Golf Lessons and the Slump

[skywaterbanjo 14]

I've had 2 lessons over the past 2 weeks with lots of 'practice' time spent at the range.  The lesson was great but has caused a relatively significant change in my swing (plane issues - duh).  As a result, my hcp index has ballooned from 8.4 on June 1 to 10.8 today.  I know I'm working on the right things but it's pretty depressing.  

Any of you experience this and, what is a realistic timeline to turn it back around?  Probably too personal of a question but I thought I throw this out there.

TIA

[Piz 546]

Learning is a flight of imagination.  Imagine a flight of stairs.  Each step has both a height and a run.  We cannot know  either...except in retrospect.  If the step is deep enough...we get bored.  Why is this taking so long?   Well it takes however long it does...doesn't it?

[shanksalot 77]

I have never had that problem. My first lesson was after I had retired and it was just a small adjustment to my swing. I had acreage at my house and I went out every day and hit 60-100 balls with my PW every day even the days I played. Thus the change was almost seamless. What I would suggest is just keep on doing what you are doing. Practice, practice, practice. In fact I don't know if this is allowable by golf gods, but in truth I would not post scores during this period. You are creating a false handicap. I would wait until I was back scoring as well or better than before you started. Sounds like you are upset your handicap is ballooning and it will so just don't post scores for a while. Just concentrate on getting the swing down pat. 

[skywaterbanjo 14]

10 hours ago, shanksalot said:

I have never had that problem. My first lesson was after I had retired and it was just a small adjustment to my swing. I had acreage at my house and I went out every day and hit 60-100 balls with my PW every day even the days I played. Thus the change was almost seamless. What I would suggest is just keep on doing what you are doing. Practice, practice, practice. In fact I don't know if this is allowable by golf gods, but in truth I would not post scores during this period. You are creating a false handicap. I would wait until I was back scoring as well or better than before you started. Sounds like you are upset your handicap is ballooning and it will so just don't post scores for a while. Just concentrate on getting the swing down pat. 

Probably a good idea not to post but my club frowns on not posting.  I am practicing a bunch and I think it's just going to take some time.  

[billchao 2,643]

On 6/26/2020 at 8:21 PM, skywaterbanjo said:

I've had 2 lessons over the past 2 weeks with lots of 'practice' time spent at the range.  The lesson was great but has caused a relatively significant change in my swing (plane issues - duh).  As a result, my hcp index has ballooned from 8.4 on June 1 to 10.8 today.  I know I'm working on the right things but it's pretty depressing.  

Any of you experience this and, what is a realistic timeline to turn it back around?  Probably too personal of a question but I thought I throw this out there.

TIA

I always have a bit of an adjustment period to learning a new piece after a lesson. There is a period of time where I won’t be doing it well, but I don’t go into a slump as you put it. It’s more of a general feeling of frustration that I’m not hitting shots like I was when I took the lesson.

Looking at my scores this year, I posted a 17.4, 15.2, and 11.7 differentials in the two weeks after my lesson. It might seem like my score went up a little bit immediately after the lesson, but the three differentials that preceded it were 15.2, 18.1, 15.2, so I basically played as well or better after the lesson.

[easyjay39402 18]

On 6/26/2020 at 7:21 PM, skywaterbanjo said:

I've had 2 lessons over the past 2 weeks with lots of 'practice' time spent at the range.  The lesson was great but has caused a relatively significant change in my swing (plane issues - duh).  As a result, my hcp index has ballooned from 8.4 on June 1 to 10.8 today.  I know I'm working on the right things but it's pretty depressing.  

Any of you experience this and, what is a realistic timeline to turn it back around?  Probably too personal of a question but I thought I throw this out there.

