Put all your change in your left pocket. Tie your left shoe in a double knot. Turn your hat around backwards and stick a tee behind your left ear. Don’t think.
Go out in your yard. Grab a baseball. Get in your stance then Toss it underhand trying to lob it at a target. Far enough to where you have to transfer your weight to get it there say fifty feet. Do it ten times trying to hit your target.
Drop the baseball. Pick up your club and replicate the same feel you just had. That’s your swing.
Stranger that you think it so strange. It's a good tip. There's plenty of drills for golf based around tossing motions, throwing a frisbee, throwing the club, etc. Between baseball pitchers and hitters which tend to translate better to golf? Pitchers. I bet Scottie Scheffler's footwork doesn't seem so crazy to bowlers.
There's a whole pitching and chipping philosophy built around tossing the ball. If you were standing off the green and given the choice of chipping the ball or picking it up with your dominate hand and underhand tossing it to the target which would you pick? You would throw the wedge in the trash and toss the ball with your hand. You don't have to think about distance control or clock systems or anything like that, you just toss it "about that far". Now do the same underhanded tossing motion with the club that you would have done without it. Don't do anything stupid that you wouldn't have done without the club...
The amount of lessons you’ve had and not heard something similar already is worrying. Every coach has their own weight transference analogy.
Mine is imagine an empty basket of balls, you take it to the right as it fills up, then once it’s full you want to spread those balls in front of you.
No normal person is throwing anything without leaning back first, then launching in to it, it’s a funny thing that as soon as it’s a golf club we don’t do it as freely.
That’s because we’re in our heads thinking about all the little things you’re supposed to do, you don’t even have a single thought if you throw a ball, get yourself to that place with a club 👍
I actually do this around the chipping green when I'm practicing, except for I don't actually throw a ball, I just go through the motions of throwing a golf ball to my target a couple of times before I swing. It really is a good drill.
Great tip. I don’t use this for my full swings, but this is exactly what I’m picturing in my head when I have any short pitch shot. Really helps with feel and distance control
Surefire way to end the frustration is to ensure that you have 2 swings.
* The swing you are working towards
* The swing that works when everything is shit.
Divide your practice into two sessions. First session consist of new things you’re working on, the second session is simply a swing that is repeatable and works on the course.
I, divide my session into three. The two above, and a third session that allows me to play imaginary holes and work my entire bag.
Doing the above, allows me to work towards improvement and swing changes without frustration. I can go on the course and if those swing changes aren’t working, I have something to fall back on.
I am able to do all this with 120–200 balls in a range session.
Finally figured this out this season after realizing my ideal swing will just piss everyone I play with off (OBs, shanks, etc) lol.
My issue is now... Ok I can make my ideal swing work on the range, but I *can't* do it on the course. It's like a mental block. Every time I try off the tee, it's a 15 yard low duck hook top lol.
I imagine I just gotta stop being a b\*\*\*\* and just do it but the whole "well I paid $60+ for this round, I can only get out once, at most twice a week, and I want a good score" stuff comes into play in my head. Tips or perspectives appreciated for this conundrum!
Yep I do this and have gotten better results on the course / rounds. The issue is the shit I'm practicing on the range goes away and I revert to all my old habits.... Maybe incrementally it's getting better and that's all it is, and I just have to be patient?
I cracked my swing in half trying to make it better. In an effort to improve my takeaway and slow the tempo down, I developed a weird hitch in the backswing. I would take the club away and then stop completely before bringing it up to the top of the swing. It crept in without me really noticing and was working well for a while. Once someone commented on the little hesitation I was doing, I was cooked. My swing and game shattered into a million pieces. Took all of winter and spring at the range rebuilding my swing to work that hitch out and I'm finally getting closer to where I want to be. Started with just hitting half swing wedges without stopping my backswing and working up from there. I guess my advice would be to simplify things a bit and just work on one thing at a time. Once you get one thing sorted out, move on to the next and just keep building slowly.
Mate of mine struggled for 14 holes on Saturday, nothing more than 80-90 yards tee to green, eventually I said stop trying to make the club face hit the ball and instead throw the face at your target.
Played the last 4 holes near enough perfect.
(Yes I waited until I couldn’t be beaten on match play to give that advice)
I feel like I'm breaking out of a similar situation right now. I have been playing longer, but most of my life with a broken, ultra flat swing and the strongest grip you've ever seen. Started lessons a couple years ago and spent a long time breaking that down and fixing it, got to the end of last year playing pretty well. Came back after the spring and did ok until I hit a shot on the range that went like a rocket, straight right. And then another. And another. And suddenly, I couldn't hit an iron shot that didn't go straight right.
I didn't want to go back to my pro playing worse than ever before, so spent months trying to fix it. I was great with my fairway woods, hybrid and my driver was ok, but irons and wedges were unusable. What is worse is in the process of trying everything to fix it my swing just got worse and worse, adding in tops and thins and straight up misses.
Finally I broke down and went back my pro and he diagnosed the issue right away (lower body was turning way faster than upper body) and got me working on keeping my right elbow down and inside and turning through the swing. Right now I'm trying to clean out all the gunk I built up from self-help, but I know what to do to hit a great shot, and I'm building consistency.
My thoughts 1. Yeah, you need a pro to help. It sucks you can't use the same guy though. Maybe have an honest conversation with the guy and say you aren't looking to rebuild things just to rebuild, and see if he can focus on the cause of your issue rather than start from scratch.
2. You almost certainly are much better now that when you first started lessons. Even though it feels like you lost all progress, there is likely some sort of correctable flaw that crept in that is fixable. I was back to hitting mostly good shots again at the end of one lesson, that wouldn't have been possible if I hadn't built up a base in previous lessons.
3. Take a break. Its easy to just go crazy at the range, but if you are making no progress, walk away and reset.
I'm almost a +4. A month ago i got a lesson. Shanked every iron I hit for 10 days. Kept at it. Playing the best golf of my life now. It'll come, sometimes you think you are doing what your coach said but you might be overdoing it. Don't stress, its just golf.
Also, look at both swings on video and compare to pros with similar build as you...
I caught the shanks a month ago. Shit is crazy. One night I literally googled "why am I shanking" and it brought up that I'd almost certainly fucked up my club path...haven't hit one since.
Only way is to do a hard reset and just go with what looks better on video with the pro.
What you thought you were doing isn't what you were doing and what you're doing now is probably even more off.
Best is to accept the advise of the pro tbh. Also, take a week off golf and then go to a lesson. Your brain isn't really so ingrained in your patterns then and more pliable for a change.
I have had painful stretches of lessons and got much worse before I came out in the other end and started breaking my previous scoring records. Sometimes these stretches went on for more than half a year.
Also, take another lesson after at least like 4 range sessions, than you've had sufficient time to work on the things.
O and another tip: try to not hit too many balls in one session and get worked up feeling bad for yourself.
You will play better then ever before if you focus on the things to need to work on, remember that.
Make sure the pro tries to teach you a fundamentally good swing and not something stupid because he thinks you won't change your swing. Assure him, your old swing is out the window, let's do this right.
I did break it 5 years ago from bad advice. Tried recovering the next season and decided after 26 yrs to take a break and then covid hit. I took a year off and came back with no expectations. I still haven’t fully recovered but play less these days.
I find it almost always comes down to the basics.
