Anyone ever have the wheels come completely off...at the range?

[SoundandFury]

Been playing pretty well lately, shot personal lows at my regular course twice in the last week, including this morning.  Went to the range today and I was a complete mess.  I think I chunked or topped about 25 straight balls, hit a few decent drivers, then when back to hacking through the rest of the bucket.

Anyone ever had this happen (particularly after playing well and seeing some improvement)? Everything about my swing felt off and uncomfortable.

[rehmwa]

I call that last Wednesday.  (my prior two games were personal bests)  even swings that felt great had dramatically horrible ball flights (or rolls/shanks/etc)

But then I had a great game on the next Sunday.  (now my second best game - and on an unfamiliar course)

I'll chalk it up to cold golf balls and having to hit off wet matts instead of grass......or I just really stunk up the range that day.... either way

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by SoundandFury

Been playing pretty well lately, shot personal lows at my regular course twice in the last week, including this morning.  Went to the range today and I was a complete mess.  I think I chunked or topped about 25 straight balls, hit a few decent drivers, then when back to hacking through the rest of the bucket.

Anyone ever had this happen (particularly after playing well and seeing some improvement)? Everything about my swing felt off and uncomfortable.

Yes, it happens to me sometimes.  It also happens in bowling, which is even weirder because there are way fewer variables.  One week I can shoot a 700, followed by a 520 the next.

It gets frustrating because it seems like I'm not doing anything different, but then eventually (usually halfway through the last game) I realize that it's something real dumb and simple, like not following through on the shot.

I believe that in golf it ends up being the same, its just harder to pinpoint it because there are a million things it could be.  I would just shake it off and be pretty confident (read: pray with my fingers crossed!) that it would not happen again.

If I hit a few balls and it starts to get really frustrating, I'll just start hitting chips and punch shots and whatever I can hit that doesn't go horribly awry.

[jamo]

Occasionally I'll just have a day where everything feels weird. No muscle memory kicks in and I fell like I'm just flailing at the ball. If I'm at the range I just give my bucket to the guy next to me and head home (or to the putting green) for the day. It doesn't usually last more than a day though, which is nice.

[Mr. Desmond]

Originally Posted by SoundandFury

Been playing pretty well lately, shot personal lows at my regular course twice in the last week, including this morning.  Went to the range today and I was a complete mess.  I think I chunked or topped about 25 straight balls, hit a few decent drivers, then when back to hacking through the rest of the bucket.

Anyone ever had this happen (particularly after playing well and seeing some improvement)? Everything about my swing felt off and uncomfortable.

Yes - never hit the range after working out with weights... or after a sleepless night.

[saevel25]

Here's what you do, when you have a few bad shots, step back and refocus, maybe take a few minutes to just calm down. Go buy a drink, something. Then go through your preshot routine. If your still mishitting the shots. Then work on something you know you can do, maybe its hitting the driver, or maybe its just a drill you know you do, something familiar. If you don't then just leave the range and stop hitting. Nothing worse then practicing full shots that are not good shots.

I had a time for about a month i had the shanks, just every shot went horrible right, it was terrible. Then they just went away, don't know how, they did, never had the issue again. So, really, just take a break if you need it.

[AmazingWhacker]

Yes - every once in a while I just go out and swing a lot worse than I know I'm capable of and nothing I seem to try fixes it.  I think it's usually do to letting a bad habit sneak back in without realizing and/or poor rhythm.  With regard to poor rhythm, I play musical instruments and I have days where my timing is all off.  Feels like the same kind of thing.  Maybe we all just have "bad rhythm" days.

[SoundandFury]

That's a very good call.  I was hitting the driver just fine (which makes sense because my problem was contact off the deck).  Should have stuck with that or just called it a day rather than stubbornly pound the rest of the bucket.

On the bright side, as much as it sucks to suck, better on the range than on the course.

[Jenkins]

This happens to me all the time. For me, it's mainly a mental issue. I hit a couple nice balls and everything goes fine, but once I top or shank one, those thoughts creep into my head and I get real tentative with my swing.

[Valleygolfer]

I had this going on after shooting a career low. It didn't matter what I did I was uncomfortable and had no confidence. This happened for one whole round and half another one. Then all of a sudden I turned it around and blistered the second nine.

