Which path to take

This is probably an unanswerable question, but I'll give it a shot. I have two basic swing styles, one is my natural swing; the other is a learned move.

My natural swing is a bit of a block. Think DJ or Spieth for model. My right hand is on the back of the club, my left wrist is fairly flat, the club sets a little shut at the top, and there is a minimal amount of forearm rotation. It's a body release. I always have a sense of being square to the ball, if you know what I mean. I can hit the ball hard while retaining the sense of the target and where the ball is going. While I've had success with this swing, it goes off. If I see an instructor, they'll point out that I have a tendency to come inside on the takeaway and get laid off at the top. Every single instructor I've ever seen has pointed this out and wants it corrected. We never get past takeaway mechanics. Thing is, I have this same move when to swing works, too. So, the suggested fix isn't curative.

When I correct the inside takeaway, I end up with an entirely different move. The right hand gets weaker, and the club gets set farther back at address. The result is that the club goes back outside my hands on the way back, and the face is more on plane at the top. I look great on video and instructors are happy. I'm cured! However, my left wrist ends up with a considerable back hinge. Think Hogan. The result is that I no longer feel square. In fact, I can't even sense how the club ever gets back to square to hit the ball. I'm blind thru the ball. While I'm fine on the range, playing the game is a whole different deal. I don't have a sense of the target, and I have a hard time keeping the ball on the course. My misses are off the planet.

So, my conundrum is this... If I stick with my natural swing, I'm doing something no one seems to understand. When it fails, no one can help. I get cures that have nothing to do with the disease. On the other hand, if I use a technically correct move, it doesn't work. I look great but play terribly. Everyone looks at my beautiful swing and wonders how I can score so badly. Pretty soon they conclude I must have a bad attitude. After all, failure to play golf well suggests a faulty mind, right?

So, I'm sitting here wondering which way to turn. Nothing in my history suggests that the correct move, the one that looks good on video, actually functions. On the other hand, my natural swing isn't functioning so well lately either. Something's wrong somewhere, and I don't know what it is. I can fix other people, but I can't fix myself. My usual treatments aren't helping. Just once, I'd like to go to an instructor with a problem like this and get some resolution, but it has never happened.

What would you do?

Have you tried shortening the backswing a bit? That helped me from not laying the club off as much and still could make my same move down through the ball without many adjustments.

Can you do the 'correct' move without getting the left wrist excessively back hinged?

Stick with your natural swing and stop going to teachers. When it goes wrong, figure it out for yourself (it IS your swing, after all). And to the devil with orthodoxies, I say! Remember when strong grips and short backswings were unorthodox?

Rant aside, reading between the lines, you clearly want to go with your natural swing. You’re just a little afraid to go down that route. There is a practical benefit to being your own teacher - when things go wrong on the course, you don’t have to wait for a lesson. You can fix it right there.

Stick with your natural swing and stop going to teachers. When it goes wrong, figure it out for yourself (it IS your swing, after all). And to the devil with orthodoxies, I say! Remember when strong grips and short backswings were unorthodox?

 

Rant aside, reading between the lines, you clearly want to go with your natural swing. You're just a little afraid to go down that route. There is a practical benefit to being your own teacher - when things go wrong on the course, you don't have to wait for a lesson. You can fix it right there.

Ill second this and say...maybe the answer is slightly in between.? whichever. you will do better long run if you own it yourself and are able to self correct. Needing to run take a video for a teacher to look at is a good way to never be self sufficient. all depends on what you want.. Some people want to rely on a teacher. I get that . I have a PGA master who mentors me ..BUT he will not hold my hand. He has let me back myself into a couple ditches 1st to teach me to think.. Not to run to him everytime i hit a foul ball. And i appreciate that ..Id say polish YOUR swing instead of changing to somemone elses swing

I'm of the opinion that you need to create a new "natural swing." Multiple instructors have pointed out this takeaway move where you whip it inside and get massively laid off at the top, so you need to figure out why. If they are poor instructors it may just be because it looks bad and unorthodox, but if multiple people have told you the same thing then it must be because you are setting yourself up into a position that makes it really challenging to play good golf.

In my own experience, I've found that the evolution of the golf-swing has to be a 90% self-taught journey, but when you dedicate yourself to cracking the code occasionally you hit a roadblock and that's where instruction can help. Think of it like a crossword puzzle--you're getting it all figured out but then you just hit a juncture where it's impossible to go any further. The instructor is like the person that tells you that your answer for 4-across may be wrong, and what you should try instead...which once changed unlocks all sorts of other possibilities and sends you on your merry way to keep progressing on your task.

