Thoughts on "Feels"

[GREENMR003]

General question for everyone, are you able to "feel" different aspects of your swing? Or maybe a step back, what do you equate to a "feel"?

I'm working more on fundamentals this year... couple lessons, lots of range time and drills, trying not to get sucked into youtube rabbit holes, etc... and am somewhat confused by the term.  Coaches and videos will always bring it back to you "you need to feel this" and "learn to feel that".  Maybe I've just got a conceptual block, but I struggle with what this means. 

For example, "feel the clubface" to gain better ball striking and control - Natural shot is a draw but I can grossly influence the clubface and can hit a snap hook or big slice at will.   In order to do that I can over-manipulate my hands during the swing and produce a result.  What I don't have is any feedback other than watching the ball flight.  I basically focus on either rolling my hands or swing out to right field, whether you call that a swing thought or just a goal I can get it done.  During the swing itself, I'd consider my body to just be reacting rather than registering any kind of feedback.

So am I misunderstanding the word and concept of "swing feels", or am I lacking a feedback mechanism that I'll ultimately need to get better? 

Thoughts?

 

Follow up, to indicate if its a conceptual block on my end. 

From high school through my late 30's I tended to sway in my swing in an effort to "shift my weight".  Go figure I sliced a lot and had real consistency issues.  Eventually I learned that the phrase describes foot to ground forces necessary to swing a club and keep your body centered above the ball.  

Once the light bulb went off and I realized shifting your weight has nothing to do with the technical definition of shifting weight (ie shifting mass) I was able to better understand and improve. 

Wondering if maybe I'm up against something similar here. 

[DaveP043]

You may want to read this thread:

When you're swinging, all you can do is to feel, and then watch the result, the ball flight.  When you're changing something, you need to FEEL something different than you're accustomed to feeling.  The difficulty, I believe for both players and their instructors, is that a specific new feel will produce different mechanical changes in different players.  The best instructors will work with a student to determine what feel produces the specific desired change.  

22 minutes ago, GREENMR003 said:

I basically focus on either rolling my hands or swing out to right field, whether you call that a swing thought or just a goal I can get it done. 

Here you go, you're aware of a couple of specific feels that produce a decent result for you.  Chances are pretty good that you're not actually rolling your hands over, or swinging out to right field, but those images or feels work for you right now.  

[David in FL]

And this one...

 

 

[CarlSpackler]

Yeah. The older I get, the more pain I feel in my swing.

[GREENMR003]

2 hours ago, David in FL said:

And this one...

 

 

Thanks Dave. 

It's going to take me a while to make it through those threads, but looks like a lot of good information in there. 

[GREENMR003]

3 hours ago, DaveP043 said:

 

  3 hours ago, GREENMR003 said:

I basically focus on either rolling my hands or swing out to right field, whether you call that a swing thought or just a goal I can get it done. 

Here you go, you're aware of a couple of specific feels that produce a decent result for you.  Chances are pretty good that you're not actually rolling your hands over, or swinging out to right field, but those images or feels work for you right now.  

This may be part of my block, what I wanted to get some input on.  I hear the word "feel" and I translate that to "muscle & body feedback" in my head.  And other than me really hurting myself trying something crazy I don't get that during the second or so of the swing.  What I physically do... really releasing and rotating... maybe that's the "feel"?  But I see that more as an input to the process, not an output.