What Things Have You Tried That Have Destroyed Your Game?

[rehmwa]

Leg Day

Vodka shots

......

Very long ago before I took a couple lessons - one bit of advice from a friend had me swinging in a dramatic out to in swing.  It kind of worked (at the expense of a huge loss in distance).  It took a LONG time to erase that muscle memory.  Some temp so-called 'fixes' are insidious in that you get a little help now but it's a dead end in reality.....

[pganapathy]

Lack of practice would be number one on that list.  Nowadays I occasionally play as rarely as once every two or three weeks.  And all I do is go to the course and play straight away.  No warm-up hitting balls.  At most, just loosen up and take a few practice swings.

[boogielicious]

17 hours ago, NM Golf said:

A wife and 3 children. Nothing has done more harm to my game than them. 

That being said I wouldn't trade them for the world.

This is like when my son saw a picture of me with him when he was 6 and I was thin from all the bike racing days. He said, "what happened?". I said, "You happened."

[nevets88]

Picking pros randomly, no vetting, not realizing the difference good advice makes. 

Not using video. 

Mindlessly hitting large buckets of balls. 

Not realizing just how bad my proprioception is, poor instinct for the game. 

Maybe took swinging slow tempo on the range too literally.

Not putting enough trust in instinct. 

[David in FL]

6 minutes ago, nevets88 said:

Not realizing just how bad my proprioception is, poor instinct for the game. 

 

Ladies and gentlemen, we have our word-of-the-day!   

[Eric C]

Last Friday I played TPC Sawgrass for the first time.  I'm on the practice tee and had just met our forecaddie, and to be honest I was a bit nervous about the whole thing.  I really wanted to play well, and also didn't want to embarrass myself in front of this seasoned caddie.  I sliced the heck out of three drives in a row and the caddie suggested something about the placement of my thumb on my right hand (he shouldn't have).  That was all it took, couldn't get it out of my head and it took me three holes to remove the thought.  Still ended up playing pretty well, shot an 87 after going double-double on the first two holes.  Importantly, got a par on the 17th island green, lipped out the birdie.

[Coder]

Shawn Clement videos... I'm sure he knows what he's talking about, and I like his presentation style, but I perceive that he swings with a kind of up-down knee bounce that he sometimes emphasises deliberately when discussing hip turn.

For me that just turned into an overactive lower body and early extension move. And yes, of course that's the peril of YouTube compared to actual instruction.

[Intruder1800]

Watching instruction videos on YouTube, convinced this will be the one that unlocks my perfect swing, 1000s of balls later revert back to old grip, swing, stance, ball position, etc. Repeat above until you finally understand your own swing then turn Pro. 🙄

[Jay28]

99% of anything I try based on the advice of a tour pro speaking on video, or watching and trying to copy their swings, ruins my game.  I decided when I came back to the game never to listen to anything a tour pro has to say and never copy anything they are doing.  More or less all of them are doing things that I am simply not able to do - case in point, lag.  Extreme lag imho is not for the amateur.  I don't have the talent to catch up in the swing and if I try I end up blocking everything to the right if I attempt to copy the really late release of the club the tour pros can get away with. 

If I try anything that is not simple, my game gets messed up, so for me it's a full shoulder turn and let the arms lead the body, with the body pulling in the opposite direction to the momentum of the club head - very much what Mike Malaska teaches. Thats the only way i can kep it straight with a decent strike on a consistent basis.  If I played more often then I might learn to do more, but unless I am going to play and  /or practice every day then copying the pros is a recipe for disaster.  

[Shindig]

10 minutes ago, Jay28 said:

If I played more often then I might learn to do more, but unless I am going to play and  /or practice every day then copying the pros is a recipe for disaster.  

While I agree copying the pro, especially the Tour Pro, may be a recipe for disaster, especially without practice, doing 5 minutes of something a day towards practice has really improved my game, especially in the periods of time where I can do it.  

P.S. I really like your user icon.  

