If Lessons Were Not an Option....

[JonMA1]

I'm a proponent of taking lessons from a good instructor. There are just too many good players who have benefitted from them. And just as a wise man once told me it wouldn't, "trying different things" almost never works.   

Please bear with me on this, but what if lessons were not an option? What process or system of learning might be second-best? 

Video would play an important part I would think, as would shot results. But you'd still have to know what to look for. Keys 1-3 are pretty easy for us non-pro's to evaluate. And ball flight might help identify the other two... correct?

What about angle of attack, wrist hinge... all the other moving parts? How would an amateur - on his or her own - identify the root cause and priority piece? And how would we know it's time to move on to the next? 

[Patch]

If lessons from an instructor were not available, I might suggest a visit to the local library, or internect connection, and read up on the basics of the swing. Address position, grip, and a one piece take away to the top of the swing. I wouldn't worry about anything else, untill I had a working understanding of those three items. 

Once I understood the above items, I would move on the more finer points of the golf swing, a little at the time. 

Too many times I think golfers over load themselves with swing mechanics, with out fully understanding these mechanics, and how they relate to each other. Frustration sets in, and they don't improve, or worse yet they quit. 

Edited May 28, 2017 by Patch

[phillyk]

There are a lot of swing aids that are good to help build a swing, so long as they're used correctly.  I'd also suggest they get a big mirror, tape some lines on there, and do some slow swings while watching yourself.  Video is good, but can be hard to change something without a mirror or something to help enact the change.  With simulators/launch monitors and other similar tech, you can get instant feedback and can be very beneficial.  The biggest thing is to just develop something that's consistent. I've seen 30 slicer swings be single digits, but they won't get much better than that.

[14ledo81]

Other option would be what you are doing. Hang out around "The SandTrap"....

[p1n9183]

For me a good looking swing it´s highly overrated, you can hit the most beautiful shot and the worst shot with the same good looking swing.

The ball don´t care about how good looking it´s your swing, it only cares about club path, face angle and angle of attack. 

Your body knows how to swing back and foward, you only have to work bias aligning the above 3 variables to produce the ball flight you want.

As an example... all my life played a fade with my irons with an outside to inside club path and square face. The worst area of my game by far.
After a lot of years of inactivity i started playing again and i decided i wanted to play a draw with my irons. Like you I cant afford for lessons so i have to be mine own teacher.
As a starter I Changed to an inside to outside club path with the same square face. What happened ? ball goes rigth of my target, sometimes it goes straigth sometimes it goes with fade, and the draw???. 
OK, read on the internet that to produce a draw, you have to swing inside to outside and the face angle have to be closed to that swing path and open to your target. But wait ! in order to accomplish that i need to open a bit my club face, with my normal swing i should been hitting all hooks. I was shocked.
Obviusly I went to the practice area and open a bit the club face, and the results where worst obviusly ! Something wasn´t working ok. I was missing something...
One day i see the ligth... I was at home and picked a club and made a full rehearsal of my swing in slow motion, one after another and the same thing happened at impact, starting with a squear club face i ended at impact with an open face, a lot of degrees open face. That was the problem ! my swing naturally opens the club face an amount of degrees every single time. 
One way of fixing it was to figure out why my (all my life) swing was doing that. The other, the one i did was to close the face the same amount of degrees at the stance. What happened? when i do the same rehearsal now the club face was square at impact ! every time (or really close to be squeare).
Run to the practice area and tried it. And it worked !! i started hooking all the balls like i supposted to !! :D. Math say inside to outside path and club path a little open to the target, if now my club face it´s aligned to the target a hook it´s spected. Eureca ! So i have to "open" the face at impact a bit so that mean i have to close less my club face at address.
Tryied that and I let a tear drop of my eyes seeing one draw after another. 

I made it !! i was hitting draws ! Was because of a pritty good looking swing ? not at all, i undertood the ball requirements to hit a draw and force the variables in that direction.

Don´t persuit a good looking swing, look for what your swing does naturally and adjust it in order to hit the ball the way you want to.

 

 

[JonMA1]

Thanks @p1n9183. 

28 minutes ago, p1n9183 said:

Don´t persuit a good looking swing, look for what your swing does naturally and adjust it in order to hit the ball the way you want to.

I have to really consider this statement and see if/how it applies to improvement. Been chasing - and failing miserably - at developing a pretty swing. I agree with what you're saying.

I have to find a way to identify and repeat the small moves which produce good results, just as I have to identify and remove those which produce undesirable ones. Maybe spend less time watching and trying to emulate PGA tour players.