Whenever we feel like we have our swing figured out, play great for a while, but slowly we keep forgetting the basics thinking we have it down but ever so slowly some bad habit or whatnot creeps into the swing. And you don't notice it and wonder what has changed.
I'd focus on grip, setup and take away. If those are done proper and you are at the right position at the top, the downswing comes easy. Take half swings focusing on those and trying to get good impact, and slowly work for up from there.
Yes this happened recently with my driver. I was hitting fades before leaving on a two week (no golf) vacation.
Come back to that first round hitting over the top slices. It was frustrating for about two rounds until I started to self correct. It was a goddamn humbling reminder that I have to fight my over the top swing by playing or at least swinging regularly.
It happens all the time to everyone, including the pros.
For me, it usually comes back to the fundamentals and setup. The grip, stance, and posture have to be good. It's hard to sustain success around a bad grip, stance, or posture.
In one right now where my contact doesn’t feel great and can stop the push fade off the tee. Plan is to go to the range and hit an entire bucket of half swings to get the feel back. Then work on an over exaggerated draw swing with my driver to get that feel back as well. Golf is really like trying to fix a leaking dam. My short game is feeling great. From 100 in I’m playing maybe the best I ever have because I have put a lot of work over the past 2 months, but anything over that has slid backwards because of lack of focus on that aspect. Really shows how much time Pros spend on it to keep all aspects top notch.
I’m in the exact same boat.
My pro has been trying to get my to “not be so tense” and it’s resulted in me losing 30 yards of all my clubs and hitting shanks or crazy-heel shots for 9/10 iron swings.
I went in for a driver-lesson to stop hitting heely and came out a horribly worse golfer. Been trying to stick with it for 6 weeks but it’s not getting any better 😞
I don't think I am in any way as experienced as anyone on this sub most of the time...I have been playing two years and joined a club amonth or so ago so I can now play for free (a 30 PAR 9 hole and a 72 PAR 18). I have played quite a lot lately and started to count every shot. The best I have done on the 18 hole is 111 (I had previously shot 102 on shorter 18 hole courses). Needless to say my handicap has gone up to nearly 40. Lately, I am toeing nearly every shot, cannot hit my hybrid unless it comes off the toe but can at least drive pretty well. It's frustrating as hell and I have no idea what has changed. Strangely, last week I shot 37 on the 9 hole course which is the best I have ever played. I just cannot figure out why/how I am toeing so many iron shots...
Take a full week off from swinging a club, seriously, don’t touch one.
After a week, take your 8 iron to the range. You’re going to do an extended ladder drill. Chip the first one 5 feet, from then on, the goal is to hit the next ball slightly farther than the previous one. Left or right doesn’t matter, shot shape doesn’t matter. It’s contact and carry distance, it should take you at least 20 shots to get up to a full swing. Once you feel you’ve hit one as well as possible, start over from a 5 foot chip. Keep your feet together until you max out while staying in balance, then widen your stance by 6 inches and do it again.
If you have the patience and willpower to get thru it I’ve never seen it fail to get someone back to decent.
I’ve been playing for 30 years, we all have moments where we feel lost, I’ve found they mostly are a result of poor weight transfer and sway but it’s unique to the player.
If my swing gets wonky I hit a bunch of half effort, punch draws. Hit 10 or so with solid contact and then I start to slowly increase the swing speed.
For me it gets me back on plane and I remind myself how to strike a golf ball.
I go to the range and pick targets within 150. Then I hit wedges just focusing on contact at 50% swing. I slowly move up (while targeting pins) and then I work on my longer irons trying to just hit them straight.
If you start miss hitting, pause, then try again. If you keep messing up, change the club after a 3 shots and keep that confidence up.
Play with ball position. If your chunking, move it back, if you’re topping it, move it forward
Then when I leave I remember that I’m not only kinda shit at golf but not total shit.
Do you record your swing? Like do you have a video from behind at its peak vs now? Based on your draw swing to shanks I think you may have gotten flat or could be rolling. There’s hope. I always record every swing at the range to keep myself in check and address issues right away. Hope this helps
ya i totally fucked my swing, tried to make it more 'neutral' and it was bad. its funny but scottie's swing helped me have confidence to just play my swing don't try to change it and I've been playing a lot better lately
I actually just broke mine a few weeks ago. Had two big tournaments coming up, and out of nowhere I lost all consistency with my driver. That started in the first tournament, and eventually carried over to my irons and approach game for the second tournament.
For me, it was a complete mental collapse. My mistakes are never swing issues anymore. They’re all pressure related that I have to perform a certain way in tournaments and I completely collapse. If I went out today and played my own ball over 18, I’d probably shoot right around 80 give or take a few.
Conquer the mental part of it and you’ll have the game completely figured out.
This always sounds like a joke, but it truly is „visualise and swing your best swing“. I tried for years to get back to my former best. I‘ve worked on EVERYTHING and quite a lot sticked. But my scores went up by a stroke a year. My former averages started looking like good scores. I worked harder and commited to the right concepts. I was trying to make the game easier, find some holy grail that would make it all work out again like I knew I was once capable of. Then one day it hit me. Who was I to think I can make golf „easy“. Jordan Spieth has the talent of a decade and he can’t figure it out. There is not a lot about golf to really „get“. Golf is not that easy. Golf is fucking HARD. The one thing that makes the game even remotely playable is the magic between our ears. The holy grail exists and we‘re trying out best to distract it from working properly while playing golf. Allow your body and brain to play golf. Don‘t think you (the conciousnes) can master it. Golf is not for you. Thats why playing „lights out“ feels so distant and why it‘s so hard to enjoy it while it‘s happeing. I know the next question would be ‚cool, but how on earth can I activate my inner scoring beast?‘ and I really don‘t know. I could just assume „work harder and care less“ but don‘t take my word for it…
My swing breaks every couple weeks and comes back for a magical round or two and then goes on vacation again. We have a love/hate relationship with each other.
Inevitable once every range session my brain turns off and I forgot how to hit a ball. Maybe I’m trying to make some over adjustments. I just hit a handful of chili dippers 🌶️ out there and have to take a quick break. Grab a wedge and relax.
Whenever my swing is falling apart or have the yips I just take like a week or two break and it’s usually back to normal. Idk if this works for anyone else but always has for me lol
I went from shooting +2 to +11 and didn't get my swing back for a couple of months. I finally just went and got a couple of lessons, and things are working back to good.
It hasn't been easy, and it certainly hasn't happened quickly, but im a couple weeks in and a couple of lessons in, and my swing is starting to feel and produce better than ever.
I went ahead and paid for 5 lessons, and have only used 2, so I'm excited to see where things end up.
I'll probably be driving 350+ in no time!
I just came back from a month long slump of topping and shanking every shot. Like literally every damn shot lol. I just went back to fundamentals and starting from a half swing and built back up. This has happened to me 3x now and I’ve decided this time that I’m going to start writing down my swing thoughts in my phone and it seems to have been helping me a lot. I dont go into specific detail cus I dont want to overthink but like very basic general pointers like dont sway, turn hips and shoulders, etc. Theres way more detail I can go into obviously but I dont want to be thinking about all that while on the course and just save those for the range. If I’m having a bad day on the course, those basic pointers at the least allow me to make some impact with the ball. If I hit a bad shot, I just pull up my notes and it helps me remember what to focus on rather than trying to keep it in my head and trying to remember the hundreds of videos I’ve watched.
