How Long for Changes to Stick?

[Themightyoz]

I made a lot of changes over the winter.  My game is very consistent this year and even though my scores aren't going down as much the ball very rarely goes out of play and my dispersion is way tighter.  Is it better to just keep focusing on one part of the swing at time or mix it up.  How long to groove all the pieces.

 

 

[Shindig]

It really depends how you practice.  I realized a few weeks ago I fell out of the good practice and have tried to move back.  

A good starting point to read would be this thread:

 In short, what are you doing to cause the change to happen?  

One of the most important (to my development) recent comments I got from a lesson was something along the lines of "how many times are you going to still have the club past parallel?" -- essentially, I thought I was swinging without getting to parallel, but I clearly wasn't.  So it can take quite a long time if you aren't practicing it properly.  

[billchao]

6 hours ago, Themightyoz said:

I made a lot of changes over the winter.  My game is very consistent this year and even though my scores aren't going down as much the ball very rarely goes out of play and my dispersion is way tighter.  Is it better to just keep focusing on one part of the swing at time or mix it up.  How long to groove all the pieces.

Focus on one thing at a time. If you move on too quickly to something else, the thing you “fixed” will creep back to the way it was, IME. I’ve changed a number of things in my swing over the years and failed to change a bunch, as well. There’s no definitive answer to how long any one piece might take.

[ChetlovesMer]

Such a hard question to answer. Both @Shindig and @billchao have given you really good answers.

I've made tons of changes to my swing over the years. Some of them have been unintentional. 

IMO - The best advice I can give is to only focus on one thing at a time. Okay, maybe 2 if one of the things is a set up thing. When that thing you are focusing on becomes second nature, then its time to move on to a new thing. But be careful that thing you fixed may come creeping back. 

The other thing I suggest is keep some stats if you can. I can't tell you the number of people I've met on the golf course who say things like "My putting is holding me back." I play with them and IMO- it isn't their putting at all. Or the one I seem to hear a lot is "Ball striking is the strength of my game." Again, that may be true, but very often its not. Data kind of slaps you in the face and may make you look at your game very differently. 

The good news is you are working on your game. If you aren't working on it with a coach you are probably leaving some gains on the table. 

Good luck. Keep us posted on your progress. 

[iacas]

Anywhere from "immediately" to "never."

Honestly.

[imsys0042]

I’ve done a number of changes this year and moved my handicap down .3, seriously.   I tend to exaggerate fixes, like a lot of people and I almost walked away this past week from playing to focus on other things except I realized what I was exaggerating and have decided to stick with it.  I don’t know how log it’s going to take me to score better but I know my club pro is solid on these changes paying off so I keep trying.  Keep with it. 
 

we focused on one thing at a time until it came together.  My last round, yesterday, I realized two problems but one is setup and the other is during my swing so that’s easier than 2 things in an active swing.  But I don’t know when this is going to pay off and it sucks.