Arizona Women's Golf Association

Conquering Fear
And Expanding Your Comfort Zone

By Chris Dorris, Performance Psychologist

Fear is paralyzing. I don’t care how many people tell me that fear can be a good thing. I don’t buy it.

For example, I was talking with a friend recently about whether fear is ever useful. My friend said, “It keeps me from jumping off buildings, and it keeps me from petting snarling dogs.” I told my friend that kind of thinking is absurd. It is certainly not fear that keeps him from jumping off skyscrapers or approaching enraged animals, it’s common sense. It’s called using good judgment, for Pete’s sake!

I do agree that long ago, when the human brain was significantly smaller, when we lived in caves and had to fend off large man-eating predators on a daily basis in order to stay alive, fear might have served a good purpose. But now that we don’t have to worry so much about basic survival, and our brains have evolved to the point where we can make truly good decisions simply by using our judgment, fear is useless. It only gets in the way. And it sure gets in the way on the golf course.

A golfer came to see me not too long ago and informed me that her swing had become much less aggressive over time. After talking about that a bit and playing a round together, we discovered that it was only during her exceptional rounds (where it was possible she could shoot her best score ever) that she started to swing much more tentatively, and much less confidently and freely. It appeared in those situations that she lost her trust in her ability to swing the club.

But on the days when she was playing far below her potential, she would allow herself to swing away, in full confidence – but not until she had virtually guaranteed that she’d be setting no records that day. What she was experiencing was the paralyzing effect of fear.

This isn’t an uncommon story among golfers. In fact, it is precisely where the concept of “The Comfort Zone” comes from. The comfort zone is that range of scores where you feel most comfortable – the ones you’re most used to. Anything outside that range is uncomfortable, and that includes the better scores. Shooting out best score ever can be very uncomfortable. Heck, doing anything we’re not used to can be uncomfortable.

The golfer I was speaking of earlier was making sure she stayed within her comfort zone by adjusting the aggressiveness of her swing. She definitely was not doing this on purpose. It was actually a subconscious thing. And it was completely a product of fear. She was simply afraid of failing to set her personal best.

This is how we set about getting rid of her fear and expanding her comfort zone. First I had to convince her to believe again that she deserved to break her old best. For some reason, she had forgotten that she was allowed to keep getting better.

Once we accomplished that, she set about playing round after round focusing strictly upon keeping her aggressive, confident swing tempo consistent throughout the entire round, regardless of her score. She struggled a bit with that, so we had her stop keeping score for awhile, and focus solely upon keeping up her good solid tempo for 18 holes at a time.

When she permitted herself to stop worrying about what score she was going to shoot, she was capable again of swinging aggressively for the full round. No longer would she panic when she’d reach the 15th hole and need only two pars to break her best score. Now when she’s in that situation, she simply continues to execute her routine and keep her terrific tempo by remaining target focused instead of score conscious. As a result, her comfort zone shifted from the mid-to-low 70’s, and now she expects to shoot in the low 70’s and even in the 60’s.

So, to conquer your own fear and shift your comfort zone to a lower range of scores, make your goal for each round to do one good thing consistently throughout. Whether that is keeping a solid tempo going no matter what, or executing your pre-shot routine thoroughly before every single shot, it makes little difference. The important thing is to stop worrying so darn much about the final score and instead focus upon doing something well and doing it for the entire round. Have fun!

Chris Dorris
Dorris Performance Psychology
80 East Rio Salado Parkway, Suite 310
Tempe, AZ 85281
(480) 449-4728
www.christopherdorris.com