Natural shot

Having read a couple of threads lately that have touched on telling people don't fight your natural shot, which is good advice................HOWEVER.........something I have been thinking about is that "how do you know what your natural shot is until you have a sound golf swing".

I would suggest 'like me' most golfers started with a slice or a hook....I play with a very slight draw when I'm hitting the ball well and on demand can bend the ball the either way, but is your natural shot the one you hit first in your life or after three years building your swing "when do you decide to call the shot your natural one"???.

Food for thought.


Ian.

My balls is a straight then curls off at the end but gets the distance i was looking for!

Good question!

I think a natural golf shot is a shot your swing produces in the normal course of events. So, without purposefully flighting the ball 1 way or another, what ball flight would you produce.

Often it changes. For many years, for example, my natural shot was a fade but through months and months of practice I turned it into a strong draw. That's my natural shot - it just happens ...

If you don't naturally hit the ball 1 way or another, well then I guess your natural ball flight is a slight lowish drawish type of high fade with a tad of slice that starts as a dead pull.

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Golf is easy ... once you know how.
Graham Arnott, teaching professional
Kelrosa Golf Studios
www.kelrosagolf.com
Class 'A' PGA Member
Full Member: World Golf Teachers Federation (GB&I)

Well some people may not have a natural shot, they might just hit shots all over the place :O but i sometimes hook , but mainly a curl off then end of a straight shot

DNA,

Thats my point when is your natural shot your natural shot........I suspect no-one really knows what their natural shot is because as your game improves your shots improve and sometimes change direction.

When I started I always hit a fade/slice.....now I hit everything with a very very slight draw.....so I suppose my natural shot is a slice although I haven't sliced a ball in years.


That makes as much sense as Graham's push hook draw fade shot.


Ian.

This all makes good sense. If you have an over the top, outside-in for example, your natural shot is going to be a fade/slice. If you then re-work your swing so you are high and wide on your backswing and have a new inside-out swing path, you new natural shot will be a draw.

If you wish to change your natural shot, you must re-construct your swing. This process isn't something that can be done overnight. It takes a lot of time and determination. You will get worse before you get better and you will probably hit your clubs different distances. There is a lot of things to get used to, so be patient!

__________________
Gord

Quote of the month:
"It's easy to see golf not as a game at all but as some whey-faced, nineteenth-century Presbyterian minister's fever dream of exorcism achieved through ritual and self-mortification." ~Bruce McCall

After all the practice time I've put in over the winter without being able to smack balls at the range, I'm kinda curious to find out what my natural shot has become. At the end of the season, (final 2 rounds) it was a slight pull-fade.

Before that, it was aerosol.

Your natural shot is the one you practice. Muscle memory, So if you don't like your natural shot you can change it by practicing something different.

I didn't like the way I started my backswing, So I spent hours upon hours just doing a one peice takeaway, Now it's part of my natural swing.

Guys,

So what we have come up with there is no such thing as a natural shot.....


That's what I thought...you only have a regular shot at any one time during your golfing career.


So the point of the thread......For all budding golfers out there who have a slice or a hook don't work on it because you have been told "dont fight your natural shot" I think it's rubbish you should keep working on backswing,plane,impact etc...then and then only start thinking what is your regular shot is now you have perfected the swing to the best of your ability.




Ian.

Yep, looks like no natural shot is the natural shot. I'm sure we all have an anticipated flight path, but this is always dictated by the current state of our swing - which we change at will. What a wonderfully spinny topic, Ian!

This could be argued the other way. If your 'natural shot' with your current swing produces a fade, then there is no easy fix to produce a draw. Either you work with the fade, OR you can completely re-work your swing (into a NEW swing) and see what type of natural shot you come out with.

Therefore, if you are looking for an easy solution and not looking to put in the work of revamping your swing from the bottom up, don't fight your natural shot.

Gord,

You are correct although you could argue this another way if you have a fade which I think we can safely say most people do as they improve their swing mechanics they would then be fighting their natural shot wich should now be a draw.

Confusing.

Ian.

I am just saying to change your natural shot requires a change in swing mechanics, which takes a lot of time, effort and practice. Unless the person is willing to put the time and effort in, and then willing to practice it, they should just work with what they have.

You are correct Gord but I think this was a good subject and something I have thought about for a while.

I wonder how many times your "natural shot" changes over say a fifty year career as a pro.

Ian.

Great question Ian! I know for myself (I'm only 28) my swing path has changes atleast 8 times. I started when I was about 10 and never really had any guidance until I was about 20, so 10 years of messing around with things you hear and read as a youngster really changes a lot of things in your shot patterns. I went from hooks to slices to fades back to hooks - it was UGLY! I have been implimenting 1 or 2 improvements into my swing for the past 4 years. I went from a fade, to a draw and back to a fade. Now, I think the transition is complete. I have a almost dead straight shot and this should be the year I get into the low single digit handicap, instead of the high singles. I have been working a long time to get to this point and it is all about to pay off!!!

__________________
Gord

Quote of the month:
"It's easy to see golf not as a game at all but as some whey-faced, nineteenth-century Presbyterian minister's fever dream of exorcism achieved through ritual and self-mortification." ~Bruce McCall