Changing your swing

[Khamelion]

While reading a few tweets I came across one from GolfWRX, about changing or more over, re-programming your brain to accept swing changes, this link covers it.

The bit I found interesting is where it says that 5 to 10mins a day working on your swing change, without hitting a ball can be just as beneficial as hitting the range for an hour.

The saying, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks", is looking more like a description for someone who is stubborn and stuck in their ways, rather than a metaphor for someone who could learn but chooses not to.

 

[duncan mackie]

While reading a few tweets I came across one from GolfWRX, about changing or more over, re-programming your brain to accept swing changes, this link covers it.

The bit I found interesting is where it says that 5 to 10mins a day working on your swing change, without hitting a ball can be just as beneficial as hitting the range for an hour.

The saying, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks", is looking more like a description for someone who is stubborn and stuck in their ways, rather than a metaphor for someone who could learn but chooses not to.

The main resin for this is that you are trying to remove the feeling that you are doing something completely different (even if you are!)
You want the new positions, feelings etc to become natural.
If you don't you will continue to exaggerate the change in order to deliver the feeling of change until you are overdoing it massively!

 

[Beezerk]

I switched between interlocking, vardon and baseball grip today, still scored 33 points on a new course so not sure if it made much of a difference
Btw Dave, you're course really is impressive, puts our place to shame.

 

[Khamelion]

I switched between interlocking, vardon and baseball grip today, still scored 33 points on a new course so not sure if it made much of a difference
Btw Dave, you're course really is impressive, puts our place to shame.

Aye it's a good course, did you notice the two new holes? the land off to the right of the par3 5th a par 4 up the hill and a longish par 3 back down, they come into play next April. making the course a par 71

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Interesting. Trying to get rid of thirty years of overswing, head lifting in the back swing and it's a huge mind shift and more so in change of the feel of the swing. Starting to come, very slowly but this is a big change to get a more compact, slower tempo swing. Hopefully it'll be more robust on bad swing days. Not sure how I feel about this link. I am very much one for feeling ball on face and seeing how it reacts and not sure I'm diligent enough to practice properly without a ball

 

[Green Bay Hacker]

Going through swing changes myself at the moment and it is turning into a bit of a nightmare. Also slowed the back swing down to try and stop the over swing. Result is a high hook off the tee and it is really getting me down.

We had our pairs knock out tonight and my partners back must be killing him from carrying me. We lost it on the last but my total contribution was winning one hole, halving two and losing seven balls.

 

[Beezerk]

Aye it's a good course, did you notice the two new holes? the land off to the right of the par3 5th a par 4 up the hill and a longish par 3 back down, they come into play next April. making the course a par 71

Yes we saw that, looked like a nice dogleg up to the house on the hill. 18 is a bugger, that's one looong par 4 even with a good drive.

 

[ScienceBoy]

I put this post up a couple of days ago around the same thing. http://forums.golf-monthly.co.uk/showthread.php?77752-Think-yourself-to-better-golf

Work ran a course around cognitive behavioural theory, its not all new stuff to be due to my background but it was good to be reminded of the biological facts behind learning.

I could go into detail but its not just useful for golf but its good if you want to change anything in your life. Helped me get over my anxiety about 5 years back.

To put it simply the old (or current) way of doing something has less electrical resistance in your brain, any new pathways have higher resistance (due to lack of myelin). Doing or even thinking about your new way lays down myelin and therefore reduces resistance.

Eventually the old pathway's myelin degrades and the new pathway is the one of least resistance.

My current method is to visualise and feel all aspects (including contact and how my muscles fee) when holing putts. Should stop me lifting my head and moving my body if I keep thinking over and over so the new pathway is myelin heavy!

Same is going for my adjusted takeaway, I am going over and over in my head the feeling and motion of the takeaway, leading to a full swing.

Who knows it if will work but it sure does help pass the time sitting in traffic.

 

[ManinBlack]

Interesting. Trying to get rid of thirty years of overswing, head lifting in the back swing and it's a huge mind shift and more so in change of the feel of the swing. Starting to come, very slowly but this is a big change to get a more compact, slower tempo swing. Hopefully it'll be more robust on bad swing days. Not sure how I feel about this link. I am very much one for feeling ball on face and seeing how it reacts and not sure I'm diligent enough to practice properly without a ball

Used to be my problem. Amazing what effect a bit of arthritis has, I'm playing the best golf I've played for years.

 

[Paul77]

I can vouch for this theory. Every night I would grab an iron choke down on the shaft and put the butt of the grip onto my belt. I'd just make a quarter swing out then swing through slowly to follow through or as far as I could go until I was sweating. Take a break then grab a frying pan in my normal grip and do the same.

There's loads of wee things you can do at home to tune your brain. I was taking the club back too shallow then coming over the top to compensate. I thought that if I learned to pull the club away on a less shallow plane I would then be able to bring it down more shallow, allowing me to whip it up and out for a draw shot. Based on my own experience this has worked just because of the way I think about things.

 

[Curls]

Going through swing changes myself at the moment and it is turning into a bit of a nightmare.

Been there, very recently, it ain't fun is it? All I can say is, if you know your old swing was holding you back from real improvement, then you have to keep at it.

I realised/admitted to myself that hit the wall regards improvement with the swing I had last year. Lessons with a good pro were followed by plenty range work and less playing. Less playing because of the frustration of playing so poorly, just not being able to focus on getting the ball around because I was so caught up in the mechanics of what I needed to do when it felt so unnatural.

Stick with it, it becomes natural eventually. I practiced with a club around the garden at home/at work and one of those little foam practice balls, okay it’s a bit unrealistic but youre still connecting with something and I definitely think it helped groove out the old and in the new, and its absolutely worth it. To the point where Im now playing better than I ever have and am already thinking about lessons to get me to the next level, though I’ll wait til season end for reasons above!

Keep at it chap, play through it!

 

[JustOne]

Interesting video but it doesn't look like swing changes to me, swing changes are like learning to ride a bike with one or no hands, what he's doing in that video is the equivalent of changing from a right handed player to a leftie... not easy at all, hardly something you're going to conquer in 5 minutes.

in my opinion.

 

[ManinBlack]

I'm a firm believer in staying as close to your "natural" swing as you can, provided it isn't miles from the ideal. Any attempt to swing in an unnatural way will need constant effort and, in my experience, no matter how much you practise, unless it's hours every day, you'll tend to revert to the natural as soon as you stop thinking about it. I have always had a tendency to swing flat & no amount of effort can get me hitting the ball consistently with a comparatively steep swing. I also tend to get stuck with the club behind me. So, for me, all I can cope with are two swing thoughts, "a bit steeper on the way back" & "clear the hips" on the way down. If I ever forget this, no matter how much I practice, I hit it badly. Some friends say they think of nothing while swinging. They must have better natural swings than me!

 

[Deleted member 16999]

Talking about relaxing and doing what comes naturally or not over thinking, have a look at this video i posted on this thread the other day, found it fascinating in its simplicity.

http://forums.golf-monthly.co.uk/showthread.php?77767-Golf!-As-Easy-as-Throwing-a-Frisbee