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Paralysis by analysis...

bdcrowe

ST Homeland Security
Aug 30, 2004
2,207
276
My golf has been wicked bad the past month or so. I've gone from mid-80s to whatever! My swing has actually improved; I know this from the practice tee. But any more, when I hit the course, my mentality melts-- I mean absolutely melts!

I am the personality type that learns by reading, doing, analysis. I learned to program so long ago by reading the languages and then writing code. I learned my swing by reading everything, taking some lessons and doing it repeatedly. That gave me a pretty good swing. Cool.

Now, how do I learn to take myself out of the shot? If I learn by analyzing, how do I learn not to analyze my swing while I'm swinging? This is driving me NUTS!

I think my lessons with my buddy started something huge, and not so good for me. I got all the swing changes going, started analyzing and that started the ball rolling. Bad enough. But to top that off, the changes gave me a brief stint of unconrollability with my swing, which injected fear over the ball. Now, even though my swing has improved, my mentality on the course is heinous. I'm terrified of every shot, therefor most shots are sh*t, which feeds the cycle.

Sorry to ramble, but I'm dying here. How do I learn to PLAY golf with a clear, target-oriented-non-swing-motivated mind? How do I forget all that stuff and just let my swing do its thing. I know my swing would give me low scores if the grey matter would just get out of the way. Thanks.
 

ProjectX

They said it'd get better
Sep 1, 2004
57
1
You sound like me. Over analytical to a fault.

This sounds stupid, but it works pretty well for me:

On a tee shot, I put the ball on the tee so the logo is in the back. I stare at the logo and focus everything on it, letting everything else fade away. Same thing on an iron shot, except I pick a blade of grass immediately behind the ball. Essentially, all my attention is on the exact place I want my clubhead to make contact.
 

DaveE

The golfer fka ST Champ
Aug 31, 2004
3,986
3
bdcrowe said:
I think my lessons with my buddy started something huge, and not so good for me. I got all the swing changes going, started analyzing and that started the ball rolling. Bad enough. But to top that off, the changes gave me a brief stint of unconrollability with my swing, which injected fear over the ball. Now, even though my swing has improved, my mentality on the course is heinous. I'm terrified of every shot, therefor most shots are sh*t, which feeds the cycle.

Not sure if this will help but your statement regarding fear seems to be key. We've all been through it. I made a fairly significant swing change about 2 months ago and it's finally starting to feel comfortable. When I get it right my drives are 20 yds longer and my ball contact is better than it's ever been. But when I get wrong look out.

The way I'm getting through it is I let my self off the hook for my scores for the summer. I decided making the change and improving my swing was more important than my index, for now at least. So instead of worrying about every swing when I'm on the course, I just concentrate on using my new improved swing and score be damned. The weird things is my scores have been better and my index just dropped a stroke. Go figure. :)
 

Loop

Well-Known Member
Aug 27, 2004
1,418
3
If you like to analyze but it gives you fear, and you cannot depart from analyzing, try looking the swing as a whole. The problem when you have a specific swing mechanic is that you focus only on that and forget about other things. It happens often: Starting with the hips but not remaining in balance, weight shifting but forgetting to bring your hands down, hence making a steep swing, and on and on....

In those situations, I look at the swing as a whole. I've already assimilated the mechanics in the range, so I trust it. When I'm on the course, I try to make a smooth swing, everything in balance.
Hope it helps.
 
OP
bdcrowe

bdcrowe

ST Homeland Security
Aug 30, 2004
2,207
276
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #5
DaveE said:
Not sure if this will help but your statement regarding fear seems to be key. We've all been through it. I made a fairly significant swing change about 2 months ago and it's finally starting to feel comfortable. When I get it right my drives are 20 yds longer and my ball contact is better than it's ever been. But when I get wrong look out.

The way I'm getting through it is I let my self off the hook for my scores for the summer. I decided making the change and improving my swing was more important than my index, for now at least. So instead of worrying about every swing when I'm on the course, I just concentrate on using my new improved swing and score be damned. The weird things is my scores have been better and my index just dropped a stroke. Go figure. :)

That actually makes sense. I've been trying to do similar. But I have problems with letting myself off the hook. It's not necessarily about the score. It's more about expectation of my shot. The golf psychology world is very correct in that your expectations of a shot will be fulfilled. I know that, and am reeping the negative of the rule. I've had such a rough time of it the past while, that I am expecting a bad shot every time, and fulfilling that prophecy.

Personally, what I'm doing right now is changing how I practice. I used to practice the mechanics of my swing religiously. Now, I have turned my practice sessions into practicing the mental side. Instead of concentrating on the swing, and it's outcome, I am building a new preshot routing-- which follows.

Stand behind ball, find target line. Pick intermediate spot on target line as target. Imagine myself hitting the particular shot I want with superb results. Step up to the ball, take a quick practice swing, allign myself and hit the shot rather quickly.

Does this sound like a positive path to follow? I'm trying to shorten my time actually standing over the ball, as this is the time that I usually hit mental grid-lock and the "terror" sets in. Thanks again, and I am very interested in everyone's feedback on this.
 

