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Any Tricks/Hints For Learning To Keep One's Eye On The Ball? (Is it even necessary?)

along with some of the suggestions above like not looking at ball, focusing in front, looking towards target e.t.c. I have another drill which seems to work (probably fleeting) well. I call it my "lights out". While reading the blog on True Motion Golf page where they were demonstrating things as keeping right hand on top, closed face, maintaining club head at same angle as spine, getting up vertical, I wanted to practice it. It was quite dark outside and the only light I had was a dim patio light behind me that would allow me to barely see the ball. I then took a swing in the dark and made great contact, solid strike into a suspended target. Probably the fact that it was a cool night, very little ambient light, and I felt relaxed, no tension e.t.c. In any event, it helped (for the moment). Now I am not advocating that we should practice under the light of the moon like Jack Nicholson as Joker in Batman, but you get the idea.
 
ApexFan said:
I’m working with them myself. Lots of motion work.
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This works for me: Best Drill For Effortless Golf Swing... until it doesn't.

It's like with Matt's drill: If I stick to exactly the drill in every respect, and am painstakingly precise about doing exactly that, no more, no less: I get good results. As soon as I relax or attempt to increase my swing it all goes out the window. Back to Square One.

Perhaps what's happening is the concentration of following an exact process crowds out the "there's a ball there!" thing. Then, as soon as I relax a bit, the ol' subconscience comes back to sabotage me again.

I've got a larger pitching/driving mat arriving today. (I suspect that little 1 ft. by 2 ft. mat I've been using has been part of my problem, too. Strike just a bit too low and it goes flying.) I'll give it another go. I dunno--maybe I need to stick to baby swings for a long time before my mind & body "gets it."

I apologize for the blasphemy, but I am beginning to wonder if the game is worth the investment. I think I better get out there, for better or for worse, and figure that part out.
 
MaybeDuffer said:
This works for me: Best Drill For Effortless Golf Swing... until it doesn't.

It's like with Matt's drill: If I stick to exactly the drill in every respect, and am painstakingly precise about doing exactly that, no more, no less: I get good results. As soon as I relax or attempt to increase my swing it all goes out the window. Back to Square One.

Perhaps what's happening is the concentration of following an exact process crowds out the "there's a ball there!" thing. Then, as soon as I relax a bit, the ol' subconscience comes back to sabotage me again.

I've got a larger pitching/driving mat arriving today. (I suspect that little 1 ft. by 2 ft. mat I've been using has been part of my problem, too. Strike just a bit too low and it goes flying.) I'll give it another go. I dunno--maybe I need to stick to baby swings for a long time before my mind & body "gets it."

I apologize for the blasphemy, but I am beginning to wonder if the game is worth the investment. I think I better get out there, for better or for worse, and figure that part out.
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It takes time...no one video or one move, or one anything will be permanent right away. You have to work at it. Be patient.
 
MaybeDuffer said:
I apologize for the blasphemy, but I am beginning to wonder if the game is worth the investment. I think I better get out there, for better or for worse, and figure that part out.
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The game worth the investment? NEVER, NADDA, ZILCH, NO WAY, etc. The cost of shafts, drivers, irons, wedges, woods, hybrids, bags, accessories, and so on can be enormous.

Is it fun and challenging, at times rewarding and even relaxing, and other times test you to your core and stress you out? True that. Golf is a cruel mistress at times. :ROFLMAO:
 
TrueMotionMatt said:
It takes time...no one video or one move, or one anything will be permanent right away. You have to work at it. Be patient.
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Patience engaged :)

It's my own fault, really. If I would just back off, work on form over distance, it would go well, I think. E.g.: I just got the new driving/pitching mat. Set it out. Did some practice swings. Stepped up to the ball, got set, and...

...skulled it. Then skulled another. On the next two I managed to get good hits. Then stopped. "No. You're supposed to be practicing form. You want them to go no further than <there>, hit with good form." Dialed it back and hit the next three about 35-40 yards, in good form, without engaging my arms. I'll work to hit them no further than that until I'm hitting them that distance, in good form, repeatedly, with few-to-no shanks, hooks, or slices, for several days, before I start working to extend my back-swing and swing. Whenever it starts going wrong again, and I've little doubt it will :), I'll just dial it back again and work my way back up.

This is what I should have been doing a month-and-a-half ago. Like I said: It's my own fault. Tried to get ahead of myself.

Thanks again, y'all, for your help!
 
Ok, well, so much for that.

Can't even do that with any kind of consistency. Got frustrated. Threw my club half-way across the yard. Promised myself that if I ever got so frustrated I threw a club that'd be the end of it. So that's it: I'm out.

I want to thank all of you, again, for trying.

