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GOLF SWING THOUGHTS MADE SIMPLE

Finding the proper Swing Thoughts

The less you have to think about before, and during the Swing the better. I wish I could just select a club, get in position and swing away with no thought at all but that’s never going to happen. The best Players in the world still have one or more Swing thoughts in order to execute their golf swing. Your goal is to find the fewest number of Swing thoughts you require to execute your most consistent golf swing. Most people begin with many more than necessary, and have a very difficult time reducing it. The reason it’s so difficult to whittle down is because we don’t pay close enough attention to which thoughts actually make a considerable difference. In the beginning you will get Swing thought advice from everyone, including total strangers. I’m sure some of you have heard some or all of these.

Top 8 Swing Thought advice

1- Keep your head in the same position during the swing

2- Keep your eyes on the ball and don’t look to see where it’s going until your Follow through naturally lifts your head

3- Keep your forward arm straight

4- Swing with your body, not your arms

5- Transfer your weight into your back foot during the back swing, then shift your weight on to your front foot during the forward swing

6- Hit down on to the ball and take a divot just after ball first contact

7- Allow your hands to turn over through impact to close the face

8- Begin the forward swing by rotating your hips first to create lag

There are many more, and at some point I’ve tried them all. In the end my Swing Thoughts have been reduced to (a) maintaining a slow controlled back swing utilizing my two anchor points, and (b) completing a full swing through to a proper finish position. Some of you are probably surprised by that, and maybe even doubting it’s all I require. I’ll explain why this works for me. First of all a Slow Back swing prevents me from swaying. It keeps me balanced, and prevents my head from moving. The Anchor points keep my forward arm from bending to far, promote a proper rotation, and keep my Swing Path under control. Everything that happens through impact is determined at set up before I actually swing. As long as I’m set up correctly my strike will be decent. Something I learned to accept a while back is that a golf swing is far too fast to correct a poor set up during the swing. Better to take a little longer during set up, and then just trust you got it right. That way I’m able to just swing freely, and focus on getting to my second Swing thought, that perfect end position. Chances are if I finish the swing smoothly my shot will be what I expected. If things go wrong it can only be a problem at set up, bad Tempo, or poor balance. The icing on the cake is figuring out which thing went wrong is relatively easy. If I end up off balance it’s obvious. If my swing gets out of synch it’s a Tempo issue. If the Strike was really poor then the problem was at the set up. It usually only takes me a maximum of 3 Holes to get things fixed during a Round now. I can remember Rounds of golf where something would go wrong with my Swing, and it could take 6 Holes to figure out what. Sometimes I wouldn’t figure out what was wrong the entire Round. The reason I had no idea was because I had too many Swing Thoughts to work through. Was my head steady? Was I transferring my weight too soon, or too late? Had I gotten too armsy? Were my hands forward at impact? If just one thing was wrong I could potentially figure it out. But what if two or more things weren’t quite right? Good luck finding the right combination to fix things in time.

Just because these two Swing thoughts work for me doesn’t necessarily mean they will work for you. My Swing thoughts include a front and rear arm anchoring against my abdomen. Unless you do that as well it won’t make sense for you. I rarely take much of a divot, and don’t compress the ball all that much. As a result of that I don’t hit the ball particularly long. Right now distance isn’t all that important to me. I hit long enough to get around a shorter course, and shoot my target score provided I’m accurate. At some point in order to improve my Handicap I’ll have to learn to hit the ball a bit longer. At that time my Swing thoughts might change, or I might require one more in order to account for compressing the ball at impact.

WHAT SWING THOUGHTS HAVE WORKED FOR YOU?

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Don’t forget the little things, Swing thoughts – Beginner’s guide to Golf

So many swing thoughts

Before, during, and inevitably after we think about our swing.  There’s so much going through our heads that sometimes we are the instruments of our own demise.  We forget that as complicated as the game of Golf can be.  In order to succeed at it things need to be simple.  I’m sure you have all seen videos, or read articles relating to swing instruction.  Too often they describe swing path, angle of attack, transfer of weight, club head release, follow through, the direction your belt buckle should face at the conclusion of your swing, and I could keep going on and on.  How are you ever going to make successful contact with the ball if you are thinking about all of these things at once?  When I was first developing a swing, my only thought was to make contact with the ball.  After a few trips out to the Range I was able to make pretty consistent contact.  Of course I had very little distance, or directional control.  In an attempt to further develop my swing I started watching those videos I mentioned.  What I learned is that too much information can do more harm than good.

It wasn’t all useless though

There are a few tips I picked up on that I believe can help any Beginner.  First of all it’s important to separate your swing setup from the actual swing.  Too many Beginners concentrate on both at once.  It sounds quite easy to do, but it isn’t.  What happens is that during your practice backswing, or waggle you adjust your stance.  While doing so you begin to think about your swing.  The two thoughts become one.  What I’ve learned to do is make my practice backswing a part of my setup.  Once I’m satisfied with my position I take a moment to clear my head.  Then I begin my swing preparation.  I’ve simplified my swing thought to three things.  A smooth controlled backswing, then a balanced fore swing without drifting my weight from back to front too much, and a complete follow through.  That’s it!  To be honest I am limiting my maximum distance by purposefully decreasing my weight transfer.  What it does do is significantly reduce the number of miss hits I make.  For me that’s far more important.  Another tip I can offer you that will surely improve your scores, is to hit every putt with the intention to go three feet passed the hole.  Any putt that comes up short has no chance of rolling in.  Better to hit your ball too far passed the hole than leave it short.  An additional bonus to playing this way is that you get a lot of practice hitting 3 to 5 foot putts.  You will get so accustomed to hitting them that soon any putt within 5 feet will feel automatic.

Short shots are the most important

When it comes to practice, spend the majority of your time working on your shorter clubs.  In actuality you should spend the most time practicing your putting stroke.  Then you should spend almost as much time working on your Wedge game.  Then your Irons, your Hybrids, your Woods, and last of all your Driver.  Too many Beginners do this in reverse.  Think of it in terms of what you will likely use the most during a Round.  As a Beginner there’s a very good chance that you will have to make 2 or 3 putts per hole.  You might have to hit 2 or 3 Wedge shots as well.  On average only 1 or 2 Iron shots are required per hole.  Most holes only require 1 shot with a Wood or Hybrid.  Most of the courses I play only require the Driver on a couple of the holes on the entire course.  It wouldn’t make much of a difference to my final score if I hit my Driver best.  If I was in top form with my Putter and Wedges though.  I could easily reduce my final score by at least one stroke per hole.  In fact it only took me about 12 months of regular practice with my Putter and Wedges to reduce my handicap from a 36 to 20.  I have to admit that I’m not very consistent with my Driver yet.  In some cases I don’t even use it once during a Round.  That hasn’t prevented me from reducing my scores though.

Remember that you are a Beginner

It’s very easy to get tempted to play some of the more professional style courses in your area.  Be realistic about your expectations when you do.  There can be a huge increase in difficulty.  Don’t be a hero and play from the back Tees.  Don’t get too preoccupied with your score to Par.  Just focus on making good shots, and playing within your ability.  Trust me you will enjoy the experience far more.

Beginner’s guide to Golf