We've launched the new forums! Read more here

completely lost my swing

I have not been out to the course since my 60 on Thursday. I've just been taking a few days off to try and clear my head. I have just taken some time a few times a day to stand there without a club and pretend like I'm swinging and making sure I am shifting my weight back and forth appropriately...I think I'm going to go out tomorrow by myself and take my time, maybe even play a couple balls so if I hit a bad one I can drop another one and take another swing just show myself I can do it...I think if I go out by myself rather than with someone I will be able to not have any distractions and just play some golf. I will be sure to let everyone know how it goes.
 
Sounds like a good plan, and one that I follow often.
 
INgolfer said:
I have not been out to the course since my 60 on Thursday. I've just been taking a few days off to try and clear my head. I have just taken some time a few times a day to stand there without a club and pretend like I'm swinging and making sure I am shifting my weight back and forth appropriately...I think I'm going to go out tomorrow by myself and take my time, maybe even play a couple balls so if I hit a bad one I can drop another one and take another swing just show myself I can do it...I think if I go out by myself rather than with someone I will be able to not have any distractions and just play some golf. I will be sure to let everyone know how it goes.
Click to expand...

sounds like me sometimes just remember to clear your headbefore each shot and if you hit a bad one just try again. dont do what i do ant lose it totallly
 
HoosierGolfer said:
I've played a long time and for me golf has always been very day to day. I play great one day and not so good the next at times. I don't worry much about it. The great days is what keeps you going back. I have find a particular problem I can't work through in a few days, I just go find my teacher and have him take a look. He can normally fix me in minutes.
Click to expand...

+1 to that...>Sat shot 86...Sunday 99....doesnt get much more day to day than that
 
go buy yourself a speed sleeve....you wont regret it!!!! This is by far the best advice I can give you. I had the same problem and this has helped tons
 
A very active weight shift is over-rated in my opinion and can cause a lot of problems with miss-hits and fats, tops, etc, staying stable and balanced with barely a perceptible shift is a far better way to go. When I am having trouble making good contact I will sometimes swing with a wide stance and take the shift out completely to find the bottom of my swing arc again and then gradually move the feet closer together keeping that weight centered. Doing this allows you to swing faster and stay balanced and centered over the ball without weaving or swaying. I also sometimes will actively point my left knee (right handed swing) down more directly at the ball than try to contort it and twist it backwards toward my right knee. Not only does that hurt my knee but actively letting it just bend slightly and then straighten gradually will help keep the swing balanced and on plane. The less contortion there is in any swing the better the swing. DOn't try to swing beyond what you can stretch to without getting wound up too tightly. Less full and hit harder is a good way to deal with a lack of turn, better than over turning and losing balance. All these things I see every weekend from guys at the local muni.
 
I was there a month ago. Have faith, it goes away after enough humbling.
 
I get the sh@nx when I am striking the ball extremely well--never when I'm hitting the ball bad. My on the course fix is to squeeze the left hand and let it overpower the right, yup I start to pull the ball a little but that's better than the alternative. (notice I play left handed) That correction usually serves well the rest of the round until I can get to the range.
 
For some reason I will shank a wedge once in a while on the range, almost never on the golf course, something to do with concentration probably. My fix is to just switch to a longer club. I can always hit 3W sometimes better than I hit a PW, weird isn't it. Had a pro tell me one time that he had been teaching for 25 years and he had never seen anyone hit long clubs so well and short clubs so poorly all in the same practice session. I told him it is like that on the range sometimes but for some reason it never happens on the golf course. And no it isn't that I hit everything bad on the golf course, just the opposite.
 
So I made it out for 9 holes yesterday, and while my game is still not back to where it was, it is getting better. 42 on 9 holes, with 2 doubles because I had 2 sh*nks during my round that went out of bounds. But I have gone from sh*nking everything to just a couple in 9 holes. The odd thing is they happened with a 9-iron both times. I also was catching a few thin, mostly because I was focusing on balance and weight transfer more than anything. But im getting it back to where I want to. My short game from within 15 yards of the green is better than ever so once I get my swing tuned in again I should easily take another 4-5 strokes off my game. Im gonna head to the range today and spend a lot of time with my short irons. Thanks for all the support everyone!
 
Well I'm hoping I finally made a breakthrough..we'll see during my next round. I played in league again Thursday and was completely bombing again for the first 6 holes. Picked up at double-bogey on every hole except one, and on that one I putted in for double bogey...however on the last 3 holes I concentrated on shifting my weight more to my back foot on my backswing and I finished par-par-par. I had birdie putts on 7 and 9 that I barely missed. So I'm hoping this was the breakthrough I was looking for, however after that round earlier in the week where I shot 42 I thought that was the breakthrough I needed, but apparently it wasn't because I was absolutely horrible for the first 6 holes Thursday. When I very first started golfing 2 years ago I was shooting high 40's each round. I am down to a 9.5 handicap, and somehow I am shooting 50-60 over the last couple of weeks. It does not make any sense and I am ready to get over this crap...
 
