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Swing Thoughts - What Does That Mean to You? Do They Work?

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GolfLivesMatter

GolfLivesMatter

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I've been reading threads about swing thoughts. I take the position that having swing thoughts is perfectly fine, however, they can also clutter one's brain, and add excess tension to the swing to achieve a desired result.

Case in point. My buddy was taking great, smooth practice swings prior to his tee shot. He was talking to himself, working thru his "key" thoughts. Then he stepped-up to his drive and practically whiffed. Upon proceeding to the next tee, I told him to think about ANYTHING ELSE but his driver swing. His next driver shot was down the middle. After talking with him about the prior topped drive, he said he wanted to "make sure" he would continue to swing correctly because he was so happy he hit his first 5 drives perfect.

And to quote a Tour Player:

“You turn off your mind. You feel your golf swing without really thinking about it. It’s almost like you don’t think at all. Maybe you have one little thought, and everything else becomes automatic.” – US Open Champion, Graeme McDowell

So what is a swing thought and how does that translate to better, or maybe according to McDowell, or my buddy, worse golf? Can a swing thought change an outcome in 1.5 seconds? Maybe for some it can...I'm curious what others think.
 
GolfLivesMatter said:
I've been reading threads about swing thoughts. I take the position that having swing thoughts is perfectly fine, however, they can also clutter one's brain, and add excess tension to the swing to achieve a desired result.

Case in point. My buddy was taking great, smooth practice swings prior to his tee shot. He was talking to himself, working thru his "key" thoughts. Then he stepped-up to his drive and practically whiffed. Upon proceeding to the next tee, I told him to think about ANYTHING ELSE but his driver swing. His next driver shot was down the middle. After talking with him about the prior topped drive, he said he wanted to "make sure" he would continue to swing correctly because he was so happy he hit his first 5 drives perfect.

And to quote a Tour Player:

“You turn off your mind. You feel your golf swing without really thinking about it. It’s almost like you don’t think at all. Maybe you have one little thought, and everything else becomes automatic.” – US Open Champion, Graeme McDowell

So what is a swing thought and how does that translate to better, or maybe according to McDowell, or my buddy, worse golf? Can a swing thought change an outcome in 1.5 seconds? Maybe for some it can...I'm curious what others think.
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I think good golf swings are mostly about fundamentally sound address posture (grip-posture-alignment).
If a player wants to have a constructive "in swing" thought then smooth tempo is a good one.
 
I've cited a Yogi Berra quote several times here. It's a punch line, actually. He was a notorious bad ball hitter, and one day his manager told him, "Yogi, you're swinging at too many bad pitches. You could be leading the league if you just laid off those bad ones. Now get up there and THINK!" Berra went to the plate, took three called strikes, and as he was slamming his bat into the rack, yelled at his manager -

"How do you expect me to think and swing at the same time?"

I use swing thoughts and they change based upon what ails me most. One day it might be "light grip." Another day I might be making too abrupt of a transition and my thought will be "rolling start." It has to be a thought, not a checklist, or you'll be thinking too much and unable to swing.

They aren't infallible, but they do help me more than hurt me.
 
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They work for me pretty good, on the premise that I only have ONE thought.
 
Reframmellator said:
I've cited a Yogi Berra quote several times here. It's a punch line, actually. He was a notorious bad ball hitter, and one day his manager told him, "Yogi, you're swinging at too many bad pitches. You could be leading the league if you just laid off those bad ones. Now get up there and THINK!" Berra went to the plate, took three called strikes, and as he was slamming his bat into the rack, yelled at his manager -

"How do you expect me to think and swing at the same time?"

I use swing thoughts and they change based upon what ails me most. One day it might be "light grip." Another day I might be making too abrupt of a transition and my thought will be "rolling start." It has to be a thought, not a checklist, or you'll be thinking too much and unable to swing.

Thery aren't infallible, but they do help me more than hurt me.
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Way good post! i never heard that story. And you're right...the thought can change randomly pending how one feels.
 
I need to remove all thought and just feel the swing.

At least that's what my instructor says, and I pay to listen to him.

