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Overthinking! Have you ever tried to just go with the flow?

SaffaClint

SaffaClint

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After 25 years playing the game, (makes me feel old, lol) I have come to the realisation that so many players make the mistake of overthinking. What should really be a simple act involving swinging a club, becomes something so overly complicated that people have a million thoughts going through their heads standing over a ball. Is the ball in the right place, is my weight distribution right, am I aligned correctly, is my grip right, is my right elbow flying, is my wrist hinging at the right time, is my left arm straight enough, am i turning my hips enough/too much etc etc etc etc. I play with a friend who is guilty of this and was playing off 19 when we started playing together, within a couple months of helping him eliminate swing thoughts etc he is down to 14 and I have no doubt he'll be a single figure handicap before the end of the year. He doesn't have a great swing but he lets it happen on it's own and has come to rely on it. I think so many golfers could benefit from trying to just go with it and keeping a million swing thoughts out of their heads.
This is just my opinion and feel free to correct me.
 
Here's my thought process
Right club - check
Aimed properly - check
Shut up and nut up.
 
I'm lucky in the fact that because I have never really changed my swing any in nearly 40 years of playing, everything just comes natural to me and all I'm thinking about over the ball is the shot image I have in my mind at the time.
 
This is something I really struggle with. I can stand over the ball for ages trying to get the perfect swing thought and it seems every round it changes. I set myself up then fiddle for up to a minute before swinging. After the weekend I've decided to stand over the ball, count to three and swing - as it's getting ridiculous (think Kevin Na). My worry is if I don't think I normally go to my OTT move. But we will see how it goes.

Any advice on how to deal with it is appreciated! I really want just one swing thought that helps me get the downswing on the right plane.

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Couldn't agree more.
My limit is three thoughts, any more and I'm all over the place.

Lessons have helped greatly as pro has got me to the point where I no longer have to "spend" a thought on feet, hands, grip or address. He's confirmed these are ok (if not perfect) so I can focus on current areas of attention (plane, impact and finish). Hopefully, these will also become set too and I don't have to actively think and just do it, moving on to finessing other aspects.
 
NitJay said:
This is something I really struggle with. I can stand over the ball for ages trying to get the perfect swing thought and it seems every round it changes. I set myself up then fiddle for up to a minute before swinging. After the weekend I've decided to stand over the ball, count to three and swing - as it's getting ridiculous (think Kevin Na). My worry is if I don't think I normally go to my OTT move. But we will see how it goes.

Any advice on how to deal with it is appreciated! I really want just one swing thought that helps me get the downswing on the right plane.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Pick your landing area and swing to your finish.
 
I think it's great to think about specific things when you're working on something but to just get up over a ball and breakdown everything in your head is way too much minutia lol. I used to do it though and looking back on it makes me really think about how much harder it made the game for me. Too much stuff going on, get up and hit it.
 
I'm guilty of over thinking when I'm playing. Those are usually my worst holes of the day too. It just tightens me up. I definitely play better when I can just grab my club, get over the ball and just swing. It's not that I am trying to think about it.
 
I do things to fast instead, after I find myself wondering what the hell I was aiming at...
 
NitJay said:
This is something I really struggle with. I can stand over the ball for ages trying to get the perfect swing thought and it seems every round it changes. I set myself up then fiddle for up to a minute before swinging. After the weekend I've decided to stand over the ball, count to three and swing - as it's getting ridiculous (think Kevin Na). My worry is if I don't think I normally go to my OTT move. But we will see how it goes.

Any advice on how to deal with it is appreciated! I really want just one swing thought that helps me get the downswing on the right plane.
Click to expand...

Talk with your instructor. I used to pull the club in on the backswing, I wasn't keeping a good triangle with my arms and chest, and the club head would sway at the top. Instructor pointed it all out and the first few times out after that I was a mess. To correct that, I simply stood in front of a mirror and practiced my backswing hundreds of times. I still will grab a club and just practice my backswing. It's gotten a bit more natural now so when I swing it's becoming more second nature and I don't have to think about it on the course.

