We've launched the new forums! Read more here

What Do You Do When Lessons Aren't Transferring To Golf Course?

Thrillbilly Jim

Thrillbilly Jim

Raised On Hose Water And Neglect
Albatross 2024 Club
Joined
Oct 11, 2018
Messages
25,244
Reaction score
35,181
Location
Wilmywood
Handicap
A Lotter
I played 18 holes today and just​
sh*t the bed! Nothing went right! I felt really good leading up to teeing off. I warmed up on the range, hit about 15 really good balls, went to the 1st tee and it was all downhill from there! Wound up posting a 103 today.
This was the first 18 hole round​
of golf I have played since the stay home order was put into place. My
last round, early March, was great! Hit the ball very well, parred every
Par 3 on the course, had a stretch of like 4 straight pars in a row, short game was great, hit the driver ok, shot in the high 80's(88/89).
Since then, I have been working​
on my swing using my training aid and mirror, playing the Par 3 course, took another lesson last week. I felt very confident until getting kicked in the teeth and knocked back to reality.
Some of this was me being a​
head case and not being able to
right the ship after a bad shot. Also, I had an avalanche of putts today! 46 to be exact. I couldn't get a putt to fall and had to tap in a 3 putt all day!
Just curious if anyone else has​
struggled before applying what was learned or achieved in practice or lessons to playing 18 holes? I felt like I was back to where I started last year!
 
Just like we were talking about, you just have to keep grinding. It's hard with a toddler at home to find time to play but that's the only way. Unless you're not recording your rounds on Grint you don't play very much, so it will be tough to make the tweaks needed on course to see big improvements. The range is good for keeping up your skill, or fixing small things but it really isn't the same. JUST. KEEP. GRINDING!!
 
Patiience - sometimes, it take a while, even years, to make a swing change and have it kick in.

Let's see, it took Tiger over a year when he was making changes, and he worked on it every day. How long do you think it will take mere mortals to make changes.

I've been working on a new short game technique for 5 months - still can't walk up to the ball without thinkiing about what I need to do...
 
I would never worry about one high golf score after an extended lay off from the game. That's just a normal possibility in my opinion.

I played for the first time after a several week layoff. I didn't play too badly, but I wasn't comfortable either. I left a few strokes out there.

As for lessons not transferring to the course, that takes a while too. Some aspects of golf instruction will take longer to ingrain in one's game than others.

A golfer just has to persevere when trying to learn how to score to their own talent level.
 
At least you are made the right decision by seeing a pro, and I expect that you will be glad after the lessons sink in. I'm one of those who usually needs one of those "slapped on side the head" moments before changing anything, and it goes double with my equipment.

Patience and repetitions.......lot's of repetition.

The pro gave laid out the building blocks for your swing, and now it's all up to you how you go about it. It won't happen over night because you need to get your new swing ingrained into your mind's eye and muscle memory.
 
Given the putt count I am going to guess your short game wasn't that good either and you could probably chalk this up to rust. Get back out there again. I think with a swing change we tend to sometimes overdo it on the range and then don't play actual golf enough for it to set in.
 
Like @Qwkz51 said, "just keep grinding" !
The range mentality and course mentality are not always the same. On the range, we get a sense of "comfort" so to speak, and we can execute the shots and build on the momentum of our success. When taking that to the course, that level of comfort doesn't always come with us. NOW we have a purpose (a score) that sub-consciously we're chasing.
That being said, relax !!!!! You said it yourself, this is the 1st 18 hole round you played since the lockdown. You had high expectations, you were amped up, could be any number of variables. Personally I would chalk it up to "just one of those days", this is Golf. You've put the work in, the progress is evident in the videos you've posted. Trust what you have accomplished this far and to repeat some sound advice …… "Just Keep Grinding"!!!!!!

Enjoy your next round!
 
The translation from lessons and practice to playing has been slow for me. A big part of that is I have unrealistic expectations and put too much pressure on myself when I play. My current mantra is to chill out and enjoy. The improvement I want is a slow process. If I relax I play better and see results — not every round but over many rounds. My misses and misjudgments and plain old goof ball stuff are going to come out in every round. I am trying to accept those and learn from them. When I do that the learning happens. The slower I go, the faster the improvement comes along.
 
