Part 2 of Roger Sloan interview. For part one go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YGSKLtuwMo
This week I connected with Roger Sloan in a series of interviews I am doing with 2012 Canadian Tour (PGA Tour Canada) Champions documenting the mental strategies that make them successful. Roger is from Merritt BC and captured his first Canadian Tour victory in the 2011 Western Championship. I recently caught up with him following his 2012 win at the Sun Rivers Resort event.
We started the interview with goals. Roger sets goals like all successful pros but he goes one step beyond and he builds a plan to achieve them. Setting goals is easy, but developing a plan shows commitment, focus, clarity, measurement, and strong determination and desire.
For Roger, it is following through on what he believes it takes to be successful. It isn’t surprising to hear the two most important mental aspects of his game are focus and commitment on every shot.
We talked a little bit about perspective and Roger takes a lesson from an old Gary Player story. Gary was quoted as saying “I love fast greens”. The next week he was quoted as saying “I love slow greens” and he was called out by Lee Trevino when Lee asked, “which is it? Do you like fast greens or slow greens? You can’t have it both ways.” Gary’s answer was that he loves whatever greens he is playing that week.
This is a great example of free will, which simply stated here is choosing to prefer whatever greens you are faced with that day. It applies to most situations, and becomes a part of your attitude.
For Roger it is a mindset and a choice to embrace whatever situation is presented whether it be green speeds, tee times, or a plugged lie that could be frustrating or a challenging opportunity.
Roger discusses his pre-shot routine and describes the “think box” and “play box” strategy that prepares him for each shot and allows him to execute successfully.
As a creative player, visualization plays a big part in Rogers’ ability to shape shots and see and feel the shot during his routine.
In the play box, he talks about making golf as reactionary as possible. Once he steps into the ball he trusts his ability to hit the shot and follow through on his vision and decision.
Roger likes to study a golf course and play it as it was designed to be played. He looks for designer cues where shots are intended to be played.
Emotional control is also something that Roger believes is significant to his success and he has maintained that frame of mind for several years. He keeps an even keel and avoids outbursts of joy or frustration which tend to distract his ability to successfully focus on each shot.
Having a strategy to deal with distractions is another topic he feels is important to being successful. Roger takes an honest and straight forward approach to distractions by recognizing them when they happen and addressing them.
He makes a final shout out to Jeff Barton, his swing instructor and trusted advisor and he cites the book “with winning in mind” as both influential to his success and recommended reading for anyone interested in learning more about sport psychology…..
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golf psychology
preshot routine
visualization
goals
free will
self talk
mental strategies
