How To Try (Only) The Right Things

[sofingaw]

I think that many (all?) of us have tried to do things with our swings that somehow made things worse due to being either: 

1) Incomplete or nonspecific in description (you thought of or were told something wrong) or execution (you understood or wrong and/or did it wrong/overdid it).

2) The opposite of beneficial or intended, due to it being counterintuitive and/or flat out wrong. 

Or even:

3) Impossible to actively ‘do’, for one reason or another.

4) Some other problem. (Feel free to describe!)

Then hopefully, we realized the issue with our false fix, or were shown the light by a competent pro. 

I’d love for his thread to serve as a compilation of pitfalls and more importantly, ‘a-ha moments’ that we have had over the years. Hopefully a long enough list of these will allow others to avoid our specific pitfalls.

I’ll start:

Issue: Hitting fat shots.

False Fix: Actively attempt to hit ‘down’ on ball in order to ensure ball-first contact. 

Problem with False Fix: Swing became far too steep, causing continued mishits due to smaller, and thus harder to reach ‘impact zone’

Real Fix: Shallow out swing, increasing  serviceable ‘impact zone’, allowing for more consistent ball-first contact, reducing number of fat shots. 

Very interested to see what we can come up with and glean some tips!

Edited May 20, 2018 by sofingaw

[iacas]

IMO this kind of topic will never work, for a number of reasons.

First, what some amateur thinks works or doesn’t may not even be accurate. Feel ain’t real and all that.

Second, a bad fix for one may be THE fix for another. That stuff depends on fat too many other variables.

Third, everyone’s descriptions and pictures are going to be different. For example when you said “steep” that word alone can be so many things.

Sorry, just my opinion. Not trying to rain on your parade. Maybe I’ll be wrong.

But if golf was this easy people could reach themselves well.

[Patch]

All I have ever done was tried to have an out to in down swing, and a club face angle at impact to match that club head path. All I ever wanted was a ball flight that flew, and landed in the general area I was aiming for. 

My swing guru at the time I was playing my best golf only had me focusing on 4 thoughts. Those were grip, alignment, take away, and position at the top prior to my start of my down swing. 

After that, I just added in some, what I called "specialty shots" as needed. 

I knew bad shots were going to happen no matter what I did. My quest was to have more good shots, than poor ones. This made it simple for me when I had my "A" game. 

[Vinsk]

7 minutes ago, Patch said:

All I have ever done was tried to have an out to in down swing, and a club face angle at impact to match that club head path

So you’ve always wanted a pull? Am I mixed up?

[Patch]

9 hours ago, Vinsk said:

So you’ve always wanted a pull? Am I mixed up?

You are not mixed up. I wrote it wrong. "In to out, back in...."  . I left out a word or two out.  I do that sometimes. Good catch. 

Edited May 20, 2018 by Patch

[sofingaw]

14 hours ago, iacas said:

IMO this kind of topic will never work, for a number of reasons.

First, what some amateur thinks works or doesn’t may not even be accurate. Feel ain’t real and all that.

Second, a bad fix for one may be THE fix for another. That stuff depends on fat too many other variables.

Third, everyone’s descriptions and pictures are going to be different. For example when you said “steep” that word alone can be so many things.

Sorry, just my opinion. Not trying to rain on your parade. Maybe I’ll be wrong.

But if golf was this easy people could reach themselves well.

I’m sure you’re right. I come up with failed ideas all the time, so no worries!

[Buckeyebowman]

I don't know that it's possible to try "only" the right things. And I don't care what instructor you hire. Some of their ideas may be wrong, for you! My way or the highway!

Back in the day I was largely self taught through articles in Golf Digest. This was when they had NIcklaus, and others of his ilk, as playing editors. I tried every idea that came down the pike. If it worked, I incorporated it. If it didn't, I discarded it. Plus, I threw in a few options of my own.

For instance. With iron play I adopted a stance that was quite narrow and slightly open, with the ball played back in that stance. From that configuration I could really slam down on the back of the ball and just dead nut my iron shots. I can't do that with current instruction.

It has occurred to me that maybe I should try that again! But, at 65, It might not work now.