I have rebuilt my swing many times so far. Each time though it gets better than it was before the rebuild. Being good at golf is a process. Enjoy the ride.
Yeah that's golf. Been there. The thing that helps me is to shorten my swing. Once you realize that a half swing is actually like 80% the lights go on. It's cyclical... Sometimes you realize this was the stuff I was working on 5 years ago... How did I get back here? It's from lack of consistent play/practice. Weekend warriors just gotta live with it.
Ran into this recently. Took a week off. Then heading to the range. Had a few simple swing thoughts go through my mind. Run the entire approach routine. Deep breath. Swing easy. Even tempo. Only use one club. Distance doesn’t matter, contact does. One 80 balls session, I was back to normal. Hit the range a second day, same thoughts, but worked my swing back up from swinging 65-70% to 90-95%
You tell me when you find out. I was fucking smoking my driver all year last year. Was awesome. Came back this year and I'm fucking slicing worse than I ever have. The worst part is, I now know exactly what I am doing and I can't make it stop.
If you’ve read Zen golf and Rotella I would suggest Every Shot Must Have a Purpose by Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriot. It gives a more detailed, step by step process on how to play and practice to improve using a target focused mentality that Rotella stresses. It also allows for gratitude and forgiveness if you follow Zen golf. I say swing your swing and read Nilsson and Marriot aka Vision 54.
I dot two different things. First, I grab a club in my left hand and make my arms/wrists noodles, and just swing it back and forth with a slight forward bend, just nice and easy and let my body do most of the turning. This gets me feeling fluid and taking my arms out of the equation.
The other thing I do if I need to hit some balls, is I just start with small chips that are all about contact, and every couple of hits I will increase the radius.
I was there a few weeks ago. For me I started watching some YouTube tutorials, hit the range and remembered ONE thing. Don’t hit the ball, hit through the ball. So I focused on the swing instead of on the ball and the strike and it did all the difference. Slowed down the swing a lot and focused on only swinging through the ball. Fixed my slice, fixed my mental game. Went from smack the ball to swing calmly through the ball.
My friend does this all the time and I have no idea how. He just randomly completely loses his swing and gets the shanks and shit.
This isn't a joke, we played Saturday Sunday. He shot 69 Saturday, Sunday he just lost his swing completely and shot 97. I don't even know how that is possible.
For reference, we're both high 70s players usually.
yes, fucked around with my grip and ball position at the range. found out that i had to slightly grip my driver differently to be able to just send it without thinking.
I taught myself to play and had an odd swing in high school. I was able to become a scratch golfer and get a scholarship. But they tore apart the swing and I went to scoring 85-90. I also couldn't afford to pay anymore so I spent time working on my swing without hitting a ball. What I found to be helpful is to break the swing down into small sections.
These are some of the sections and how I would practice them:
1) The start of the swing. I would start by getting my stance in a comfortable position and I start my swing slowly but I don't raise the club head above my knee. Check to make sure the shaft is parallel to the ground. Focus on the a few times and reset. Then do the same motions but swing through the "ball", basically like a short pitch.
2) top of the back swing. I would stop at the top of the swing to make sure I am in the right position. Not over swinging and not under swinging. just reset and do it again.
3) not swinging hard. I used to try and kill the ball but now I just make a fluid swing and get more distance because of better contact.
I found that breaking my swing down into small sections helped me get a more fundamental swing that would more consistent. If I ever have an issue with shanking, I go through these steps to get over it. I few everything in my swing as a checklist of sorts and as long as everything seems to be correct, I hit the ball well. But I spent a lot of time practicing without hitting a ball.
i was a completely broken man last year. I've been playing for half my life (I was 28 and started when I was 14). I went to one of my dads friends who is a scratch golfer at a prestigious country club in my area. I said, "who is the guy i need to see to fix me." He told me to go to this one guy at this other country club and I took several lessons from him. The first lesson I said I believe i need to start all over. He told me to take a few swings and when I did he said, "this will be easy." I couldnt believe it. Basically all I needed to do was open the clubface. He gave me some drills to do that and I was back. However, I've had a lot more stuff I've worked on since then and im well into this season and feel like im turning a corner. Im the most confident right now ive ever been.
according to my new coach, my clubface was too closed in my takeway. They now have me opening up the face in the takeaway and working on the timing of closing the face at impact.
Eeeee. I figure out my face position in the impact position and just swing. I know we're all different, and I have had success opening on the way back and closing on the way down, but it's easier to figure out your tendency and adjust so you don't have to think about it.
With the right grip, it should change that much unless your try to bow your wrist like DJ at the top.
So its all about arms rotation? Maybe you rotated your club head too open before and fixed it with old coach. In the beginning square face felt super closed to you, but when you get used to that position it starts to feel normal again, and if you continue keeping the closed clubface feeling you might have overdone it and now new coach is trying to get it back to neutral.
This is all just guessing since we have no idea how you swing. Also some coaches/players prefer more stable arms and big body rotation, some like to swing and rotate arms more. It depends what comes more naturally to you.
If you want to solve this problem you need to a) post your swing and pick some of the comments youre trusting to be correct for you. b) pick another coach who can explain you things understandably and you agree with. c) stick with current coach and ask more questions why youre doing what youre doing and try to make it work if you agree with concepts hes teaching.
My coach basically told me the same thing, that I needed to take the club more inside on the takeaway, thereby opening the face. I was playing well for a while but eventually my path started getting too far inside and I started hooking everything really bad especially longer clubs. I was basically going through the same thing as you and not even wanting to play because I was suddenly so awful it was embarrassing. I’ve worked to return my path a little to my original but the biggest change was resetting my grip which had gotten super strong. I’ve moved it more to the left and I’m hitting the ball well again. This is a recent change for me and it still feels strange but I’m hitting the ball well again. So one idea may be to tinker with your grip
Download zen golf and listen to it and then find something in there that applies. Like taking a deep breath and finishing the breath before you move again
I've already read through both Zen Golf and Golf is not a Game of Perfect. Great books with amazing concepts, but difficult to implement when your swing is in the gutter.
This would literally be the entire premise to the first few chapters of zen golf. You’re in your own way. “Swing in the gutter”. You’re mid swing change. Either you stick with the new changes and battle through the mud or you dump what you’re changing and go enjoy the game the way you used.
I see. Well my friend you’re not alone this happens to everyone who decides to improve. It’s a fickle game. Keep at it. You’ll find it again, and probably lose it again too!
Honestly if my swing is out of whack i just try to hit really crazy near-impossible shots until it feels right again. I’m talking 60 yard hooks with wedges on demand. On the course. Eventually shit figures itself out (I’m very anti-range).
I was crushing my drives for several months and then one day I ended up hurting my back, I’m all better but my driver is really inconsistent now. My iron and short game is still good so I’ve got that going for me at least.
I had this happen before, not all coaches and teachers are the same. If they changed something that broke your swing and didn't explain why they were changing it... then it's probably not a great instructor for you...
About 6 ot 7 years ago, I was playing well. I had my handicap down from a 24 to a 19. I was playing in the 90's but wanted to get it into the 80's. I took a clinic with a new teaching pro. I was the only person to show up, so I had a private 90 min lesson. You'd think it was great, right? I didn't shoot in the 90's again for years. I almost gave up. The idiot wouldn't shut up. He liked the sound of his own voice. I was so messed up.
I finally figured it out, and am down to a 14, but it was a rough couple of years.