I won't see replies. I'm turning off notifications and signing-off THP. I do not expect to be back.
 
whoa! Do you want to break this streak? Do THIS......Absolutely nothing. Don't even read anything about golf instruction. Look at pro rounds if you like, preferably LPGA. but nothing else. Don't even pick up a club. Give it at least two weeks. When you come back, you will be amazed. DO IT ! ;):p:D:LOL:(y)(y)(y)
 
MaybeDuffer said:
Oh, I can swing very nicely with a club in my hands--without a ball in front of me. Nice swing that's powered by my legs and hips, good follow-though. It's when I get a ball in front of me that's the problem. I have to find some way to get it out of my head that, when there's a ball there, I have to kill it. My subconscious or whatever gets in the way and I revert to a baseball/racquetball swing. Not all the time, but more often than not.

It's quite annoying. Not to mention more than a little frustrating
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I did correct one big problem that was causing me to slice more often than not. That was due to improper grip. In short: I needed to rotate my wrists a bit clockwise to stop swinging inward. (Figured that out with some right-hand-only swinging and the underhand stick toss exercise.)

Now that I've figured-out the slicing thing, perhaps I'll give @TrueMotionMatt's routine another try.
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I'm with you on this. The ONLY way (right now) that I can deliver the club to the ball in a nearly good impact position is to swing about 8 mph. Literally bunting the ball 20 yards. I think it's a building-block process that can't be forced with full swings, even half swings until the feeling / motion starts to make sense to my brain.
 
MaybeDuffer said:
Ok, well, so much for that.

Can't even do that with any kind of consistency. Got frustrated. Threw my club half-way across the yard. Promised myself that if I ever got so frustrated I threw a club that'd be the end of it. So that's it: I'm out.

I want to thank all of you, again, for trying.

I won't see replies. I'm turning off notifications and signing-off THP. I do not expect to be back.
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There are times when our brains get overloaded with too much stuff. I really suggest (if you see this or anyone else who's frustrated) to just get back to basics. Basics are about 80% of the swing anyway IMO, so start there. Video yourself just taking the club to the top, no hitting. Just see if you can replicate the backswing you want. Then video the first move down....no hitting. If you can get those two things relatively in-line, then you know you can do it....without the ball. Then like I said I simply continue rotation and bunt the ball (using slo-mo video). I had some success finally using this highly incremental approach.
 
*sigh* I thought I'd had all the notifications turned off. Guess I forgot to click "Save."

No, I'm done. I've already disposed of a few things. The set of clubs and bag that belonged to my departed friend are going back to his family tomorrow. Guy that gave me some additional clubs will be stopping by to retrieve them.

I may be back to THP to sell my Orange Whip and SeeMore putter, but that's it. The new mat will be listed on FB Marketplace, as that wouldn't make economical sense to ship.

I'm done with golf.
 
"no ti rindas, por favor no cedas"
 
MaybeDuffer said:
*sigh* I thought I'd had all the notifications turned off. Guess I forgot to click "Save."

No, I'm done. I've already disposed of a few things. The set of clubs and bag that belonged to my departed friend are going back to his family tomorrow. Guy that gave me some additional clubs will be stopping by to retrieve them.

I may be back to THP to sell my Orange Whip and SeeMore putter, but that's it. The new mat will be listed on FB Marketplace, as that wouldn't make economical sense to ship.

I'm done with golf.
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well, I am sorry to see you go and wish you would take a break and count to 100 first, But in any event I wish you the BEST in whatever you decide to do and of course respect your decisions. I won't say "its only a game" as that sort of statement does not help. Take Care!
 
Mr Moke said:
Some good suggestions, you have to find what works for you. When Jack Nicklaus was young his coach would hold is head by the hair has he practiced, I don’t have anyone who can do that for me so I visualize my head held in space by a vice.
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I understand that a person can get carried away because you have to move your head a little to swing properly. Mediocre golfers like me tend to sway or look up so I try to keep my head as still as possible.
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#joepesciapproves
 
pinseeker said:
well, I am sorry to see you go and wish you would take a break and count to 100 first, ...
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Your advice stuck in my head. Plus I kept looking outside and thinking "Gee, it's nice outside. If I still had clubs..." So, round about Thursday or so I grabbed a sand wedge that hadn't been returned, yet, and started batting a limited-flight ball around off the tops of the grass in the backyard.

Somewhere along the line I discovered a major problem with my swing. While I had learned to keep my left arm straight on my back-swing, I discovered I was relaxing and bending it on the down-swing. An amazing thing happened when I started correcting that: I hit balls better, more consistently, and I was turning at the hips and pivoting more completely--including more consistently getting the trailing foot up on its toes.

How my instructor, the scratch player who'd briefly watched me, and my golfing next-door-neighbor had missed this flaw in my swing I do not know.

After a day or two with the wedge, I thought to give a 3h I still had a try. Mind you: Up to this point I'd been unable to hit worth a tinker's d**n with the 3h, woods, or a driver. Lo and behold: With a bit of practice I was hitting "well" with the 3h. After a couple days of that, went and grabbed a 3w and found I could hit the ball "well" with that, now.

I still sometimes regress. And, of course, even when I do everything right, or thought I had, it still more often goes wrongly than it does right, but I'm making progress :)

So I got the bag of clubs back again. One of my neighbors and I are tentatively scheduled to go play nine holes sometime this week.