You have to ingrain the motions prior to getting on the course, otherwise you can't keep your mind clear.


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This past week I went par, birdie, par after leaving a wedge on the first hole. I wasn't thinking about golf, just the misplaced wedge, and played some great golf. I've gotta work on getting out of my own way.

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You have to overthink till you have the 100s or even 1000s of swings accomplished to make many of the thoughts automatic. I believe it takes 5000 swings for a person to play well. I am on about 1300.
 
Eh sometimes it helps, sometime it doesn't.

Sometimes I just grab a club go up and wallop it and i hit it good other times not so much.
 
Rhythm / balance are huge in this game . Once you get the basics. , just focusing on those 2 will do wonders for anyone .
 
66Tiger said:
You have to overthink till you have the 100s or even 1000s of swings accomplished to make many of the thoughts automatic. I believe it takes 5000 swings for a person to play well. I am on about 1300.
Click to expand...

Wow! Wow !
 
I'm your buddy right now lol. I'm over thinking everything and it's really effecting my game. I'm giving my body and most importantly my mind a few days to rest and reset and then I'm going to get after it. Just gotta work on smoothing out my tempo. Heck 4 weeks ago I was hitting the cover off the ball with any club, now all I can do is chip and putt decently. I have the game I know I do, like my teammate Andy said I just need to get out of my own way.
 
In discussing golf with the A player in one of my golf leagues last summer, at one point, he picked up his cell phone and tossed it to me. I caught it and simply handed it back to him. He asked me how I caught it. My response was that I simply saw him throw the phone at me and I reacted to catch it. He told me to look at the fairway, and hit the golf ball out onto it. It didn't take any thought process to catch the phone, and it shouldn't take any thought process to drive the ball into the fairway. I tried that, and played the best golf of my summer for a few weeks afterwards.

So consider me in the camp that overthinks things.
 
Paralysis by analysis = over thinking. I got the tee shirt :surrender:
 
You have to learn to play golf swing on the range and play golf on the course. I generally am only target focused on the course. Take dead aim, as Harvey Penick used to say. If I've been working on a change at the range I can focus on one simple thing when playing such as "slow takeaway", or "elbows together" but I almost never play to my index if I even have ONE of these swing thoughts going through my head. We practice so we don't have to think swing thoughts on the course.

When golfing there is enough to think about before each shot such as yardage, wind, pin locations, lie, hazards, and desired shot shape. My mind is busy processing these before each shot and once I've picked a club and find my spot to take dead aim at, I am only focused on that.
 
SaffaClint said:
After 25 years playing the game, (makes me feel old, lol) I have come to the realisation that so many players make the mistake of overthinking. What should really be a simple act involving swinging a club, becomes something so overly complicated that people have a million thoughts going through their heads standing over a ball. Is the ball in the right place, is my weight distribution right, am I aligned correctly, is my grip right, is my right elbow flying, is my wrist hinging at the right time, is my left arm straight enough, am i turning my hips enough/too much etc etc etc etc. I play with a friend who is guilty of this and was playing off 19 when we started playing together, within a couple months of helping him eliminate swing thoughts etc he is down to 14 and I have no doubt he'll be a single figure handicap before the end of the year. He doesn't have a great swing but he lets it happen on it's own and has come to rely on it. I think so many golfers could benefit from trying to just go with it and keeping a million swing thoughts out of their heads.
This is just my opinion and feel free to correct me.
Click to expand...

I agree. I play my best when I don't spend too much time. Aim and swing without much thought and everything feels great (usually :act-up:).
 
I try to do my over thinking on the range. On the course - grip it and rip it.
 
I do tend to over think when things are not going well. I start messing with grip and take away and it usually just gets worse.

I think all my rounds that have been in the 70's were rounds where I was just on auto pilot right from the start.
 
See ball. Hit ball.

The only thing I'm thinking about is how hard/easy I'm going to swing for the particular shot.
 
My brain gets in the way big time. I try to keep it simple stupid but there's too much going on up in the old noggin there. I play my best when I think the least during my swing.
 
This was me last few times out - especially around the greens. Don't think it - only hurts the ball club :)
 
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