How to Properly Undergo a Swing Overhaul

[Ladysmanfelpz]

I just finished a long golf week with my buddies.  We played 4 times and although I beat one of my friends, I am a long way off from my buddy who is a single digit capper.  He mentioned some things at the end of the week and it really got me motivated on improving.  Now I have been playing quite a while and been trying to improve over the last couple of years, but don't really feel my swing has changed all that much.  I can do what I know fairly well, but feel the bread and butter of gaining accuracy and learning to score has yet to improve.  I still shoot 90's with about 1/3 of rounds in the mid-upper 80's.  

I know many people try the "Well if I groove the smoothest swing, I'll play great!" technique to no avail.  Golf is more complex than that.  I'm not here looking for the perfect Ben Hogan swing, but I do need some tips on how to practice and how to gain consistency.  My buddy has a great draw to his swing, completely taking the right side out on his irons.  Plays it wide right with a long iron and brings it in closer when he gets down to his wedges.  I'm more a fade player, but sometimes its a high ballooning fade, others low and cutty, and basically just not much control.  

I have the Tathata golf course and a local course has a range deal for $35 a month.  I am a medical student so time is scarce.  Should I purchase the range membership and dedicate 2-3 days a week of practice with some Tathata mixed in?  The thing I feel I am lacking is I do not witness my own swing enough.  Do I need to purchase a stand to film both down the line and in front clips of my swing?  What is your all opinions on how to get a more consistent flight in about 3 months time?  Thanks everyone.  

[Marty2019]

I have thought about the same thing- what's the best way to improve.  I've been playing for a long time, and I go to the range and work on stuff, and I improve very very gradually. 

Right now I'm thinking the very best way to improve is to hire an instructor.   Ideally, I'm thinking, don't go to the range at all without having that guy standing there watching every single swing for at least a month.  Take all the trial and error out of it that way.  Don't make a single swing that he (or she) isn't seeing.  For a month. 

Just an idea.  You might try just one single session with an instructor, just to see how it goes, and whether he agrees with you and your buddy about what's wrong with your swing, if anything. 

Also, you mention "learning to score."  That's kind of vague.  You might try taking notes during your round.  Figure out what it is that's preventing you from scoring better.  Sometimes people don't really realize where their weakness is.  You look back on your round and remember some stuff and ignore other stuff. 

"Purchase a stand"?  You don't need a stand.  All you need is a small flexible tripod for your cell phone that clips to your bag.  That's about $20. 

 

[Lihu]

8 hours ago, Ladysmanfelpz said:

I just finished a long golf week with my buddies.  We played 4 times and although I beat one of my friends, I am a long way off from my buddy who is a single digit capper.  He mentioned some things at the end of the week and it really got me motivated on improving.  Now I have been playing quite a while and been trying to improve over the last couple of years, but don't really feel my swing has changed all that much.  I can do what I know fairly well, but feel the bread and butter of gaining accuracy and learning to score has yet to improve.  I still shoot 90's with about 1/3 of rounds in the mid-upper 80's.  

I know many people try the "Well if I groove the smoothest swing, I'll play great!" technique to no avail.  Golf is more complex than that.  I'm not here looking for the perfect Ben Hogan swing, but I do need some tips on how to practice and how to gain consistency.  My buddy has a great draw to his swing, completely taking the right side out on his irons.  Plays it wide right with a long iron and brings it in closer when he gets down to his wedges.  I'm more a fade player, but sometimes its a high ballooning fade, others low and cutty, and basically just not much control.  

I have the Tathata golf course and a local course has a range deal for $35 a month.  I am a medical student so time is scarce.  Should I purchase the range membership and dedicate 2-3 days a week of practice with some Tathata mixed in?  The thing I feel I am lacking is I do not witness my own swing enough.  Do I need to purchase a stand to film both down the line and in front clips of my swing?  What is your all opinions on how to get a more consistent flight in about 3 months time?  Thanks everyone.  

I'm kind of in the same boat as you are, but disagree that grooving a swing is only a small fraction of the work. It's actually most of the work. Golf is not that hard if you hit long and straight. That's the key difference between a bogey golfer and a good golfer. Distance and accuracy.

Short game and course management don't really make a lot of sense if you don't have a decent long game to go with it. The first thing I'd do is eliminate the unwanted fade. When you are able to control if you want a fade or draw, that's a good first step.

I'm currently working on my driver and woods game, until I stop hitting trees. There were a ton of different drills that I did to reduce the pull tendency. My next step is to improve my iron strikes. Lastly, game management and short game. The reason for waiting for these things is I'm not in a hurry to score well this weekend. I'm looking for long term improvements. Working on game management is a lot easier once you have a grooved swing. If your swing is changing then it's going to be hard to narrow down on your "shot zones" from LSW.

I've heard good things about Tathata golf, and recommend that you continue to groove your swing on the range. There are alternative swing theories as well, such as 5SK. There is also another thread dedicated to learning how to change your swing called the 5S of practice. You can peruse through that as well.

[saevel25]

I would check out, http://evolvr.thegolfevolution.com/

 

[klineka]

14 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

I would check out, http://evolvr.thegolfevolution.com/

 

I second this. I have been working with Evolvr for about 3 months now and it is crazy how much better I have gotten. They start with the basics like grip, alignment, head movement, etc and really make sure you have those down before moving into complicated pieces like the backswing and club path.

Evolvr might be a good option for you as well because you dont have to work around the schedule of an in person instructor. You can go to the range whenever you have time, film yourself (I use a GoPro with a gorilla tripod) and then wait 2-3 days and youll have a new lesson from your instructor.

I have worked on a ton of things over my 3 months including grip, head position, hip movement, pressure on my feet, hand depth on backswing, and now we are starting to work on a more in to out club path.

