The Sports
Psychology Blog
Today's Sports Psychology blog looks at the play-off between Gregory Havret and Phil Mickleson at the Scottish Open. We focus on the habit of Phil Mickleson to shoot himself in the foot on the verge of success.
Golf: Phil Mickleson - The State Of Trust
It's
the play-off at Loch Lomond and Phil Mickleson is head to head
with Gregory Havret. Mickleson the winner of three majors; the world's
number three player. Havret who has never even competed in a major.
Ranked 360 in the world. It must be odds-on Mickleson. Yet it's the
Frenchman who takes the 500,000 first prize. This after Mickleson hits a
wayward drive off the tee into severe rough.
Yet somehow, this is no great surprise. Like at Winged Foot in 2006, when the pressure is on, Mickleson can find ways to lose. But why? Surely he has the big-game experience to handle these career defining moments?
For clues we may need to look into Mickelson's past - in particular his gambling habit. If a sports professional has a heavy losing gambling habit, it can have an impact on their game. Yes, a gambler laying big money bets will have some good paydays. But they will also experience sequences of heavy losses. The high of expectancy turning to the low of disappointment.
For example, a goal-scorer with a heavy gambling habit, will find their touch in front of goal deserting them. They will snatch at chances. Get anxious. Why? Because goal-scoring relies on the instinct. It's a place without thought. A place of trust. Gambling can fracture that line of trust. It grows seeds of doubt between the mind and the instinct. It only takes 1% of doubt to throw a strikers timings. To miss a chance. To pause too long in front of goal. To think about it. To negate their instinct.
Mickleson, in a Scottish Open play-off or leading the US Open, can smell victory. Can taste success. It's within his grasp. If however, in your sub-conscious mind, that scent sets off patterns connected with disappointment, then guess what? The power of the mind triggers a sequence of behaviours that leaves the player scratching his head. With all to play for, a drive heads for the heavy rough, leaving an impossible shot to the green. It's the expectancy - disappointment cycle being played out.
What happens in the players mind is a state of contradiction. The player knows its best to play safe...keep it simple...get it on the fairway...but something in their head goes let it rip...go for it...take a risk. The love of the gamble. In this state of confusion, the player simply hits the drive, without really knowing where it will go.
Gambling leaves a very heavy print in the sub-conscious. A pattern that can be hard to change. Phil Mickleson can overcome his self-sabotage habit. But he will need to do the mental work first. The mental work to make sure that when the next pressure moment arises, he triggers success thoughts, not disappointment. The mental work of thinking through the 'what-if's?', so that when the self-sabotage pattern comes to derail his title challenge, he will be mentally ready for it.
