Forget Everything You Know About Your Golf Swing

/ The Grateful Golfer

It is time to hit the reset button on your golf swing! Understanding that everything you have an accomplished to date is actually the foundation for improvement moving forward. I realize this may sound crazy, however, it is time to forget what you already know and focus on improving that aspect of your swing that does not happen naturally. It is time to start anew!

Forgetting everything we know about our golf swing!

Of course it is unrealistic for any golfer to start from scratch. But, my thought process is pretty straight forward. I have to use my current swing as the starting point to making positive changes to lower my golf scores. By setting the baseline for improvement as the way I swing a golf club today, I can address my deficiencies make adjustments as identified.

If this sounds a bit off the wall, well it really is not. If you stopped tweaking, adjusting, and changing every time something goes wrong with your swing, you may have a chance to make real improvements. By accepting the state of your game right now and start to analyse you swing; good things can happen. Let me give you an example.

A couple of days ago, I put a small video of my swing on The Grateful Golfer. I will use this swing as my baseline moving forward. Although there are many positive things about my swing, I decided to reset my approach moving forward. I analyzed my overall swing and have decided on two areas of improvement.

The first is the position of my feet. I realize that both are pointed outwards and this particular stance position makes it difficult to open my hips at contact. My back foot position hinders my ability to create torque between my upper and lower body. I am not exactly sure what my new position will look like, but it is something I need to fix.

The second area is the transition between by back swing and down swing. It appears to be a quick at the top as I have not complete my full back swing before I start my transition forward. Again, I am not sure this is exactly what I need to work on, but it is another area I chose to explore.

To work on these two areas, I have to clear all the other swing thoughts out of my mind. I do not need competing ideas, so I must reset all my swing thoughts start fresh. So, as a result I am pressing the reset button. This will allow me start moving forward again and work to attaining my overall goal of being a scratch golfer.

Have you ever thought about pressing the reset button?

I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!

Written by Jim Burton from The Grateful Golfer blog.

12 thoughts on “Forget Everything You Know About Your Golf Swing”

  1. Good article Jim, I started the season off with the intention of having no swing thoughts, it worked for a few weeks until I was at home one evening watching videos of top players, (as you do) and noticed something in a swing that I wasn’t doing myself so I try now just to have the 1 swing thought and even that stops the natural fluidity of the swing,
    I fully intend to work at it during the winter and come out fresh next season as a natural player again (no swing thoughts) Sam Snead comes to mind #Fluidity

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    • Padraig

      I played yesterday (Monday) and I only focused on my right foot position. This slight change did have a bit of a cascading affect, but I was able to control the changes and played very will. I did not think of anything else….It was great!

      Cheers
      Jim

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      • That’s great Jim, the goal is to get something that works and repeats until we can build it in naturally,
        went out this evening and changed the ball position a 1/4 of an inch and amazingly my shots were like lasers with a great trajectory again, didn’t want to go home 🙂
        Padraig

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      • Thanks Jim, I’m out Thursday in a competition and I’ll let you know via Twitter.
        Hopefully you’re still getting out and hampered by the weather.
        Padraig

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      • That’s ok. I didn’t really mean it as a suggestion for you. Just a laugh. I have a small group of friends that all get together for a three day golf outing most years and one of them is lefty. Over the years we have made a habit of picking one hole (usually a par 3) and playing with the wrong hand. Even though I am left handed for lots of things, I am no good at switch hitting on the golf course. I am sure it would take me a really long time to make that kind of switch permanent. But it would certainly make it easy to “start from scratch” because that is exactly what I’d be doing.

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      • Kevin,

        I hear you. I did get your inference and did smile at your previous suggestion. Sorry if I came off being too serious, definitely not my intent. I have tried to hit left handed from time to time, but I make sure I use a club I cannot hurt. Usually a 5i or so. It is a challenge. I like what you and your friends do, it does sound fun!

        Cheers
        Jim

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