My Swing (TN94z)

[TN94z]

So, I have been consistently working on my swing with my instructor and I SWEAR I am going to get some videos. Most of my range sessions are at lunch during work and I just don't feel like I have time to get the camera setup and be able to work on my drills with the limited time. But I am going to change my practice sessions to after work to incorporate that so I will have videos not only to post here for critique but also for me to see what I am actually doing.

Here is a little back story. We have made several changes over the course of my lessons and we have tried several different feels along the way to try and get in the correct positions. Normally, within the allotted lesson time, I do very well making the changes and hit the ball very well. Then I wouldn't see my teacher for another 3-4 weeks and by then I seem to have fallen back (not to mention I have not had much time lately to actually get on the course and play). It seems like a vicious circle. So what I am about to do is change to weekly lessons to make sure I don't fall backwards.

All of that leads to my current problem. I am in my head WAY too much!  I feel like I have so many swing thoughts going through my head right now that I cannot swing freely and I am all out of sync. But I cannot seem to clear my mind. I have talked with my teacher about this and we are going to talk about everything at my next lesson, but it is killing my game. I played a member guest yesterday at a local country club and it was terrible. Embarrassing actually, compared to where I know I can play. My partner said "it looks like you are just trying too hard to hit positions instead of swinging and playing golf. It's like you are in your head too much." I told him that I 100% agree but I don't know how to stop that at this point. I have never had this issue and I don't know if it's because we have made so many feel changes or what but I am clueless on how to get out of my head.

Any advice on that issue @iacas @boogielicious @DaveP043 @saevel25 @mvmac

It feels like it is completely wrecking my game..

Edited August 28, 2020 by TN94z

[DaveP043]

2 minutes ago, TN94z said:

So, I have been consistently working on my swing with my instructor and I SWEAR I am going to get some videos. Most of my range sessions are at lunch during work and I just don't feel like I have time to get the camera setup and be able to work on my drills with the limited time. But I am going to change my practice sessions to after work to incorporate that so I will have videos not only to post here for critique but also for me to see what I am actually doing.

Here is a little back story. We have made several changes over the course of my lessons and we have tried several different feels along the way to try and get in the correct positions. Normally, within the allotted lesson time, I do very well making the changes and hit the ball very well. Then I wouldn't see my teacher for another 3-4 weeks and by then I seem to have fallen back (not to mention I have not had much time lately to actually get on the course and play). It seems like a vicious circle. So what I am about to do is change to weekly lessons to make sure I don't fall backwards.

All of that leads to my current problem. I am in my head WAY too much!  I feel like I have so many swing thoughts going through my head right now that I cannot swing freely and I am all out of sync. But I cannot seem to clear my mind. I have talked with my teacher about this and we are going to talk about everything at my next lesson, but it is killing my game. I played a member guest yesterday at a local country club and it was terrible. Embarrassing actually, compared to where I know I can play. He said "it looks like you are just trying too hard to hit positions instead of swinging and playing golf. It's like you are in your head too much." I told him that I 100% agree but I don't know how to stop that at this point. I have never had this issue and I don't know if it's because we have made so many feel changes or what but I am clueless on how to get out of my head.

Any advice on that issue @iacas @boogielicious @DaveP043 @saevel25

It feels like it is completely wrecking my game..

I'll take it as a compliment that you include me here, but I'm not sure how much I can help.  I guess I go back to the idea of a "priority piece", the one single change that will produce the most improvement.  It sounds like you're trying to work on a bunch of changes, and I just don't think that's likely to be productive.  Maybe you haven't taken the time to practice and absorb the the first change completely before moving on to something new, maybe your teacher is giving you too many things to work on simultaneously.  I think that should be the basis of your conversation with your teacher, tell him you want just one thing to work on, and you don't want to move on to anything else until you've "mastered" it.  And then its up to you to do the work, and part of the work involves training yourself to focus only on that one single change.

[TN94z]

1 minute ago, DaveP043 said:

  I think that should be the basis of your conversation with your teacher, tell him you want just one thing to work on, and you don't want to move on to anything else until you've "mastered" it.

This is actually a text message I sent him this morning prior to making the post here. So I have that part covered. I don't mind putting the work in for sure. Working on drills is actually what I call "my time" where no one is bothering me and it's peaceful. I really think it is having too many things to work on. Not necessarily in one lesson, but not having "mastered" one before moving to the other has added up, so I think you hit the nail on the head there. And I have been around here for a while, so that is something that I know but I guess getting caught up in the changes, I seem to overlook. I understand priority pieces and know the process, but it is kind of a weird feeling. It is like a, this has hit me all at once and I didn't see it coming, kind of feeling....if that makes sense. And now that it has hit me, it's a bit overwhelming.

[phillyk]

2 minutes ago, TN94z said:

This is actually a text message I sent him this morning prior to making the post here. So I have that part covered. I don't mind putting the work in for sure. Working on drills is actually what I call "my time" where no one is bothering me and it's peaceful. I really think it is having too many things to work on. Not necessarily in one lesson, but not having "mastered" one before moving to the other has added up, so I think you hit the nail on the head there. And I have been around here for a while, so that is something that I know but I guess getting caught up in the changes, I seem to overlook. I understand priority pieces and know the process, but it is kind of a weird feeling. It is like a, this has hit me all at once and I didn't see it coming, kind of feeling....if that makes sense. And now that it has hit me, it's a bit overwhelming.

Are they all in-swing thoughts or are some pre-swing?  Make sure to categorize the thoughts, it will help contain and simplify. Work on each of them one at a time on the range.  When playing, if it gets jumbled, do you have a back up thought or swing you can use to get you through?  

[TN94z]

12 minutes ago, phillyk said:

Are they all in-swing thoughts or are some pre-swing?  Make sure to categorize the thoughts, it will help contain and simplify. Work on each of them one at a time on the range.  When playing, if it gets jumbled, do you have a back up thought or swing you can use to get you through?  

In-swing thoughts for the most part. If I am playing and it starts to go bad, I typically revert back to a swing thought that had me hitting okay, which is where we started working from. But lately, even that thought cannot get me off the tee box. I think, even though I try to narrow it down to the thought I can play with, i still try and do the new things at the same time and they work against each other

Edited August 28, 2020 by TN94z

[boogielicious]

19 hours ago, TN94z said:

In-swing thoughts for the most part. If I am playing and it starts to go bad, I typically revert back to a swing thought that had me hitting okay, which is where we started working from. But lately, even that thought cannot get me off the tee box. I think, even though I try to narrow it down to the thought I can play with, i still try and do the new things at the same time and they work against each other

I usually pick one feel to start and rehearse that while waiting to hit. Sometimes I will change the thought during the round. This doesn’t include set up. Set up is just my routine.

Example: High hands feel. Sometimes I can take the backswing a little flat so I think to get my hands higher at A4. This gives my space on the downswing to get my right elbow out. I know from filming practice that the high hands thought will help this, so I only use that thought.

I also use, “swing out” at times. This keeps me from getting too steep on the downswing. A weird one I use on occasion is “Jim Furyk”. I try to feel like I’m doing his backswing and downswing. When I film that, it just looks like me hitting my checkpoints and not like his swing at all.

You really need to film the practices you work on feels and priority pieces. Sometimes I will only hit 10 balls in a half hour working on feels. I do use MirrorVision, so that helps because I can see myself on my iPad.

[iacas]

5 S words… simplifying is prioritizing and vice versa.