Losing your swing

Can anyone tell me what you need to do to get back your swing when on the course. I played a round last Sunday and no matter what I did I just couldn't get my swing right. It started with the driver and moved to the irons. I was hitting close to the hosel, shanking it or pulling it. It was frustrating and with 33 degreee sun on your back, it wasn't fun. Grateful for any advice.

Well, we can't see your swing and that makes it diffucult to determine what's happening. Also, I'm quite sure that other people will come up with other definitions of what you are doing wrong.

I suggest you go and have a few lessons with a teaching pro. Bare in mind that professionals continually have lessons; even on tour. One of the tricks to identifying what's wrong is to understand the shape of your shots and then act accordingly. If you can identify what's happening you might want examine the video lessons on this site.

Paul

It sounds to me that you lost your swing all together and as PGMetcalf says you may need to have some lessons to at least ingrain some kind of repetitive action, which is what golf is all about "repeating the same swing".

A quick tip to get you through the round is to: Grip you club as light as possible and take one club more than you need, Then just swing nice and easy.


Hope this helps

Ian.

If more people would do this the minute they feel a bit off, they would not lose their swing. Too many people (myself included sometimes) play with their ego's.
Just focus on making the backswing and downswing the same even, easy, effort with good followthrough; its amazing how this will bring you back to center.

The reason for your round is bad tempo.

You DO NOT LOSE YOUR SWING, YOU LOSE THE SET i.e. FUNDAMENTALS(THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS IN GOLF)

From the resulting shots that you were having you were not aligning properly. You're shoulders were open at address and most likely the ball was too far forward in your stance.

Grip pressure determines tempo. Tight hands arms and shoulders promotes a fast uncontrollable swing. Loose hands arms and shoulders allows mobility and freedom in your swing, ensures great timing, and thus better ball striking.

The reason you were pulling and shanking the ball, is becasue you are coming over the top. That is why the ball goes left. When the club is taken outside it puts the hosel in line with ball instead of the clubhead.

Look at the diagram below the dotted lines are your ball to target alingment the back slash is th direction your club is moving, this where the shanks are coming from. A fundamental cure for this is to put more weight on your heels. When the weight goes towards your toes the club is put onto a steep plane, fat shots shanks thin shots, pulls and slices are liable to happen.


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Practice your takeaway (most mistakes happen within the first three feet of the takeaway)

Address a target now put a club on the ground by your right foot (]-)now place a club just outside of it practice getting the club somewhere within the parameter of the club lying on the ground. There is acorridor of success, it does not need to be exactly parallel. The shaft can be pointing slightly to the right or left. For you keep it pointed slightly to the right this will encourage a draw.

__________________
Jordy Scerbo
Golf Instructor

I have suffered this quite a lot. I'm sure it's mainly to do with tension and confidence. The first thing to do is not panic, and realise that it's something you can and will cure. Then take a few good practise swings - as many as you need to start feeling good again. It will also help to do a few shoulder stretching exercises, which really relieve the tension.

My father-in-law uses a Momentus swing trainer. I can't vouch for it's effectiveness at making you play better, but more than a couple of times I have used it in the middle of a game just to feel the swing of a heavy club. It does seem to loosen me up and improve confidence.

I would add one thing to the other excellent replies. Develop a routine to your swing. Much the same as pro basketball players have a routine on their free throws, establishing one for your swing will help you to focus on the process and take your mind off the meltdown and maintain a tempo.

I used to meltdown a lot before I learned how important the takeaway and backswing are to your whole mind set. If you're focused on the simple mechanics that you know how to do correctly, you'll be a lot less worried about the forward swing and will be able to focus on the task at hand.

Hitting a small bucket before playing a round helps me a lot too, as well as only walking the course. The extra energy it takes to lug those clubs around takes the edge off the nerves!

Also, when I'm at the driving range, I try to mix up the clubs I hit very often instead of just using a single club and hitting 30 balls in a row(unless it's something I'm bent on working on). This teaches me to focus on making the shot with club I have and not worrying about the "swing". When I get to the course, I feel more comfortable making the switch from irons, to woods, to chip or lob.

And the last thing I always tell myself after launching the ball into the adjacent fairway, cart path, neighbors windows, local eateries, busy thoroughfares, people hitting in the driving range, etc.... is that it's going to be a long miserable day if I keep letting this bother me, I may as well relax and enjoy myself and worry about the next shot! (Sometimes it helps to bring a disguise too!)

Cheers!
Bob

Right on Bob ... if you play a bad shot there's no pint in moaning about it; that shot is dead and counted and there's nothing you can do about it. It's time to move on to the next shot and wipe the bad one from your mind.

Paul

A good little tempo tip:

Before I play, I usually get some range balls and start off with high loft club. I begin by using a short backswing and hitting the ball very easily. Then slowly each time I make my backswing a little bigger, and bigger until I'm hitting a full sized swing.

For some reason it always helps me get my tempo in a good condition.



Brandon

After playing on and off for a few years I started playing at least twice a week at the begining if this year. By May I had "lost my swing" I could not hit a ball if george W's vote depended on it. Every game was chore and I was paying $50 a game (in Holland) just to be misrible.

So it was time to quit the game OR swollow my pride and squash my ego and take some lessons. So every Wednesday for 4 weeks I had a lesson. I now use my woods with confidence, have learnt my distances with each club and have a offical handicap; all be it 36.

Think about it. If your arm is broken you go to the doctor, if your swing is broken get lessons.

hope this helps.