Help for when you 'lose' your swing

[BornSlippy1994]

Posted on here a couple of times and always received good advice... so here we go again!

Still relatively new to golf and I appreciate that this is an almost impossible question to answer, but does anyone know of any resources/mental cues to help when you turn up one and day and just can't strike the ball properly?

I know everyone has bad days and good days, but I think I'm genuinely the most inconsistent golfer I've ever met/played with. When I'm playing well people think I've played golf for years. I'm naturally a pretty athletic person, and on good days I strike the ball well, hit it very far, hit my irons really straight and feel comfortable on and around the greens. But... I have days where I turn up and I feel like I can't swing the club, and have no idea what I'm doing wrong.

Take my last two rounds for example. On Saturday, in a comp off the whites, shot 81 and genuinely left a few shots out on the course. However, today I played off the yellows and shot 102... 21 bloody shots worse. I was hooking my driver one hole, then slice it the next. My iron shots were hit fat, thin, pulled, push... you get the picture. My chipping and putting were probably similar both rounds, I just could not for the life of me strike the ball properly, tbh it was genuinely embarassing.

Therefore, does anyone know any really good guides on some fundamentals/mental cues I can tell myself when my swing just isn't working? Any help would be very much appreciated.

 

[clubchamp98]

How much do you practice.?

on the practice ground not the course, this is where you hone your swing and when things go wrong you can draw from this.

Its no coincidence that low cappers practice most , this is why they are more consistent.

 

[BornSlippy1994]

How much do you practice.?

on the practice ground not the course, this is where you hone your swing and when things go wrong you can draw from this.

Its no coincidence that low cappers practice most , this is why they are more consistent.

Try to go to the practice area and hit full shots at least once a week, and have been playing at least two rounds a week since I started playing about 6 months ago which has got me down to 15.

Appreciate that consistency will come with time, but find it so frustrating how I can go from 'very competent' to 'never played golf before' seemingly on a day to day basis... even when I'm trying to completely emulate my swing from the round before.

 

[the_coach]

Posted on here a couple of times and always received good advice... so here we go again!

Still relatively new to golf and I appreciate that this is an almost impossible question to answer, but does anyone know of any resources/mental cues to help when you turn up one and day and just can't strike the ball properly?

I know everyone has bad days and good days, but I think I'm genuinely the most inconsistent golfer I've ever met/played with. When I'm playing well people think I've played golf for years. I'm naturally a pretty athletic person, and on good days I strike the ball well, hit it very far, hit my irons really straight and feel comfortable on and around the greens. But... I have days where I turn up and I feel like I can't swing the club, and have no idea what I'm doing wrong.

Take my last two rounds for example. On Saturday, in a comp off the whites, shot 81 and genuinely left a few shots out on the course. However, today I played off the yellows and shot 102... 21 bloody shots worse. I was hooking my driver one hole, then slice it the next. My iron shots were hit fat, thin, pulled, push... you get the picture. My chipping and putting were probably similar both rounds, I just could not for the life of me strike the ball properly, tbh it was genuinely embarassing.

Therefore, does anyone know any really good guides on some fundamentals/mental cues I can tell myself when my swing just isn't working? Any help would be very much appreciated.

yep can be tricky for folks this

- obvious quick answer is a 1 to 1 lesson with you explaining the issues you find happening to you on a regular basis - even if the lesson happens to time in with you hitting the ball pretty well the Pro will spot what those underlying main issues are that give you a problem

- next obvious one would be to post a vid of your swing up in the thread with that will be able to offer some more specific help

but as a general answer to the issues what i tend to see happen most with folks suffering a 'melt down' are a bunch of stuff combining that then give folks the kinda swing perfect storm conditions for everything to go ways south

usually it's around folks maybes not having the best of grip holds on the handle - but a hold that's comfortable so it tends to always be whatever it may be too strong too weak or a combination of both in either hand - plus a set-up posture & alignment that may be a ways out of kilter
but folks can play reasonably well for a period of time with these things as they happen to be fitting into the motion the compensation moves that are then required to be there to hit the ball pretty good

if it happens say after a bit of a purple patch (or not) it can be around the human nature of things goin pretty well so why not make some extra effort to find maybes a few more mph for a tad more distance - then stuff starts to break down because the thing that's mostly been holding the swing & the compensation moves together has been a reasonably good rhythm through the swing - make some more 'effort' and that rhythm disappears & stuff starts to go a bot haywire

this also often times means with the tad more 'extra effort' there's a bunch more extraneous motion happening - could be in more lateral sway off the ball in the takeback/backswing & then either no lateral motion at all at transition or a ways too much - so the 'low point' of the swing arc is moving all over the place sometimes ways behind the ball sometimes just too high so the low point doesn't get to the ground at all
often times this connected with a real surge of arms & shoulder motion at transition with more of a 'hit at the ball' thing goin down often times this happening without the shoulder turn in the backswing being completed - stuff that happens once the swing has started to deteriorate more tension in the hands & arms which then transmits to the shoulders not a full turn & player starting back to hit the ball ways too soon - rhythm none existent - & then the circle of destruction just keeps feeding itself

so my take general advice would be take if out in play - take a mental five to slow down all the movements between shots a tad start to breathe relax - after all it can't get worse as it already has - so mental note that need to lose the tension so start by relaxing the grip hold a tad and think have all the time in the world (mentally speaking) for the swing to take place in - so then just focus on completing a centered backswing (no sway) 'feeling' the head stay reasonably centered & reasonably the same height through out (yep in reality it won't be - but as one of the issues likely been too much extraneous body/arm motion just a feeling of calming this down should help some)

make a couple of practice swings with this in mind - then on the shot make a commitment to swing with that rhythm just completing the backswing and then just swinging through the ball to a real balanced finish you can hold for a couple secs - regardless of where the ball goes - after all the clubhead is goin to hit the ball in someways - might at well commit to a real balanced swing

in practice to get the swing back would take say an 8i tee up a ball on short tee (to take worrying about the ground out of the equation) & again focus on less is more - so a feeling of a centered swing so the sternum feels its more or less staying where it is in relation to ball position - as is the vertical posture height - just focus on forearms being relaxed (so soft - not rock hard that ways the grip won't be real tense) & completing the shoulder turn to the top with the goal then just to swing through the ball (no hit) to a balanced finish - to find that swing rhythm
(haven't had time to check this for typos typing on phone on route to boarding flight - so hope this makes grammatical sense .... more or less - good luck