A bit softer focus than that for me. My ball spot isn’t to influence my swing at all, it’s more just to have something to center on to better let go of outer distractions and maintain a quiet mind.
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I think about takeaway…I focus on the first foot or so and then it is just make sure i hit it solid every time…I don’t, but i try too!
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Great post. I think this is one of the more interesting topics that @Adamyounggolf has covered, and I know in my own game that neutral thinking (along with external) has helped tremendously. I try not to have any internal swing thoughts, but of course that’s impossible sometimes!
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Same here, at this point. All thinking is done during my practice swing(s)
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If you ever really want to mess with your golf swing, start thinking about what you are doing with your breath during it… inhale during takeaway? exhale during swing?
That was a wild and unproductive few days for me (one day of trying it, and multiple days of undoing it)
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Love this exploration and these distinctions. I have come to find that internal focus spells disaster for me (hinge your wrist like this, get your right elbow here, get your left hip there). I find these feels so disconnected from what I’m trying to do, which is hit the golf ball well.
I think I play my best golf when my focus is near external, at least during my preshot routine swing rehearsals (in the think box). Stuff like “exit the club head left” or “hit it as low as possible.”
I can’t tell if near external or neutral is better for me during the swing (in the play box). Sometimes I feel that a near external focus gives me a helpful intention. Although I’m sure “in the zone” would be better.
Haven’t really tried far external. Not sure how I would like that. I ought to give it a try.
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Got some short game practice in today. Was struggling with distance control, then remembered this topic and gave “far external” a go. My distance control improved immediately! I haven’t read up on it, but basically what I did was rally stare at and focus on the hole and burn that image in my mind, then I tried to keep that image there as I hit the shot. Glorious results! I mean, I guess this is what you do when you throw a baseball or shoot a basketball, right? You’re just focused on the target. Only difference is you are looking at the target in those other sports, rather than the ball. But I think the principle is the same. You should be thinking about your target, not the ball or the move to get it to the target.
I guess in a way I practiced “far external” yesterday when I had one of my best putting rounds ever when I focused on nothing but speed control, nestling my ball up to the hole. No mechanics. No internal or near external. And it worked wonders!
So here’s to “far external” focus on putts and the short game. Not sure how it will work on full swings, but I’m willing to try. Anyone like focusing on “far external” on full swings?
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Been thinking more about this. I really like the distinction of far external, near external, far internal, near internal. It seems, in addition, there are other ways to conceptualize the focus of your mind, inspired by another thread on here about where your eyes are focused during the shot (as opposed to the mind), and I’m curious to see what others think.
During your swing, you could focus your mind on 1) the ultimate target, like the hole or flag or center of fairway itself (basically the same as far external); 2) an intermediate target (like a blade of grass 18" in front of you or near external); 3) the ball itself and what you want it to do; 4) the swing itself (like how you want the rhythm, length, tempo and overall swing to be); 5) your body and what you want it to do (internal, like set your wrist early or keep your head down); or 6) the club itself (e.g. focusing on or being conscious of the club face and where it’s at it in space).
Lately I have been trying to focus my mind on the club itself, especially during putting. I tend to have a wobbly start to my takeaway when I focus my mind on any of the other areas, but when I think of the putter moving back smoothly on the takeaway, I’m much better at making it happen. Jack Nicklaus said “Focus on the rhythm of the shaft in putting.” It also seems to help squaring the face at impact. If I consciously focus on the face of the putter and squaring it at impact, I seem to do that better than just thinking of the ball. Of course then you might compromise certain other aspects like speed control.
I don’t know, I bet each one works different for different types of players at different times of their careers and in different situations (practice tee or green vs. final shot on the 18th hole of a tournament you could win).
Have some fun with these and experiment and see what works best!
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I’m a massive fan of @Adamyounggolf. The Practice Manual really changed my way of thinking about golf in many ways. I had several lightbulb moments while reading it.
I realised I focussed too much internally. And I think I do that because I am massively analytical. So to learn how motor control and neural pathways etc work and how conscious thought has been assessed to negatively impact athletic performance - I just lap up all that knowledge! Eureka!
Biggest challenge for me is switching off my brain during the shot. I’ve ingrained internal thinking all my life! I usually try to find a tune while driving to the course and artificially get that tune stuck in my head to help maintain a neutral focus.
