Crazy bad habit has ruined my game.

[Georgeyboy]

I've had some good golf up till last November, my handicap was coming down nicely and I was winning competitions within my league then all of a sudden I started shanking my ball so I arranged a lesson with a PGA pro and he showed me on video that I was opening my club face on the backswing so we spent a long time correcting this, BUT! Because I spent a long time watching my backsing I now can not play my backswing without looking at my club head and it's really annoying because I know it's wrong and I am really self conscious of this and try not to do it and now I'm playing rubbish and have also developed a really bad habit.

Anyone got ideas or has experienced this.

Thanks in advance for all replies.

 

[duncan mackie]

you are not alone

you need to start a drill around 'how many shots in a row' can you hit (at the range) without looking at the club head.....

once the link is broken all will be well until you s is on the couse again!

 

[Georgeyboy]

Thanks for your reply, any idea how to stop doing it for playing on the course?

 

[duncan mackie]

the drill is designed to break the habit - there is no know drill for completely preventing any possible sh*nk on the course (ask Hansen from the masters!)

 

[socky]

Hey I can relate to this....

I've been working hard on

a) not fanning the club face open
b) taking the club away more upright, because of a very flat swing with too much shoulder turn

Anyway, last year I was shooting low 80's but this year (with lots of practice) I'm getting nowhere near that. Was really confused and frustrated. One practice session it dawned on me that during my whole swing, all my focus is on my backswing not the object I'm swinging at.... I just practiced staring intently at the ball while swinging and suddenly, i'm cracking 3 woods off the floor, hitting 4 irons and all the things that were causing me problems.

What I do on the range is one slow practice swing where I focus on the positions in the back swing I want to be in and then a normal swing where I just 100% focus on the ball, the results have been very very good.

I've built in a preshot routine where I take a noraml practice swing on the course again focusing on the backswing before then just concentrating on the ball. Seems to be working for me.

Maybe do something similar at the range but for the time being, dont care where the ball goes, just concentrate on staring at the makers name on the ball. ( you'll probably find the ball goes in the right direction anyway )

 

[Georgeyboy]

That is very good advice, I am going to go to the range today and try to do it. I will let you know how I get on.

Thanks again for your reply.

 

[socky]

cool, let me know how it goes !

 

[Georgeyboy]

Ok here's the update.

I started off hitting balls with a quarter swing and then worked upto a half swing without looking at my club and they were going nice, not very far but nice clean hits then I went upto a three quarter swing but not hitting so well. I tried full swing but kept shanking and hitting fat shots.

On the positive side I was not looking at my club but focusing on the ball so I am sure that a few more visits to the range I will find my swing again. Thanks for all of your help guys.