TIA

Like you, I am in the midst of a swing change, not just tinkering around the edges, but a major change. I try to just laugh at the awkward results and keep clearly in front of me why I am making the change. Don’t worry about the HCP, it’s supposed to adjust to reflect your scoring potential. It should go up while you are making a swing change. Instead of becoming frustrated, I try to view the process as learning new things about the golf swing. My experience in the past has been that it takes months, more like a year to fully integrate a change into your game. Once you change your ball striking, you may find it necessary to change other parts of your game. Hitting more greens? More pressure on your putting, for example. Consider how long Tiger Woods sets aside for a swing change. He basically disappears for a year. 

[Yukari 180]

Even Tiger Woods with 8+ hours of practice per day took 2 years for the new swing to take effect.  So average weekend hackers without that much time commitment can't expect to new swing to take hold quickly.

A friend of mine took a lesson about 10 years ago when his wife gave him a golf lesson as a birthday gift.  I told him to expect to struggle for at least 3-5 years with a new swing.  Sure enough he was struggling and finally gave up after 3 years.  Before then, he was a bogey golfer, but after the lesson, he was all over the place.  Couldn't break a 100!  Got so frustrated after 3 years, he gave up the game completely.

I think the problem was the pro decided to overhaul his swing entirely rather than changing a few things while keeping most of his swing as is. 

To be honest, I think his wife used the lesson to make him give up the game since he was never home on the weekend.  😆

[Mr Puddle 17]

On 6/27/2020 at 1:21 AM, skywaterbanjo said:

I've had 2 lessons over the past 2 weeks with lots of 'practice' time spent at the range.  The lesson was great but has caused a relatively significant change in my swing (plane issues - duh).  As a result, my hcp index has ballooned from 8.4 on June 1 to 10.8 today.  I know I'm working on the right things but it's pretty depressing.  

Any of you experience this and, what is a realistic timeline to turn it back around?  Probably too personal of a question but I thought I throw this out there.

TIA

There will be many people who tell you to stick with what you have been taught, and eventually it will pay off, but I won't. There are more bad pros out there than good ones, and the idea that everything you will ever get taught will improve your game is not true. A good pro will look at your age, your flexibility, and natural ability. He will get the best out of you, but will appreciate that you are unlikely to ever become a pro yourself. I have seen quite promising golfers get destroyed by golf lessons, and never be able to get back to where they were. I am not anti golf lessons, but am a firm believer you have to find the right pro, and that isn't always easy 

[bkuehn1952 832]

I was told decades ago that most people take 6-12 months for their "muscle memory" to imprint a significant change.  One will see positive results immediately but inconsistently.

I do not know how that stacks up with current research.

[GolfLug 593]

On 6/26/2020 at 8:21 PM, skywaterbanjo said:

I've had 2 lessons over the past 2 weeks with lots of 'practice' time spent at the range.  The lesson was great but has caused a relatively significant change in my swing (plane issues - duh).  As a result, my hcp index has ballooned from 8.4 on June 1 to 10.8 today.  I know I'm working on the right things but it's pretty depressing.  

Any of you experience this and, what is a realistic timeline to turn it back around?  Probably too personal of a question but I thought I throw this out there.

TIA

Yes, most of have experienced regression with and/or without lessons. In that sense we can all co-miserate. If you really want a more informed opinion on your swing/swing changes, best to start a swing thread. 

[skywaterbanjo 14]

Thanks for all of the replies.  I have been working hard on the range and have been playing better.  HCP went from 8.4 to 11.4 and is now back to 10.1, all in 3 weeks.

The good news is that the ball striking has improved and I see light at the end of the tunnel - hope it's not a train.

[criley4way 106]

It depends on how close the reality is to the feel.

Some changes are instant, you make the change, it feels right and it just becomes normal. Others are hard to feel the right way to do something. In that case first you need to find what the right and wrong way feel like. That can take time. Then you need to be able to do it right all the time with the new feel. Then that new feel needs to become the new normal. That could be just having a new feel to the swing or it could be making the feel just your swing.

I am in the middle of a change. For me I knew the right motion. I could manufacture it using tools. Then I found a feel for the right movement. Now I am in the phase where I can find the right feel 80% of the time but it is still my "new swing". Next phase is to be able to find the feel at will with all clubs. Then we will see if it is ever without thought or I just learn to play with the new feel.

