Wot would you do?

[macca64]

Right, it seems every part of my game has gone, medal today, at the course 2 hrs early, swinging nice, beautiful in fact, as has been when having playing lessons and range lessons, when actually playing, no idea, head gone, should I play through it, or, just spend time on the range and try and groove it, on the verge of packing it in, I'm off 12 if that makes any goddamn difference 🏌🙏😰

 

[louise_a]

Putting too much pressure on yourself? Do you really need 2 hours practice before a round? How do you play when just out on the course for a fun round?

 

[Crow]

I've been in that space for a couple of years, went from 8 to 11, absolute loss of confidence.

I've stopped entering every qualifier for a while, just trying to play for the fun of it and not get fixated about playing to handicap.

It maybe just coincidence but there are signs that things are getting better, I had a cut a few weeks ago and played to buffer at a tough course last week.
I'm starting to see where I want the ball to go again rather than where I don't.

For now I'd stick with it, you may just be going through a blip, but if after several months you're still in the same mindset then it might be worth dropping the qualifiers and playing for the joy of playing.

 

[macca64]

Putting too much pressure on yourself? Do you really need 2 hours practice before a round? How do you play when just out on the course for a fun round?

Not for a fun round I agree, but today was a medal, and playing so badly I thought it might help, and for our roll up I'm playing no different , getting quite embarrassing ,

 

[macca64]

I've been in that space for a couple of years, went from 8 to 11, absolute loss of confidence.

I've stopped entering every qualifier for a while, just trying to play for the fun of it and not get fixated about playing to handicap.

It maybe just coincidence but there are signs that things are getting better, I had a cut a few weeks ago and played to buffer at a tough course last week.
I'm starting to see where I want the ball to go again rather than where I don't.

For now I'd stick with it, you may just be going through a blip, but if after several months you're still in the same mindset then it might be worth dropping the qualifiers and playing for the joy of playing.

I think your right and stick with it, practice seems a waste of time and play through it.

 

[One Planer]

At the course, 2 hours early. Hitting balls?

If that's the case it's far too long pre qualifier IMO.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I've been there. Had been hitting it well in lessons and on the practice ground and every shot on the course was a nightmare. Made a conscious decision to go out and play last week and not hit balls. Still ugly and still feels like too much like golf by numbers. Thursday wasn't good but came back out on Friday which was better. Played yesterday and got 30 points. Not brilliant but better than recent weeks

Funnily enough warmed up as normal this morning before the competition and back to hitting it poorly. Took that onto the course and was struggling with my game before my back went on the 4th and again on the 6th. Think I'm cutting back on warm up time and only going to hit 20-30 balls for everything from pitching warming up, through to the driver and some bunker shots to finish. Enough to get the muscles stretched and warmed up but not enough to get a poor tempo or too many thoughts going on

 

[macca64]

I've been there. Had been hitting it well in lessons and on the practice ground and every shot on the course was a nightmare. Made a conscious decision to go out and play last week and not hit balls. Still ugly and still feels like too much like golf by numbers. Thursday wasn't good but came back out on Friday which was better. Played yesterday and got 30 points. Not brilliant but better than recent weeks

Funnily enough warmed up as normal this morning before the competition and back to hitting it poorly. Took that onto the course and was struggling with my game before my back went on the 4th and again on the 6th. Think I'm cutting back on warm up time and only going to hit 20-30 balls for everything from pitching warming up, through to the driver and some bunker shots to finish. Enough to get the muscles stretched and warmed up but not enough to get a poor tempo or too many thoughts going on

Thing is I never usually hit balls before I play, only did it today to try and FIND something, oh well, back to drawing board, 🤔

 