To get rid of thoughts, I spend a few minutes a day, usually inside, making new patterns in slower motion - with and without a club - just sequence what he wants so it becomes habitual.

On the course, once I take a practice swing or two - actually brushing the ground - then I just address the ball and feel the swing.

That's the objective.
 
The problem with having too many swing thoughts is when you do hit a good shot you never know which one was the “key” to hitting that good shot!


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I try to only have one or 2. They are revolving door of these 3 right now. Start with push back of left hand. Rotate right hip back behind left hip instead of swaying. Pose for a finish.
 
Only one for me...full turn. I tend to get quick at the top and making sure I get full turn sets the club in proper position.
 
I am in the camp of just one thought, and it changes based on the club/circumstance. Driver = “you don’t have to kill it”; Mid Iron = “finish”; Fairway bunker: “ball contact first”; Putter = “don’t be an idiot.”

Need to work on putting...


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The_Dude said:
Only one for me...full turn. I tend to get quick at the top and making sure I get full turn sets the club in proper position.
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That one is popular among Tour players.
 
I have found when I "don't think" about what I need to do and just trust my swing it's more effective for me. Although, when I start to get quick in my transition (which I tend to do), I will remind myself with one word "smooth". This is just my reminder to keep my transition smooth and that typically works for me.
 
several years ago i went to an instructor and ended up overhauling my swing in a big way. in retrospect, i'm not sure that's what he wanted me to do, but i took it further and it didn't work out very well.

anyway, during our work, he gave me a bunch of stuff to work on when i was practicing. but he said he didn't want me to think about anything during a round. just play. he said if i insisted on thinking about anything, i was allowed at most one backswing thought, and one downswing thought.

what i find these days is that i don't have any consistent thought one way or the other. and to @philNumbers point above, i never know which thought works.
 
Swing thoughts are fine as long as you keep it simple and keep it to 1 or 2 thoughts. Get something too complex or get too many thoughts in there and youre asking for trouble. I used to have problems with having too many swing thoughts and too many feels that I was looking for and when my swing was off, I never knew which of the dozens of thoughts/feels it was that was off.
Now, I just have the thought of, "swing easy" and to feel like Im keeping my backswing short, which makes it easier for me to come through the ball.
 
Folks mentioned thinking "full back swing". That's my primary thought. On the course I can easily digress into what I call a "fake turn", meaning I don't rotate my chest as I turn back. Instead, i'm 80% arming-it to the top...fake turn. It's easy to spot during practice swings because the buttons on my shirt are nearly pointed at the ball at the top of the back swing. And as someone else mentioned, I see a lot of pro's practicing to make sure they have a connected back swing to the top.
 
Great topic.

This is the one of those things in golf that I am constantly battling. Despite absurdly better results when I think of ANYTHING ELSE but swing mechanics I still will often catch myself trying to "sneak a quick" thought about mechanics during the swing and frequently that swing just doesn't feel free and the result is less than ideal.

My very best shots and free swings seem to come when my focus is on something like:

1. some kind of feel... anything really, as long as it is FEEL and not mechanical
2. mind's eye picture of the target
3. even a subtle sense as to where the target is

So, at least for me, I think "thoughts" can work but with the pretty big caveat that what the thought is very important. I.e. if it is something that the subconscious mind is better off handling, than the thought can be counterproductive.
 
ArmyGolf said:
They work for me pretty good, on the premise that I only have ONE thought.
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This. It can only be one. As soon as something else pops in my mind, count me out.

Generally I stick with "single take away" or "start slowly", it's always about just staying connected in my take away.

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Just a quick story folks...please comment about what you think.

I played High School golf on a very good team in Pittsburgh, PA. One day the coach called the team to a third floor classroom. The topic on the chalkboard was "assess the process to walk down a flight of stairs". From that point he engaged us in a very in-depth study of the required movements...arm here, leg bends here, weight shifts there, etc. After thoroughly analyzing this otherwise simple activity to the point of exhaustion, he took each of us...one by one...to the top of a long flight of stairs. He then said "Ok, you now know everything you need to think about to walk down these stairs, and don't grab the railing". Then he added "Don't Fall".

