Lately I have been playing a fair bit of golf and I must say I have been hitting it pretty well. You could say my form has been so hot that I've almost burnt the arse out of my golf dacks!
On the weekend myself and a group of lads headed up to the Sunshine Coast for a golf weekend, playing a couple of rip-snorting courses. These courses were tough and I struggled. By the fifth hole my smokin' swing had turned to mush and by the back nine was a basket case. I carried my shattered confidence and a nasty hangover into day 2 and my game was well and truly shagged.
Confidence is a funny human condition. It can turn the average sportsperson into a giant and a superstar into a chump. The yips, chokers, slumps and wobbles are all first cousins of confidence that has gone AWOL. It's an amazing phenomenon and when your confidence is taken in sport it's a very humbling experience and it can feel like being stuck behind a locked door that has no key.(shocking analogy - it's late)
In Aussie rules, goal kicking is the ghost that haunts even the best. St.Kilda captain, Nick Reiwoldt's goal kicking became so bad, that it almost appeared as if the big Saint didn't want to get the ball inside 50m. The more trouble an athlete has, the more it becomes a news story. When everyone knows there's a problem, it becomes amplified and often gets worse before it gets better.
Ian Baker-Finch was a bloody good golfer. He won the British Open and would be regarded as one of Australia's greats. Unfortunately IBF will best be remembered for his golf completely falling apart to the point where he quit the tour and took a seat in the commentary box. Once you lose it, it's not a given you will get it back. Poor Ian.
Sports psychologists love jittery athletes. Their insecurities are a sports quack's gold mine. They make a motza teaching athletes visualization techniques, goal setting and even hypnosis. There is no obvious cure was missing confidence, if there was it would be hotter than Viagra.
Phillipousis, Norman and even LeBron James in this years finals series would have loved a magical cure for sudden deflated mojo. Like love, depression or even the runs....confidence is uncontrollable and comes and goes without warning.
Sports people that have it and harness it are the ones we bet on, buy their merchandise and worship. Those that lose it, we take the piss of down the pub and they allow us to realise that star athletes are human after all.
Let's hope the Wallabies can rustle up the C word before the World Cup.....Viagra might have to do!....Tragic.
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