Slumpbusting

[DeadMan]

Well, I'm sure we've all been here, but I wanted to start a thread to talk about busting out of slumps. What are your strategies to get yourself out of a slump? More practice? Less practice? I'll share what my plan is, maybe we can find a way that will work to get out of it.

I am currently mired in one. After starting out with two solid rounds in our handicap season, I've been struggling. Went from 5.8 and 12.9 differentials to 21.2, 16.6, 20.0, 15.4, 21.2. Yikes.

So here is what I'm going to try to do to get myself out of this slump:

• I lose a lot of my strokes off the tee. I'm going to start using my 3 and 5 woods off the tee more often. I don't lose enough distance with those clubs to really hurt me too much.
• The thing that turns a below average round into a bad round for me right now are the shanks. I need to continue to work on my swing changes with evovlr to help avoid those.
• No double bogeys from a nGIR. That has been happening to me too much. If I'm in a bad spot around the green, just give myself a 2 putt.
• Sort of in that vein, I need better focus when I'm around and on the green. My scrambling percentage has been alarmingly low recently. I think a lot of time that's due to me rushing a bit and not being completely focused when I face what should be an easy short game shot.

That's my plan. The 2nd bullet point is probably the biggest thing I need to focus on to bust out of the slump. Unfortunately, I'm not going to have a ton of time practice in the near future beyond hitting some balls at the range here and there. I would really like to take half a day and just work on my short game. I'm just not pleased with my scrambling percentage. 25% is a good percentage for me, and I often have rounds at 0%. If I can eliminate the shanks and improve on my short game just a little bit, I'll be fine.

So, anyways, how do you bust out of a slump?

[bkuehn1952]

What are your strategies to get yourself out of a slump? More practice? Less practice?

So, anyways, how do you bust out of a slump?

I usually continue to play.  I mentally walk through a list of common errors I often find myself doing.  So probably the first thing a player needs to know are the common swing faults one's game is prone to.  If I can't correct what has gone haywire while playing, I will hit balls during a range session until I feel the problem has been identified and worked out.

For me, the key is to trust that I have a decent game and not try to make any drastic changes.  I have played for 50+ years and every time the game has gone sideways, it gets fixed without a complete overhaul.

The other thing I tell myself is that I am going to be one heck of a competitive handicapper after ballooning my handicap and then fixing the fault.  It is painful to have a "handicap building" round or two but there is a rainbow at the end of the storm.

[disco111]

I remember an interview that Ben Crenshaw gave years ago and one question asked was "What advise would you give yourself on golf?" He answered, "Go play like a kid, hit it, find it, hit it again"............in other words, get out of your own way. Kids don't overly think it out, they just go and do it and have fun doing it......

[jamo]

When you practice, make short, slow swings. Swing as fast as you can (whether that's 10% of full speed or 100%) while still being able to make solid contact. Slowly increase your speed until you can make 90%-100% of full speed swings while making solid contact. That's how I do it.