How long until you had a consistent, repeatable swing?

As a total newbie, I'm really interested in what you guys have to say on this matter. I'm 3 weeks in on learning golf. I've had 3 lessons. I feel totally lost.

I've only swung my 7 iron still to this point. There are days at the range when I'm really grooving it, 3 or 4 out of 5 shots are straight and well struck. Most days, however, it is 1 out of 5 at best.

So my question is - how long after you first started swing a club did you get to where you felt comfortable with your swing and had some consistency with how you were striking the ball? I feel like I'm way behind and that I should be further along by now. My goal was to be comfortable enough with my swing that I could play a round of golf by 2 months - but honestly I don't see that happening.

25 years playing, and I'm almost there...........

Two months is the blink of an eye in this insane game. Keep hitting the range and taking lessons for a few months, and then start playing on a short 9 hole course. Good luck!

Thanks for the input iacas.

Since I was such a newbie, my first lesson was just basic concepts. After warming up so he could see what my swing was like, I didn't even swing a club the rest of the lesson. We went over grip, posture, aiming, takeaway etc.

And by the 3rd lesson I was really crushing it. Really consistently crushing it. So at that point, I was pretty excited about the strides I made under his purview. The problem came in the 5-6 trips to the range since that 3rd lesson. My 2nd lesson I was all arms, no hips. I found my hips in lesson 3, but have since lost them.

It's been 3.5 weeks total. But I've been to the range almost every day.

Maybe I'm just a bad student. :)

And yes, I'm still in Alabama. I live in Birmingham.

After more or less just playing for fun for 10 years and then taking a decade long break from the game, I am taking lessons too (third one this week).  I decided to take the lessons because my shots were all over the place, and the only thing I was remotely happy about was some consistency in my short game.

I have to say my coach makes sure I understand thoroughly everything he wants to cover each lesson.  Once we are in agreement with what he is teaching in the bay, we might add one or two more minor things to work on until the next lesson.  So far I am only using my 6 iron.

And in between lessons it's all about practice practice practice.  My drills are either in the house working on an exercise or driving the ball.  But I agree, there should be no confusion!

I didn't build a consistent, repeating swing until this season. Last year I was just learning and didn't really learn as much about mechanics. I was more focused on how to straighten the ball out and hit it farther; those are the worst 2 things to try to work on because you aren't addressing the flawed fundamentals that cause them. Get your hands on the club right and your feet in the right spot relative to the ball and target before worrying about your swing. Making a powerful, on plane swing is a life's work but believe me, you'll make your misses and bad swings better if you set up properly. Hitting the ball 1/2" low on the face or 1/2" off the heel will often make for a worse miss than leaving the face a few degrees off or coming over the top a couple degrees. You may miss right or left, lose a little power, but you'll play better golf with a consistent setup even if your swing isn't the best. It will make it easier to react to a mistake in your swing and reroute the club onto the properly placed ball than to feel you're making a great swing and try to abort it to hit the ball.

It doesn't make your shot results as consistent as you think, and as Iacas said you probably are more consistent than you think. You have control over your setup and alignment. Don't do them entirely by feel, make sure you consciously set up the same exact way. My bad shots are caused by 2 things: Bad setup and consciously trying to adjust my swing. This gets especially bad at the range where I hit a bucket in like 10 minutes. If I hit 2 shots badly in a row I might change something and it only makes the problem worse. When I decided to stop dicking around with my putting and build a proper stroke and setup checklist, I dropped like 10 putts per round and can actually score. Same thing with short game, I worked on consciously using a proper chipping stroke and dropped the thin and chunked shots from my game. I'm getting a lot better with my irons since I changed my ball placement to its current spot, it cut most of the bad shots out or made them playable. I need to do the same with my driver and maybe I'll be shooting really good scores. Honestly though I used to utterly waste 10 shots within 50 yards per round, now I waste 2 or 3 at most and a lot of the others are getting really good like my lag putting and chipping.

Mind you I'm not great but having recorded my swing, it looks pretty similar in general. It's easy for an instructor to see a mistake in your swing on video, but not as easy to see a mistake in your setup. He's not able to see the ball through your eyes or feel your grip. As a beginner, you are even less likely to have the fundamentals down by instinct. I've been playing over a year and I hit plenty of great shots. I can almost always feel a bad swing back at the top. I have a harder time feeling a bad setup unless I consciously focus on it. Often times when I hit an awful shot but the swing felt great and wonder what the hell went wrong, it was 100% setup upon review. If I have a bad day at the range or course? Ball too close or too far from my body, grip wrong, or posture wrong.

