Tried some Half Swing Drills at range...chaos ensued!

[Bogeysaurus]

I've been researching what are good drills for developing a consistent swing and it seemed that the half swing drill was always mentioned.  I figured I'd give it a shot.  I'd noticed myself that if I practice chipping prior to the range I always hit well and half swinging seems so similar to chipping.

So I start with my 5w and immediately am baffled as to why I can't make good contact at all.  I work at that for a while and move to a low iron as frustration builds.  Same thing!  I couldn't do the half swing!  So I stop thinking about that and tell myself to do some chipping pitching....I couldn't make proper contact.  I was shanking, making huge divots, it was the worse thing I've ever done regarding a golf swing!

I took a step back and tried to just do some full swings and that was gone too...  When I could get the ball off the ground I was slicing everything, wood and irons.  I haven't sliced in forever....didn't think I would ever slice again.

After lots of frustration and balls I finally got a handful of straight decent shots with my irons and called it quits...

So... what happened!?!?  Has anyone else experienced this after attempting the half swing drill?  Does this mean something fundamental is wrong with my swing that I am compensating for during a full swing?  I've taken 3 lessons to get to the point where I am now and I was very confident in my swing until the range today...

[BostonBrew]

I do a "half-swing" drill fairly often. It is my go-to drill when I notice my ballstriking starts to worsen. But I don't experience what you described. I usually make great contact and hit the ball about 70% as far as my full swing. Maybe you were so focused on only taking the club halfway back that you forgot to maintain your turn and weight transfer. I tried to get a friend to do my "thumbs-up" drill and instead of turning he simply lifted his arms to parallel.

[spentmiles]

Learn to hit crisp chip shots, 10-50 yards, then slowly work back from there into a half swing.  Then, when you've got that, try the full swings again.  At this point in learning your swing, spend 80% of the bucket of balls doing things that build your confidence.  Then challenge yourself with things that you know are hard for you at this point.  It's like making a sword out of a hunk of hot metal, you have to keep hammering on it for a long time before it's useable.  Go slow and avoid frustration by improving what you can do and slowly building toward what you can't.  It's a long process, so settle in.

[Bogeysaurus]

Typically I do decent chipping work and move on to the range and things are good.  Not sure what happened today.  Was talking to a co-worker that golfs and he thinks that I must have been sliding instead of rotating and then the frustration made me rotate even less and start using all arm.  I can see that, I was pushing and slicing terribly suddenly.

This game is something else... I've had off days at basketball but I've never suddenly forgotten how to do a lay up