"Just swing like the tour pros do!"

[jkelley9]

Anyone else ever tell themselves this? I watch a lot of golf now and we've all seen their mostly-stellar swings. Especially when they do the slo-mo thing.

For the past 6-months or so when I'm having a crappy swing thought and I'm all jumbled in my head and having negative results, I have (on several occasions) told myself "just swing like the tour pros do!" I abandon my swing thoughts and basically just try to emulate what a pro swing would look like, with no care as to how the ball will react. It's just for fun, not for an expectation of the shot. It's a 3rd person perspective of my swing. Rather than thinking "okay, grip is good, going to take back solid, full backswing, don't over-rotate, make sure contact is in-to-out, turn over my wrists, etc" in my mind I'm watching myself like a camera and just trying to LOOK athletic in my swing, something that would appease the non-existent crowds all around me :)

9 times out of 10... this generates an awesome ball flight. Now obviously if this was a reliable mechanism to produce a good golf swing, I'd use it and never look back, but that's not the case lol. Usually it will generate great shots a couple times and then it dwindles. But it will often get me back in my groove.

Just curious if anyone else has ever tried this method, in fun?

[Strandly]

Most of last year I couldn't quite seem to hit the ball where I was aiming.  I'd barely miss a green on the left and then make a tiny adjustment and then barely miss it on the right, or vice versa.  Then I saw a random highlight of Bubba Watson and I was like damn this dude seems to have a steep swing...

I thought maybe my swing was too flat and I was always pushing or pulling the ball so if I swung steeper maybe it would help.  Sure enough trying to swing more like Watson made the ball start flying where I was aiming.  I had to make some other adjustments like standing taller so I didn't clip the ground and teeing the ball up lower so I didn't hit a sky ball but overall it actually helped to copy a pro.

And while I think I swing steeper now I'm pretty sure it's not as steep as Watson, it looks to me like he's got some mutant joints to do what he does.

[JonMA1]

 

3 hours ago, jkelley9 said:

Anyone else ever tell themselves this? I watch a lot of golf now and we've all seen their mostly-stellar swings. Especially when they do the slo-mo thing.

When I make a relaxed, all-the-confidence-of-a-pro, no-thought swing, it feels perfect and smooth in my head. On video, there's hip sway on the backswing, not even close to a full shoulder turn, and it's anything but smooth. The results are mixed but are not always bad.

I'm not sure it's the same thing, but swinging without any thoughts is kind of a goal if/when I ever develop decent mechanics. Improving the 5 keys and just having the confidence that it will repeat without effort is as close to a tour pro swing as I can hope for.

[RH31]

Not really thinking swing like a pro, more like visualize and rehearse this shot like a pro. It's almost always out of necessity. A tree limb that I need to work the ball around, or a lie that dictates a certain ball flight or landing area will make me really focus better. I've tried it with some success on straight away holes too. It works for awhile, then I'll make an awful swing and go back to some swing mechanics thoughts....

[imsys0042]

Ditto to @RH31's post.  I have my own things to visualize but it's not a pro's swing.  I do however try and emulate a good pre-shot routine and try to put the thought in that they do

[Grinde6]

6 hours ago, jkelley9 said:

Anyone else ever tell themselves this? I watch a lot of golf now and we've all seen their mostly-stellar swings. Especially when they do the slo-mo thing.

For the past 6-months or so when I'm having a crappy swing thought and I'm all jumbled in my head and having negative results, I have (on several occasions) told myself "just swing like the tour pros do!" I abandon my swing thoughts and basically just try to emulate what a pro swing would look like, with no care as to how the ball will react. It's just for fun, not for an expectation of the shot. It's a 3rd person perspective of my swing. Rather than thinking "okay, grip is good, going to take back solid, full backswing, don't over-rotate, make sure contact is in-to-out, turn over my wrists, etc" in my mind I'm watching myself like a camera and just trying to LOOK athletic in my swing, something that would appease the non-existent crowds all around me :)

9 times out of 10... this generates an awesome ball flight. Now obviously if this was a reliable mechanism to produce a good golf swing, I'd use it and never look back, but that's not the case lol. Usually it will generate great shots a couple times and then it dwindles. But it will often get me back in my groove.

Just curious if anyone else has ever tried this method, in fun?

That's ALOT of thoughts to be going through your head before or while swinging!  Maybe some time on the range to work on most of them so you don't have to think of all of those things would help.  It worked for me, and I noticed I would get lazy after I made ball contact and not follow through which was leaving the ball out to the right.  Now my pre-shot thought is "follow through".  Has been working for a couple months for me now, but it took time on the range to get to that point.

[GolfLug]

I am not sure 'swing like a pro' does anything helpful really. On the other hand, I do think that 'finish like a pro' might have some merit though.

[DaveP043]

I don't do this, I have other keys for trying to re-locate my swing.  However, I think the thing that most of the pros do well is consistently swing with the same tempo, the same apparent level of effort, and the same good balance.  So the thing I'd look to emulate, especially if I was starting to feel out of sorts, mechanical, working too hard, is a consistent, balanced, even-tempo swing.  When the golf swing starts to feel like hard work, try to find a way to get away from "working" and just swing.

[Patch]

For m,  numerous swing thoughts are stuff I use at the practice range. I only use 2 or 3 full swing thoughts when practicing as it is. Truth be known,  I think most pros leave most of their swing thoughts at the practice range too.