The tough thing is making the time to work what the lessons cover into your swing. Takes me loads of range time to start to ingrain some of the changes. Usually for me 2-3 weeks after a lesson are rough scoring, until I get enough range time. kinda a 1 step back to take 2 steps forward.
 
Desmond said:
Patiience - sometimes, it take a while, even years, to make a swing change and have it kick in.

Let's see, it took Tiger over a year when he was making changes, and he worked on it every day. How long do you think it will take mere mortals to make changes.

I've been working on a new short game technique for 5 months - still can't walk up to the ball without thinkiing about what I need to do...
Click to expand...

This. If you haven't worked on it enough to where you don't have to think about it, then you haven't worked on it enough to expect it to translate into your game.
 
I feel same way, played yesterday and it was garbage, been working on my swing at home, for months now.
driver couldn't find the fairway long irons where off and on.
Only thing that worked constantly was my short lobs around the green,and finally for the first time in years my putting game was way off,3 putted several times by far the most disheartening part of yesterday open buffet of crap.
Just need to get more range time and keep plugging away.

giphy.gif


Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 
The hardest part is keeping pushing through and not giving up on the changes. It is so tempting when you've had a bad day just to go back to the old and what feels comfortable, undoing all your hard work. As everyone here has said, it takes many many thousands of balls hit to actually ingrain a change, you can expect some setbacks until you burst through again. Don't forget, golf is really really ***** hard!
 
You just keep working.

It takes a LONG time and a TON of reps for lessons and changes to stick.

It’s why getting my HS kids to take lessons is just half the battle. Most aren’t prepared for the step backwards and grind before it truly gets better. Rest assured though, it WILL get better.
 
Why even keep score in that type of situation? Score leads to nothing but pressure in what you should realistically have been looking at a as a practice round.
Put that scorecard away for the first few rounds. Heck, put it away until you are confident in the new swing. You don't need a number to know when you hit a solid shot.
 
It took Tiger a year and a half, in his prime, to transfer lessons to the course.
You're not Tiger Woods.

Short term, reframe what success means on the course.
 
Stay positive, keep workin, things will start clicking. The second you go negative it’s a deeper hole to get out of.
 
Jman said:
You just keep working.

It takes a LONG time and a TON of reps for lessons and changes to stick.

It’s why getting my HS kids to take lessons is just half the battle. Most aren’t prepared for the step backwards and grind before it truly gets better. Rest assured though, it WILL get better.
Click to expand...
^ This. Most people struggle and take a (temporary) step backwards after lessons. You're changing something and still having to think about consciously making the adjustments because it isn't natural to you. Just have to grind through it and accept that it will eventually get better.
 
Plenty of great replies and I would go along with all of them.

Golf seems to be one step forward and three back, one thing clicks and two things break. Its a proper grind and even worse when you are not feeling it, working on improvements through lessons and then putting pressure on yourself to come away with a good score after a layoff for a month or two.

I'm in the same boat, doing the drill I've been given, hitting the range to practice them but then struggle on the course. I don't worry about score so that takes the pressure off, I've stopped using woods, hybrids and a driver which makes me use irons all the time. To be honest this has helped a lot, real progress is starting to be made when I've had to use clubs I didn't really like using.

I also ditched the training aids as I became a bit over reliant on them, I stopped watching YouTube of lessons and tips online as it filled my head with to much stuff or headworms as Golf SideKick would say and that alone has freed the mind and helped me focus on the one thing my teacher has me doing, and doing that over and over again.

I am a year in or so with my lessons and I went back to what I thought was the beginning. We pin pointed 3 things, take away, down swing and finish in the swing. Just focused on one thing at a time (not all together). Once we had one part grooved and it wasn't in my head we moved to the next and then the next. The last bit finishing the swing has been the hardest and most frustrating in all fairness. It took one of the other pros to tell me the same thing as what my teacher has been telling me to do to get me doing it (go figure :rolleyes:) and its made a world of difference.

