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Golf is like that "Bat S--t Crazy" college girlfriend that never met a mattress she couldn't shred. You know you should leave to protect your own sanity but you just can't help yourself. Just enjoy the ride. Sometimes you just need to remember, "Life is too serious to take it too serious".

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When I get in that sort of a mental funk as you described, where you've tried everything under the sun to get the ball to just go straight off the tee and it won't, I do the following:

Stop thinking. I'm serious. Just swing the club, and make your only swing thought be about "good tempo". Don't think about "I gotta get my hands, arms, whatever into this position or that position". No. Drop that out of your head. Consider a lesson from a new instructor. However, it sounds like you've done this multiple times so I'm not sure this is the best advice for you. In late May/early June of this year I was in a funk. My handicap climbed from a 7 to a 9, and it seemed as though it was not going to stop going up any time soon. My driver was an absolute mess. My home club hired a new assistant pro this season, and I decided to hit him up and take a lesson. And I went into it with the idea that I am ready to reboot the whole swing if he told me to.

A week and a half after the lesson, I shot even par 72 at my home course. My best round in 25 years. I'm currently a 5 index, and I'm hitting my driver probably better than I have ever been. I think the key with the instructor I went with was that he made clear from the get-go that he wanted to work within my swing tendencies, and not try to force me into a swing I couldn't easily do. You can't reliably repeat something if it doesn't feel at least somewhat natural.

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Once you figure out your natural swing / shape and can hit it consistently in play then you can work on hitting it further.

The first year I was playing the fade I was probably about 15 yards shorter than I used to be with the draw. As I got more comfortable/confident I've been able to swing faster and now I hit is just as longer or longer.

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Try an impact bag for the flip and just hit shots. You need to get a feel and not just thoughts. Personally I'd lay off the instruction for a while and take the advice many have given. Hit balls at target. Don't think.

You can probably find a video of Vijay hitting an impact sock. There are many of these aids available. https://www.ebay.com/itm/sklz-smash-bag-golf-impact-swing-trainer/133477488101?hash=item1f13e0d5e5:g:2bcAAOSwDHxfIJ74

 

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I play off a 5 but have been struggling with the same thing. I play a very tight tree lined course. So far, this year I was lucky to hit 3 fairways a round. Worse is that I would have a least 5 punch outs per round which was killing my scores and putting a ton of pressure on my short game. Every once in a while I'd go a week or two driving great but it wouldn't last.

I used to fight a hook. My course from the blue tees plays better with a fade. Last year I worked to transition to a fade to control the hook and be in better positions off the tee. This year has been disastrous. You also absolutely need a draw from the tips at my course. I got fed up and I had a lesson last week. My coach had me hit 5 drives. He said he didn't care where they ended up, as long as they drew. He then stuck an alignment rod in the ground and said he wanted 5 drives that started right of the rod and finished left. Finally I had to start my drives at a target and finish inside a target. Hitting draws like this was all pretty natural.

He then had me do this with fades. Even though I had previously transitioned I found myself fighting it control it and was hitting push slices hanging off my back foot. I quickly realized that I had been fighting my natural swing tendency. I'm now driving it wayyyy better.

Another thing I noticed. My first 2 draw swings were ugly blocks. I had tried to hit the draw by setup instead of swing manipulation concentrating too much on face angle at address and feet. What I mean is that I set the face to the intended start direction and set up a bit closed to that with my feet to bring it back. Mechanics over feel. It felt awkward. After 2 bad shots I instead set up square to the target (I what I felt was square) and then concentrated on swinging in to out using my lower body to control the face. It felt way more natural and easy. I did notice that even though I set up what I felt was square, while taking my grip I felt most comfortable opening the face to the target a bit. In a sense, I was setting up with an open face. I was just doing it differently and it felt way more comfortable.

My point is that as someone noted earlier, you need to find your natural swing. Try hitting 10 draw and 10 fades. See which on you can do more consistently. Then build off that. When on the tee, don't try to hit it down the middle. To to cut it off the edge of the fairway or what ever works. Also, buy some foot spray and make sure your dispersion issues are not from face contact issues. I did another drill where I spray foot powder on my driver face and made a cross on it. My coach then asked me to hit the various quadrants on the face. High toe, low heel etc. This is very difficult. I was able to do it but with no control. It's a great drill to learn face control but at your hdcp, it may be a little too much too soon.

Another suggestion is to leave the driver at home and just use a 3w off the tee. I often claimed to do this but when I would play I would still pull driver because "I wanted to figure it out". I you leave in in the car you'll have no choice.

