We have a blog question from Barry. Barry states. “Swing Change and Competitions Don't Mix. I'm in the process of changing from Jim Hardy's one-plain swing, which was too hard on my back and ribs, to the PPGS method. It's a big change, but one I have to make if I am to continue playing. I've been at it for about 3 weeks, and while I see improvement, it's going to take awhile. Meantime, I've got club matches to play, (just played one), and for me the two don't mix. As soon as I get under pressure, I revert to the old swing, or worse, something in between. Disaster! Any suggestions on how to overcome this problem?”
Yes, I believe we can come up with a couple of them for you, Barry.
First and foremost, I think that it's good that you finally figure out the rotational swing really is doing a mess on your back as well as your ribs, and that in your playing, you had to make a change. That's commendable.
What we want to look at here is this. One of the things I really want to get out in terms of a message, is for folks to start realizing that the old concept that '¦ a golf swing is hard to learn '¦ you can't teach an old dog new tricks … I've done this for so long it's going to take a really long time to get it out of my mind and get it out of my body '¦
Well, realistically, those things are fallacies. They are nothing but an anchor and a weight around your neck, dragging you down and slowing you down to improvement.
This is the God's honest truth. About 12 years ago, I had an LPGA player who was sent to me by her husband, who was a golf professional at the time. She had missed 12 or 13 cuts in a row. She was making the rounds from teacher to teacher and was getting worse and worse. The thing was her husband said, “You know she originally had a swing very similar to what you teach, kind of vertical in the backswing and the finish. But everybody's been getting her flatter and more laid off with a bigger turn. You should be able to get her back pretty quick.”
But the point is this. She had missed 13 weeks in a row. She came and took a lesson from me and I spent two hours with her on the first day and an hour on the second day. She went out and made that cut the very same week, which was two days later when the tournament started. She didn't miss a cut for the rest of the year.
The key to all this stuff is, you've got to trash all those concepts and those thoughts about it's hard, it's going to take a long time to break it, and all those negative things that just keep holding you down. Instead, say I can do this. It shouldn't be difficult at all. I think I'm getting the hang of this and I'm going to do it right immediately. I can start playing better today.
Then the key is, when you get into a tournament, you can't think about the tournament saying, “This is more pressure. I hope I don't fold like a cheap chair here.” You've got to look at it as just another round of golf and just work on the swing you're making. Just be confident you can do it.
I think we go back again to what we've talked about a number of times recently. It's my main mantra about the swing. Take your practice swings, feel the swing, then step up and swing the feel. You can't, especially in competition, or just going from the range to the golf course for a casual round of golf, get hung up in mechanics on the golf course.
If you're hitting it good on the range, and reasonably well, be confident that you have it, that it's somewhat ingrained, if not totally ingrained, and give it a chance by making good practice swings, feel the wing, and then just step up and swing the feel. That's what you do on the range, that's what you do on just playing practice rounds, and especially in competition or any time that the pressure's on you to play.
Get back to playing “feel,” avoid the mechanics, and especially avoid any thoughts that changing a swing theory and a new methodology have to be really difficult. Feel the swing, swing the feel when you're on the course.
The Surge!