Did You Have a Eureka Moment?

[GlasgowsGreen]

For me, the hardest part of learning golf from scratch has been the fact that I have never had the same swing for over a month. Every new lesson has brought about a change which I have had to work hard at implementing, and basically take two steps back to take three steps forward.

This lack of consistency and cluttered mind has meant that whilst my swing has dramatically improved, along with my driving range performance, my scorecard on the course has not. On the range I can have a good session with lots of great shots, however on the course I'm still giving away too many penalties caused by the odd slice or dodgy drive.

However I feel that I am getting closer and closer to having a consistent 'good swing' that I can take with me onto the course.

So, my question to those who have learnt the game from scratch is, did you have a moment when it all just seemed to click? Did you have a eureka moment when all the hard work finally seemed to have paid off?

Or has it been just one long slog with gradual improvements and setbacks along the way..!

[nevrino]

Yep, I had almost no lag in my wrist for the first 3-4 years of golfing, was pretty awesome when i first understood how to use the wrists(it just clicked suddenly at the range) and my drives went 80 yards further ;D.

Edit: But many many times I thought wow now I understand the swing when seeing an youtube clip and go to range and film it, then when I come home and look on the comp swing looks like usual :(.

[marrsh28]

Yep, and it happened a little over a month ago.  I've always struggled with my balance and hitting the ball thin.  Then, I saw a member video on here about shoulder tilt at address and realized by shoulders weren't tilted at all.  Viola!!  I've had consitent ball striking with my long irons ever since.  Also, my finish is much more balanced.  Its amazing how one little thing can change everything.

[Mr Puddle]

Now, we have all had them, and the longer you play and the better you get, the less you have. Of course, the problem with eureka moments is that three out of four are only ever temporary. However, sometimes there are eureka moments that create long term improvements. I am not a gifted player, and golf doesn't come naturally to me. I watch better players than me, but with very unorthodox swings, and this I find quite frustrating. Trying to simulate what works for someone else rarely for me, if ever at all. For this reason I have to try and do things by the book. I suppose it could be said that this is an advantage, rather than a disadvantage. 

I hadn't been playing  well for a few months, and the summer conditions were masking some of my faults. The improved roll due to the hard ground, as well as the fact the club face would bounce off of the ground and hit the ball if I struck it, all contributed to decent scores. Of course, then came the winter. If I topped the ball, even a bit, I got no distance, and if I hit the ball before the ground, the club face would simply dig into the soil. Accordingly my scores were getting worse and worse. I knew there was something I had to do, so I watched the better players, as well as a few youtube videos. Nope, I still couldn't find it. The only pro local to me is hopeless, so I wrote off lessons. I had noticed that I was developing a bit of a slice, and the usual things I had previously done to stop it were not working. I can't remember why, but I decided to adjust my grip. I moved my left hand around more, so the V between my thumb and pointing finger was pointing more towards the right side. I hope you know what I mean. This had two effects. It helped make the ball go straighter, and if forced me to keep a straight left arm. I don't pretend this cut out all my mistakes, but my driving improved drastically, and I started to hit sweeter and straighter fairway shots. It's been about a month now, and I am sure this simple adjustment had cut a fair few shots off of a round. 

The thread of course is not about my grip, it is about eureka moments that actually worked for you, so keep em coming !!

[iacas]

I think that, by and large, there aren't that many Eureka moments. Golfers get better by continually tweaking little things, here and there, and working steadily at improving a large number of little things.

[Patch]

My eureka moment happened way back when I first started working with a great golf instructor. 

Prior to golf I was a pretty gifted baseball player. I mean I was really good at the sport. Various colleges were interested. 

I played a round of golf with friends and was instantly hooked on the game. After struggling on my own for several months, I found a great instructor who taught me to swing a club, sometimes using baseball jargon. "Swing at the low, outside pitch", and "swing the club head to right field"  was when the light bulb lit up in my brain as far as swinging the club more consistently. These words of wisdom were given to me some 45+ years ago. 

From that point on, it was just a matter practicing alot on a few more little things, while gradually improving my long, and approach golf games. 

[Casualgolfer]

I have basically been self taught other than what pointers my dad gave me but I was a long time baseball player so the swing comes naturally to me. My biggest eureka moment is when I learned to hinge my wrist and hold that hinge until the last second. That coupled with a good hip bump had me striking balls solid with my irons consistently. Now I can replicate that for good ball striking. My last eureka moment was equipment related with my driver's. I switched from my 8.5 driver with x stiff shaft to a xx shaft with 5* head and picked up about 50 yards lol. Kind of a an anomaly on that one but still.

[nevets88]

I think it's like running. Let's say you started at around 12 minutes a mile and were gunning for a 7 minute mile. There is no one tip, no magic pill to take you there instantly. You have to go out there and keep running, sometimes you run slower, sometimes faster, but the longer trend is faster, you notice milestones, like sub 11, sub 10, sometimes it gets to be too much of a grind and you take a break, you alter your diet, you stretch, supplement with cross training, you get to a big milestone, the 8 minute mile and you think, I might just do this. Improvements in golf based on my little keyhole are here and there, you notice more and more, things that were not obvious a 6 months ago are obvious now, moves that are totally counterintuitive eventually become unconscious. You know you're never going to run a 5 minute mile, but you keep trying to get faster.