All I have to do, now, is not get crazy about trying to make my swing perfect, or perfectly consistent, again, and just have fun with it--which was the point.
 
Welcome back!

As a multi-decade high-capper, let me say that much joy can be found in the game, even if you don't score well. I played with some THP-ers this weekend, and had a grand old time stinking up the course.
 
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There you go. Realizing that there is no such thing as a perfect swing. Just try to relax and accept that there will be times when all seems to be going into the tank. Even in my practice sessions, I may hit a number of shots that feel great then I may start hitting some that are terrible, if that happens more than twice in a row, I just walk away.
 
Jmk202 said:
This is exactly what I do. Aim small miss small. I use this to help with a downward angle of attack too, hitting "through" a dimple slightly above the middle.
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If I dont, my eyes wander all over the place or follow the club a bit on the takeaway. Has helped me a lot with solid contact
 
Progress report

I'm slowly getting to the point I swing correctly more often than not. Meanwhile, in yesterday's golf lesson, the last of the class, my instructor noted a flaw in my swing: I was cocking my leading wrist as I began my back-swing. Coincidentally, earlier in the day I'd found Adam Bazalgette's How To Keep The Left Arm Straight In The Golf Swing. His split-hand drill, I found out later, turned out to be just the ticket for curing that problem.

Hitting limited-flight balls off a mat in the back yard earlier this evening, trying out Paul Wilson's Best Drill For An Effortless Swing, I had only two misfires out of a tube of 21 balls. Of the remaining 19: I had only one slice, two fades, and four draws.

I may have gotten my arms back into it on those two failed swings, but every other swing was good, with me smoothly turning through and ending up with my trailing foot up on its toes. I didn't do it intentionally, it just sorta happened. Also I never noticed my club hitting the mat particularly hard.

As for the original subject of this thread: Keeping my eye on the ball, keeping my head still, whatever. I think what I'm doing is essentially what @TrueMotionMatt suggested: As I begin my down-swing I begin turning everything, head and all, toward where I want the ball to go. Of those 21 swings: I cannot say as I recall once seeing the club hit the ball.
 
MaybeDuffer said:
As for the original subject of this thread: Keeping my eye on the ball, keeping my head still, whatever. I think what I'm doing is essentially what @TrueMotionMatt suggested: As I begin my down-swing I begin turning everything, head and all, toward where I want the ball to go.
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One of the training aids I concocted consists of a foam rod just a bit higher than golf ball which I swing under. If I place it directly over the ball, the ball is not visible. When I do that, I have solid strikes 99 % of the time. When I remove or move the rod back so the ball is visible, I will hit it off center sometimes.
 
@pinseeker, you might want to try what @TrueMotionMatt, suggested to me.

The whole "keep your eye on the ball" is really meant to keep your head still, which is really meant more to keep your shoulders and spine alignment through the swing. But the downside to it, as Matt noted, is it can lead you to hacking at the ball, which gets your arms and hands into it, and then things go awry. (You see: I've known all along mostly what's been going wrong, just not why it was happening or how to fix it. Thus my earlier frustration.)

TBH: As I was practicing, earlier today, my recollection is that the first time I saw the ball after I began my down-swing was when I saw it sailing away, down-range.

Now, it has happened several times that I had thought I had found something that worked--something that had created a lasting improvement in my swing and my hits, only to have it disappear an hour or a day later. (Another reason for the frustration.) So I'll try again tomorrow to replicate what I experienced earlier this evening and see if it stuck this time.

Oh, and another thing I believe I've discovered: I've been trying to put way too much back-swing into it. My instructor as much as told me that, last night, when he said something like "You don't need to put a lot into it. You're tall. You have long arms."
 
I love golf swing talk, but I don't as well. So many thoughts! Yikes! Bobby Jones was a cool cat to listen to. Very low key to the extreme.
One or two at most swing thoughts when on course has always been advice I've heard from local pros all the way up to the tour.
Who said the golf swing is a moment of wreckless adandon, or something to that effect? Lots of Google results when I search by "golf swing is a moment of wreckless adandon". Golf is so zen and unconscious and effortless when its going well.
 
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blueonblack said:
Golf is so zen and unconscious and effortless when its going well.
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This is so true.

A month ago or so I was out in the back yard hitting wiffle balls with one of my irons. Just pitching them around the back yard off the tops of the grass. Being wiffle balls you don't have any real expectations, per se. It was very relaxing. Putting is the same way for me. One time several weeks ago I was stressed about something. Don't recall what. Went downstairs and putted for twenty minutes or so. Came back up relaxed.

Now, if I can just get my full golf swing with real golf balls to that point... :ROFLMAO:
 
Usually when people say you "looked up" they mean you came out of your posture. You don't need to watch the ball to hit it. Blind people shoot in the 80's. Lots of great golfers allowed their heads to release early, Annika, Duval. Check this guy out for a different perspective:

 
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