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Panda TIP: One swing thought at a time

Tadashi70

Tadashi70

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I am all about lessons and all about practice. I am not about quick fixes and beating balls to improve.

Yesterday I spent an hour and half on the range working on the my swing. I had one goal and that was to turn my shoulders to get the club into position. Once the left shoulder reach my chin I started my down swing. by focusing on just my shoulder swing I was able to detect any other flaws that might have crept into the swing. I ahd one of my best range sessions this year.

My divots where shallow and crisp, my ball flight was strong and my dispersion was spot on. best I have seen in a very long time. When I say I was a few yards left of my target on miss hit and a few feet on good hits, I am not kidding. Every time I miss a shot I knew right away what I had done wrong. I knew if I had ailed to take the club away with the shoulders or if I hung back at impact.

Everyone will have differing levels of success in their practice session. But I promise you, if you make sure the basics are taken care and focus on one swing thought you will get far more out of your practice session then you realize. The basics would be grip, stance and posture. You can't hit any shot without making sure these three are set. Once these are set you can work on that one swing thought. It could be hip release, shoulder turn, holing the angle into the ball, high hands...what ever. Just get the basics down and work on one thought.

So work on one swing thought at a time. You will get more in tune with your swing.
 
Such a good tip and one I have to make sure I'm listening to each session. It's easy to get in that trap of tons of thoughts swimming around.
 
Totally agreed. All I've done since I've been able to hit the range is really just think about the tip you gave me Freddie of starting the swing with my left shoulder. It's almost second nature now, and I'm already hitting better shots now than I did at the end of last season.
 
I had that problem just yesterday. It's funny how clearing the mind and just focusing on one thing really free'd up my mind and swing. I plan to stick to that for a while till it's engrained and then go to the next issue. For me it's a linear thing. Working on getting at the right position at the top of the swing must be right before I can worry about what happens through impact and follow thru. Ultimately it will come down to sequencing, but that's an issue when both sides are right I guess.
 
I like this Freddie, I know I often get 2 or more things going in my head at address....the tempo one needs to remain and seems to help the best for me.
 
Such a great tip, I know I have WAY too many thoughts standing over the ball and I can sometimes feel myself even tense up. Hoping as I work on my issues and engrain a new swing, that number gets drastically reduced.
 
With so many changes lately, this is a great tip. Set the basics and think if one until it's comfortable, then add another. One is better than 5
 
This is tough for me as I'm reworking my swing and fixing several flaws that sneak back into the swing every now and again.

So when your working on one thought and feel a flaw elsewhere what do you do? Do you fix the new one first or do you stay with what you came to work on?
 
Freddie,

Thank you for posting this. Especially when I'm having a bad day at the range or on course this is always something I forget, and then things just start to get worse.

Yesterday, I had an absolutely horrific range session - after I hit my last ball, I took a step back, and just practiced setup and takeaway. Then, I hit a few balls only thinking about staying connected and turning through the ball. I was hitting the ball more crisply than I had in a long time, and what felt like 3/4 swings were going as far as anything I'd hit in a while.
 
This is great advice, but something I have difficulty doing when I'm taking lessons. I tend to think about each lesson's swing thought and after a few lessons, I'm suddenly thinking about three or four things. I need to work on my focus.
 
Great thoughts Freddie, I used to spend way too much time overthinking my swing and I was thinking about way to many things. Keeping it simple like you said has done wonders for my game.
 
J4U said:
With so many changes lately, this is a great tip. Set the basics and think if one until it's comfortable, then add another. One is better than 5
Click to expand...

I really need to do this. I have a number of swing changes, in play, and "managing" them can be difficult. I will narrow my thoughts, moving forward.
 
That is a good tip. Too many things going on between the ears can mess things up.
 
very good advice when im at the range or working on my swing with my instructor i will only think of 2 things during my swing tops 1 is better when i'm on the course i think of nothing play with the swing you came with and adapt if you need to. has worked well for me over the years for sure.
 
Thanks for the advice. I live by these words. Spent a full session last night doing nothing but focusing on hip turn to stop with an early extension issue I developed after surgery. Been wreaking havoc on my game.
 
I need to work on my shoulder movement, it's probably why I may be having left pulls. I have been doing a lot of breathing exercises at address and during the swing to calm me down and to loosen the muscles.
 
Great advice here. Saw it first hand playing on Saturday. Was in a bit of a funk the first hole, and started thinking about too much the next few holes. Then my uncle told me just focus on one thing: finish your swing (I was pushing drives right the first few holes). And all of a sudden everything clicked. So yeah...excellent advice here!

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Excellent advice. I have been trying to focus on one swing thought for the last couple weeks and I think it's really helping me. Every time I'm about to do my practice swing I say to myself "turn your chest over your right leg!"
 
Love it when I see the Panda Tips! This one is really good, when I'm working on things, I typically bounce around, good to have a reminder to have one swing thought at a time.
 
This sounds great. The shoulder thing really hits home with getting a little armsy at times.
 
Great tip. It's something I know I get caught in sometimes, especially with my lessons recently.
 
Great tip! I find I play the worst when I start obsessing over mechanics and have to manage my many swing thoughts. I also love this idea, because it will free up my mind to think about the course and how I'm going to meet the challenges the course presents, rather than thinking about my swing for 18 holes. I need to get a towel or ball marker that says "Play golf, not swing!"
 
This goes right along with the lesson I had tonight. The pro wants me to work on two things. An inside swing path and turning over the club through impact. I asked which of these should be "A#1" since if I try to do TWO things chances are I'll do neither 100% (or even 80% for that matter). He told me to work on the pronation above all else.
 
The more I think about golf, and watch shows, YouTube videos, read articles etc... The more this is something to keep in mind. It's crazy how quickly you can get flooded with swing thoughts and ideas and over think what's going on.

Current thought: start the downswing with clearing the hips first. Last week it was starting the backswing with my left shoulder.

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