So I had every intention of playing 9 today, but by the time I was able to get out there I only got in 2 holes before the rain came. Here in northern Indiana we have had nothing but sunshine early in the day, and then right when I get off work during the week at 5 it clouds up and gets rainy. I just can't catch a break. This week we have more of the same...rain forecasted for every single stinkin day! Same forecast we had for last week...and the rain only comes as soon as I get off work, other than that it is nice during the day...anyway...think I got it together now. If I include the 2 holes I played today with the last 3 I played on Thursday I have parred 4 of my last 5 holes, and the one I bogeyed today was an easy par on a par 5, but I decided to be risky and go for it in 2 and ended up in the water, so that shot my par. If I would have laid up I could have easily had par. Hopefully the weather man is full of garbage and I can get out and play a little bit tomorrow evening.
 
INgolfer said:
So after firing a 39 last week in league this early in the season I thought I was on the right track. I thought I was already back in midseason form. However, I have proceeded to play 2 rounds of 9 holes since then and have not even been able to complete half the.holes because we have to pick up at double bogey. Last night I only got to finish 3 holes, and 2 of those I actually putted to EARN my double, all the other holes I had to pick up before I even got to the green because we have a double bogey limit in league. I would have easily been around 60 had i finished every hole. Anyway....my miss before was always just on my long irons. I always had great ball striking but my long irons would just hook. Well now I can't even get a ball airborn. I'm sh*nking everything straight to the right. It literally shoots off about 100 to the right and barely goes forward at all. I have never played this bad in my life and it is so frustrating. When I did it last week I just told myself it was one round and it would just go away. It was even worse yesterday. Even going to the range a couple times earlier in the same week I was having the same problem there. I had one day where I had probably the best range day I've ever had, and then the next day I was sh*nking them all over the range. I have completely lost it!
Click to expand...

Don't feel like the only orange in the apple cart. I went out yesterday and today just to hit a bucket of balls. Yesterday I felt like I belonged in the seniors special olympics, today I felt like I would have come in, in last place, had I actually been in the seniors special olympics. I have no idea what happened. No idea. Topped them, shanked them, what got hit ended up mild slices or mild pulls. The few I hit right were great unfortunately. I say that because those few good shots kept me swinging at the remainder of the bucket of balls instead of just leaving the range and heading for the bar. I have no idea what went wrong. Last time I played a round I hit just better than a bogie round which for me is normal, and I'm happy with being able to do that. I have accepted at my age and physical condition that I'll never be a long hitter or a single digit handicapper. But to simply hit the ball? I ought to be able to do that. Any of you experience a total brain fart for days, it may go into weeks! I may just quit if it's not correctable. This is embarrassing.
Doc
 
IN. sounds like you have repaired the symptoms. Par on 4 of the last 5? Job done. It sounds like you are not quite convinced yet, and confidence is fragile, but the results indicate you have actually got over your 'cold'. When the rain stops, get out there and get some birdies!
 
INgolfer said:
So after firing a 39 last week in league this early in the season I thought I was on the right track. I thought I was already back in midseason form. However, I have proceeded to play 2 rounds of 9 holes since then and have not even been able to complete half the.holes because we have to pick up at double bogey. Last night I only got to finish 3 holes, and 2 of those I actually putted to EARN my double, all the other holes I had to pick up before I even got to the green because we have a double bogey limit in league. I would have easily been around 60 had i finished every hole. Anyway....my miss before was always just on my long irons. I always had great ball striking but my long irons would just hook. Well now I can't even get a ball airborn. I'm sh*nking everything straight to the right. It literally shoots off about 100 to the right and barely goes forward at all. I have never played this bad in my life and it is so frustrating. When I did it last week I just told myself it was one round and it would just go away. It was even worse yesterday. Even going to the range a couple times earlier in the same week I was having the same problem there. I had one day where I had probably the best range day I've ever had, and then the next day I was sh*nking them all over the range. I have completely lost it!
Click to expand...