As for swinging like the pros, all I try to keep in common with them is my tempo, and balance. 

[nevets88]

I couldn't do this, even if I wanted to. I just try and do what my pro says, I trust him implicitly, feels like I'm on a good track. There are some talented folks out there who can do some pretty good swing impersonations. Unfortunately, I don't have anywhere near the talent they possess.

[JonMA1]

57 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

When the golf swing starts to feel like hard work, try to find a way to get away from "working" and just swing.

I feel the same way. And I can't seem to break the cycle of my swing is really bad today so I'll put more effort into it. Then by putting more effort into it (trying to power through it), the results suffer even more. There have been times after an especially bad round where I'm physically tired. That shouldn't happen from playing golf.

Seems so simple to skip all that craziness... grab more club, get back to basics, and just swing easier until things feel a little better. Yet, I'm rarely able to pull it off. (Of course it helps to have good basics to fall back on.)

[DaveP043]

2 minutes ago, JonMA1 said:

Seems so simple to skip all that craziness... grab more club, get back to basics, and just swing easier until things feel a little better. Yet, I'm rarely able to pull it off. 

Seems to me that I've read that Golf is Hard.

[Rainmaker]

Well,really what you're doing is replacing this:

9 hours ago, jkelley9 said:

thinking "okay, grip is good, going to take back solid, full backswing, don't over-rotate, make sure contact is in-to-out, turn over my wrists, etc"

With something more simple and less mechanical.  I think most of us eventually learn to do that - but *what* we replace it with will vary, of course.  My goal is to have no mechanical thoughts and, for sure, no thoughts like "make sure you don't do this or that", etc. and I try to visualize a smooth, powerful, relaxed motion. 

 

 

[mchepp]

I watched a show recently about sports related to the brain. The shows premise was that the brains of professional athletes are different than the rest of us. One of the features was on a weight lifter. They put a bunch of electrodes on his brain and let him visualize the action of his lift. What they found was that right before and during the action his brain was extremely calm. They then showed another lifter, not professional, an amateur's brain and his was all over the place with tons of activity both right before and during. The brain maps were obviously different.

My point is maybe the visualization of something like a professional's swing helps your brain calm down and hit that particular shot better. 

[Rainmaker]

8 minutes ago, JonMA1 said:

I feel the same way. And I can't seem to break the cycle of my swing is really bad today so I'll put more effort into it. Then by putting more effort into it (trying to power through it), the results suffer even more. There have been times after an especially bad round where I'm physically tired. That shouldn't happen from playing golf.

Seems so simple to skip all that craziness... grab more club, get back to basics, and just swing easier until things feel a little better. Yet, I'm rarely able to pull it off. (Of course it helps to have good basics to fall back on.)

Right?  Everybody says "be relaxed, don't think about technique, etc" . .that works great until you slice your opening tee shot ob and then shank the next 2.  Having better mechanics and practicing a lot does help.  Immensely.  However, when you're in the spot I mentioned above you are pretty much screwed and, in my experience, thinking mechanically is not going to help.  If anything will help, forgetting about your previous bad shots and being relaxed will . .but it's incredibly difficult to do.  Just laughing it off and forgetting about making any kind of good score . .and maybe having a beer seems to help. 

[Psyber]

22 minutes ago, mchepp said:

I watched a show recently about sports related to the brain. The shows premise was that the brains of professional athletes are different than the rest of us. One of the features was on a weight lifter. They put a bunch of electrodes on his brain and let him visualize the action of his lift. What they found was that right before and during the action his brain was extremely calm. They then showed another lifter, not professional, an amateur's brain and his was all over the place with tons of activity both right before and during. The brain maps were obviously different.

My point is maybe the visualization of something like a professional's swing helps your brain calm down and hit that particular shot better. 

A lot of that is probably time. My head is very clear and calm when I lift weights and motions happen automatically. I've also been doing it for 12 years. Until you've performed the same motion over and over for many years on end it's going to be tough to make it just happen automatically. I also have a lot of confidence in how my squat is going to go, My swing gives me plenty of anxiety as I have no idea if the ball is going to where I aim it or not. Most amateurs are probably not very confident in where the ball is going.

[iacas]

3 hours ago, mchepp said:

I watched a show recently about sports related to the brain. The shows premise was that the brains of professional athletes are different than the rest of us. One of the features was on a weight lifter. They put a bunch of electrodes on his brain and let him visualize the action of his lift. What they found was that right before and during the action his brain was extremely calm. They then showed another lifter, not professional, an amateur's brain and his was all over the place with tons of activity both right before and during. The brain maps were obviously different.

I don't think that demonstrates anything but proficiency. I think you'd find the same type of thing going on if you put the electrodes on a contractor, a teacher, or any other profession or job or even just a guy playing a video game and then asked someone who wasn't good at that thing to do that task.

I don't think that demonstrates that their brains are different. Just that they have gotten so good at some particular thing that they don't have to think about it as much.

[No Mulligans]

5 hours ago, DaveP043 said:

 When the golf swing starts to feel like hard work, try to find a way to get away from "working" and just swing.

Sometimes when I'm trying to make some sort of change my swing feels awkward and perhaps feels like hard work.  I just write that off as part of the learning process and I need to keep working until it feels easy and natural.

My 'natural' swing before I took lessons was horrible.

I try to swing like a pro.  That is basically the five simple keys, right?