Not many sports psychologists have had an impact on golf like Dr Bob Rotella has.
His clients have won over 75 major championships and nine of those were Open Championship victories including Padraig Harrington’s in 2007 and 2008 (pictured above).
Born in 1949, Rotella actually caddied for four-time Open winner Bobby Locke as a boy before studying psychology at university.
He returned to golf in the mid-1970s and has never left the game.
His advice tends to concentrate on process and his most famous book is ‘Golf is Not a Game of Perfect’.
In this video he makes a startling call for golfers to “play naked”.
“The biggest mistake people make is evaluating your talent when you’re not totally trusting yourself to free it up and turn it loose,” he says.
“We call it getting out of your own way.
“But getting out of your way means getting past doubt, getting past fear, getting past self consciousness, getting past others peoples’ opinions of you or judgements of you, and saying, ‘I’m having a ball doing this and I’m gonna go out there and turn it loose and whatever happens, happens.’”
Here’s a key point. “When you do that,” Rotella says, “you have to be willing to make mistakes.
“Or you have to be willing to let people judge you harshly, or not like you, or walk out on you, or laugh at you, and say, ‘Well some day people are gonna appreciate me.’”
Here comes the bare truth.
“We call it going out there and playing naked,” he says.
“Because it’s like you’re stripped of everything that’s dear to you, like being careful and conscious and making sure you don’t try to mess up.
“The minute you try not to mess up, you’ll mess up.”
“And that’s what’s hard for people to get their heads around: when you turn it loose you perform better.”
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