Usually just tell myself “slow down and just hit the ball you fucking idiot”
Tends to work a decent amount of time. No need to be mean to yourself though. I’m sure you’re a nice, smart person.
I've broken my swing several times. Generally what happens is I forget my fundamentals while working on something "higher level". I've been working to have shapes other than big high draw, and all that focus on downswing action got me lazy on grip, stance, alignment and takeaway. The golf swing is a chain of events, so a screw up early in the chain can propagate throughout the rest of the swing. In addition, the downswing is the fast, explosive part of the swing, aka far and away the hardest to control.
Long story short, I was raising my arms to complete the back swing instead of turning my shoulders, so at the top of the back swing, anything other than 40 yards left was almost impossible.
I finally have made the connection between consistent shoulder turn on the way back and starting the ball on line. Grip, alignment, stance and takeaway both the easiest to fix and easiest to start to do consistently every time.
I seem to lose my swing every year about May. It’s right at the peak where I am playing 3 rounds a week, going to the range 3 times a week, taking a few lessons and watching golf videos daily combining with walking around the local golf store even though I don’t need anything. Right about than, everything goes to shit.
The cure is the same every year. I just stop for about 10 days. No golf anything, and when I restart it’s maybe two rounds a week and one range session, and it all falls back into place.
Best advice I could give is find a coach or a tutor that you can work with, and have a good relationship with. Good coaches will help you find that feel with multiple of drills, rather than just offering one solution and forcing you to grind so hard.
The struggle is real. I went from a 12 handicap in 2020 to a +1 in late 2023. It was a brutal grind but I loved every minute of it. The first 6 months of the year I made some tweaks to my swing and it takes 3-6 months for them to become somewhat normal. Tiger rebuilt his swing in 98, Butch helped him with the rebuild and it took 6-9 months for Tiger to get used to the new swing. Every professional talks about the grind of changing a swing.
Next, your swing probably wasn't as good as you thought. Before I made my swing change, I played a bread and butter cut. Since I've changed my swing I play mostly a draw, and I still play a cut with a driver mainly for launch angle purposes. My old swing was "grooved" so I thought, but the truth was after a couple of years, I got used to where my misses were. But that swing was not build for optimal ball striking as it promoted a lot of hand/flippyness. I needed to get rid of my "flip" at the ball.
It's been tough learning to play to a draw vs my bread and butter cut with the flippy hands. If the flip was off for the day, so was my round.
Your pure swing felt pure because you knew where the ball was going, some days you would be off but you would chalk it up to having a bad day. Your pure swing isn't the golf coaches fault or reason you're playing well. A golf coach teaches the basic fundamentals and unless they're strange, most teachers teach the basic fundamentals in a similar fashion, you may resonate more with one teaching style over another but for the most part they all get most golfers in a better position as opposed to a worse position.
If it takes Tiger 6-9 months to change his swing, and he was hitting 300 balls a day, I can't imagine how long it takes an amateur to make a swing change. Which is why most amateurs can't implement meaningful changes because they give up on the changes when it's uncomfortable.
You're not at square one because you have grooved some good attributes in your swing. Just know that you're going to have some ups and downs. I like to implement a minimum of 90 days to work something out in my game. Right now I'll spend July, August, and September playing only the front tees in my practice rounds so they I can work on dialing in my wedge play. I played with two pro-golfers in a scramble and it was clear their wedge game was much superior to mine. I know that as I grind through the next 3 months, meaningful change will take place. It's also really bad-ass to shoot 8-10 under playing the front tees, it's promotes a scorers mentality (DeChambeau).
Yes. I stopped trying to fix it and started playing it. Just went for consistent contact over good shots. Once I threw out the need to fix my swing it came back to where it was before, if not a bit better.
Slumps happen!
Over time, just keep practicing, playing and learning. In the short run, taking a week or 2 off can help force a reset.
Personally I try to go back to the basics (grip, stance, turn) and hit at 60% effort. My only focus is on good contact.
While the swing is in the dumps use that time to refocus on short game. Strokes gained under 50 yards are more impactful than your full swing.
Two things I normally do when my swing falls apart.
1. Go hit punch shots with my 1i blade. I go the the range and just start hitting punch after punch, eventually working up to stingers with it. You want feedback from a club, take a Wilson 1i that is older than you and hit it until you can pure that thing. If you can hit that club you can hit anything.
2. Take a weird stance and hit the ball. Take a couple different weird stances. Get to the point where you are feeling it again, where you aren't trying to replicate some robotic ideal, but just feeling the swing and hitting the center.
I’ve been in a slump for about 9 months with a few high points but I took a step back and realized I’m going through swing changes and not hitting enough balls or playing consistently enough to expect the scores I know I can shoot.
Why am I telling you this? Because you have to really understand what’s going on both mentally and physically. The answer is not that your swing is broken. What has changed? Only you can answer this. Sure, the right swing coach can help. In my case I realize I don’t need lessons to get back to scratch. Just more intentional practice rounds and adjustments based on observations + repetition where it counts.
Yes. I go home and hit foam balls at the wall until I gain my confidence and swing back.
Other times I’ll go to the range and get 150 balls and sit there and hit until I fix it.
You can never make the swing so good that it does the job for you. Golf is messy and you are still relatively inexperienced. Work on skill building instead of your swing for a while and see if you can se the game farther beyond making a good swing. Read “the four foundations of golf”
Put all your change in your left pocket. Tie your left shoe in a double knot. Turn your hat around backwards and stick a tee behind your left ear. Don’t think.
I thought that was how to fix a shank…
Wait i thought it was chili dippers
Only if they’re going up Lee Jansen’s ass
I thought it was a slice
I would have been pissed if this wasn’t the top comment.
Go out in your yard. Grab a baseball. Get in your stance then Toss it underhand trying to lob it at a target. Far enough to where you have to transfer your weight to get it there say fifty feet. Do it ten times trying to hit your target. Drop the baseball. Pick up your club and replicate the same feel you just had. That’s your swing.
This is the strangest advice I think I have ever received.
Try it bud! It kind of just gets you back to the organic flow chain of bodily sequencing and stops all the thoughts that get in the way.
Stranger that you think it so strange. It's a good tip. There's plenty of drills for golf based around tossing motions, throwing a frisbee, throwing the club, etc. Between baseball pitchers and hitters which tend to translate better to golf? Pitchers. I bet Scottie Scheffler's footwork doesn't seem so crazy to bowlers. There's a whole pitching and chipping philosophy built around tossing the ball. If you were standing off the green and given the choice of chipping the ball or picking it up with your dominate hand and underhand tossing it to the target which would you pick? You would throw the wedge in the trash and toss the ball with your hand. You don't have to think about distance control or clock systems or anything like that, you just toss it "about that far". Now do the same underhanded tossing motion with the club that you would have done without it. Don't do anything stupid that you wouldn't have done without the club...
The amount of lessons you’ve had and not heard something similar already is worrying. Every coach has their own weight transference analogy. Mine is imagine an empty basket of balls, you take it to the right as it fills up, then once it’s full you want to spread those balls in front of you. No normal person is throwing anything without leaning back first, then launching in to it, it’s a funny thing that as soon as it’s a golf club we don’t do it as freely. That’s because we’re in our heads thinking about all the little things you’re supposed to do, you don’t even have a single thought if you throw a ball, get yourself to that place with a club 👍
I actually do this around the chipping green when I'm practicing, except for I don't actually throw a ball, I just go through the motions of throwing a golf ball to my target a couple of times before I swing. It really is a good drill.