[Odogesq]

Yup.  As some have mentioned, I have found that taking a few minutes to step back and reflect after a few poor shots goes a tremendous way toward refocusing the mind and making better swings.  Also, as mentioned herein, the cause of those poor shots is usually something silly, like a lack of follow through or failure to make the correct weight shift, etc.  I have found that the least productive thing I can do under those circumstances is to keep hitting balls blindly, further infuriating myself.

If I can't get back on track fairly quickly, I will usually switch clubs and go to my sand/gap wedge.  It always seems that going back to the higher lofted clubs helps bring me back to the good swings.  Worst case scenario, if, for example, I am just too tired at the end of the bucket to really focus on the full swing, I will just practice my chipping.

[Mr. Desmond]

When hitting horribly, I go back to drills and wedge shots. Typically, my rhythm is too fast anyway, so I try to slo-mo, especially at the top, making certain the club is set as the downswing begins. During the drills, I'll go through checkpoints and make sure I'm hitting them - I'll do a slo-mo swing and check positions, and then put it together.

[Audaxi]

I think it happens to everyone. I had a period of time this past summer where I was shooting low 80's and high 70's very consistently, but on the range I looked like I had just picked up a club for the first time. I'm not sure what it was, besides a mental aspect of knowing that it really doesn't matter on the range, but it was frustrating when I tried to work on my swing before or after a round.

[Effington]

Happens to me all the time...but probably just because I'm not good at this game...

[tuffluck]

OP, happened to me exactly this week.  two weeks ago got new irons and played a round with them; i was terrible.  last monday, tuesday, wednesday i went to the range every day, the irons came around.  played thursday, saturday with significantly better progress (shot a 91 on saturday, previous best on that course was 106, it is very very tough since i'm normally a mid-90s player in general).  i was really excited.

i played again on sunday and everything was going downhill a little bit, and finally capped it off with a range session on tuesday and it was absolutely terrible.  fat shots as you mention and those shots where you feel like your hands shift in the downswing and you shank it right.  i couldn't figure it out, so i just left.

anyway, i think it is due, at least for me, to overplaying.  i've never played that much over consecutive days.  i eventually got impatient and honestly just tired of playing so much.  i could never be a pro golfer.  not to mention i have golfer's elbow and after the range sessions last week it really began giving me fits.  i was/am icing it every day and taking ibuprofen.  an injury--even slight--can make things both mentally and physically exhausting pretty quick.  if i were you i would just take a few days off.  i'm confident when i play again on saturday i'll feel better and more confident.

[dak4n6]

Spazzing out is just a normal part of golf. If I start spazzing big time on the range I pull out my 7i, put my hands forward, weight forward, and hit 50 yd punches, keeping the hands ahead and accelerating down through the ball.  It's like hitting the reset button. Then I go up to a nice L to L swing to reset the feel of a little release. Then work back into the full swing. I've done this many many many many times.

[Spudmonkey]

Originally Posted by dak4n6

Spazzing out is just a normal part of golf. If I start spazzing big time on the range I pull out my 7i, put my hands forward, weight forward, and hit 50 yd punches, keeping the hands ahead and accelerating down through the ball.  It's like hitting the reset button. Then I go up to a nice L to L swing to reset the feel of a little release. Then work back into the full swing. I've done this many many many many times.

Good advice from dak4n6, I do the same type of thing just to get the feel of good contact back.

All of a sudden losing your swing is just part of the game we all love .

[SoundandFury]

Some good advice from all.  As an update, I managed to straighten this crap out during an evening range session last night (i should have taken a couple days off, but a bad round or terrible range session eats at me until my next good one).

went to the range and hit nothing but driver (since that was working fine) for the first half of a bucket.  probably the best i've ever hit my driver, everything seem to be clicking, and some 280+ drives don't seem to be out of the question anymore.  After that i picked up my 4i just to see what would happen...and it was like i couldn't chunk it or skull it if i tried. I don't think that's going to last, but what i realized is that I hit very well when i don't expect to, and hit like shit when I expect to go in and start shaping irons around trees or something ridiculous like that.