Swing thoughts

[jdchelsea]

Just thought I'd throw a topic out there for peoples thoughts. All the instructors, books, magazines etc all say when your playing golf you should limit the number of swing thoughts in your head to maybe one or two maximum. Is this possible for the average recreational player?

the average joe out there with an imperfect swing is continually trying to fix/adjust his swing to become better and so probably has number of things to work on i.e. smooth takeaway, cock wrists, rotate forearms, position at the top, hip turn, swaying or whatever. Unless he has managed to perfect the swing or iron out 90% of his issues he has to have numerous swing thoughts.

I bring this up because my last few rounds I have been swinging the club better than I have for months. this is after months of practice and ajustments. When I was swinging the club I had very few swing thoughs (for anyone who wants to know they were - position at the top and rhythm) but I was only able to swing like that because I trusted the rest of my swing. previously I thought about hip turn and positions, amongst others, but now I'm happier with them I dont have to think about them.

So my post is a case of the what comes first the chicken or the egg. Or in the case of golf is it playing well because you have limited swing thoughts or having limited swing thoughts because your playing well?!

Also interested to hear what swing thoughts people have and do they change constantly?

 

[Whee]

If i think about too much, I get tense over the ball and everything becomes rushed and forced.

I concentrate on a slow take away, and keeping my head down. All while keeping focused on the target side of the ball.

It doesn't always work...

 

[Junior]

My only thought's at the minute are to keep my right knee flexed and to turn my shoulders. Seems to be working and the long game is pretty sweet. It's my chipping and pitching thats killing my scores. I seem to freeze over the ball.....weight on the leftside , hinge wrists, finish low, dont look up....... then i'll either fat it 10 yards or thin it 60 !!!

 

[DaveM]

I try not to have any. Swing with what you bring! If I do think anything it just "smooth".

 

[Migs]

After a lesson my head gets filled up with 5 or more swing thoughts and I average two bad rounds after a lesson before I start to improve again.

Then it starts to click and I fall back in love again... my current thoughts are big shoulder turn/ straight left arm on the back swing and then left hip back to start the downswing / rotation.

 

[SocketRocket]

Some say that the best way to learn and play golf is to do it with no swing thoughts. There is an excellent book available called Nail-It which uses the 3-Skills teaching method, it has been written by an English guy called Joe Hagen, he has developed a way of teaching golf where the student is taught only to focus on three skills that relate to good ball striking:

Skill-1) Hitting the ball correctly for the club in use. Club then ground for irons and fairways. Ball only for Driver. He uses imagery of driving nails into the ball and various drills to do this correctly and contact the clubs sweet spot.

Skill-2) Hitting the ball in the correct part of the swing arc. He uses various imagery for this.

Skill-3) Rotating the clubface from open to closed through impact to create power. He also uses various drills and imagery here.

The main focus of his method is to release your mind of body positions and only practice the 3 skills. It is a very different approach and interesting book. I would reccomend it as a good read and to make us think in a slightly different way about golfing skills.

 

[Alex1975]

I recently read a famous book called "golf is not a game of perfect". Alot of it is about staying mentally strong. The day after I read it I had the worst medal of my life, in many ways the worst game of golf of my life and for sure the worst mental round of my life.

As the days after passed I started to process the round and the book.

In the book it tells you that you should spend x%(a large part, maybe 70% can't remember) of your practice time in the "trusting mode", focus on the target and only the target and get the ball to it.

As you start to do this your swing thoughts disappear, seriously I have non. Now of course you do have to spend time working on mechanics but not as much as trusting mode.

Al

 

[Alex1975]

Ps I would think that you believe that you play better without swing thoughts, I dobut that anyone has ever been advised to have more. Well I know I play better without them and enjoy the game alot more!!!

 

[andycap]

My only thoughts when swinging are . I hope the kids don't find out !

 

[Alex1975]

My only thoughts when swinging are . I hope the kids don't find out !

..............

 

[GeneralStore]

My thoughts are 'slow and smooth' and thats on my practise swing, when its time to play the shot I just focus on hitting the ball