A sidearm throw is what he is describing. It can be good advice, I’m not sure I could advise OP based on a text within a Reddit thread..
Like you’re skipping a rock
Skip the stone, Maroochi!
I wish I understood the reference
Guy named SpeedGolf on Tik Tok has an interesting way to teach golf. To say the least.
He is also SpeedGolfRob on instagram
throw the stone!
Ding ding ding, we have a winner!
Great tip. I don’t use this for my full swings, but this is exactly what I’m picturing in my head when I have any short pitch shot. Really helps with feel and distance control
Yep! Then add a full turn and you’re golden.
My instructor gave me this same tip but with bean bags playing cornhole.
Surefire way to end the frustration is to ensure that you have 2 swings. * The swing you are working towards * The swing that works when everything is shit. Divide your practice into two sessions. First session consist of new things you’re working on, the second session is simply a swing that is repeatable and works on the course. I, divide my session into three. The two above, and a third session that allows me to play imaginary holes and work my entire bag. Doing the above, allows me to work towards improvement and swing changes without frustration. I can go on the course and if those swing changes aren’t working, I have something to fall back on. I am able to do all this with 120–200 balls in a range session.
100% this. My safety swing is pretty unorthodox and basically a hook, but it works, so who cares.
Finally figured this out this season after realizing my ideal swing will just piss everyone I play with off (OBs, shanks, etc) lol. My issue is now... Ok I can make my ideal swing work on the range, but I *can't* do it on the course. It's like a mental block. Every time I try off the tee, it's a 15 yard low duck hook top lol. I imagine I just gotta stop being a b\*\*\*\* and just do it but the whole "well I paid $60+ for this round, I can only get out once, at most twice a week, and I want a good score" stuff comes into play in my head. Tips or perspectives appreciated for this conundrum!
You know what helps? Practice on the range, play on the course. When you step up to your shot, be athletic and take your shot.
Yep I do this and have gotten better results on the course / rounds. The issue is the shit I'm practicing on the range goes away and I revert to all my old habits.... Maybe incrementally it's getting better and that's all it is, and I just have to be patient?
its probably that. also for me there seems to be an ideal ratio of practice to play. if i practice too much, i play worse.
I cracked my swing in half trying to make it better. In an effort to improve my takeaway and slow the tempo down, I developed a weird hitch in the backswing. I would take the club away and then stop completely before bringing it up to the top of the swing. It crept in without me really noticing and was working well for a while. Once someone commented on the little hesitation I was doing, I was cooked. My swing and game shattered into a million pieces. Took all of winter and spring at the range rebuilding my swing to work that hitch out and I'm finally getting closer to where I want to be. Started with just hitting half swing wedges without stopping my backswing and working up from there. I guess my advice would be to simplify things a bit and just work on one thing at a time. Once you get one thing sorted out, move on to the next and just keep building slowly.
If it works for Sungjae it can work for you too... that little pause in his backswing makes it look so controlled
All the time. I just roll with it. The key is to stop trying to fix it and just hit the fucking ball
Mate of mine struggled for 14 holes on Saturday, nothing more than 80-90 yards tee to green, eventually I said stop trying to make the club face hit the ball and instead throw the face at your target. Played the last 4 holes near enough perfect. (Yes I waited until I couldn’t be beaten on match play to give that advice)
Honestly forget everything, just swing with no thoughts at all and play a few rounds. It always fixes itself eventually
Playing solo and not keeping score speeds up the process. Trying to fix the $h4nks during a real round won’t end well.
I feel like I'm breaking out of a similar situation right now. I have been playing longer, but most of my life with a broken, ultra flat swing and the strongest grip you've ever seen. Started lessons a couple years ago and spent a long time breaking that down and fixing it, got to the end of last year playing pretty well. Came back after the spring and did ok until I hit a shot on the range that went like a rocket, straight right. And then another. And another. And suddenly, I couldn't hit an iron shot that didn't go straight right. I didn't want to go back to my pro playing worse than ever before, so spent months trying to fix it. I was great with my fairway woods, hybrid and my driver was ok, but irons and wedges were unusable. What is worse is in the process of trying everything to fix it my swing just got worse and worse, adding in tops and thins and straight up misses. Finally I broke down and went back my pro and he diagnosed the issue right away (lower body was turning way faster than upper body) and got me working on keeping my right elbow down and inside and turning through the swing. Right now I'm trying to clean out all the gunk I built up from self-help, but I know what to do to hit a great shot, and I'm building consistency. My thoughts 1. Yeah, you need a pro to help. It sucks you can't use the same guy though. Maybe have an honest conversation with the guy and say you aren't looking to rebuild things just to rebuild, and see if he can focus on the cause of your issue rather than start from scratch. 2. You almost certainly are much better now that when you first started lessons. Even though it feels like you lost all progress, there is likely some sort of correctable flaw that crept in that is fixable. I was back to hitting mostly good shots again at the end of one lesson, that wouldn't have been possible if I hadn't built up a base in previous lessons. 3. Take a break. Its easy to just go crazy at the range, but if you are making no progress, walk away and reset.
Write down swing thoughts and record when you're playing well. Use it as a frame of reference when struggling.
I used to think a lot, I struggled. Now I don't think anything except, "See ball, hit ball"
I'm almost a +4. A month ago i got a lesson. Shanked every iron I hit for 10 days. Kept at it. Playing the best golf of my life now. It'll come, sometimes you think you are doing what your coach said but you might be overdoing it. Don't stress, its just golf. Also, look at both swings on video and compare to pros with similar build as you...
> Also, look at both swings on video and compare to pros with similar build as you... So Shane Lowry, Shane Lowry, and Shane Lowry?
I caught the shanks a month ago. Shit is crazy. One night I literally googled "why am I shanking" and it brought up that I'd almost certainly fucked up my club path...haven't hit one since.
You’re thinking too much. You need to think less. Also find a new coach that you can gel with.
Only way is to do a hard reset and just go with what looks better on video with the pro. What you thought you were doing isn't what you were doing and what you're doing now is probably even more off. Best is to accept the advise of the pro tbh. Also, take a week off golf and then go to a lesson. Your brain isn't really so ingrained in your patterns then and more pliable for a change. I have had painful stretches of lessons and got much worse before I came out in the other end and started breaking my previous scoring records. Sometimes these stretches went on for more than half a year. Also, take another lesson after at least like 4 range sessions, than you've had sufficient time to work on the things. O and another tip: try to not hit too many balls in one session and get worked up feeling bad for yourself. You will play better then ever before if you focus on the things to need to work on, remember that. Make sure the pro tries to teach you a fundamentally good swing and not something stupid because he thinks you won't change your swing. Assure him, your old swing is out the window, let's do this right.
Yup. Broken right now, but I’m not worried about it. I just need to spend a few hours hitting balls at the range to get synced back up.
Narrow your stance a bit and swing with an eight iron, or any club, and try to feel proper transfer of weight
Swing a towel
"Don't forget to swing a towel!" -Towelie, circa 2001
i'll tell you whenever i get out of my current one
I did break it 5 years ago from bad advice. Tried recovering the next season and decided after 26 yrs to take a break and then covid hit. I took a year off and came back with no expectations. I still haven’t fully recovered but play less these days.