I kid you not, every single one of us grabbed the railing after several steps. At the end he said "why would you ever believe thinking during a golf swing will help?". He wasn't saying to have zero thought. His point was the bulk of the swing should require the same thought process as we typically employ to walk down a flight of stairs.
 
GolfLivesMatter said:
Just a quick story folks...please comment about what you think.

I played High School golf on a very good team in Pittsburgh, PA. One day the coach called the team to a third floor classroom. The topic on the chalkboard was "assess the process to walk down a flight of stairs". From that point he engaged us in a very in-depth study of the required movements...arm here, leg bends here, weight shifts there, etc. After thoroughly analyzing this otherwise simple activity to the point of exhaustion, he took each of us...one by one...to the top of a long flight of stairs. He then said "Ok, you now know everything you need to think about to walk down these stairs, and don't grab the railing". Then he added "Don't Fall".

I kid you not, every single one of us grabbed the railing after several steps. At the end he said "why would you ever believe thinking during a golf swing will help?". He wasn't saying to have zero thought. His point was the bulk of the swing should require the same thought process as we typically employ to walk down a flight of stairs.
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I like this a lot. It resonates well with me because I played other sports in HS, and I NEVER thought about mechanics when throwing a football or shooting a basketball during a game. In practice, sure, but in a game, you don't have time to think, you just do. In fact, I was a better three-point shooter with a hand in my face than when I was wide open. Why? Because when I had "time to think" (often "don't miss"), my jumpshot when to crap.

I have a busy mind. Always thinking about work, life, etc. But when I can focus by visualizing the shot and then executing without any thought, I tend to have the best results for me.
 
I have one during-the-swing-thought, "get through it."

It's my internal cue to at once to stay down firmly through the ball and get my weight onto my front foot.
 
JMB3 said:
I like this a lot. It resonates well with me because I played other sports in HS, and I NEVER thought about mechanics when throwing a football or shooting a basketball during a game. In practice, sure, but in a game, you don't have time to think, you just do. In fact, I was a better three-point shooter with a hand in my face than when I was wide open. Why? Because when I had "time to think" (often "don't miss"), my jumpshot when to crap.

I have a busy mind. Always thinking about work, life, etc. But when I can focus by visualizing the shot and then executing without any thought, I tend to have the best results for me.
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Your observations...especially shooting better 3's with a hand in your face is probably a better example than the stairs. Well done! We have friends who are dancers on DWTS. They believe if golfers treated golf like a dance, meaning learn the moves "as if" one was on the show and had to perform the golf swing on stage with a club...replicating the same swing on the course, they'd advance much faster. They look at golf as a "dance movement". And, they poke fun because the golf swing takes 1.5 seconds while a full-on dance routine can last 5 minutes...and they aren't allowed ONE MISTAKE! LOL!

I just polluted golf with dance! Apologies in advance...but the DWTS folks are off-the-charts primary examples of mastering movements.
 
I usually only have a swing thought just prior to my swing, usually while rehearsing a move once or twice. Then when I swing, I just swing.

Lately I’ve started to take the club inside too early and end up flat and across the line. This results in a subconscious steepinging of the club on the way down that creates a ball flight that starts at the target or just left of it and that continues to move left.

So my current rehearsal thought is to hinge and steepen the club almost immediately at the start of the backswing. It puts me in a slightly more upright position at the top that allows the club to flatten onto the plane and reach a good impact position. My rehearsal usually isn’t a full practice swing, but just the beginning of the swing to emphasize the feel I’m looking for.

Alex Noren does what I’m referring to. Though, for a different move/feel:

 
jbuck31 said:
I have found when I "don't think" about what I need to do and just trust my swing it's more effective for me.
Click to expand...

I am in this camp as well. I try to aim for calm and loose practice swing and then just to replicate the feeling, there is no room for thinking when I'm swinging. My body and brain seems to know what to do (if I let them) and there is no reason to micromanage them :)
 
I'm in the camp that swing thoughts hurt more than help. Usually I think about my takeaway too much (and extension I think about the club position at the top) . It has really frustrated me.

Where a swing thought helps is my I concentrate on one thing that isn't my takeaway.

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