Joe Bunting

Performance Lessons from Tiger Woods

Stewart Cink, who lost to Tiger Woods on Sunday, Feb. 24, made some interesting comments about performance psychology. Find them at the bottom of the article.

Performance is the same, whether it’s golf or a rock concert, and Woods is a master performer. Here are some of the things that Cink points out:

1. Self-confidence - This isn’t pride. Self-confidence comes from doing something well a thousand times and knowing that you’re going to do it well again.

I know that I have to practice a song at least 15 times perfectly before I can perform it with confidence before an audience. That’s 15 times after I’ve learned it. It could take hours or days to build the muscle memory to even play the song through once, but confidence comes from knowing you can play it perfectly consistently.

2. Mental Control - Cink says Woods takes control to a whole new level, controlling even his heartbeat. Woods was on the podium (and Cink wasn’t) because he regulated his body even to the subconscious level.

For singers, control over the mind is just as important as over the body. One of the hard things about singing is that you are both an actor and a musician. You’re telling the audience a story, and it takes preparation and a certain amount of mental toughness to be able to both make it sound good and make the audience believe it.

3. Physical Control - Woods has been playing golf since the age of three, and still he is constantly working on his swing. It is impossible to have mental control (and self-confidence) if you do not know what you’re body is going to do every time.

The key here is that all of these take massive amounts of practice. Emmons and Thomas say peak performance takes place on the right side of the brain with occasional jaunts into the left. The right side of the brain is automatic, the left side is critical. Without preparation, you
will spend too much time on the left side and be ineffective.

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