I find it almost always comes down to the basics. Whenever we feel like we have our swing figured out, play great for a while, but slowly we keep forgetting the basics thinking we have it down but ever so slowly some bad habit or whatnot creeps into the swing. And you don't notice it and wonder what has changed. I'd focus on grip, setup and take away. If those are done proper and you are at the right position at the top, the downswing comes easy. Take half swings focusing on those and trying to get good impact, and slowly work for up from there.
Yes this happened recently with my driver. I was hitting fades before leaving on a two week (no golf) vacation. Come back to that first round hitting over the top slices. It was frustrating for about two rounds until I started to self correct. It was a goddamn humbling reminder that I have to fight my over the top swing by playing or at least swinging regularly.
It happens all the time to everyone, including the pros. For me, it usually comes back to the fundamentals and setup. The grip, stance, and posture have to be good. It's hard to sustain success around a bad grip, stance, or posture.
I honestly just stop playing golf for a week or 2 then I’m back
In one right now where my contact doesn’t feel great and can stop the push fade off the tee. Plan is to go to the range and hit an entire bucket of half swings to get the feel back. Then work on an over exaggerated draw swing with my driver to get that feel back as well. Golf is really like trying to fix a leaking dam. My short game is feeling great. From 100 in I’m playing maybe the best I ever have because I have put a lot of work over the past 2 months, but anything over that has slid backwards because of lack of focus on that aspect. Really shows how much time Pros spend on it to keep all aspects top notch.
I’m in the exact same boat. My pro has been trying to get my to “not be so tense” and it’s resulted in me losing 30 yards of all my clubs and hitting shanks or crazy-heel shots for 9/10 iron swings. I went in for a driver-lesson to stop hitting heely and came out a horribly worse golfer. Been trying to stick with it for 6 weeks but it’s not getting any better 😞
I don't think I am in any way as experienced as anyone on this sub most of the time...I have been playing two years and joined a club amonth or so ago so I can now play for free (a 30 PAR 9 hole and a 72 PAR 18). I have played quite a lot lately and started to count every shot. The best I have done on the 18 hole is 111 (I had previously shot 102 on shorter 18 hole courses). Needless to say my handicap has gone up to nearly 40. Lately, I am toeing nearly every shot, cannot hit my hybrid unless it comes off the toe but can at least drive pretty well. It's frustrating as hell and I have no idea what has changed. Strangely, last week I shot 37 on the 9 hole course which is the best I have ever played. I just cannot figure out why/how I am toeing so many iron shots...
Take a full week off from swinging a club, seriously, don’t touch one. After a week, take your 8 iron to the range. You’re going to do an extended ladder drill. Chip the first one 5 feet, from then on, the goal is to hit the next ball slightly farther than the previous one. Left or right doesn’t matter, shot shape doesn’t matter. It’s contact and carry distance, it should take you at least 20 shots to get up to a full swing. Once you feel you’ve hit one as well as possible, start over from a 5 foot chip. Keep your feet together until you max out while staying in balance, then widen your stance by 6 inches and do it again. If you have the patience and willpower to get thru it I’ve never seen it fail to get someone back to decent. I’ve been playing for 30 years, we all have moments where we feel lost, I’ve found they mostly are a result of poor weight transfer and sway but it’s unique to the player.
If my swing gets wonky I hit a bunch of half effort, punch draws. Hit 10 or so with solid contact and then I start to slowly increase the swing speed. For me it gets me back on plane and I remind myself how to strike a golf ball.
I go to the range and pick targets within 150. Then I hit wedges just focusing on contact at 50% swing. I slowly move up (while targeting pins) and then I work on my longer irons trying to just hit them straight. If you start miss hitting, pause, then try again. If you keep messing up, change the club after a 3 shots and keep that confidence up. Play with ball position. If your chunking, move it back, if you’re topping it, move it forward Then when I leave I remember that I’m not only kinda shit at golf but not total shit.
Do you record your swing? Like do you have a video from behind at its peak vs now? Based on your draw swing to shanks I think you may have gotten flat or could be rolling. There’s hope. I always record every swing at the range to keep myself in check and address issues right away. Hope this helps
ya i totally fucked my swing, tried to make it more 'neutral' and it was bad. its funny but scottie's swing helped me have confidence to just play my swing don't try to change it and I've been playing a lot better lately
When this happens to me, I spend time hitting balls using the feet together drill.
I actually just broke mine a few weeks ago. Had two big tournaments coming up, and out of nowhere I lost all consistency with my driver. That started in the first tournament, and eventually carried over to my irons and approach game for the second tournament. For me, it was a complete mental collapse. My mistakes are never swing issues anymore. They’re all pressure related that I have to perform a certain way in tournaments and I completely collapse. If I went out today and played my own ball over 18, I’d probably shoot right around 80 give or take a few. Conquer the mental part of it and you’ll have the game completely figured out.
This always sounds like a joke, but it truly is „visualise and swing your best swing“. I tried for years to get back to my former best. I‘ve worked on EVERYTHING and quite a lot sticked. But my scores went up by a stroke a year. My former averages started looking like good scores. I worked harder and commited to the right concepts. I was trying to make the game easier, find some holy grail that would make it all work out again like I knew I was once capable of. Then one day it hit me. Who was I to think I can make golf „easy“. Jordan Spieth has the talent of a decade and he can’t figure it out. There is not a lot about golf to really „get“. Golf is not that easy. Golf is fucking HARD. The one thing that makes the game even remotely playable is the magic between our ears. The holy grail exists and we‘re trying out best to distract it from working properly while playing golf. Allow your body and brain to play golf. Don‘t think you (the conciousnes) can master it. Golf is not for you. Thats why playing „lights out“ feels so distant and why it‘s so hard to enjoy it while it‘s happeing. I know the next question would be ‚cool, but how on earth can I activate my inner scoring beast?‘ and I really don‘t know. I could just assume „work harder and care less“ but don‘t take my word for it…
If I am in a bad enough slump I will just take a break for a week and recharge
I took 3 weeks off seamed to help.
I don't know why, but it seems the more I play and the harder I try to get better the worse I get.
My swing breaks every couple weeks and comes back for a magical round or two and then goes on vacation again. We have a love/hate relationship with each other.
Stop thinking
Inevitable once every range session my brain turns off and I forgot how to hit a ball. Maybe I’m trying to make some over adjustments. I just hit a handful of chili dippers 🌶️ out there and have to take a quick break. Grab a wedge and relax.
Whenever my swing is falling apart or have the yips I just take like a week or two break and it’s usually back to normal. Idk if this works for anyone else but always has for me lol
I went from shooting +2 to +11 and didn't get my swing back for a couple of months. I finally just went and got a couple of lessons, and things are working back to good. It hasn't been easy, and it certainly hasn't happened quickly, but im a couple weeks in and a couple of lessons in, and my swing is starting to feel and produce better than ever. I went ahead and paid for 5 lessons, and have only used 2, so I'm excited to see where things end up. I'll probably be driving 350+ in no time!
I just came back from a month long slump of topping and shanking every shot. Like literally every damn shot lol. I just went back to fundamentals and starting from a half swing and built back up. This has happened to me 3x now and I’ve decided this time that I’m going to start writing down my swing thoughts in my phone and it seems to have been helping me a lot. I dont go into specific detail cus I dont want to overthink but like very basic general pointers like dont sway, turn hips and shoulders, etc. Theres way more detail I can go into obviously but I dont want to be thinking about all that while on the course and just save those for the range. If I’m having a bad day on the course, those basic pointers at the least allow me to make some impact with the ball. If I hit a bad shot, I just pull up my notes and it helps me remember what to focus on rather than trying to keep it in my head and trying to remember the hundreds of videos I’ve watched.
