Best way to make major swing change

Practice
#1

So I’ve decided to try to make some major improvements in my swing during my offseason. I’ve had the swing I have for 20+ years so I know this will be a major undertaking. I will be working virtually with a pro to whom I can send videos to review.

I’m curious as to what approach you would take to ingrain such a swing change? 1) Practicing in front of a mirror, with or without a club, and not hitting balls for a few weeks until the change feels natural. 2) combining swing moves and hitting balls but not playing, 3) combining all three, swinging at home, hitting on the range and playing, or 4) something else? Thanks for your thoughts.

#2

60 reps per day, every rep gets complete focus

Most days that is dry drills, impact bag, slow motion in front of mirror.

I try and hit balls and see ball flight at least 1-2x per week. I think 50/50 dry drills vs hitting balls is a good start. Impact bag is your best friend IMO

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#3

What are you trying to change?

When I’m working on something new, I start at the impact position I want and work backwards… I prefer to do it with a ball, but will take phantom swings with a club when I’m not near the range…

Start with a small move at the correct impact position you want, then add correct path… then slowly lengthen swings until it’s ingrained.

I think you have to do it with a ball to really ingrain it, but getting to the point where you comfortable swinging full doesn’t require a ball…

As for playing, I feel like it’s only going to erase progress or build fixes to an incomplete swing… both can be overcome and playing golf is more fun than practicing.

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#4

I don’t know if changing your swing path classifies as a major swing change or not. I went from a out to in path to an in to out path without practicing but by doing it while playing. Flattened my swing and went from horrible slices to beautiful hooks.

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#5

Slow motion swings to add. Did this in 2014 under a instructor and I would go weeks without hitting a ball. Something simple as P1-P3, return/repeat for 30 minutes at a time. Then we’d add P4… I thought he has crazy at first but it totally worked.

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#6

Every single swing has to have laser focus. If you’re going to do it, you have to commit. There’s no half-assing a swing change.

The #1 thing is patience. Even the best in the world can take a year or more to really dial in even a minor change. Do not expect this to take in a few sessions. It’s going to take a lot of time and a lot of effort.

Make sure you know why you’re making a change and go to a pro/teacher and have many conversations before you even start. Do not try to make changes based solely off video of someone or a specific move you see someone make on the ball. Talk to a pro about your goals and dial in a very specific practice regimen with tools and guidance.

Keep swings at 70% or less until your new move/path feels like it’s what you’ve always done.

Record yourself and play back every swing immediately after you make it. You may think you nailed it and want to go for another ball right away. Video may tell another story.

Patience. Patience. Patience.

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#7

^this is good advice

You need to be really specific with what is changing. For me it’s:

  • clubhead stays outside hands a bit longer in takeaway
  • sit in transition, back stays to target a bit longer to let hands work down (shallow)

Those changes completely fill up my mental bandwidth and I actually have to work them separately most of the time. In other words, you need to be laser focused on a small number of specific changes

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#8

Everything @Bigdadenergy said!

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#9

Thanks to everyone for the great advice. The change I’m trying to make is to stop losing my spine tilt in the backswing due to almost a slight reverse pivot and to keep my trail arm connected to my lead arm (get rid of the flying elbow).

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#10

That’s definitely doable in a season.

Have you looked at any of Adam young’s stuff? I think a lot of technical stuff can be fixed by improving impact position and letting your body sort out the mechanics.

#11

I’ve read The Practice Manual. I will check out what he says on working with impact position. Thanks

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#12

I’m not a professional, but what has always worked best for me is concentrating on the six inches before and after the ball… if I’m doing that right, everything else will be ok.

I’ll spend time just basically hitting balls with a 25% swing, and making sure my path and club face are where I want them to be and just grind out that feeling.

Then I’ll slowly just keep making the swing longer, until I’m hitting full shots.

I’ve found if I try to make technical fixes, i fixate on that specific problem and make adjustments elsewhere that don’t necessarily help my swing.

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#13

I think this same approach works when making more technical changes too. Learn the change by making sure you do it right, even if you can only make a short swing while doing it right. Making a longer swing while NOT successfully making the change doesn’t help, make your swings in practicing as short as they need to be to be “right”. Keep doing that, work to the limit, only as far as you can do things correctly. Eventually, that “limit” will extend all the way to full swings.

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#14

I can verify what @Bigdadenergy said about taking a year or longer. I’m not in the OWGR of 10,000,000, my point is it takes a long time and patience is a virtue. My coach broke my swing down and rebuilt it in segments. It is just now to a point that it’s becoming repeatable and without thinking. It was a painful process and it took about 18 months. I literally was at a point of being a total failure and quitting. I honestly believed I was worse and not better, it challenges me in every way. Fast forward to about two months ago, it just clicked. Everything started working on its own without my help or guidance. It is a process but stick with it if it’s truly what you want to do. All of the advice given so far is good. Just to reiterate what everyone else has said and make my own points of what I believe is important:

  • slow methodical movements. We’re talking taking a full minute from start to stop. Making your brain register what you’re doing

  • use of video or mirror. I like video better because with a mirror your head isn’t in the proper position to watch yourself, unless it’s on the ground, but if it is, you’ll miss key elements of body position (straight on and down the line)

  • practice the motions for about an hour a day but not all at one time. No more than 15 minute sessions. Keep your brain working.

  • don’t bring your swing changes to the playing course, if you can help it.

  • don’t hit any balls for the first month while starting your swing change.

My views only and what I have just gone through over the last 18 months.

I was a 9.9 handicap when I started, went to a 17 during my swing change and am now back to a 10.5. I am guessing I’m closer to a 7 now but I haven’t played a scoreable round of golf in three months, just a lot of two and three ball practice sessions.

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#15

This one is huge. I can’t remember where I read it, but the concept of proprioception is a good one to keep in mind. It’s the idea of how well you know what your body is doing.

The challenge is that the vast majority of us have really bad proprioception - or at least I do! For example, with support from a teaching pro, I’ve been working on limiting my lateral sway in my backswing. What feels like leaning way left on my backswing (I’m a righty) is actually still swaying to the right.

FWIW, my recommendation on a golf cam is the LiveView Sports camera. The nice thing about this camera (vs. using your phone) is that you can more easily see your positions without having to move your head. For example, with my lateral sway, I can put my phone right next to the ball, so I can “see” my head position without lifting my head, which I feel like would mess up my proprioception of the move.

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#16

Other teachers suggest that “feel ain’t real”, and this is another example. What feels “right” is what you’ve been doing a long time, even if its technically poor. Changing things, becoming more technically sound, will always feel “wrong” at first. Quite possibly the results won’t be great initially. So you get bad results, and things feel bad, why would you continue? Getting feedback through video can help you believe that you really ARE improving your mechanics, and so can help you keep at it long enough to really institute the changes.

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#17

Yeah, finding a way to get a positive feedback loop for swing changes is super important… pain and pleasure are really the only ways we learn… and I don’t advocate shock collars on golfers! (Though that would probably get you into the correct impact position quickly!)

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