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This is precisely the key! What Adam argues is that many golfers fixate on internal focus (trying to apply swing tips, etc.), when very often, they immediate do better with some kind of external focus on the target or “hammering the nail,” etc.
But he also notes that there are people whose game improves when they adopt an internal focus. The point is not to say that one of these is the “correct” focus, but to 1) be aware of the focus options and 2) experiment with different ones to see which produces the best results in your game.
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Thinking about this topic, and about some of the comments above, and I’m gonna toss this out to the crowd…
Question-Hypothesis:
A. Does a golf instruction method of teaching positions inadvertently push the student towards a more internal focus?
vs.
B. Does a coaching method emphasizing body movements possibly promote a less fully “internal” and more “near external” focus?
Just musing out loud, as all this thinking about how we’re thinking seems a bit ironic (ie. now we’re being more internally focused)…
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As I understand it, most “movement focus” would still be largely internal. As Adam is using it, your focus is internal if it’s on any part of your body doing anything.
To get to near external focus, you have to move your center of attention to something outside your body. The examples I gave originally for near external (that I think I’m rightly representing Adam on) were hitting a certain part of the face or hitting the ground in a certain place. “Nail” drill focus is also an example of near external.
To whatever degree the intent in the swing is self-consciously on getting a body part to (a position) or through (a movement), the focus is still internal.
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Good clarification - thank you, Sir!
So fall back to the not-so-cliché = “I’ve got to get out of my own head!”
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Thanks, @mpatrickriley. So would being aware of or sending your consciousness to the club face be an example of near external?
In my early testing, I’ve really liked sending my awareness to the club face. Getting some really good results.
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I’d love for @Adamyounggolf to chime in here, because I’d hate to misrepresent his idea. But as best as I understand it: yes, focusing on the club face throughout the swing would be near external.
For me, I’ve found that I generally need some kind of internal focus to implement a swing change, but I need to play with either near external or far external focus.
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I think clubface awareness is a very underrated skill. One of my main cues in my swing (if I’m struggling) is to get back to that “open” feeling at impact. If I’m closed, I’m 
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Yeah it’s kind of bizarre- we focus on all this other stuff in our bodies, yet the club face determines what direction the ball goes. It seems so simple and obvious to focus on where the club face is and try to get it where you want it at impact. The simplest answer is often correct!
In the book, The Practice Manual, I discussed 5 different types of foci. I have since added another (or a sub-focus)
- Internal - thinking of a body part movement e.g. keeping left arm straight, or starting down with the hips
- External process - thinking of the task, such as hammering a nail, presenting the face more open/closed/heel/toe, making a divot deeper/shallower/clipping the grass, location of divot etc
- External result - Target awareness, shot shape/trajectory, starting line of shot etc
- Neutral - something not relevant to the shot itself, such as counting, breathing, singing, humming
- transcendental - the zone. A feeling of very little conscious thought. We might enter this if we are block practicing on the range and enter a rhythm where our mind turns off
the sixth I added is a sub-focus of number 1. External movement. For example, placing an alignment stick through your belt loops and focusing on that, or focusing on the club movement in the backswing.
Most of the research has looked at internal vs external. However, I like to think of it more as movement Vs task.
When we hammer a nail, put a fork into our mouth, write our name etc, we are not thinking of the arm/wrist movements - we are thinking of the task. As a result, our brain encodes the information in a more adaptable way. For example, you are able to write your name in bigger and smaller sizes, which require different movement patterns from all the joints involved - but we can do it simply by focusing on the task and the desired outcome.
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Adam, what accounts for the fact that so many of us suffer from the same flaw, for example coming over the top? It seems that focusing on the task doesn’t help cure this problem. Is our brain encoding this incorrectly?
Could be brain encoring (ingraining of a movement pattern)
Could be that people haven’t actually ever experienced the opposite motion
Could be a prior technical flaw (open face is a big culprit)
Could be that people are not aware enough of what they are doing
could be a physical limitation.
I’ll be honest, in a lesson with me, only 2/3% of people “can’t” do what I ask of them. I’m pretty good live at spotting why a person is not doing something, and usually it’s psychological.
If they can do it in a practice swing, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be able to do it with a ball. I have specific processes outline (I also have these in my NLG program) that help identify why, and offer solutions to when a pupil struggles with change.
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