Change and Moving on to a New Priority Piece

[iacas]

"There, I changed [something you need to change in your golf swing here]. What's the next thing?"

Did you really?

Did you actually change the piece? Does the club now shallow slightly in transition? Do you truly now turn your shoulders on the proper inclination? Does your trail elbow now stop going around your shirt seam with all of your clubs, on every swing?

Be honest with yourself and, quite often, you'll realize you're not ready for the next thing… that the original thing is still the priority piece.

A lot of golfers come to a lesson, get their piece, and after 15 or 20 balls really start hitting it better. Let's say we're talking about a golfer fails to slide his hips forward and get his weight forward properly (Key #2). After 15 or 20 balls, he's starting to get the feeling down. He's starting to slide his hips forward consistently. The changes to his swing feel a bit less severe so he's starting to hit the ball more solidly. His fat and thin shots are reduced. The ball is coming off at the right height, getting him extra yardage. He's happy.

He thinks he's got it.

He does.

He has the right piece, but he doesn't own that piece yet. He's made 10,000, 100,000, even more swings the old way, not moving his hips and weight forward, and 30 or 40 the right way. Change takes time.

It takes time for a change to become second nature, embedded in "who you are" as a golfer. It takes time to do something in the golf swing without having to think about it, or check on it from time to time.

Don't get ahead of yourself. Don't think that a few swings on the range mean that you've achieved success, and that you're ready for whatever is next. Record your swing while thinking only about your favorite sundae or something, free of thoughts, and see if the change has actually taken hold .

Only then, when your change is second nature, has it truly changed.

[chris3putt]

Quote:

Originally posted by @iacas

Don't get ahead of yourself. Don't think that a few swings on the range mean that you've achieved success, and that you're ready for whatever is next. Record your swing while thinking only about your favorite sundae or something, free of thoughts, and see if the change has actually taken hold .

Aha, now this makes sense. I can make the changes that I have been working on if I consciously think about them. Need to video myself doing the above "sundae" thing and see what gives.

[mvmac]

It takes time for a change to become second nature, embedded in "who you are" as a golfer. It takes time to do something in the golf swing without having to think about it, or check on it from time to time.

Yes it certainly does take time.

Take Tiger for example, he's gone through four swing changes, significant enough that you can tell roughly what year it is by looking at his swing. It takes him months, sometimes close to a year to make the changes stick. And golf is his full time job and like he said last week in a press conference, "I work my ass off". So if it takes Tiger several months to make a change the average Joe isn't going to own his piece after a few range sessions.

[oregongolfguy]

yeah....Don't have to remind me on this.  Its sometimes amazing how your muscle memory just drops back into old routines.  Frustrating at times actually.  I have a funny feeling that there are multiple things in my golf swing that will be constant work to try to keep at least relatively not bad.  And without a camera don't even realize it.

I was working on driver last week, felt pretty good on slow practice etc, sped it up a bit, still doing ok, then some slices came out.  thought maybe clubface was too open to path......until I knicked my ball basket....which was behind and outside of my tee....ummm....big over the top wipe anyone.....decided to pull that sucker in a little closer and use it to my advantage.

Amazing how you can make some decent swings working on 1 piece, but when you start thinking about something else your body reverts back....

[saevel25]

I would say Key's 1 and 2 probably are quicker to get than Key 3. Key 4 and 5 probably take the longest.

I am sure I will be working on that backswing piece for a long time. I bet it will probably be something I have to keep refreshing every so often.

[JaNiclas]

Hey

a very interesting topic!

I was changing my swing completely during winter, after I saw my swing the first time on camera last year.

So I made some pretty drastic changes. First of all I think it is important to get a bit of a general understanding of the swing, evaluate your own swing and decide which points you want to work on.

Then work your way through those points of improvement and film yourself, without the filming you wont be able t see whenever you are falling back into old habits, thats pretty crucial.

Then don't expect to improve your ball striking immediately as you change a part, I took me a long time after making the bigger changes to get a solid contact back.

In the beginning I was doing a lot of swings without a ball which was of to get a feeling for the movements. But as soon as I was hitting balls it was nearly impossible to make the same good swing with a ball, so I went on making very very slow swings to ingrain the new pattern which worked quite well.

Then I have to say yes I was doing that work at my place hitting into a net, I did not see the ball flight and I could only feel if I made good contact and literally filmed every swing I made and checked it. I would consider that as an advantage, because I was really doing some major changes, and ball contact in the beginnings was really poor, so I could only focus on the right body movements without constantly evaluating ball flights.

After 6 months of hard training I am able to bring that swing to the range, and to the course.

Being out on the range for the first time was very difficult not to fall back into old patterns which can still happen when I want to hit it hard and long.

The same thing on the course, so I started to rather play an iron longer and remind myself to make the same smooth swings like at home in front of the net and it works, although on the course it is even harder to tell your brain to slow it down.

