Are you fooling yourself?

This is a great question! I can't wait for some better answers.

What I feel at this point is that solid contact is even not a good enough feedback to determine if you are doing well or not. It seems like you need to see and understand the video you take of yourself. I've hit solidly, but wild in direction. Now that I've made "minor" adjustments to my swing the same shots now go "straight". The "minor" adjustments "felt" like night and day changes, but on video look barely different. In fact, from the video, it looks like I have a long ways to go even though my shots are nice high draws with reasonably "solid" contact. What I believe is that when I make the full transition the shots will be much more controlled and solid taking less effort and probably feel totally different, while the video will show just the subtlest of changes.

absolutely -

that's why Trackman was so great for me - actual real repeatable data - no subjectiveness

I really do need to do a lot more video review

(I actually do better with a fuller backswing - so seeing that clubhead out of my left peripherals, strangely enough for me, was actually feedback for me that I was achieving a goal......funny game)

My 1st lesson involved a video swing analysis.   The following 4 sessions involved retaking videos and checking for progress.   This is why I know for sure that I changed my swing completely.   The videos make the lessons far more effective in my opinion.   I now take videos of my swing at slow-mo  time to time.   It's telling me me new swing is still there but my old flipping hasn't gone yet completely.

I would think at your current level you should find a really good instructor which is also difficult at your level of play. However, it's probably worth it for you to see improvement.

I use video, and this is what I struggle with.  I see so many things I think need fixing.  I work on one piece for 10 minutes, than I work on something else for 10 min.  Nothing ever changes when you practice like that.  What I need is a priority piece and think of nothing else while practicing besides that piece.  I just don't know what mine is at the moment, and that leads me to be all over the place and not changing anything.  I need to get back on evolvr.

My lessons were two weeks apart, and had drills to fix one thing and one thing only.    This gives me enough time to fix my swing one part at a time with a lot of practice/drills in the two week period.    If you are not giving enough time for the drills/practice, what you learned does not stick.

We are not what we think we are... I think of it as the American Idol audition effect (haven't some of those contestants ever heard themselves recorded?)... or, Why do I seem to look better in the mirror than in a picture?

Another one of my hobbies is playing around with music.  If I haven't recorded my performances for a while I seem to think I sound better than I really do.  When writing and recording some of my tunes, I can spend a bunch of time for a week or two recording.  During this process the gap between perception and reality decreases all the way to the point where there is pretty much no difference at all.  During this period, I sound just like I think I sound.

The first time I saw my golf swing on video I was shocked at how much I sucked. Previous perception of my swing vs reality was very far apart.  Now after instruction and a bunch of video, I think my perception of my swing and the reality of the video has narrowed (though still there is a gap).  I would think the better one gets, the more instruction one gets, and the more video of themselves one sees, then the closer their perception/feel comes to the reality of the video.

To @DaveP043 ion; I use video and instruction through Brian at Evolvr.

Feel ain't real until it is. We do have to learn what correct feels like so that when we mess it up we know we did something incorrect. Setting up a camera and taking video is a real pain unless I have someone do it for me. I've said this before. It is a distraction to me. I prefer to work with a mirror and practice the movement slowly over and over again until I feel comfortable making that move. The camera behind me would be in the way of the mirror. Plus I'd have to stop and look and see if I was practicing the movement correctly. Rather have the mirror for practice and let my instructor take the video.

I'd probably see so many things on the video that are wrong, and I wouldn't know which one to pick out as the priority. About all I'd know how to do is put my swing next to a professional's like Na Yeon Choi and try to mimic her. But where to start? Taking the club away from A1 to A2?

I do mostly mirror work.  I can see in real time what I'm doing and how it feels.  Then I take it to video, I can see how it looks without me being able to get real time feedback and see if something has stuck or not and either keep working at it or not.

I also do evolvr and send in videos so my instructor also can tell me if I need to work on something different or keep at what I'm doing allowing me to be a stupid, albeit, happy monkey.

I've fooled myself  for too long -- thinking I'm making changes, but nooooo........

I look good on video without a ball, but put a ball down and everything changes.

It needs to feel different -  my issue has been too long of a backswing and arms go behind shirt seam.

I have my son video me; and am resolving it.

I now go to an instructor where I can see every swing on a large monitor and still get to hit balls outside.

It's tough to make changes - one must see them.