Use those alignment rods and put your feet in the same spot at the range. Take as many variables out as you can. Don't feel like your focus should only be on the swing.

To your range example - it took me about 3 years to get from 10% good shots at the range to 80% or better.  I still hit a lot of bad shots on the course.  My miss has gone from fat shots and slices to thin shots, pushes and hooks - which is a huge improvement even though it doesn't really sound like it.

I attribute it to finding the right instructor, though.  If I had found my current teacher right off the bat I probably would've gotten to this point in a year or less.  I spent a lot of time at the range hitting slices before I gave up and took lessons . .and the first teacher I saw didn't really help me that much.  The second guy, though, got me straightened out quick.

Iacas hit the nail on the head.  The key is to be confident in your swing and trust it.  I worked on my physical swing for the last two years and was very frustrated.  I then focused on my mental approach to my swing and found improvement immediately.  I highly recommend "Golf Is Not A Game of Perfect" by Dr. Bob Rotella.  It did wonders for my game.

So I made a minor tweak in my takeaway today after watching some videos from Jim Mclean. (He was teaching what my instructor taught that I had somehow changed). And made a minor adjustment that allowed me to not pull my head up, but rather stay down on the ball...

All the difference in the world. For the first time ever, I was able to hit 3, 4, even 5 shots in a row towards a target with consistent trajectory. The only difference, aside from those two tweaks, was that I took 2 days off from the range.

Is taking a couple of days off usually something that can really helpful? I was going every day like clockwork. I know people take days off to rest soreness, but I wasn't taking a break due to fatigue or soreness, but rather just didn't have time.

I'm still not sure if my swing is consistent and repeatable. I've had this happen once before - where I crush it one day and the next, I'm out there killing all the worms...

Thanks for all who are chiming in on this thread. It's great stuff!

Hi bamagrad03, My advice would be skip the traditional swing and and jump to a swing thats easily learned, easily assessable, and easily maintainable.

Bama, folks on this site are sick and tired of me bringing up the subject but I'll continue because I'm really enthused about the possibilities of a new golfer going straight to a new system without learning the traditional system which in my experience is a waste of time unless you're willing to work at it continuously and have bags of sporting ability.

I started playing golf in my 20's and got down to maybe 8 or so but I'd never know which logman was going to turn up on any day. I switched to Jack Kuykendalls LPG system 3 months ago and I'm already back to playing my distances of my previous swing. The big payoff for me though is I'm straight......off the tee, and at the pin.

The system is easily learned, and when something's not right it's easily diagnosed and easily fixed.

I think Jack Kuykendall has teachers in various states in the U.S or you can go to his website for more info. Look into it. Nothing to lose ......everything to gain.

Oh I'll take it as gospel ;)

He actually took a video of me back when I was struggling with bringing my hips into play and then split screen me next to one of the top amateurs in Alabama to show that I had a very similar takeaway and backswing, but at impact I was way off by comparison.

Should we be doing more video now that my swing has changed and I've now started engaging my hips?

What do you mean when you say "the feel isn't real?"

This is GREAT input. Thanks so much guys!

Ditto.  I'm close...just need a few more reps.

It really depends on what is meant by consistent and reliable.

Last Sat I flushed every iron I hit. The next day, (club championship qualifier of course), I skinnied a couple, and flat out bladed another couple.

What I'm looking for is being able to hit 6 or 7 out of 10 iron shots relatively well, without hitting it super fat or topping the crap out of it.

Another thing that relates to controlling your game once you get on the golf course: - You have to be consistent with the things that are already within your ability to control. Posture, grip, alignment, ball position, etc. Don't take those things for granted - they require focus on every swing, even by professionals. - Golf is still a game, so don't be shy: go out, play, and have fun. As long as you can keep up with the group in front of you, you're good to go. Pick up if you fall behind. Golf can't be played on the range. - Once you get on the course, play with whatever ball flight your swing is producing. If you're hitting a big slice, aim left - don't try to fix it some major swing flaw while you're playing. - As Erik said, your swing is already consistent. To reiterate my first point: I see higher handicap golfers who just don't pay enough attention to the things they CAN control, so in addition to form that may need some work, they are also inconsistent because their fundamentals are inconsistent. Whether you're one of those guys is up to you. If you stick with the game, you'll probably always be looking for ways to improve. Our swings mature over time, but there are no perfect swings. You're 'repeatable' right now, so enjoy the journey.

I've been playing 20yrs.....and I'm not there yet!!  LOL

Stop being modest. If I were a scratch, I would say my swing is pretty consistent.