, self-belief, achieving clarity, cognitive flexibility, enhancing commitment with shots, self-identity/athletic identity and achieving a balance between life and golf just to name a few,” said Glazier.

Glazier offers an online training platform for elite and club level golfers where they can begin to build their mental game with approximately eight courses, a members forum and weekly mental game tips. 

You can learn more at www.mentalmastery.com.au.

You can listen to Glazier’s podcast, “The Mental Mastery Golf Podcast” here.

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Cheyenne Knight on the grueling mental aspect of the LPGA: ‘Bad golf is never fun’

Exhaustion that often comes from competing on the world’s largest stages has become a focal point.

Cheyenne Knight isn’t afraid to admit that life on the LPGA tour hasn’t been exactly perfect of late where she’s concerned.

After missing just three cuts during the entire 2020 season, Knight came to the Shoprite LPGA Classic at Seaview in Galloway, New Jersey, having missed the cut in each of her last three events — the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, Cambia Portland Classic and AIG Women’s British Open. She’s now missed the cut 11 times in 2021 and knew she was in need of a reboot.

A detour to see her mental coach has brought the reset she needed — after one round this week, she’s feeling like her old self again and a breezy 67 has her just two shots behind leader So Yeon Ryu.

“It’s just a constant mindset you have to have,” the three-time Alabama All-American and 2017 SEC Player of the Year said after her round. “I was just not enjoying myself. Bad golf is never fun.

“But like I’ve been putting in some good work with my coach, because I struggled a lot this summer. I was missing it kind of both ways. So we’ve been working hard to just like get back to how I play golf, which is really straight, consistent.”

Of course, mental exhaustion that often comes from competing on the world’s largest stages has become a focal point in recent months as players in multiple sports — Naomi Osaka, for example — have talked openly about the strain.

Cheyenne Knight reacts after winning the Volunteers of America Classic golf tournament at the Old American Golf Club on October 6, 2019, in The Colony, Texas. (Chuck Burton/Getty Images)

Knight knew she wasn’t feeling right. She reached out to get some focus.

“It’s easy to let the hard times kind of get you down. But just know that I’m putting in work, especially a lot on the mental side, visualizing my shot well, just playing the shot at hand, and not let my emotions affect me so much on the golf course,” Knight said. “And it-is-what-it-is attitude. So I did a good job of that today.

“It’s a constant effort. I mean, everything is good. You’re happy when you’re playing well. It’s all fine. But when you’re not playing well it’s hard because we do this all — I mean, I was actually talking about this with someone yesterday,” Knight said. “You go from in college you don’t play that many events a year, and out here it’s hard when it’s week after week after week and you’re struggling a little bit.

“But just look how far I’ve come and just try to enjoy it more, because I play the best when I’m having fun or not so hard on myself.”

Of course, Knight has a victory under her belt — the 2019 Volunteers of America Classic — and at the age of 23 she knows these struggles can pay off over the course of a career.

“I’ve won on tour before,” she said. “I feel like the hard times are necessary, even though you don’t want to go through them. My faith has helped me a lot, because like I don’t know why I’m like going through all this stuff.

“But it’s to make me stronger and a better player and a better person. It’s hard to tell yourself that, but it’s the truth. Just to keep believing that, keep working hard, being honest with yourself, and just like checking in with yourself mentally to make sure you still play the game for a reason.”

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Dustin Johnson’s short memory, mental ‘island’ have played a big role in overcoming several bizarre major moments

When it gets weird in the majors, Dustin Johnson retreats to his mental island. It’s one of his strengths.

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(Editor’s note: This is Part II in a seven-part series on the life and career of reigning Masters champion Dustin Johnson. Check back to Golfweek.com each day for the next part of the story.)

As Dustin Johnson sauntered up the hill toward the 18th green on Masters Sunday last November, he turned to his brother and caddie, Austin, and asked him where he stood on the leaderboard.

“What do you mean where do you stand?”

Austin then told his older brother that he was five shots clear and just minutes away from polishing off a remarkable, record-setting romp to win the green jacket.

“I told him I could win the Masters from where he was,” Austin said. “And he did the same thing at Oakmont on the final hole on Sunday when he won the (2016) U.S. Open. That’s DJ.”

Yes, through and through, that’s DJ. As much as his video-game physical gifts separate him from most everyone on the planet, his uncanny knack for focusing on the matter at hand or escaping to another world where there is no noise and distraction is pure, enviable genius.