Its been a grind and its going to be as we are not gifted athletes, we have real jobs and don't practice as much as we like so its never going to be easy to make the changes you need or want. I've seen you hit balls J.B. You hit them well, so its in you, you've hit pars on the course so you know you can do it now its just following the process and grinding it out. A pain the butt, but that's why golf is so damn great, fun and hard at the same time.
 
I've been there and have a few theories:

- When you're practicing on the range you're hitting the same club 10 or more times in a row, and after 10 tries you better hit it right or there's something wrong! On the course you get one chance - it's all or nothing. One way I try to counter that is to pick a course I know and play a round in my head on the range while also trying to do whatever it is I'm working on. For me that's a totally different experience and it really shows where you're struggling.

- For me, I'll start off OK but then after a bad shot I panic and subconsciously start reverting to what (I think) used to work which is the bad swing or the bad habit. Once I do that it all becomes a big mental mess because now you're doing all kinds of random things and none of them work together. That's just a matter of grooving what you're working on which is also why IMO a single lesson is kind of a waste for most people. That single lesson will be quickly lost, but if you can take 10 on a regular, even basis then what's being taught tends to stick more.

- Again for me, lessons should be about one thing at a time because the more I consciously think about everything I'm supposed to be doing the worse things get. One of my best rounds was when I had an injury and played anyway just to hang out with some friends. I knew the round was going to suck so all I really thought about was taking it easy and just making contact with the ball. Think I shot a 78 that day. But anyway, I try to minimize that by only working on one aspect at a time, otherwise I start overthinking everything and that also turns into a big mental mess.

With all that said, I'm also the last person anyone should ever be taking golf tips from so you probably should disregard any advice I give out ;)
 
blugold said:
It took Tiger a year and a half, in his prime, to transfer lessons to the course.
You're not Tiger Woods.

Short term, reframe what success means on the course.
Click to expand...
I'm not Tiger Woods? You sure about that?! HAHAHAHA 🤣
 
I find that lessons and grinding help my game in the long run, but hurt me in the short term. I feel good about the game and my confidence increases and my expectations go up as well. So I end up focusing on an expected score and not on a swing thought. I find that if I simplify my thoughts and simply think about the one move, I play vastly better.
 
Buy new clubs
 
Stay with it and keep grinding at it.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 
Is it working on the range? It takes time to translate lessons to the golf course. When you go to the course try to stop thinking about the lesson. Pick your target and try to make the ball go to the target. The lessons need to become automatic not a conscious thought. That takes time and reps.
 
J.B. Cobb III said:
I played 18 holes today and just​
sh*t the bed! Nothing went right! I felt really good leading up to teeing off. I warmed up on the range, hit about 15 really good balls, went to the 1st tee and it was all downhill from there! Wound up posting a 103 today.
This was the first 18 hole round​
of golf I have played since the stay home order was put into place. My
last round, early March, was great! Hit the ball very well, parred every
Par 3 on the course, had a stretch of like 4 straight pars in a row, short game was great, hit the driver ok, shot in the high 80's(88/89).
Since then, I have been working​
on my swing using my training aid and mirror, playing the Par 3 course, took another lesson last week. I felt very confident until getting kicked in the teeth and knocked back to reality.
Some of this was me being a​
head case and not being able to
right the ship after a bad shot. Also, I had an avalanche of putts today! 46 to be exact. I couldn't get a putt to fall and had to tap in a 3 putt all day!
Just curious if anyone else has​
struggled before applying what was learned or achieved in practice or lessons to playing 18 holes? I felt like I was back to where I started last year!
Click to expand...

If you're confident that the lesson is doing what is intended, then stick with the process. Practice, practice, practice, and it'll come around soon enough. I'm in the middle of the process, too... actually, I'm hoping I'm near the end of the process. I started a swing change in Late November. Took a couple lessons in there and have been grinding it out on the range far more than I ever have in the past. Things are starting to come together, but I still hit some bumps along the way. My last two rounds have been so-so. Two rounds ago, I shot a 41 (+5) on the front and dropped a 50 on the back. Last round, Monday, I shot a 43 on the front (same course... two pars and 7 bogies on the front) and collapsed with a 55 on the back. I don't know when the last time I did that was. I just couldn't get out of my own way on the back.

Anyway, stick with it. It's always darkest just before the dawn.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top