“Are You A Harmless Fiddler Of The Golf Swing or A Compulsive Hoarder Of Golf Tips?”
Actually, the above is a trick title for this article because there’s no such thing as a “Harmless Fiddler”. The seemingly innocent act of fiddling with your golf swing has caused many Golfers to say “I have lost my golf swing. I can’t hit the golf ball anymore.”
A golf swing doesn’t disappear … and no, you don’t lose your golf swing. Your swing is still with you, although you may have added few bad habits or compensations that you have picked up that is throwing your swing off a little. Yet, your golf swing is still there … it’s just buried under these new compensations.
These bad habits and compensations happen to everyone. So if this has happened to you – you’re not alone. I can say without fear that one of the major causes of a Golfer feeling as if they have lost their swing is because you’re often trying quick fixes (band-aides) to fix your golf swing.
This fiddling process that leads you to ‘losing your golf swing’ could start as innocently as slightly changing your grip. Some might say: “how can a slight grip change cause me to lose my golf swing?”
Easy – let’s say that you’re a right handed Golfer that has the tendency to hit your golf ball anywhere from a fade (golf ball drifts to the right) to a slice (ball drifts a lot more to the right). You read that you need to strengthen your grip (left hand more on top of the club and right hand more under) so that you promote a draw.
You now hit a few shots and your golf ball starts going a little to the left. You continue hitting golf balls because it’s nice to see your ball not going to the right. However, after a few more shots your golf ball starts going farther and farther to the left. So you say to yourself that you better weaken your grip just a little.
So what happens next? The same thing that always happens when you start “fiddling with your golf swing.
After the initial success of the golf tip that worked for a few swings … you start to hit behind the golf ball. So you think to yourself: “well, I’m probably coming over the top and getting too steep coming into the golf ball. I’ll try to make this next swing come more from the inside.”
After a couple more shots you start finding that you’re now shanking the golf ball. So you say to yourself: “Ok, I might be coming too far from the inside and too shallow into the golf ball. I’ve probably become too flat.”
So what are you going to do now? Another grip adjustment? More tweaking of your swing plane? Maybe trying to turn your forearms through impact? What’s the next compensation that you’re going to add to your growing collection of compensations?
The key is this: As innocent as most people think it is to try a new swing tip … it has lasting negative effects on your golf swing. Going through that scenario just once has added unnecessary compensations to your golf swing. By adjusting your grip that first time … you’re making a compensation to fix the golf ball from flying to the right. By swinging more inside … you’re compensating for hitting behind the golf ball.
The question you need to ask yourself: is changing my grip and swing plane or whatever else I do on every other swing a correction or a compensation?
In the above scenario, there are at least 3 compensations that you have added. Then the next time you practice, you probably have a similar session … meaning you added another 3 or 4 compensations to your golf swing. So now you have over 6 compensations in your golf swing. And then the next time you practice you add more.
Which means each time you go practice – instead of getting closer to consistency … you’re getting farther and farther away.
Then one day you’re on the golf course and find that you have completely lost your golf swing. Because your golf swing has collapsed under the weight of all those compensations and is buried under a mountain of bad habits that you unknowingly have collected in your golf swing.
Basically, you’re a Hoarder of Golf Tips!
A Hoarder of Golf Swing Compensations and all these compensations are piling on top of each other until one day … you’re not able to handle having all those compensations trying to work together. It just gets to the point where you have too many conflicting things in your golf swing … and your golf swing just becomes terrible.
Is your golf swing lost? No it is not. Is it still there? Yes, it’s just buried under so many compensations that you can no longer see it or feel it or do it.
If this is you, what should you do?
The key is to find what was causing the inconsistency in your golf swing before you started adding all those compensations. Only an exceptional Golf Instructor will be able to see through all those compensations and find the Root Cause. However, a less than exceptional Golf Instructor will tell you they know what is wrong with your golf swing and just add more compensation and make things worse.
The Monkey is a Hoarder of Golf Swing Compensations and will continually ‘lose their golf swing’
The Player sticks with their PLAN and works on the drills that promote solid ball strikes
Go ahead … be a Player!
Regards,
Marc Solomon – Your Instructor For Life