 

[DuckDuckFoose 16]

On 6/30/2020 at 11:14 AM, Mr Puddle said:

There will be many people who tell you to stick with what you have been taught, and eventually it will pay off, but I won't. There are more bad pros out there than good ones, and the idea that everything you will ever get taught will improve your game is not true. A good pro will look at your age, your flexibility, and natural ability. He will get the best out of you, but will appreciate that you are unlikely to ever become a pro yourself. I have seen quite promising golfers get destroyed by golf lessons, and never be able to get back to where they were. I am not anti golf lessons, but am a firm believer you have to find the right pro, and that isn't always easy 

I mean is there any way to know? As someone who knows very little about the golf swing in general is there certain things to look for or is it just a gut feeling kind of thing? 

[easyjay39402 18]

35 minutes ago, DuckDuckFoose said:

I mean is there any way to know? As someone who knows very little about the golf swing in general is there certain things to look for or is it just a gut feeling kind of thing? 

My opinion. Any certified PGA professional will do a good job teaching a beginner the basics of the golf swing. After that you need to take stock of your physical state - your body type and flexibility. At that point, a pro with a lot of teaching experience is important. They may show you swings of tour pros whose body type is similar to yours. They may test your flexibility and suggest stretching exercises, etc And, it’s really important to sort out your personal goals so that you can communicate them to the pro. In my view, you should be careful of a pro who doesn’t start with your goals. 

[Slice of Life 158]

My first couple times out after a lesson with @iacas, I played like absolute garbage. After about 2-3 weeks I broke 90 for the first time and it sort of started to click. 

So for me, it's just as long as it takes you to work on the current change and get the muscle memory where it needs to be. The less I had to think about what I was working on, the better it got.

[Inferno2ss 17]

On 6/26/2020 at 6:21 PM, skywaterbanjo said:

I've had 2 lessons over the past 2 weeks with lots of 'practice' time spent at the range.  The lesson was great but has caused a relatively significant change in my swing (plane issues - duh).  As a result, my hcp index has ballooned from 8.4 on June 1 to 10.8 today.  I know I'm working on the right things but it's pretty depressing.  

Any of you experience this and, what is a realistic timeline to turn it back around?  Probably too personal of a question but I thought I throw this out there.

TIA

I am going through the same thing right now.  I had my handicap down to 6.7 before I started to take lessons, and now I am one or 2 rounds from going back to double digits.

I think it just takes time to get the changes committed into muscle memory, I noticed yesterday that the longer the round lasted the more I started to slip into an old habit of taking the swing back to far inside.  I was on fire early on with birdies on 3 of the first 4 holes, shooting a 38 on the front, only to turn around and shoot 46 on the back, hitting only 1 green in regulation the last 9 holes.

I know it will be worth it in the long run, so I am trying to stay positive but it can be maddening at times.

[Mr Puddle 17]

On 7/6/2020 at 11:39 PM, easyjay39402 said:

My opinion. Any certified PGA professional will do a good job teaching a beginner the basics of the golf swing. After that you need to take stock of your physical state - your body type and flexibility. At that point, a pro with a lot of teaching experience is important. They may show you swings of tour pros whose body type is similar to yours. They may test your flexibility and suggest stretching exercises, etc And, it’s really important to sort out your personal goals so that you can communicate them to the pro. In my view, you should be careful of a pro who doesn’t start with your goals. 

That's a good post, and very true. Poor pro's just try and teach by the book, without making allowances. A good lesson should help improve your score, not turn you into Tiger Woods 

[cooke119 112]

Over the last two rounds I developed a strong pull to the left, (I am a righty), even with my woods, can't figure out what the hell has gone wrong. Have a lesson tomorrow, we'll see how it goes. Just hope he doesn't want to redo my entire swing. I think I just need a little something changed, we'll see.