My handicap has gone from 15ish to 10 since using evolvr and that is with 1 range session and 1 round per week, so not all that much practice.

[RandallT]

Congrats, you are now conscious of how incompetent you are at golf.

You are already in the yellow zone, working your way up the pyramid. 

The rest of what I have to say applies to me, but from what I've read here on this site, applies to many others.

I've enjoyed working up the pyramid piece by piece, using the principles in this thread:

I use video, and don't even hit that many balls. Like @Marty2019 wrote above, you don't need a tripod- just a clip of some sort to host your phone.

Each practice session is focused on something very specific, and for me, it is always based on what an instructor has said is my top priority. I know I'm pretty useless at analyzing the mechanics involved to know what things impact other things, so I'd prefer to have an expert do that. 

For other tools here on the site, you can use the daily practice challenge here:

You can also create a journal and solicit free feeback with a member swing thread:

https://thesandtrap.com/forums/forum/13-member-swings/

Those tools are mainly for documenting your journey and keeping you focused. The key is to do a little bit every day, even if it's a drill at home in a mirror for just a few minutes. 

For me, when I play, I just play. The hope is that all of the work I've done (listed above) has drifted over into the "unconscious competence" part of the pyramid. I'll generally feel on the course which areas are working and not working, so that helps rededicate myself to focusing on what my instructor is telling me. But I don't try to work on my swing on the course.

I've had a lost season this year- that's my caveat, as arthritis in my neck is keeping me from making a full swing. But I can say that the last couple years I've made significant improvement in my swing, and I'm hopeful I'll be able to reap rewards when I start to play again. It wasn't until I started the methodology above that I really made a dent in the bad habits in my swing. YMMV

 

[amishboy51]

@RandallT That was a great post (at least for where I’m at now). Thanks.

[iacas]

Wow, pretty great posts already IMO.

To answer the question in the OP itself… don't. Don't overhaul. Work with what you have, find the highest priority piece, attack that until it's no longer the highest priority piece, and then go from there.

[Ladysmanfelpz]

4 hours ago, RandallT said:

 

Lol at the pyramid chart @RandallT.  Because I have been playing a while I have figured out my swing enough where I can get birdies and hit good shots.  I know I am doing some fundamental things incorrectly tho and would like to figure those out.  First I think it may come down to how much time and dedication I have.  I also like how people said to focus on one specific thing at a time.  Plans are to get an iPhone mount to record swing, do at least a tathata lesson a week and then hit the range as many times as my schedule allows.  I don't plan to be playing much through the winter as it'll be fairly busy for me, but hoping some swing focus time will carry over.  

[Binh Nguyen]

Finding the highest priority to work on and what would you do with it is the biggest merit to having a good instructor IMO.

 

[Bo the Golfer]

On ‎11‎/‎7‎/‎2017 at 2:04 PM, iacas said:

Wow, pretty great posts already IMO.

To answer the question in the OP itself… don't. Don't overhaul. Work with what you have, find the highest priority piece, attack that until it's no longer the highest priority piece, and then go from there.

Reviving a dead post here. @iacas, what do you do if you know your swing is garbage and won't get you to the next level?

[klineka]

2 minutes ago, Bo the Golfer said:

what do you do if you know your swing is garbage and won't get you to the next level?

What do you mean by "next level" ? That can mean different things for each person, but generally the answer isn't going to change.

Identify (or better yet have an instructor identify) your priority piece or two (at the most) and work on them until they are no longer priority pieces. Identify your next priority piece, improve until that isn't a priority piece. Rinse and repeat.

[Bo the Golfer]

5 minutes ago, klineka said:

What do you mean by "next level" ? That can mean different things for each person, but generally the answer isn't going to change.

Identify (or better yet have an instructor identify) your priority piece or two (at the most) and work on them until they are no longer priority pieces. Identify your next priority piece, improve until that isn't a priority piece. Rinse and repeat.

Thanks for the quick response @klineka. I think by next level I just meant to a point where I feel things are going in the right direction instead of being all over the place.

[boogielicious]

2 hours ago, Bo the Golfer said:

Thanks for the quick response @klineka. I think by next level I just meant to a point where I feel things are going in the right direction instead of being all over the place.

Erik’s post refers to finding out what your priority piece is, then working specifically to improve that. You really then need to block out all the noise and work on that with smart, dedicated practice. 

If you don’t know what your priority is, it is harder. I highly recommend Evolvr. The instructors there will identify your specific priority piece then give you a way to improve it. You could also do a My Swing thread, but the tips can be much more varied. But practicing smart is really important.

[iacas]

@Bo the Golfer, I've almost never seen anyone who should "overhaul" their swing. Find and fix the priority piece. Lather, rinse, repeat.

[nevets88]

I agree with @iacas, you don't take your swing and retrofit it to some ideal. Imho, your best swing will have much of your swing DNA right now. Take what you have, work with it. In a way, this encompasses some of the swing your swing sentiment in commercials and golf lore. If your natural pace of doing things in everyday life is quickly, then you should swing at a faster tempo.

To add, I think using video will help aid in whether you're heading in the right direction. With the help of a pro, you can self identify elements of your swing that are improving over time and not wonder whether or not you're making progress.

[Bo the Golfer]

Thank you all. What you are saying makes sense and I think it is about time I stop trying to go this alone. 

[Vinsk]

14 hours ago, Bo the Golfer said:

Thank you all. What you are saying makes sense and I think it is about time I stop trying to go this alone. 

I’ve been a ‘ I can do this alone’ player for a long time. Only since joining this site have I learned without question I can’t. I highly recommend Evolvr. I’ve just joined and 2 months in I’m making improvements that I’ve not been able to do before.