“I call it DJ Island,” Austin said. “I remember so many times that he’d be watching a TV show and I’m having a full-on conversation with him and then he’d just look at me and go ‘What?’ He just has this ability to check out and go to his own little island. It’s him there and no one else. He puts things in the rearview and just looks at the upcoming road. No matter what has happened.

“It’s unbelievable.”

And helpful in the world of golf.

His fleeting memory allows him to move on like no other golfer, no matter how tragic the result. And there have been many soul crushers, starting with the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, where he blew a three-shot, 54-hole lead with a final-round 82. Two months later in the 2010 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, he grounded his club in a bunker he didn’t think was a bunker on the 72nd hole. The resulting two-shot penalty cost him a spot in a playoff.

In 2011, he was in contention deep into the final round of the Open Championship at Royal St. George’s before he hit a 2-iron out of bounds. In the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay, he three-putted from 12 feet on the 72nd hole and finished one shot behind Jordan Spieth.

Losses like that leave scars and create demons who set up shop between the ears. But not for DJ. Without question, the losses hurt Johnson, some more than others, but they don’t remain haunting – and certainly not lasting – memories.

“I always jokingly use the phrase he was dipped in Teflon at birth,” said David Winkle, Johnson’s longtime agent. “At Chambers Bay, we get in a car to go up to the makeshift clubhouse area and it was about a minute and we get up and he gets out of the car and goes immediately to a place where kids are yelling for autographs and he signs all their stuff.

“We get in the car to leave. And it’s kind of quiet. And Dustin pulls the car over and says, ‘Guys, lighten up. It’s just golf.’ And I thought, good lord. Here we are trying to lift him up and he lifted us up. This guy is unbelievable.

“And I’ll never forget the 2011 British Open. I think he’s devastated. But he walks out of scoring and high-fives me and goes, ‘Best finish in a major, Winky.’”

But that’s the way Johnson has always been.

“Even as a kid or a junior golfer, I’ve always had the ability to get over things right away, especially with golf,” Johnson said. “I don’t know where exactly it comes from, but obviously it’s good for a golfer because there are so many things that happen, and weird things that happen, especially to me.

“At the end of the day, it’s still a game. I love the game. But there is zero I can do to change something that’s already happened. I just keep trying to push forward.”

That’s what he did in the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont, which is an 18-hole migraine-level headache. Johnson, with all his immense talents, had yet to win a major, but he was well within reach of winning his first. And then chaos erupted.

On the fifth hole in the final round, Johnson had a 6-footer for par but his ball moved a hair at address. Johnson knew he didn’t cause the ball to move, the rules official agreed and no penalty was administered.

But as he walked to the 12th tee with a two-shot lead, he was met by USGA officials who told him the incident was being reviewed and he may be assessed a penalty. Thus, Johnson and others chasing the title didn’t know where everyone stood on the leaderboard because the governing body’s determination was on hold.

U.S. Open - Final Round
Dustin Johnson talks with USGA official Mark Newell after Johnson’s ball moved on a green at Oakmont in the 2016 U.S. Open. (Getty Images/David Cannon)

“I don’t think it could have happened to a better player out there. Maybe Adam Scott,” Austin Johnson said. “But Dustin just looked at me and said, ‘I guess we have to win by two,’ and ripped a drive 370 yards. Lee Westwood’s caddie, Billy Foster, had to calm me down. But Dustin just went about his business.

“I still get blown away by what he’s able to do sometimes in situations like that.”

Johnson played the last seven holes in even par, with his towering 6-iron from 191 yards to 4 feet for birdie on the 72nd hole cementing victory. The USGA decided to dock him one stroke, but it proved meaningless as he signed his corrected scorecard of 1-under 69 to finish three shots clear of Jim Furyk, Scott Piercy and Shane Lowry.

“Dustin was the class player of the day,” Foster said. “For the USGA to come out on the 12th tee and say you may or may not have a penalty, I thought was disgraceful. Respect to DJ. That’s why I bowed to him on the 18th hole.”

Paul Azinger, the victorious Ryder Cup captain in 2008 and the 1993 PGA Championship winner, was the lead analyst at the time and called Johnson’s triumph one of the greatest wins in the history of golf.

“When you consider having your gut ripped out the previous year in the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay and then the following year he has to deal with that ruling thing in the final round and he wins, that’s something next level,” Azinger said. “DJ has that intangible. That’s the way Tom Watson was. They put the past behind them and are always moving on. It’s extraordinary.”

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