So my advice as to what I'd personally do would be to incorporate and stick with the new backswing move, but don't try to make it fit in with the other pieces. Find the feelings that you need to make playing from that new position feel natural, and don't be surprised when you find that you are going to have to make other potentially major changes to your moves and intents for that to happen. That's the beauty of the swing: what comes before has this butterfly effect that can completely change what needs to come next. If you stick with the new backswing intent, you are eventually going to have a lightbulb moment when you realise that you can't keep swinging the club the same way and hit good shots under pressure from that position, but "if I change THIS then it all becomes easier!" Good luck finding it.

Sometime in the 90s, there was an article in Golf Illustrated in which Billy Harmon discussed what he called the ‘in and over’ swing. He used the swings of Bobby Jones, Sam Snead, Bruce Lietzsche, Craig Stadler and a few others to illustrate what he was talking about. Essentially, you take the club inside with a downswing plane that is over the backswing plane, but still ‘inside’ the ball. I think this is now referred to as ‘OTT from the inside’.

(You might want to turn the sound off.)

http://youtu.be/Gy_xx-cXKyA

I'm of the opinion that you need to create a new "natural swing." Multiple instructors have pointed out this takeaway move where you whip it inside and get massively laid off at the top, so you need to figure out why. If they are poor instructors it may just be because it looks bad and unorthodox, but if multiple people have told you the same thing then it must be because you are setting yourself up into a position that makes it really challenging to play good golf.

 

In my own experience, I've found that the evolution of the golf-swing has to be a 90% self-taught journey, but when you dedicate yourself to cracking the code occasionally you hit a roadblock and that's where instruction can help. Think of it like a crossword puzzle--you're getting it all figured out but then you just hit a juncture where it's impossible to go any further. The instructor is like the person that tells you that your answer for 4-across may be wrong, and what you should try instead...which once changed unlocks all sorts of other possibilities and sends you on your merry way to keep progressing on your task.

 

So my advice as to what I'd personally do would be to incorporate and stick with the new backswing move, but don't try to make it fit in with the other pieces. Find the feelings that you need to make playing from that new position feel natural, and don't be surprised when you find that you are going to have to make other potentially major changes to your moves and intents for that to happen. That's the beauty of the swing: what comes before has this butterfly effect that can completely change what needs to come next. If you stick with the new backswing intent, you are eventually going to have a lightbulb moment when you realise that you can't keep swinging the club the same way and hit good shots under pressure from that position, but "if I change THIS then it all becomes easier!" Good luck finding it.

Pretty close to summing up what I meant. The inside move maybe hindering you. But you don’t have to change everything to fix that. Figure out where you can take it back and not have whatever miss it causes ( high rights probably ) I’ve had this issue too. My fix and or feel is that I take the club back outside my hands but my backswing is started and controlled by my body. Arms simply along for the ride staying in front of me ( until my body turn stops of course ) then you just fire down and get hands back in front of you. Easy peasy. If you can find a feel for the takeaway that’s as easy and simple thinking as that , you will have that butterfly moment. I’m telling you that one feel shortened my backswing , puts me in rythym. , timing is perfect and it drops me into the slot 99% of the time. Crazy how much better I’m hitting it. And I hit it well before.

Or you could just go with natural swing, and spend more time working on recovery shots and shots around the green. That way you can still save par when the natural swing gets off.

Only reason I mention this is because I have played with a couple of guys for many years who do not have that picture perfect swing, one looks laid off, the other quite loopy, but both of them rarely make a double and if their odd looking swing sprays an iron, I don't count them out of the hole until maybe after their next wedge shot. They are good putters too, so I really can't count them out unless it is a 20 footer for par.

Just because you have periods of good ball-striking, even though you have a fault in your swing, doesn't mean that you wouldn't play better more consistently if you correct that fault. Similarly, just because the "good-looking" swing doesn't produce consistent results right away doesn't mean that it isn't a better choice in the long run. I don't know how diligently you practiced the "correct" move, or how long you let the experiment run before you gave up and went back to your natural swing, but I know from personal experience that change DOES feel awkward. Change will often produce inconsistent results as you train your body to do something different. But change CAN be great for your game.

If every single instructor you've ever seen has noticed the same problem, it just might be the actual problem. The common denominator is you, and your "natural" swing, and your natural swing going off the rails so far you decide to pay someone to help you improve.

Ask yourself why you went to the instructor in the first place. If multiple instructors have pointed it out and you know your game isn't getting any better, then perhaps they are onto something

And a single lesson isnt going to fix a long time flaw that is fully ingrained.

It is really hard to play consistent golf from an inside takeaway and laid off position at the top. Lots of getting stuck, early extension, flips flips and more flips.