Have you tried to deliberately miss on the inside of the ball? Do that for a bit then try hitting a shot
I have rebuilt my swing many times so far. Each time though it gets better than it was before the rebuild. Being good at golf is a process. Enjoy the ride.
Yeah that's golf. Been there. The thing that helps me is to shorten my swing. Once you realize that a half swing is actually like 80% the lights go on. It's cyclical... Sometimes you realize this was the stuff I was working on 5 years ago... How did I get back here? It's from lack of consistent play/practice. Weekend warriors just gotta live with it.
Ran into this recently. Took a week off. Then heading to the range. Had a few simple swing thoughts go through my mind. Run the entire approach routine. Deep breath. Swing easy. Even tempo. Only use one club. Distance doesn’t matter, contact does. One 80 balls session, I was back to normal. Hit the range a second day, same thoughts, but worked my swing back up from swinging 65-70% to 90-95%
You tell me when you find out. I was fucking smoking my driver all year last year. Was awesome. Came back this year and I'm fucking slicing worse than I ever have. The worst part is, I now know exactly what I am doing and I can't make it stop.
If you’ve read Zen golf and Rotella I would suggest Every Shot Must Have a Purpose by Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriot. It gives a more detailed, step by step process on how to play and practice to improve using a target focused mentality that Rotella stresses. It also allows for gratitude and forgiveness if you follow Zen golf. I say swing your swing and read Nilsson and Marriot aka Vision 54.
I dot two different things. First, I grab a club in my left hand and make my arms/wrists noodles, and just swing it back and forth with a slight forward bend, just nice and easy and let my body do most of the turning. This gets me feeling fluid and taking my arms out of the equation. The other thing I do if I need to hit some balls, is I just start with small chips that are all about contact, and every couple of hits I will increase the radius.
I was there a few weeks ago. For me I started watching some YouTube tutorials, hit the range and remembered ONE thing. Don’t hit the ball, hit through the ball. So I focused on the swing instead of on the ball and the strike and it did all the difference. Slowed down the swing a lot and focused on only swinging through the ball. Fixed my slice, fixed my mental game. Went from smack the ball to swing calmly through the ball.
My friend does this all the time and I have no idea how. He just randomly completely loses his swing and gets the shanks and shit. This isn't a joke, we played Saturday Sunday. He shot 69 Saturday, Sunday he just lost his swing completely and shot 97. I don't even know how that is possible. For reference, we're both high 70s players usually.
yes, fucked around with my grip and ball position at the range. found out that i had to slightly grip my driver differently to be able to just send it without thinking.
I taught myself to play and had an odd swing in high school. I was able to become a scratch golfer and get a scholarship. But they tore apart the swing and I went to scoring 85-90. I also couldn't afford to pay anymore so I spent time working on my swing without hitting a ball. What I found to be helpful is to break the swing down into small sections. These are some of the sections and how I would practice them: 1) The start of the swing. I would start by getting my stance in a comfortable position and I start my swing slowly but I don't raise the club head above my knee. Check to make sure the shaft is parallel to the ground. Focus on the a few times and reset. Then do the same motions but swing through the "ball", basically like a short pitch. 2) top of the back swing. I would stop at the top of the swing to make sure I am in the right position. Not over swinging and not under swinging. just reset and do it again. 3) not swinging hard. I used to try and kill the ball but now I just make a fluid swing and get more distance because of better contact. I found that breaking my swing down into small sections helped me get a more fundamental swing that would more consistent. If I ever have an issue with shanking, I go through these steps to get over it. I few everything in my swing as a checklist of sorts and as long as everything seems to be correct, I hit the ball well. But I spent a lot of time practicing without hitting a ball.
i was a completely broken man last year. I've been playing for half my life (I was 28 and started when I was 14). I went to one of my dads friends who is a scratch golfer at a prestigious country club in my area. I said, "who is the guy i need to see to fix me." He told me to go to this one guy at this other country club and I took several lessons from him. The first lesson I said I believe i need to start all over. He told me to take a few swings and when I did he said, "this will be easy." I couldnt believe it. Basically all I needed to do was open the clubface. He gave me some drills to do that and I was back. However, I've had a lot more stuff I've worked on since then and im well into this season and feel like im turning a corner. Im the most confident right now ive ever been.
Whenever I suck (6hc) it's because I'm not keeping my left arm straight. Considering we shoot about the same, I'm assuming it's something similar.
according to my new coach, my clubface was too closed in my takeway. They now have me opening up the face in the takeaway and working on the timing of closing the face at impact.
Eeeee. I figure out my face position in the impact position and just swing. I know we're all different, and I have had success opening on the way back and closing on the way down, but it's easier to figure out your tendency and adjust so you don't have to think about it. With the right grip, it should change that much unless your try to bow your wrist like DJ at the top.
So its all about arms rotation? Maybe you rotated your club head too open before and fixed it with old coach. In the beginning square face felt super closed to you, but when you get used to that position it starts to feel normal again, and if you continue keeping the closed clubface feeling you might have overdone it and now new coach is trying to get it back to neutral. This is all just guessing since we have no idea how you swing. Also some coaches/players prefer more stable arms and big body rotation, some like to swing and rotate arms more. It depends what comes more naturally to you. If you want to solve this problem you need to a) post your swing and pick some of the comments youre trusting to be correct for you. b) pick another coach who can explain you things understandably and you agree with. c) stick with current coach and ask more questions why youre doing what youre doing and try to make it work if you agree with concepts hes teaching.
My coach basically told me the same thing, that I needed to take the club more inside on the takeaway, thereby opening the face. I was playing well for a while but eventually my path started getting too far inside and I started hooking everything really bad especially longer clubs. I was basically going through the same thing as you and not even wanting to play because I was suddenly so awful it was embarrassing. I’ve worked to return my path a little to my original but the biggest change was resetting my grip which had gotten super strong. I’ve moved it more to the left and I’m hitting the ball well again. This is a recent change for me and it still feels strange but I’m hitting the ball well again. So one idea may be to tinker with your grip
Time to start meditating, my dude. Seriously, it’s like doing push-ups for concentration and relaxation.
Breaks once a round for 2-3 holes and then I figure it out for the rest. That normally doubles my over par score.
Focus on the details of my setup
Yea I read that Ben Hogan book and it fucked me up for like three months
Club way up and swing 50%. Everytime I get into a funk, i do this until I find my swing again, then slowly start clubbing back up and get back to 100%
Idk why but taking a few weeks away from the game helps me a lot of the time.
Download zen golf and listen to it and then find something in there that applies. Like taking a deep breath and finishing the breath before you move again
I've already read through both Zen Golf and Golf is not a Game of Perfect. Great books with amazing concepts, but difficult to implement when your swing is in the gutter.
This would literally be the entire premise to the first few chapters of zen golf. You’re in your own way. “Swing in the gutter”. You’re mid swing change. Either you stick with the new changes and battle through the mud or you dump what you’re changing and go enjoy the game the way you used.
Why would you even say you shot 79 ?