Bravo

Well-Known Member
Aug 27, 2004
5,822
15
bd:

OH I have taken quite a few lessons in my time. And as you can imagine - over a period of years, they fade from memory.

Except One.

About 12 years ago - it happened as a sheer coincidence - that one of my college fraternity brothers was the Director of Golf at our club. We were fairly close in college and more importantly - we trusted each other and could say anything without fear of losing confidentiality.

So Mark is giving me a lesson.

I am asking 4 billion questions. Ball position, hand position,head position, take away, swing plane - Ad Infinitum Ad Frigging Nauseum.

At one point he just told me to SHUT UP!!

(Ya know - a Director of Golf at a private club cannot speak to members that way - but you can as friends).

He got about six inches away from my nose and said.

"Go in the grill and look at the Champions Wall where the names of the club champions are posted since 1949. What do these guys typically do for a living?"

I was puzzled?!?!?

He said, "your typical club champion is some sort of salesman and frankly salesmen are not known as being very analytical. They don't analyze and evaluate and overthink anything in their lives including their golf game.

"They play by feel". "They are not afraid and they believe they can do it".

"JOHN, Stop overanalyzing and find something that works for you and FEEL it".

I never forgot this.

The reason I like my current teacher is he has never gotten me into this hand position, hip position, left toe position, arm distance, elbow tuck.....REAL mechanical stuff. When he started teaching me a year ago - I thought his methods were downright strange - but they worked really well.

He taught me how to swing by feel and unfortunately I cannot explain it here....

another rambling bravo story. but I have not told this one before and hope it can help you.
 

Quentin

How U Doin'?
Aug 27, 2004
199
0
Hey bd,

TRUST IT!

Have you ever heard the pros talk about their game after a round. They sometimes talk about trusting the club and shot they are playing.

I have noticed when I have a bad round that I'm not fully trusting the swing I plan on making. This is from the tee box to the hole. Even with putting I can tell when I've hit a putt that I just didn't trust.

If you have the right club in your hand and you know what kind of swing you want to give it, you should be able to block everything else out and just step up and make that swing. Forget about worrying if it is too much or too little, just hit the little white ball.

I'm still trying to get this going in every round I play. When I broke 80 last week, I trusted everything except for 2 three foot putts I missed for par. Some of the shots I trusted ended up in pulls or pushes, but I still got the ball down the course and made good recoveries.

~QQ
 
OP
bdcrowe

bdcrowe

ST Homeland Security
Aug 30, 2004
2,207
276
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • #8
Thanks Bravo, "Tits" :)

That was a good story, Bravo. Your conversation sounds a lot like my inner dialog lately. QQ, that was also spot on.

What probably didn't come through very well in my post was that I trusted my swing pretty well before starting the changes. The changes gave me temporarily "eccentric" results, to say the least. Apparent in my practice sessions of late is that the new swing is coming around. Apparent in my rounds is that any trust in the swing is still gone.

I've been working hard lately on forgetting mechanics. Any thought in practicing my actual swing lately has been feel oriented-- "relaxed, rhythmic, tempo" -- with especially good results last night. Mainly tho, I've been working on getting in the moment, focusing on the shot and target, and getting out of the swing mentally.

I've been consistently mid-80s heretofore, and I'll get back there and lower eventually. I've just had such a pisser of a time changing my mindset to productive lately... Wow. :)
 

DaveE

The golfer fka ST Champ
Aug 31, 2004
3,986
3
bdcrowe said:
That actually makes sense. I've been trying to do similar. But I have problems with letting myself off the hook. It's not necessarily about the score. It's more about expectation of my shot. The golf psychology world is very correct in that your expectations of a shot will be fulfilled. I know that, and am reeping the negative of the rule. I've had such a rough time of it the past while, that I am expecting a bad shot every time, and fulfilling that prophecy.

Personally, what I'm doing right now is changing how I practice. I used to practice the mechanics of my swing religiously. Now, I have turned my practice sessions into practicing the mental side. Instead of concentrating on the swing, and it's outcome, I am building a new preshot routing-- which follows.

Stand behind ball, find target line. Pick intermediate spot on target line as target. Imagine myself hitting the particular shot I want with superb results. Step up to the ball, take a quick practice swing, allign myself and hit the shot rather quickly.

Does this sound like a positive path to follow? I'm trying to shorten my time actually standing over the ball, as this is the time that I usually hit mental grid-lock and the "terror" sets in. Thanks again, and I am very interested in everyone's feedback on this.

It sounds to me like you're on the right track but I'm no pro. One of the things you might keep in mind is the time it takes to make a change. It doesn't happen overnight. Just try to accept the fact that changing your swing is going to screw up your game for awhile.

I think I'm finally going to have time this weekend to start the search for new irons. Mine are extreme game improvement clubs and while they did there job it's time to move on. I know even after I find what will seem like the perfect replacement it's going to take some time before my game seems normal again. If the changes you've made are positive, hang in there because in the end your game will be better for it.
 

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