[dchoye]

Ball position of the left armpit.  I’m sure it works for some pros  Advice that seem to make sense and I tried to practice this concept for a couple of rounds and then developed shoulder strain and adhesive capsulitis of my left shoulder.  Could not play golf for one year because of it.  

Problem is that left shoulder moves freely in the swing. And when I was forcing and fighting my shoulder muscles it was very unnatural for me   It was tightening when it should be loose  during the swing

The head cover tucked inside my left armpit does not work for me   

 

Edited May 19, 2019 by dchoye

[tehuti]

On 5/16/2019 at 11:08 AM, pganapathy said:

Lack of practice would be number one on that list.  Nowadays I occasionally play as rarely as once every two or three weeks.  And all I do is go to the course and play straight away.  No warm-up hitting balls.  At most, just loosen up and take a few practice swings.

I seem to play worse when I hit a bucket before my round. No idea why. If I just take a few swings with my Sklz trainer and stretch a bit I end up more relaxed on the first tee, and I start better.

[Patch]

Nothing really destroyed my game. I was able to stop any damage stuff might have caused problems, that before they grabbed me. 

One of the things I tried that didn't work out well for me was trying to make the ball spin backwards on the the green. I worked for hours trying make this shot work. Finally my instructor made me aware that it took more than a good swing to make a ball spin back. Conditions of the lie, and the green had a lot to do with it too. Plus very few golfers, if any, could control how far back the ball would spin. I gave up, and learned flop/lob shots. 

Another thing my instructor told me to forget about was that turning my hips like I was in a barrel swing tip. Wish I remembered why he thought that was a poor swing tip. That barrel thing still some what popular today. 

[dennyjones]

37 minutes ago, Patch said:

Another thing my instructor told me to forget about was that turning my hips like I was in a barrel swing tip. Wish I remembered why he thought that was a poor swing tip. That barrel thing still some what popular today. 

The idea of swinging in a barrel doesn't equate to getting your weight forward.  If you search the forum there are numerous threads about weight forward being a key to a good golf swing. 

[iacas]

Just now, dennyjones said:

The idea of swinging in a barrel doesn't equate to getting your weight forward.  If you search the forum there are numerous threads about weight forward being a key to a good golf swing. 

 

[Hugh Jars]

+1 falling into the youtube instructional video rabbit hole. While I do think that a lot of the instruction and advice out there is credible, its hard to ensure that it is applicable to my actual swing. So, so, so many times I've gone online after a terrible session at the range or round at the course thinking I've found a quick fix, only to try it out, play terribly, rinse and repeat.

I've learnt the hard way that the best thing you can do for your game is get the advice of a coaching professional looking at your game in person.

Another thing that has killed me is self-anaylsis via video. I got obsessed with trying to swing shallower, constantly taking video of hitting shots in the front yard with plastic balls and down at the range. But this obsession lead to other aspects of the swing going down the toilet - it introduced a huge flip in my swing, and an effort to direct the ball, so I have had massive issues with an open club face at impact.

I've been getting regular lessons on Saturday mornings with a pro and finally things are starting to come together. Best thing I've done for game, daylight second.

[pganapathy]

5 hours ago, tehuti said:

I seem to play worse when I hit a bucket before my round. No idea why. If I just take a few swings with my Sklz trainer and stretch a bit I end up more relaxed on the first tee, and I start better.

That occasionally happens to me too.  But what I find is if I am hitting the ball well on the practice range with golf balls, I play better.  If I am hitting it badly, the lack of confidence occasionally carries over into my game as well.  But perhaps the biggest thing with hitting a bucket of balls might come down to fitness and tiredness.  If hitting 50 to 100 balls tires you out a couple of holes before you would normally get tired, you will suffer in more holes.  Perhaps consider that as a reason

[GolfLug]

A million different experimental moves up until 2 years ago. I always come back to realizing how I ruined at least 2 of the 5 keys trying to play with a new feel or move. Especially 1 and 2. 

Wiser now. Hopefully .😊