When you "lose" your swing, how do you get it back?

[Kalnoky]

What is your process for self-diagnosing a swing flaw that has crept in during a round, or range session? Let’s say you are making  a series of good golf shots, and then a series of bad ones happens – do you shrug it off as an anomaly and trust it will recover on its own, or do you have a mental checklist, like an airline pilot troubleshooting a cockpit alarm? Please note, this is not a question about ball flight laws. I am mostly interested in how players regain focus and maintain composure when faced with sudden adversity.     

[1badbadger]

I'm by no means an expert on swing mechanics or an instructor, but I'll tell you what has worked for me for many years...

A swing training aid called the Orange Whip.  I have had one since they first cane out about 8 or 9 years ago and have used it on a regular basis ever since.  As a result, my don't have those instances where something pops-up and I start hitting it sideways like it used to.  It keeps my timing tight and my swing on plane, but if I feel a little "off", I'll put in a little extra time with it to get everything synced back up.

I've seen all the different teaching aids over the years and have tried a lot of them and purchased a few, but this is the only one that didn't end up in the corner of the garage and continues to work great for me.

Now, if I could just make a putt...

[RandallT]

I know the feeling of losing the swing- strange how it can just disappear in between two holes.

Rather than try to diagnose, I will try to revert back to the basics. Take a few minutes on a tee box, to quickly review the fundamentals. Real quick. Grip. Posture. And a good, controlled backswing.  I needed to do that in a round a couple weeks ago, and I felt it settled me and let me hang on enough down the stretch as I tired.

I'm not good at diagnosing my swing or others, but I can generally recall some fundamentals when things are going off the rails a bit.

[Groucho Valentine]

When I'm hitting the ball off line, 90% of the time its because my alignment. I have a bad habit of aiming my body too far right. I hit alot of blocks and push fades when i do that. When i catch it, 20 minutes on the range with some alignment aids and a helpful eye usually corrects the problem for me.  I also have a tendency to get too flat with my shoulders on the backswing, which leads to me hitting it thin. But i know when i do that almost immediately, so its corrected by the next full swing. 

[Yukari]

4 minutes ago, Groucho Valentine said:

When I'm hitting the ball off line, 90% of the time its because my alignment. I have a bad habit of aiming my body too far right. I hit alot of blocks and push fades when i do that. When i catch it, 20 minutes on the range with some alignment aids and a helpful eye usually corrects the problem for me.  I also have a tendency to get too flat with my shoulders on the backswing, which leads to me hitting it thin. But i know when i do that almost immediately, so its corrected by the next full swing. 

Ditto for me on both of these.  Almost always, it is due to my alignment even though it seems I am aligned properly.  Usually my stance is a little open so my bad shots tend to be push or slice.

Sometimes it is caused by too flat of a backswing, but that only happens the other 10%.

Knowing these two are the reasons for my bad swing, I can correct them - most of the time - after a hole or two by rethinking why my bad shots happen.

[Rainmaker]

On the course, I can never figure it out.  I stopped even trying.  On the course, I try to clear my mind of mechanical thoughts - positions, etc . .and just hit it.  When that's not working - I stick to things like "relax"  . .and "just hit it" . . . .and it often does not work.  The funny thing is . .I'll go to the practice area after the round and figure it out almost immediately.  

It's usually because something "dropped out" of my swing.  "Dropped out" is my own phrase for suddenly reverting to a former bad habit or flaw without realizing it.  The awareness of that flaw just "dropped out" of my mind . . and, for example, I'm trying to hit it too hard with my arms, not making a good turn back . .or any number of things that I'm constantly working on, lol.

One thing I've noticed in my own play is that when I do recover and "find my swing" on the course . .it's happens right after I drop the frustration and sort of mentally "give up" trying to hit it well.  

[Groucho Valentine]

18 hours ago, Yukari said:

Ditto for me on both of these.  Almost always, it is due to my alignment even though it seems I am aligned properly.  Usually my stance is a little open so my bad shots tend to be push or slice.

Sometimes it is caused by too flat of a backswing, but that only happens the other 10%.

Knowing these two are the reasons for my bad swing, I can correct them - most of the time - after a hole or two by rethinking why my bad shots happen.

I never realize when I'm closing my alignment down as much as i do sometimes. I know when i close my alignment, i try to save it with my arms and end up swinging too far inside. Which leads to the blocks. But i takes me hitting a lot of shots off the map for me to address it. I tend to play around my miss too much instead of trying to correct it. 

[p1n9183]

Golf it´s a succession of random shot´s inside your swing dispersion. Your dispersion generally it´s wider than your range dispersion because of pressure, wind and uneven lies. So first of all, lower your spectations on the golf course. 
An example of this for my driver, at the range i hit 95% of my golf shots inside a 60 yards width "fairway" but on the golf course my stats said that i hit 89% of my golf shots inside 80 yards ! My golf course dispersion it´s around 20+ yards wider than my range dispersion.  