So in my case I can clearly see the difference between my comfort zone at home in front of the net, the driving range which and then playing the course.

That being said, it is not only the techniques and the movement you need to learn but also teach your brain to stick to the new patterns and bring them on the course.

This part is equally as hard, if not harder to accomplish!

Good luck to everyone who is willing to change its own swing!

[Jameson]

Couldn´t agree more. I´m working in not going from out to in (a little bit) in the downswing... I know I do it if I´m not thinking of avoiding it carefully. It´s going to take a lot of time until I engage it and make it right without thinking too much, automatically. It´s the key to improve my game... for sure.

[Shindig]

This is something I have to remind myself of. I've hit the range twice since my latest evolvr lesson, and I think I'm hitting the ball better already. But that doesn't mean I'm ready to film and ask for the next piece. I'm still going to take several slow training swings before each ball and really ingrain it. At least I'm getting better at that part -- last night's bucket of 30 took an hour (where in the past, I'd go through twice as many in about 45 minutes). The funny thing is, I'm used to recognizing that a change doesn't happen so quickly when I see others try it. How many people have I heard say "Yeah, I tried S&T on the range with a dozen balls and it isn't for me"?

[rkim291968]

My first one on one lessons were 2 weeks apart.  My instructor pretty much taught me one thing to work on per lesson.   I practice all the time and play 2 - 3 times a week.  Even so, it wasn't easy to master one lesson in two week.  My 4th lesson was on getting rid of flipping.   I couldn't do it in two weeks.   My 5th lesson was a repeat of the 4th one.  I told my instructor that I will resume on lessons after I get rid of flipping.   6 weeks later, I am still working on getting rid of flipping.  This is going to take a long time to fix.

[mvmac]

6 weeks later, I am still working on getting rid of flipping.  This is going to take a long time to fix.

I've been playing for 20 years and I'm still working on it

Just make sure you're working on the cause and not the effect.

[rkim291968]

Just make sure you're working on the cause and not the effect.

I think that's what the drills are for.

[mvmac]

I think that's what the drills are for.

Good

[SteveH]

Its very frustrating. After playing for 6 yrs I decided it was probably in my best interest to get some lessons. After talking with instructor I find there are issues with my swing path that we have been working on for 3 lessons now over about 3 weeks. I have put serious hours and hours of time into practicing the new path and the changes to setup etc that were required to do this. The first couple of things I got pretty quickly but it is for sure a struggle.  I find I cannot just have no thoughts and swing, because my old swing comes back. I look at my divot and can immediately see when I come from the outside. I, like others, find it is especially worse when I try to hit hard.  I get quick and that leads to my backswing going too far, which then changes my spine angle and the whole thing goes out the window.  Then as I watch the ball flying through the air and arcing right I realize what happened. The mind is a wonderful thing and it is able to make the arms/hands make the necessary changes to still contact the ball good when the path changes. I realize I spent six years learning to make solid contact with a bad swing path but if I want to fix it I am just going to have to work at it. I plan on working on it nearly every day to get it ingrained. I have one more lesson today and I'm hoping to get the next step as I don't think the face is closing but my instructor said that will be easy to fix. I find I have actually taken a step back in my overall game for the last few weeks while I have been working on this. There is so much to this sport, I had no idea when I started. I am one of those people that doesn't quit so will put in whatever needs to be done to get this corrected.

[oregongolfguy]

change sucks... (head against wall  swinging while typing this)

[billchao]

I'm totally guilty of this. I've been struggling with my ballstriking lately and I figured out that it's related to something I thought I solved last Fall. Back to the grindstone.

[Shindig]

Is there a preferred club suggested for priority pieces? I've been using my 6-iron primarily while practicing, with some occasional utility metals and driver shots mixed in once I think I'm getting the hang of it better. My first time after a lesson I'm usually starting with an 8-iron for a dozen shots.

[fanofsaosin]

i finally caved in and bought a foam ball to place in between my forearms due to me rolling #3 so much on the backswing, i have been doing half way back and half way through shots for the past couple days.  I have the urge to start making full swings but i know that i don't have this piece ingrained in my muscle memory and must keep at it till its automatic, i know this piece will make the downswing pieces better.  I can only imagine what Tiger and the pro's go through when they do a swing change

[RFKFREAK]

Yes it certainly does take time. Take Tiger for example, he's gone through four swing changes, significant enough that you can tell roughly what year it is by looking at his swing. It takes him months, sometimes close to a year to make the changes stick. And golf is his full time job and like he said last week in a press conference, "I work my ass off". So if it takes Tiger several months to make a change the average Joe isn't going to own his piece after a few range sessions.

This is kind of depressing to me because if it takes Tiger that long, and as you say, golf is his full time job, it seems like it could take decades, if ever, for a working man or woman to have a change ingrained and be second nature. :(