Still swinging

After my not so stellar performance at Badlands a few weekend ago I really started questioning myself again. I allowed myself to take a step backwards and played several holes without thinking about my new swing I'm working on. Old habits die hard has never been more true. It's very difficult to institute a new swing and have the mental capacity to deal with failure. This rollercoaster that I have been on lately got the best of me at Badlands. Over the past month I've had a great range session, and very good golf outing, a horrible golf outing, another bad golf outing, a great range session, and FANTASTIC range session followed up with another bad golf outing. Not that Badlands was all bad. Considering we did get any warm up time, and that we were playing from the back (71.3/141) I did manage to hit 8:14 fairways, not to shabby for a desert target course.

I took last week off just to try and get my head cleared. It helped that I was super busy with work and home, plus it gave me a change to reflect on what's been taking place with my game. Switching from "interlock" to "Overlap" really worked well for me on the range, but on the course at Badlands it wasn't so successful. I never could get myself into a good rhythm. I'd hit a great drive and a terrible second shot, or a bad drive and a better second shot, and my putting was way, way off. Adding up all the bad, I let it get to me and it killed any chance I had of being successful. I even blew up on an old guy that was playing with us, just because I was frustrated with myself. That's pathetic. So the week off did me some good both physically and mentally.

This last Wednesday night I was sitting at home watching some TV when out of nowhere a swing thought popped in my head that I had forgotten about. The last time I was on the range and was really striking the ball well, one of the swing thoughts I used that really helped my striking was to hit down on the ball with my right hand on the downswing. Up until a few weeks ago I have never thought about my right arm when it came to my swing. I've always been concerned with my left arm "gotta keep it straight" and have never even processed a thought on the right arm. Well, in reading Hogan's book I remembered where he talks about the downswing. A player should, after starting the downswing, only think about hitting the ball as hard as they can, with "both" hands. Both hands I thought to myself. It had never occurred to me to hit the ball with my right hand, I've always though it was just along for the ride. I applied that philosophy to my swing and when I did my contact was a lot better.

It's a shame that I didn't remember that until five days after I played. Not that the reason I did so poor was that alone, but I just wish I had better memory recognition when it comes to swing thoughts that have a positive outcome.

Something else took place when I remembered that right hand swing thought. It was a calming effect that kinda overwhelmed me. I've been allowing myself to get very frustrated and critical of my game, analyzing everything that I could think of trying to find the faults in everything that I do. What I've forgotten about is the positive. I thought to myself "why are you beating yourself up over this?" I have completely reworked my swing from the ground up, and along the way there is going to be some failures, but the positives are most certainly outweighing the negative. Doing something the incorrect way for so long makes it very difficult to adjust to doing it the proper way, so it's going to take time, and it's not going to happen overnight. I have to remember to focus in the positive. I have finally gotten the grip I've been searching for and I think I have a good idea on what I need to be working on to improve me scores. My ball striking has improved a ton in the past month, I'm hitting my driver probably the best I have since I got my new club and my putting has been a whole lot better. That being said I have come a LONG way from where I was a year ago, and that was never more relevant than this past Saturday at the Desert Willow Range.

I've mentioned Desert Willow in the past, it's a nice little Executive course that like playing at. I had a coupon for a discounted bucket of balls so I figured I'd head there after work and get in a bucket. My problems irons of late have been my 5i and 7i. It's odd but I can crack the shit out my 6i, but the 5i is like a foreign entity. After some stretches and practice swings I started with the 5i and I began with the interlock grip, I don't know why, but that how I started. I can only assume that it was because of the poor performance at Badlands with the overlap that made me switch back. Right out the gate everything was going right, not with a slice, more of a push. This was new for me. I certainly slice the ball, that's one of my major swing faults but I never push the ball. Shot after shot the pushed didn't go away. It wasn't every ball I hit, I did manage to hit a few without the push but I would say probably 75% had the, to the right push. I hit a few with my 8i and PW. Very solid, the PW was my best of day, I was making great contact, still had a bit of a push but not as predominate as the 5i and 7i. Hit the driver next. I was so happy with the six balls I hit with it I put it away for fear I have a bad swing and force myself to work in it.

Then the Golf God's sent me a preverbal angel.

A couple of tee boxes over a guy showed up and starting hitting some balls. He was struggling, and I mean STRUGGLING! Low flying to the left and to the right, fat shots, thin shots, shank shots he had them all in his bag and was using every single one of them. I took a break and stepped back to collect my thoughts for a minute. I began to watch him very closely to see if I could pick out what I thought was his issue. What I saw shocked the hell out of me. It was ME! No seriously, it was me from early 2010. Everything he was doing I could see in my head a recorded video swing of me from last year. It was chilling how close his swing was to mine. As I sat there watching him I began to pick apart his swing like it was mine. Bad posture, horrible shoulder movement or lack there of, bad backswing plane, too much head movement, terrible follow though. It was as plain as the sky was blue. Now I'm no swing coach and I certainly would never ever approach someone and offer my advice, but it was intriguing to be able so see the swing faults and know why he was hitting so poorly. At least why I thought he was hitting so poorly.

I started thinking about why my shots were going right. In all honesty I have no idea, but it made me go back to the basic that Hogan talks about; Grip, Posture, Backswing & Downswing. Somewhere in those 4 things there was and error to be found. That's when I went back to the overlap grip. I started focusing more on my shoulder turn and getting my hips to initiate the downswing, and then hit that MF as hard as I can with both hands! The timeout helped, watching that other player swing helped and refocusing really helped. The right push disappeared immediately. I was hitting some really good shots and my confidence just exploded. Nothing feels better then ending a range session on a high and I was. I even pulled out the Hybrid and was hitting it the best I ever have.

I have a lot that I'm taking from this last session. Actually it more like this last week. That would be a better way to look at it. I have a lot that I'm taking away from this last week. I have told myself that this is a work in progress, and that it's not going to be magically better after one good range session. It's going to take time and lot's of work to get to where I want to be and I know that. I'm not going to look at a bad shot as the norm like I used to, from now on a bad shot happens and you learn from it, not dwell on it. Lastly, the overlap is here to stay!

18th Green at Desert Willow