On good days you will hit more shots than average closer to the center of your dispersion, and in your bad ones closer to the edges of it. If you change your swing (try to "fix" it) you will put into play a new dispersion, generally a wider one because if not you would choose to swing that way in first place.

As a round starts good and without swing changes it come´s south, a round started bad without swing changes can turn into a good one. Trust in your swing dispersion and course management.   

 

  

[Kalnoky]

1 hour ago, Rainmaker said:

On the course, I can never figure it out.  I stopped even trying.  On the course, I try to clear my mind of mechanical thoughts - positions, etc . .and just hit it.  When that's not working - I stick to things like "relax"  . .and "just hit it" . . . .and it often does not work.  The funny thing is . .I'll go to the practice area after the round and figure it out almost immediately.  

It's usually because something "dropped out" of my swing.  "Dropped out" is my own phrase for suddenly reverting to a former bad habit or flaw without realizing it.  The awareness of that flaw just "dropped out" of my mind . . and, for example, I'm trying to hit it too hard with my arms, not making a good turn back . .or any number of things that I'm constantly working on, lol.

One thing I've noticed in my own play is that when I do recover and "find my swing" on the course . .it's happens right after I drop the frustration and sort of mentally "give up" trying to hit it well.  

Wow, almost as if wrote this myself. We can't be the only ones who experience this phenomenon.

Reading some of the other replies, it seems the more experienced players have their tendencies pretty dialed in. I'm afraid for me it is still a a variety of moving parts that are prone to failure. And usually what knocks the whole jenga puzzle over is second-guessing myself, even when I'm playing well.

11 minutes ago, p1n9183 said:

on the golf course my stats said that i hit 89% of my golf shots inside 80 yards ! My golf course dispersion it´s around 20+ yards wider than my range dispersion.  

On good days you will hit more shots than average closer to the center of your dispersion, and in your bad ones closer to the edges of it. If you change your swing (try to "fix" it) you will put into play a new dispersion, generally a wider one because if not you would choose to swing that way in first place.

 

This is very interesting, thank you

[Patch]

My self diagnosis when I start swinging poorly is no diagnosis. I just put my clubs away for a few days and don't worry about it. 

I don't believe a golfer loses their swing. I just think they get out of touch with it for a little while for what ever reason. 

I think it's quite possible for a golfer, after suffering a poor swing issue, to panic. This could cause them to start looking in the wrong places for a cure, which screws their swing up even more. This is why I just take a few days off to rest up from the game. 

I also think that a golfer can cause their own poor swing issues, when trying different ideas to get better. Especially if they read something promising them extra yardage gains. 

[1badbadger]

3 hours ago, Kalnoky said:

Wow, almost as if wrote this myself. We can't be the only ones who experience this phenomenon.

Reading some of the other replies, it seems the more experienced players have their tendencies pretty dialed in. I'm afraid for me it is still a a variety of moving parts that are prone to failure. And usually what knocks the whole jenga puzzle over is second-guessing myself, even when I'm playing well.

 

This is a good point.  Every player has tendencies and hits bad shots...even Tour players.  The difference is they keep them to a minimum and if they do hit a loose shot, they know where it's going usually.  When you know your bad shot is a leaker to the right, or you know you tend to over-cook your draw for example, it's much easier to play than when it could go right or left.  This is called "missing it both ways" and it's really difficult to play when this happens.  

Don't get me wrong...it can happen to good players too, but usually they know where a bad shot will go.  TV commentators love to mention how guys like Bruce Lietzke or Craig Stadler eliminate the left side of the golf course because every shot they hit is a fade, and it's maybe been over-used, but it's true...when they hit a shot they know it's not going left.  I've played quite a bit with Mark Brooks, and he hooks every shot.  His "fade" is a baby draw.  Not only does he not have to worry about losing a shot to the right, I've seen him aim to the right and start the ball over water or other junk to cut a corner or get an angle into a green, without worrying for one second that the ball might not draw back into play.

With a "one-way" miss, if you do lose your swing on the course and can't figure out why, at least you can finish the round without getting hurt too bad.  A good instructor can help you work on eliminating one of your misses.

[bm85]

When things are good, I'm playing with a pattern, I'm getting good distance, and feel I have a bit of vision of the shot.

When things aren't so good, I start setting up to launch the ball lower and emphasize controlling the balls starting direction.

Punch shots, partial swings, and making simpler motions to control the ball are good things to work on.

