Shortening swing on the course - mental hurdle

[phillyspecial]

I've been working on shortening my swing for quite a long time, and in my practice sessions I have definitely made significant progress. But on the course, like most other aspects of golf, it has been a lot more difficult. Put that target in front of me , and my mind wants to swing long and hard. I do this even understanding that a shorter smoother swing results in perfectly adequate yardage. Or any swing thought about the transition causes a delay as the swing overruns. I have no issue with wedges, its full iron shots and up the bag.

 

I've played/struggled with the game long enough to understand the hurdle in taking practice habits to the course, but I'm curious if anyone else has gone thru this particular issue and overcome it, and if so what helped.

[Doppelganger]

I had a lesson with monte and I hit a few thousand range balls but I can't actually remember when maintaining width stopped being an issue for me. It's tough to keep those hands away from you if you have that problem, keep at it good luck.

[rsballer10]

I've been working on shortening my swing for quite a long time, and in my practice sessions I have definitely made significant progress. But on the course, like most other aspects of golf, it has been a lot more difficult. Put that target in front of me , and my mind wants to swing long and hard. I do this even understanding that a shorter smoother swing results in perfectly adequate yardage. Or any swing thought about the transition causes a delay as the swing overruns. I have no issue with wedges, its full iron shots and up the bag.

 

I've played/struggled with the game long enough to understand the hurdle in taking practice habits to the course, but I'm curious if anyone else has gone thru this particular issue and overcome it, and if so what helped.

Take an extra club into every approach, and hit punch/knockdown shots into every green.

[Petunia Sprinkle]

As long as you think of it as ‘shortening’ your swing, you’ll always feel like you’re cheating yourself out of something and struggle with it.

I don’t understand making shortening one’s swing a primary intent. A swing change should be to a swing that is clearly better than one’s current swing. If it happens to be shorter, then fine.

[SomedayScratch]

Off topic, but you're an Eagles fan who lives in Minnesota?!

 

Get out!!!! This is Skol Nation.

 

Sorry, just bitter about this year's ending.

 

In all seriousness, it definitely is a mental hurdle. Your best bet is to have some practice sessions while on the course. Go out and play a few holes right before dark, hit a few drives, hit a few approach shots each hole. Make them like real shots, but your sole focus is like you are on a driving range and you're implementing the same shortening swing mindset you use in practice. Then when you're playing for score it will hopefully bleed into how you swing in those rounds.

 

Good luck!

[joeunc]

try to think of keeping both arms straight and the right arm above the left in the backswing. Should help your turn and stop any arm run off.

The right arm will bend but it's that feeling of keeping it straight and above the left that helps the arms stop when the shoulders stop. GL!

[GMR]

Fighting the polar opposite issue. Swing gets short when I get on the course, since I don't want to turn too far off the ball since I subconsciously feel out of control when the ball starts to drift into my peripheral vision. On the range I can force myself to do it, but when you take 1 swing every 5 minutes and the stakes for the big miss go up substantially, I tighten up and am back to my 3/4 stock shot. What sucks is that unlike in your situation where you are worried about "robbing yourself of distance," I know that turning off the ball will result in a downswing where I can produce 20 more yards with far less effort, and yet I look left and right at all the hazards and deep grass out there and I just can't force myself to do it. Slowly getting better, but the big struggle is that the only way to make it second nature is to actually force yourself to do it when something is on the line, and as with any swing change there's going to be inconsistency at first. Your scores may go up before they go back down, but you just gotta stick to it and fight through.

[phillyspecial]

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I will try to take too much club as a drill, as I do with my wedges where it isn't a problem. For some reason while I have thought to do this, I have not followed through to actually commit to trying it for a full round. I used to have legit full swing yips where I just couldn't stop my backswing. Come a long way as a golfer since then, but part of that is still in there. Every round I think, ok lets just go 3/4 swing like we do in every practice session, then the next thing I know Im seeing my club out of the corner of my left eye.

[Jasonic]

Just writing about it helped me today. I didn’t even do the knock down as a drill. Golf is weird man.

 

Golf is 90% mental. The rest is all in your head.

[glk]

Overswinging can have many causes. Lessons or post a video here to find out what is happening. Until you know what is the cause then just trying to swing shorter is going to be problematic.

[Chowdah86]

Sometimes its the momentum of the backswing thatll make you go too long around. Slow that down a bit.

 

Also, think of starting down w your lower body before you finish back.

 

Stop the swing when you feel left shoulder under chin. Got that one from Rory mcilroy who apparebtly has an over swing problem.

 

But overall:, generally thinking of the swing as something that occurs at waist level. Everything else is just a running start. Grab a club and make waist level swings, letting the club roll hinge and swing itself obeying the plane established by the shaft at address. It feels really smooth and natural. Thats the slot, the go zone. Thats where it wants to swing. Thats where it all happens. Play 9 holes swingibg down there. You can actually shoot pretty low scores swinging down there.