Think I'm finally starting to break bad habits

[Ladysmanfelpz]

Hey everyone,

 

So I've been really investing some time into this game the past couple years and think (hope, its golf ) that I'm making a breakthrough.  I started playing in high school with buddies where my main purpose was to hit the ball as hard as I could.  I'm a long lanky guy and was routinely out hitting my buddies even though they had much more experience.  Where they were really envious of me is with my driver where I could pound it 265+ even back then.  My irons were hit or miss, literally, where I would get a high flying 165 yd 8 iron and stick the green or duff one 10 feet.  So I've been working on the control game ever since I started taking this game more seriously to no avail.  I was still duffing and on the course I would find my self trying to crush it instead of just make solid contact.  

 

My long sought effort of developing a controlled swing finally started to click at the range the other day.  One thing I had to continually fight myself on was coming out of my front foot.  I guess to hit it far I would do the jump out of my shoes like Justin Thomas, except without near the control.  I noticed I also tried to help the ball up a lot doing this, so when contact was good I would hit that high flying, but low spinning iron shot.  I was finally able to just roll onto the outside of my left foot without having these anxious spasms right before I hit the ball.  Honestly I think anxiety has a lot to do with golf.  Many of us amateurs don't know how the shot is going to end up.  Hitting a small ball with a big stick leads to a myriad of results and can literally be quite shocking when striking the ball.  I think I'm finally getting over that and losing my little nervous hop right before impact.  I was able to swing and roll through with a solid grip.  That was another thing I would do is release or tense weird areas of my hand when striking.  

 

Its crazy how these little subtleties made such a difference.  While everyone around me was hitting tops and thin shots, I was able to stay cool and composed and struck the ball great!  Decreasing my nervous hop is decreasing my mishits by a large margin.  I'm also way more relaxed in my stance and grip.  I know its golf and this was just a one time thing, but I truly felt it and hoping I can make this change stick.  Hopefully on my way to lower scores