Getting Your Golf Swing Back

If you’ve been reading my blogs, you know that I have a bad back that has actually been healing over the last 7 years, lately due to a specific running style. The good news is that I can now practice and hit more than a bucket of balls and experience little to no pain. The bad news is that the change has caused me to change my golf swing. No, no, not from what I teach. It’s only that if you have seen my video, I have a little too much head movement during the backswing. Compare my backswing to Tiger’s and you’ll see what I mean.

Golfers have asked why I have so much movement. It was a deviation that allowed me to play with my back as bad as it has been for the last twenty years, Now that the back is better, it’s time to get back to the golf swing I am teaching. The good news is that I hit the ball even better with the “real” golf swing. The bad news is that in the last three months, I’ve played only 6 rounds with that new golf swing and have had only two weeks of intermittent practice to make that swing my own… Which means, I can lose that swing at any time, and I do. How do I get it back? The same way I teach my students to do it.

First, I want to emphasize that the tenets I teach apply to me and every golfer I teach. When I play golf or hit golf balls, I play through my feet, which means I play by feel. If something doesn’t feel right, I could be lost, and I have been from time to time, because the immediate frustration interrupts my ability to think and recover. If I’m playing with a student, my mind is on their game, so my game is usually my B or even sometimes my C game. It’s tough being a teacher playing a C game, but there are usually extenuating circumstances. Plus, I stay busy so I don’t get to play or practice much, and it is a new swing.

So first, I do practice at home, at night, with a weighted golf club, using super-slow golf swings, and I emphasize getting the right feel in my feet and hands (just like I teach my students to do). That alone usually gets me around the golf course reasonably, but now and then, I lose what little grip I have on my new swing and I have to get it back.

Recently, I had a month from Hell. I had golfers getting ready for tournaments, one son graduating from High School and getting ready for Marine Corps Boot Camp, two major remodel projects in my house (Do it yourself projects), my mother in Pennsylvania in the hospital for emergency surgery, and relatives (my wife comes from a family of 9 who like to stay up and party) staying at my house to celebrate my son’s graduation. Oh, and I had David from Spain in town for lessons. David only knew a small part of what was really happening behind the scene.

David and I played two days while he was here. He wanted to see great play. I wanted to get him something he could take away that would allow him continued his improvement. With all that was going on, my concentration on my game was not there. I was doing my best to keep an eye on him and hold together a C game. It was almost embarrassing. I never was able to get my swing working the way It should, and deep down I was frustrated… So if you’ve felt that way, I know how you feel, believe me.

About a week and a half later, the relatives went home, my mother was ok, both projects were almost finished and my son had left for Boot Camp… in other words, the smoke cleared and I could once again see where I was. I had a minute (literally, one minute) to reflect on what happened on the golf course for those two rounds and it hit me. I had neglected the one drill I used to groove the new golf swing. If I had not been so distracted and remembered that drill, I could have been playing much better… So I decided to give it the acid test.

Instead of practicing (even at home), I decide to go out to the golf course cold… armed only with the golf drill that I used to groove my new swing. Believe me, I wasn’t armed with a swing as the first tee shot showed, but the object was to go from a lost swing to a found swing (a relatively new and little-practiced golf swing) while playing on the golf course. Yes, I practice exactly what I preach.

The results? I was in the woods on #1 and recovered for bogey, birdied number two with a tee shot to a foot and finished the round in four over par. Not bad for no practice and no swing starting out. On a few swings, I used my swing drill to actually hit the shot. My playing partners thought I was nuts… until they saw the shots.

What was the drill? It’s killing you to know isn’t it? Patience is a virtue… especially in golf. The drill I used was very simple, yet very effective. I take my normal stance and before I make any move toward a backswing, I turn only my wrists until the club is parallel to the ground and the handle is pointing towards the target. From that position I swing, keeping my club on a balanced swing plane and feeling the swing in my feet. But the trick to making this drill work is the real secret.

It’s the secret to making any golf drill work. You see, every drill is designed to force your body to do something correctly. Every time I use the drill, I try to be very aware of what part of my swing the drill forces into a correct movement. I want to feel exactly what it feels like and then look for that feel in my normal golf swing. When I can transfer the feel to my normal golf swing, the drill has done its job.

I want to emphasize, it’s not the drill, because every pro has a different drill that gets them back, but rather what you do with the drill in your mind that makes the drill work. The key is your awareness of feel.

If you’ve ever hit a few hundred golf balls and gotten nowhere with your golf swing, think about what was happening in your mind. More than likely, you were thinking and trying something a little different every few shots. I’ve done it too. If you’re going to practice, find a drill that gets you to swing properly, practice the drill and use your awareness of feel to transfer the drill’s proper movement to your golf swing.

I don’t practice hitting golf balls… I practice FEELING hitting golf balls. It makes all of the difference between frustration and improvement.

Give it a try and let me know how it works out.

Tags: golf drills, golf mental game, golf practice, golf swing