[saevel25]

On 6/29/2012 at 1:38 AM, GlasgowsGreen said:

So, my question to those who have learnt the game from scratch is, did you have a moment when it all just seemed to click? Did you have a eureka moment when all the hard work finally seemed to have paid off?

No, but I have had past suggestions that my golf instructor mentioned pop into my head that have helped out on a single piece that I am working on. Nothing in terms of having the entire swing click together. 

[Piz]

If Eureka Moment can be taken to mean Paradigm Shift I would say yes.  

[gbogey]

Yes but not exactly - if the question is "did the swing come together one day and stay?"  - then no, the golf swing is too inconsistent.  But a few things that have happened to me in my 10 years playing that might qualify:

1. One Spring I started hitting the ball about 10 yards further.  Maybe my ball had a new version that was longer or maybe I was improving at the range over the winter and didn't realize it, but I suddenly picked up some distance and it stayed.
2. There have been several "aha" moments, particularly when I was still taking lessons,  where I have realized that I understood my golf swing and what I was trying to do.  Since then I've developed a pretty good idea of what's going to happen to the ball before I look up.  Unfortunately, this is an after the fact "what went wrong" more than a before the fact "do this" awareness.  Still it helps when you are having an off day.
3. There were two time periods where I became frustrated because I knew that my game had improved in many facets but my scores weren't getting better.  Then suddenly I had a really good round and my handicap improved 2-3 strokes over a 10-15 round period. Unfortunately, not sure what happened but suddenly my scoring got better and my improvements showed up on the course.  Unfortunately the last improvement was 4 years ago and I now feel like I'm better than before, so I'm hoping that another 2-3 strokes are coming my way.

[Melly9]

No mechanical eureka moments, just trying to improve step by step, but my biggest eye opener was getting fitted for clubs. I have decent swing speed and watching my dispersion with driver and irons shrink a ton just by changing shafts was shocking to me. 

[GolfLug]

Not a singular darkness to light moment, but this year everything is finally clicking together and it did manifest fairly quickly in a couple of rounds.

[boogielicious]

My eureka moment came after years of bike racing. I played a round of golf and it suddenly dawned on me, I really like golf! This is fun!

There have been no magic pill moments for me, just steady learning from this site, Erik, Mike and my Evolvr instructor Stephan. I just focus on what they’ve told me to focus on. I few videos posted on this site just for info, but I try to always go back to what I am working on.

It took me a few years to tune out all the “tips” in golf magazines and TV. They are a distraction if you have a good teacher.

[MacDutch]

3 hours ago, saevel25 said:

No, but I have had past suggestions that my golf instructor mentioned pop into my head that have helped out on a single piece that I am working on. Nothing in terms of having the entire swing click together. 

You realize the TS asked the question 6 years ago?

Lots of eureka’s here. All of them within days taken from me by the golf gods.

[gbogey]

30 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

It took me a few years to tune out all the “tips” in golf magazines and TV. They are a distraction if you have a good teacher.

This brings back Eureka moment.  I was a range rat when I first started playing.  I had a cycle which went like this:

• Through several range sessions show great improvement in ball striking
• Incorporate a "tip" to increase distance, usually from a magazine.
• Hit the ball crappy
• Start over trying to improve ball striking

I finally started focusing on ball striking and fitness/flexibility with no attention to improving distance.  Quality of swing has been much better since then.  I still glance through the tips but not the ones that are focused on increasing distance.

[DeadMan]

I had probably half a dozen eureka moments when I was starting out and just figuring things out for myself. None of them lasted very long.

When I got actual, good instruction, I never really had/have eureka moments. It was more just consistently getting a little bit better for a while. I have phases that I go through where I hit the ball really well. They'll last anywhere from 2-6 weeks. They are probably more just me getting lucky than anything else. 

[Chasing_Bogeys]

On 12/31/2018 at 9:08 AM, Patch said:

My eureka moment happened way back when I first started working with a great golf instructor. 

Prior to golf I was a pretty gifted baseball player. I mean I was really good at the sport. Various colleges were interested. 

I played a round of golf with friends and was instantly hooked on the game. After struggling on my own for several months, I found a great instructor who taught me to swing a club, sometimes using baseball jargon. "Swing at the low, outside pitch", and "swing the club head to right field"  was when the light bulb lit up in my brain as far as swinging the club more consistently. These words of wisdom were given to me some 45+ years ago. 

From that point on, it was just a matter practicing alot on a few more little things, while gradually improving my long, and approach golf games. 

I was a good HS baseball player. Not great and not good enough to be recruited by colleges. But I transitioned from baseball swing to golf swing without instruction. 20-something years later I'm still fighting baseball tendencies. Primarily the "extend your hands" portion of a baseball swing. A golf swing from the inside feels like I'm getting jammed on the low inside pitch. Thus... OTT and a really spectacular left to right ball flight. Oh to have a time machine and get a years worth of lessons at 25 instead of waiting.

So my "Eureka!" moment was deciding to get a lessonl.