Frozen Over the Ball

[boogielicious]

9 hours ago, the fish said:

I'll give this a shot.  What you just described as your routine is exactly how I want mine to go.

I tried today at the range to look at the target and fire, without an intentional thought of telling myself to fire, and it was unsuccessful.  Yesterday I tried counting, "one, two, three, GO".  That was more successful--it seems like I need to have a purposeful thought of pulling the trigger in my mind to overcome this.

I think you are on the right track. I shortened my set up routine considerably by practicing it. I usually just have one swing thought and one abbreviated practice swing behind the ball to get loose. Then I just focus on the target, set up and swing. I try to make a controlled backswing because I do have a tendency to speed up.

When I practice at the range, the first part of practice is the drill work, usually slower motion stuff. Then I will finish with practicing my routine with different clubs, Driver, wood, long iron, short iron, wedge, etc, rotating each. The purpose of this in part is getting my set up routine down so it is fast and repeatable. Mentally, I try to focus on the target.

Practicing this made me a faster player. Keep at it. In a few months you will get compliments on the change.

[the fish]

13 hours ago, Traveller said:

Counting doesn't usually work. You could try a trigger like lifting your right heel up and down quickly before bringing the club back smoothly and quietly in the backswing. Good luck .

I went to the range today at lunch, and since I didn't have much success yesterday with just trying to swing without an intentional thought in my head, I went back to counting in my head, "one, two, three, GO".  It worked very well today.  I didn't get stuck once when using this technique, and there were some shots where I almost wanted to pull the trigger as soon as I said, "one".

I think, at least for right now, I need an intentional thought to pull the trigger as a way to short-circuit my mind from running through the checklist of things I've learned in my lessons.  Perhaps the three second pause over the ball isn't ideal, but today it felt intentional, instead of feeling hopelessly stuck like it was before.

I did this today by simulating a round of my home course on the range.  This was good because I was pulling a new club after each shot, and was able to practice a complete pre-shot routine as if I were actually playing.  The surprising thing is that I only flubbed 2 or 3 shots, and those shots were a few that I tried to omit counting and just fire.

I'm playing a round tomorrow, and I've asked one of my playing partners to keep tabs on how long it is taking me to play my turn.  I haven't told him about what I worked on today, so I am hoping he tells me that I don't appear to be taking forever.

[the fish]

So I had a difficult time bringing this method to the course today. It was hard to not think about the importance of each shot, versus on the range where it doesn't count for anything. I'll keep working at it, however.

On the upside, my coworker said I am a little bit slow when it is my turn, but it isn't awful. So I'm guessing it is at least partly in my head that it takes forever.