 

 

 

 

[Lihu]

On 1/31/2017 at 9:34 AM, Kalnoky said:

What is your process for self-diagnosing a swing flaw that has crept in during a round, or range session? Let’s say you are making  a series of good golf shots, and then a series of bad ones happens – do you shrug it off as an anomaly and trust it will recover on its own, or do you have a mental checklist, like an airline pilot troubleshooting a cockpit alarm? Please note, this is not a question about ball flight laws. I am mostly interested in how players regain focus and maintain composure when faced with sudden adversity.     

It looks like you got some pretty good answers in previous posts.

Unfortunately, I don't think there's a "quick fix" for this "lack of focus", that's the bane of bogey golf. It's also a very good question and had plagued me the first 4 years I golfed.

I don't really know how to answer your question in general, because I think it's different for different people.

For me, it was not getting my lead armpit "loaded" or that "coiled feel" for the longest time. I'd "get it" for a week or two at a time, but then possibly lose it suddenly. This usually happened when there was additional pressure to perform or whatever. Even though I took lots of lessons to "get positions" and such, and practiced the 5SK, there was always something missing in my swing. So, after floundering around a few years, I finally started figuring out that this was the the likely reason for sudden power loss. So, I worked really hard to maintain this "loading effect" for a year or so. I didn't care about anything else, not even score. Eventually consistent and longer distances came naturally, and my swing felt "satisfying" because it was more "complete". I felt like I couldn't swing any more efficiently. Over the next 2 years I maintained this "feeling", and am now even weaning myself away from feeling "loaded" at the top. It seems to me that at least some people had this feel right away and were able to hit far from the get go, but for sure not me. I was pretty slow.

Confidence, for me, began with a confident and satisfying swing. The better my swing the more confident I am in my game. This took 7 years for me to just get to even my current level. 3 years of actual improvement, but 7 years from starting golf.

So, based upon my own experience, I doubt there is a really quick fix to what you are experiencing. Guessing that you can likely figure out and fix what ails you faster than me, but still slower than what you probably want to hear.

[Kalnoky]

14 minutes ago, Lihu said:

So, based upon my own experience, I doubt there is a really quick fix to what you are experiencing. 

I buy that actually. Good post. 

[tlazzol]

If I lose my swing (multiple bad shots) during competition I use more club and punch it (for irons).  Driver, I make sure my back swing hasn't become too quick.  If it continues the next couple of days I make an appointment with my instructor.  She knows my swing and has always put me back on my game.  Two problems I have are getting "flippy/sloppy" at the top of the back swing and getting lazy on the down swing.  Doesn't happen as much as it uses to do.  Thank goodness.

[saevel25]

On 1/31/2017 at 0:34 PM, Kalnoky said:

What is your process for self-diagnosing a swing flaw that has crept in during a round, or range session? 

From experience I know what causes my misses since I work on improving my swing and go to a very good golf instructor.  

I would say most golfers just don't know enough about their own golf swing to self-diagnose to begin with. They think something just crept up when its just always been a swing fault al along. All it takes is a few degrees change in club path and face to path angles in the wrong direction and one shot goes from being good to being really bad.  

On 1/31/2017 at 0:34 PM, Kalnoky said:

do you shrug it off as an anomaly and trust it will recover on its own, or do you have a mental checklist, like an airline pilot troubleshooting a cockpit alarm? 

Depends. 

On 1/31/2017 at 0:34 PM, Kalnoky said:

I am mostly interested in how players regain focus and maintain composure when faced with sudden adversity.     

First, a golfer might just need to get out of their own way. I am a golfer who tends to let things creep in. When I start struggling a bit I go to just focusing on hitting the shape I want or starting the ball on the target line I want. Just keeping things simple and stop thinking about my swing. 

If it it's related to something I am working on, I might try to focus on a certain feel to help out because I now it's a feel that would help against the miss. 

 

[JediFish]

On 2/1/2017 at 4:16 PM, bm85 said:

When things are good, I'm playing with a pattern, I'm getting good distance, and feel I have a bit of vision of the shot.

When things aren't so good, I start setting up to launch the ball lower and emphasize controlling the balls starting direction.

Punch shots, partial swings, and making simpler motions to control the ball are good things to work on.

 

 

 

 

I think this is what I need to start doing. I have a habit of losing focus during a round and my immediate reaction is panic. The second reaction is, change something! ??‍♂️ Then when I give up, I hit a good shot that gives me hope I fixed something. 

Slowing down and hitting punches and 3/4 shots may be the key to getting more sound mechanics when I'm struggling.

[MarvChamp]

I don't try to self-diagnose anymore. It happened today. After playing well (for me), I started duffing shots. Hit into a ditch, not once but twice. So, I throttled back and just hit 7-irons until I was over the problem. -Marv