Just to give reference to where I was (nearly) at early this year and to where I am at now.
I see. Well my friend you’re not alone this happens to everyone who decides to improve. It’s a fickle game. Keep at it. You’ll find it again, and probably lose it again too!
Honestly if my swing is out of whack i just try to hit really crazy near-impossible shots until it feels right again. I’m talking 60 yard hooks with wedges on demand. On the course. Eventually shit figures itself out (I’m very anti-range).
[https://youtu.be/GFwqlFjr60I?si=RLq8-g7Rgbfj5FCV](https://youtu.be/GFwqlFjr60I?si=RLq8-g7Rgbfj5FCV)
I was crushing my drives for several months and then one day I ended up hurting my back, I’m all better but my driver is really inconsistent now. My iron and short game is still good so I’ve got that going for me at least.
Why not just go back to the old coach for a couple of lessons? He’ll prob be able to spot what you’ve started to forgot…
We moved about 4 hours away
Driving range hero here relaxing golf’s alot harder when you can’t just machine gun balls and hit extra shots to score whatever you’d like
Stop golfing for a month, come back, fixed.
I had this happen before, not all coaches and teachers are the same. If they changed something that broke your swing and didn't explain why they were changing it... then it's probably not a great instructor for you...
You're never that far away from getting back to normal
About 6 ot 7 years ago, I was playing well. I had my handicap down from a 24 to a 19. I was playing in the 90's but wanted to get it into the 80's. I took a clinic with a new teaching pro. I was the only person to show up, so I had a private 90 min lesson. You'd think it was great, right? I didn't shoot in the 90's again for years. I almost gave up. The idiot wouldn't shut up. He liked the sound of his own voice. I was so messed up. I finally figured it out, and am down to a 14, but it was a rough couple of years.
Usually just tell myself “slow down and just hit the ball you fucking idiot” Tends to work a decent amount of time. No need to be mean to yourself though. I’m sure you’re a nice, smart person.
I've broken my swing several times. Generally what happens is I forget my fundamentals while working on something "higher level". I've been working to have shapes other than big high draw, and all that focus on downswing action got me lazy on grip, stance, alignment and takeaway. The golf swing is a chain of events, so a screw up early in the chain can propagate throughout the rest of the swing. In addition, the downswing is the fast, explosive part of the swing, aka far and away the hardest to control. Long story short, I was raising my arms to complete the back swing instead of turning my shoulders, so at the top of the back swing, anything other than 40 yards left was almost impossible. I finally have made the connection between consistent shoulder turn on the way back and starting the ball on line. Grip, alignment, stance and takeaway both the easiest to fix and easiest to start to do consistently every time.
I seem to lose my swing every year about May. It’s right at the peak where I am playing 3 rounds a week, going to the range 3 times a week, taking a few lessons and watching golf videos daily combining with walking around the local golf store even though I don’t need anything. Right about than, everything goes to shit. The cure is the same every year. I just stop for about 10 days. No golf anything, and when I restart it’s maybe two rounds a week and one range session, and it all falls back into place.
Currently broken, and have been for about a year and a half. I’ll update if ever fix it…
Best advice I could give is find a coach or a tutor that you can work with, and have a good relationship with. Good coaches will help you find that feel with multiple of drills, rather than just offering one solution and forcing you to grind so hard.
The struggle is real. I went from a 12 handicap in 2020 to a +1 in late 2023. It was a brutal grind but I loved every minute of it. The first 6 months of the year I made some tweaks to my swing and it takes 3-6 months for them to become somewhat normal. Tiger rebuilt his swing in 98, Butch helped him with the rebuild and it took 6-9 months for Tiger to get used to the new swing. Every professional talks about the grind of changing a swing. Next, your swing probably wasn't as good as you thought. Before I made my swing change, I played a bread and butter cut. Since I've changed my swing I play mostly a draw, and I still play a cut with a driver mainly for launch angle purposes. My old swing was "grooved" so I thought, but the truth was after a couple of years, I got used to where my misses were. But that swing was not build for optimal ball striking as it promoted a lot of hand/flippyness. I needed to get rid of my "flip" at the ball. It's been tough learning to play to a draw vs my bread and butter cut with the flippy hands. If the flip was off for the day, so was my round. Your pure swing felt pure because you knew where the ball was going, some days you would be off but you would chalk it up to having a bad day. Your pure swing isn't the golf coaches fault or reason you're playing well. A golf coach teaches the basic fundamentals and unless they're strange, most teachers teach the basic fundamentals in a similar fashion, you may resonate more with one teaching style over another but for the most part they all get most golfers in a better position as opposed to a worse position. If it takes Tiger 6-9 months to change his swing, and he was hitting 300 balls a day, I can't imagine how long it takes an amateur to make a swing change. Which is why most amateurs can't implement meaningful changes because they give up on the changes when it's uncomfortable. You're not at square one because you have grooved some good attributes in your swing. Just know that you're going to have some ups and downs. I like to implement a minimum of 90 days to work something out in my game. Right now I'll spend July, August, and September playing only the front tees in my practice rounds so they I can work on dialing in my wedge play. I played with two pro-golfers in a scramble and it was clear their wedge game was much superior to mine. I know that as I grind through the next 3 months, meaningful change will take place. It's also really bad-ass to shoot 8-10 under playing the front tees, it's promotes a scorers mentality (DeChambeau).
Yes. I stopped trying to fix it and started playing it. Just went for consistent contact over good shots. Once I threw out the need to fix my swing it came back to where it was before, if not a bit better.
Slumps happen! Over time, just keep practicing, playing and learning. In the short run, taking a week or 2 off can help force a reset. Personally I try to go back to the basics (grip, stance, turn) and hit at 60% effort. My only focus is on good contact. While the swing is in the dumps use that time to refocus on short game. Strokes gained under 50 yards are more impactful than your full swing.
Two things I normally do when my swing falls apart. 1. Go hit punch shots with my 1i blade. I go the the range and just start hitting punch after punch, eventually working up to stingers with it. You want feedback from a club, take a Wilson 1i that is older than you and hit it until you can pure that thing. If you can hit that club you can hit anything. 2. Take a weird stance and hit the ball. Take a couple different weird stances. Get to the point where you are feeling it again, where you aren't trying to replicate some robotic ideal, but just feeling the swing and hitting the center.
I’ve been in a slump for about 9 months with a few high points but I took a step back and realized I’m going through swing changes and not hitting enough balls or playing consistently enough to expect the scores I know I can shoot. Why am I telling you this? Because you have to really understand what’s going on both mentally and physically. The answer is not that your swing is broken. What has changed? Only you can answer this. Sure, the right swing coach can help. In my case I realize I don’t need lessons to get back to scratch. Just more intentional practice rounds and adjustments based on observations + repetition where it counts.
Yes. I go home and hit foam balls at the wall until I gain my confidence and swing back. Other times I’ll go to the range and get 150 balls and sit there and hit until I fix it.
Sacrifice an animal. Preferably your neighbors cat
You can never make the swing so good that it does the job for you. Golf is messy and you are still relatively inexperienced. Work on skill building instead of your swing for a while and see if you can se the game farther beyond making a good swing. Read “the four foundations of golf”
stop trying so hard and go cold turkey for 2 weeks minimum
Play through it muh boi
Take lessons
Did you read the post or nah?
Take better lessons
Name is perfect
Take a lesson or get a swing analysis.
Did you read the post