[the_coach]

thinking the trouble is you've kinda of bounced between extreme ends of the spectrum no warm up to overkill 'practice' routine

not stretching or hitting any warm up balls is bad news but so too is 2 hours hitting balls in practice

usually when the game goes south it's something around tempo, rhythm, balance even if folks 'technique' as such is not at it's best, with good tempo, rhythm, balance etc it's then 'possible' to get the ball around - but with the proviso that there has to be good course management decisions being made

head goes out on course most times around a small bunch of stuff like - not identifying specific targets - not going through a decent psr - not staying in the present with focus just on the shot that's right there

so kinda warm up could be 5 mins stretching out
warm up hitting some balls just focus on tempo rhythm in balance and starting ball on a picked target line
5 balls with a PW 3/4 swing at 70% smooth rhythm in balance
3 balls 8i same premise
3 balls 6i same premise
3 balls hybrid or 4,5 metal (depending what the bag make-up is) same
3 balls 3 metal same

so no big judgements being made on results just awareness of tempo and general outcomes

not going so good don't hit any drivers (maybes leave the driver in the trunk even)
if going not so bad then swing through a couple drivers (2 balls) but again even more important with the big stick is tempo, and balance in rhythm
then 10 minutes chipping & putting, again focus on tempo couple 25 footers, couple 15'
last off find a straight 4' putt - hit 2 balls holing out 'listening'(not looking) for the ball to drop

so a max of say 30 mins as a pre-game routine - less time could do it in 20 mins - would never tee it up having no warm up or doing major practice time before going out

one of the biggest single differences between the Tour Pro, Elite amateur end of the spectrum to most club golfing folks is if you measure the swings tempo's (the resonance frequencies of a swing motion) the tempo of the higher end golfer does not hardly alter swing to swing, so studying this is graph form the swing peaks troughs fall right over one another time after time even over 30 or more swings so you virtually looking at 'one' trace on the image - where-as for the club golfer the swings signatures form many 'shadows' so the graph image is ways thicker because the tempo rhythm balance is different swing to swing

my take, getting a decent handle a repeatable swing motion tempo with balance would be a real great base to build the game on to be able to keep 'consistency' within tighter boundaries - put that has to go with sound course management and always staying in the present moment out in play

 

[bobmac]

Do you have any swing thoughts when you're playing in medals?

 

[macca64]

Not many, last lesson thoughts complete shoulder turn and hit it harder with the hands .and to reply to the coach as my iPad is playing up, is tempo or rhythm is my main problem, if that is good, my swing usually is, but not recently,

 

[the_coach]

as don't know for sure what's happening within the particular swing motion am not really in a position to say definitely it's the main issue

but for sure in many cases through my experience of working with others - tempo, rhythm and balance that for some reason has been disrupted is a real easy and quick ways for the game to go south some and with a pretty rapid deterioration

and through my study for sure all top golfers have a tempo (each of course a tad different to the others) but they have their own 'a swing resonance frequency' that hardly changes from swing to swing, & no matter the length of the shot so full driver, to wedge, to part wedge that tempo is about as constant as it can be - and if they get that off any then they generally don't have their A game on board

so first off if folks games/swings come unstuck would check over set-up posture, aim alignments, ball position also do no harm to check over the hold on the handle - them look to tempo & balance

often times worth doing that say with a pw and an 8i at say only 60%/70% effort & making sure it's a 'swing motion' to a full balance finish the finish is the goal not just the ball being the end destination so no 'hit'

then work from there if the swing effort gets increasing put the quality of strike and shot outcomes drops then go back to the swing motion effort that produced better contact with the ball starting out on the aim line

 

[macca64]

as don't know for sure what's happening within the particular swing motion am not really in a position to say definitely it's the main issue

but for sure in many cases through my experience of working with others - tempo, rhythm and balance that for some reason has been disrupted is a real easy and quick ways for the game to go south some and with a pretty rapid deterioration

and through my study for sure all top golfers have a tempo (each of course a tad different to the others) but they have their own 'a swing resonance frequency' that hardly changes from swing to swing, & no matter the length of the shot so full driver, to wedge, to part wedge that tempo is about as constant as it can be - and if they get that off any then they generally don't have their A game on board

so first off if folks games/swings come unstuck would check over set-up posture, aim alignments, ball position also do no harm to check over the hold on the handle - them look to tempo & balance

often times worth doing that say with a pw and an 8i at say only 60%/70% effort & making sure it's a 'swing motion' to a full balance finish the finish is the goal not just the ball being the end destination so no 'hit'

then work from there if the swing effort gets increasing put the quality of strike and shot outcomes drops then go back to the swing motion effort that produced better contact with the ball starting out on the aim line

Many thanks 👍