OH man I am exactly here right now. I've been golfing for 8 years and finally felt confident and comfortable over the ball in the last 8 months. I've broken 80 a few times already this year in fact. A breakthrough was a video by Ernie Els where he told of the importance of finishing the backswing by getting the front shoulder behind the ball. After playing my first 9 holes at par, i started to see signs of some issues but rebounded fully by the end of the round. I have never been so excited about my golf game. Then, this week I was pondering a big investment in a golf membership at a private club. I decided to head out to the range and started shanking shots in the same was as the originally poster. Then, it just perpetuated the last two days to the point where I feel completely lost, like I'm re-learning the golf swing. It's probably the most frustrating day of my golf life (and there have been a lot). I think I've started getting closer to the ball and coming over the top. I believe my legs have been deactivated, but I can't be sure. Everything just feels lost. I'm hoping I don't lose this thing for good because it's been a lot of hard work over the past 8 years.
 
I went through a complete swing rebuild earlier this year. It's the second rebuild in the past six months. I was about to groove a swing in October and everyone told me it was wrong. I took some lessons and they changed everything from grip to swing mechanics. I got to a point where I couldn't hit a ball and lost all confidence. Then I suffered some injuries, and had to take time off and recover. I took lessons from a different pro, and due to the type of injury started a S&T type swing, but I moved away from it when I started hitting long clubs and back toward my natural swing. Instead of insisting on changing things, the pro corrected the form of my natural swing, and I'm working to groove that with the corrections. It does require a bit more timing than some of the other swings I've been shown, but it is quite powerful when it comes together. It is now down to practice getting my weight going forward, and maintaining proper balance.
 
This video really helped me and I still go back to it if I feel the bastards trying to creep back in.

 
Lots of good advice here. I've been battling the sh**ks for almost 40 years. I've gone a couple of seasons without them, then just like that a hosel rocket. Once that occurs the thought of sh**king will be with me for every iron swing for at least a a few weeks. I can combat the sh**ks with my wedges and short game by using a baseball grip - for some reason that seems to work. However the real cure for me is to swing more upright and keep my weight centered and off my toes.

Good luck - you'll get your game back.
 
My take on loosing the swing on the course, lesson was learned Friday during my round with my instructor.

I've been struggling like you and playing horrible truly terrible golf, even though I have taken tons of lessons and hit thousands of balls and a few thousand more practice swings. I will play some good holes and some bad I will hit a ball like a scratch player then like a I'm playing from the wrong side of the ball. Play 14 disgusting holes then play the last 4 at even or +2 and miss birdie putts.

Why can I play such polarizing golf? Cause I'm in my own head, in my own way! The bad holes I'm trying to guide the ball from tee to green trying to make the perfect swing to make the ball draw/fade or just go effing straight. The great shots or holes I'm simply just swinging letting the club do its work , not trying to get more out of it or perfection.

We all know how to get the ball from TEE to GREEN in our own way. We need to use the range as a place to do work and the course to just swing and play the game.

*****Cliff notes version******* is to quit thinking mechanics and hit the stupid ball, pick a target pick a club and put a swing on it, I bet you end up with better results
 
I have to admit i can be painful on the course sometimes, especially if I'm having a decent round. You know I have a pre-shot routine, but sometimes I'll get a case of the yips just hitting a fairway shot, and I'll have to step away from the ball and reset because it doesn't feel right. Then it's tap tap tap tap tap tap tap, swing and it's a good shot.... finally. It can drive some people crazy. I've been working on just making sure I'm lined up to my target and stepping in and trusting it. But when I do that I usually duff the shot which results in another bad shot to follow.

Then someone in my group tells me to pick up the pace. Then when we finish the round, the people in the group behind us tell us that they were having a hell of a time keeping pace with us the entire round. I looked back and the only time they caught up was when I hit my tee shot in the hazard and hit my third shot off the tree into the same hazard, and then hit my fifth shot into the bunker on the 17th hole. We were almost an entire hole ahead the entire round, and we teed off one shot difference on the first hole? I don't I was holding up play. I think I was just driving someone crazy.
 
pjcedog said:
A very active weight shift is over-rated in my opinion and can cause a lot of problems with miss-hits and fats, tops, etc, staying stable and balanced with barely a perceptible shift is a far better way to go. When I am having trouble making good contact I will sometimes swing with a wide stance and take the shift out completely to find the bottom of my swing arc again and then gradually move the feet closer together keeping that weight centered. Doing this allows you to swing faster and stay balanced and centered over the ball without weaving or swaying. I also sometimes will actively point my left knee (right handed swing) down more directly at the ball than try to contort it and twist it backwards toward my right knee. Not only does that hurt my knee but actively letting it just bend slightly and then straighten gradually will help keep the swing balanced and on plane. The less contortion there is in any swing the better the swing. DOn't try to swing beyond what you can stretch to without getting wound up too tightly. Less full and hit harder is a good way to deal with a lack of turn, better than over turning and losing balance. All these things I see every weekend from guys at the local muni.
Click to expand...

Sounds very Don Trahan's-ish. But it does work. I use his swing.....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top