Any feel players out here?

[Teddy]

I'm developing my game on a completely feel basis, using gravity and momentum as apose to strength. I'm having a lot of success on the downswing, but i've having a hard time understanding how the feel of a good backswing should be.

I'll work my body into understanding which backswing is most comfortable. This is my first season about 4 weeks in, and i'm just wondering if anybody else has gone down this path and what type of results you achieved.

[CalBoomer]

When I was first learning how to play golf, everything that felt good and normal to me turned out to be wrong. "Feel" comes from practice, repetition, and experience after you have all of the basic techniques in place. "Feel" is not something you start with.

[delav]

Agreed. If simplifying the mechanics is your main goal, look towards the stack and tilt pattern swing. As another poster states, the golf swing isn't necessarily intuitive.

[sean_miller]

I'm developing my game on a completely feel basis, using gravity and momentum as apose to strength. I'm having a lot of success on the downswing, but i've having a hard time understanding how the feel of a good backswing should be.

I may have started playing that way back in the day. We played a lot of "one club" with a pocket full of balls - we'd play until we lost them all - not even keeping score.

Good times.

[Teddy]

Well, the reason i'm going down this path is becuase there are a million ways to swing. There is no wrong or right way, there might be a method that is used more over another though. While reading up on how to swing, I came accross a thousand different specific tips, relating to this elbow, and that hip. I feel this will all complicate something that in essense is very simple.

Why not start with feel?

Mind you i'm talking about the swing, and not the setup to where i want to hit, which i have a specific method for. But once that setup is where i want it to be, I just want to be able to swing. From your reactions it looks like i'm chasing a pipedream.

[sean_miller]

There is no wrong or right way

There are quite a few right ways - with the same elements.

There are countless wrong ways. Watch your ball flight for confirmation, but I'm sure you'll be able to "feel" the wrong ones. They might not be wrong by much though - instruction could identify the subtle differences and then you can feel those too. Getting proper instruction is like being formally introduced to someone you've heard stories about - putting a face to the name (or vise versa - a name to the face).

[Teddy]

I guess i'll learn in time, i'm pretty stubborn when it comes to certain things. And this is something i believe is attainable, I don't even have 1 season, let alone a couple months under my belt, so i have a while to go. Either way i'm loving the game, just wish it wasn't so expensive.

[Meddle]

When I was first learning how to play golf, everything that felt good and normal to me turned out to be wrong. "Feel" comes from practice, repetition, and experience after you have all of the basic techniques in place. "Feel" is not something you start with.

What he said. You need to develop the fundamentals first, get them ingrained while you still can. The last thing you need is to develop bad habits, because they are hard to change once they're there.

I'm kind of a "feel" swinger, I try not to think about more than maybe 2 things while I swing, but I've got the fundamentals ingrained already. By the way, by "fundamentals" I mean grip, stance, alignment, and stuff like that which everyone agrees on.

[Teddy]

Those fundamentals, grip, stance, alignment, what else is there?

I am working on finding out which grip works best, my stance i'm trying to keep doing the same thing every time, and alignment is something i also keep repeating the same thing over and over.

I agree with having the non-swing area's ingrained in my head. When at the range i repeat the same thigns for every swing, takes a lot longer to finish the bucket of balls lol. My buddies are usually done a good 15 minutes ahead of me.

[Meddle]

Swing fundamentals: Not swaying back and forth during swing, keeping head down through impact, wrists quiet during backswing, transfering weight forward during downswing. There is more, but you get the picture. Not doing these things all lead to major flaws, whether it is hitting fat, slicing, etc. which you will correct by doing something else wrong. BTW I'm just trying to help you out, so you don't go down this road which I guarantee will lead to frustration. My two cents anyway.

[Teddy]

Thanks, I appreciate it.

What do you mean by wrists quiet during backswing?

I haven't made an effort to change my weight from my back foot to my front front during the backswing. That might be what is making my back swing feel very awkward. My weight right now is evenly distributed on both feet during the back swing, to be more precise, about 80% on teh balls of my feet, 20% on my heels.

I put my full concentration on hitting the ball, therefore my head never goes up till my swing is complete and just naturally goes up. Really i couldn't tell you at what specific point it goes up in the follow thru.

[DavidFehertysBike]

Feel comes really when you know your abilities and your game. I would classify myself as a feel player. I do stress fundementals (grip posture etc) but my swing is all feel. So sometimes its long, sometimes its short and fast at the bottom. Ill take 4 different types of swings to make the same shot, sometimes.

[McGolf-Doggie]

I'll work my body into understanding which backswing is most comfortable.

Most comfortable isn't necessarily best.

While I rely on feel a great deal out on the course, at the range I work on mechanics a lot — although I also spend some quality time on feel/visualization at the range, too. Both mechanics and feel. I found that what I do in the backswing, including balance, weight transfer and focus of forces, backswing path and other variables, and how I combine them can have a significant influence on the downswing. It's taken a bunch of lessons and a lot of observing ballflight and developing awareness of balance and weight transfer to get things more reliable. And then there's grip, too, where I rely on visual cues and feel and memory. I still fight a hook - or uber-draw - from time to time, or even for periods of time, but I believe solid mechanics as a foundation, I can rely on not having to think about too much on the course, if at all, and let the feel part reign. And yes, sometimes i can feel myself doing things wrong out there (by which time it's too late to check the swing) but make a mental note to work it at the range. On the 9 holes I typically play, scoring more 42s this year, down from 47, 45, 44. Slow and steady progress. Obviously a long, long ways to go.

[Meddle]

Thanks, I appreciate it.

You don't transfer your weight forward during the backswing, you should have 80% of it on the inside of your right foot at the peak of your backswing, then transfer it back to your left foot during your downswing. By "quiet wrists" I mean not opening up the face of the club during the backswing by rolling your forarms and wrists, which will cause a slice.

This is the kind of stuff a Pro would tell you if you took a lesson, or even just read a book like Hogan's 5 Rules, about the swing. A few years back I took one $40 dollar lesson, and I still remember it to this day. I took so much out of it, and it really changed me as a golfer. I would highly recommend doing it, the pro would just emphasize fundamentals, and from there you can develop your swing.

[kilbyman]

The two most important things I am working on for developing my feel are: not swaying on my backswing, and not letting my right elbow get less than 90* on the backswing. The former point you can practice doing the rotation drill (hold club across chest, turn right, turn left) and the latter you just have to ingrain over time. If you (and me too) can get those two things down regularly, I think ballstriking drastically improves.

[max power]

Agreed. If simplifying the mechanics is your main goal, look towards the stack and tilt pattern swing. As another poster states, the golf swing isn't necessarily intuitive.

Ha-funny you should say that. It's completely true, every time I've taken my wife along for some pitch and putt or executive golfing (and she's not horrible) she tells me how wrong and unnatural swinging the golf club feels. I really have no good counter argument except that it starts to feel better with practice, which is where she completely loses interest.

[saevel25]

When i try to do is take a few swings behind the ball and try to gauge the shot. then i will hit the shot and remember that feeling. Keep doing this for everyshot and i start getting a feeling of how i want to hit the ball and how that shot will go. So its like fine tuning a piano, you hear it off key, then you adjust, little bit more, you might over adjust but then you find that perfect note and all is right with the world..

[sean_miller]

you should have 80% of it on the inside of your right foot at the peak of your backswing, then transfer it back to your left foot during your downswing. By "quiet wrists" I mean not opening up the face of the club during the backswing by rolling your forarms and wrists, which will cause a slice.

I don't recall hearing any of that during a lesson.