You sound like your not having fun. I'd also suggest playing some different games. Go out and play with just 4 clubs or don't keep score. Maybe play a scramble with a partner where you don't feel the pressure on the tee.

I hope you get it worked out.

 

 

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Expectations and playing in fear and anger are the causes of a lot of poor play. Fear before the shot and anger after. When I become humble and realize that my swing is giving me the shots that it should be at the moment then I can usually begin to perform at a better level. If you understand who you are as a golfer and what kind of shots you hit then you will understand that all of those shots are going to come out while you are playing. Some days you might be lucky and hit more that you consider good and some days not so much.

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I definitely feel some empathy with the OP here - I am extremely results-based in my golf outlook, and that often leads me to the kind of intense frustration the OP has been feeling. I range between a 7 and 9 handicap, a decent player but by no means an elite player capable of competing at a high level in the sport. I am just playing the game as a hobby and for fun, but for whatever reason I let poor play get under my skin much more than I should. I wish I could be less like that, just focus on the fun of the sport, of trying to pull off shots. Feel good about the ones that work out and forget about the ones that don't. I know from personal experience that that's easier said than done, but my recommendation would be to do the best you can to step back from focusing on your scores or the technical aspects of your swing and instead try to rediscover whatever it is about this game that drew you to it in the first place.

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Apologies if this was already stated but you mentioned weekly lessons. Are you adding on to thoughts or feels every lesson? That's a tough task for anyone. My teacher is strict on the fact that after 2-3 thoughts stop and work to ingrain those before adding anything else.

Sounds like you might be trying to incorporate a lot at once which can be harmful. Maybe taking a step back and adding in changes slowly is the key. I know it worked for me, I had to make both grip and swing changes when I started lessons about a year ago. Open face / open path so we started with the face first. I learned to get that ingrained first and started playing a pull (Square face, out to in path). Once I didn't really have to think about those changes to have the face squared we worked swing path. This way my brain and practice is only working on a couple things at a time and I can still be an athlete and hit the ball.

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Golf is hard, that's a fact.

Sometimes when in a slump, I've taken a month off (been a while since doing so), and it does help.

I learned long ago, after being a low teens hdcp for a few years, that my emotions (generically anger at myself) got the better of me. Once I figured that out (golf is a game, not my job) I dropped to a 7 within a couple of months, and since then been between 3-5 for several years, playing once a week, out of the trunk as I don't have time nor do I enjoy range ratting.

Take some time off, improve your attitude and have fun, it's just a game.

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Seems like the consensus here (from @Seidinho, @Dashfast, @Jaoffo, @Roody, @kozubs etc) is to severely cut back on the technical aspect of golf for the time being and just play. Also, lots have suggested to just find a way to play my swing, even going so far as to suggest finding a teacher than can improve my swing rather than teach me a new one.
To those who suggested learning to improve / live with my swing rather than trying to squeeze myself into a new one: What did that process look like for those of you who refined the swing you already have? My mental barrier is knowing all this info about the swing, and believing that I'm never going to be able to hit it solidly enough because of the inherent faults in "my swing". Like I said, I'm athletic and strong but I drive the ball 210-235. I'm hung up on this idea that "my swing" will always limit my distance. Did that eventually change when you got good at your own swing? I can't get over the fact I know I do a lot of stuff in the swing to reduce ball speed.

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I will address the second part of your post. You are clearly to focussed on your "swing". With all your lessons you've probably fallen into the paralysis by analysis trap. Worrying about where your elbows are, how your hips are rotating, etc. None of that matters.

All that matters is how the clubhead is moving and where the face is pointed at impact. Period. If you have a mostly consistent path you can hit the ball consistently if you stop trying to manipulate things.

So as a starting point if you have access to a good launch monitor or even a decent camera hit a bunch of balls with driver with the natural swing a bunch of us have talked about. If your path isn't consistent, figure out how to get one that is and go from there.

My guess as to why your distance is so bad is that you are trying so hard to get into positions or specific movements that you've removed all the athleticism from your swing. Think of this, when you throw a ball do you think about how your elbow and shoulder and wrist work? No. You just throw it.

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If you hit it 230 yards reliably and reasonably straight, you don’t need anything more. You don’t need to hit it 270 to get great scores. Given the issues you describe, middle tees sound about right and would leave you within distance for most holes.

Edit: My Driver is fairly short by WRX standards and longer Par 4s are out of reach for GIR, but decent short game can make up for that. Par 3s and 5s are all easily within reach for GIR.

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I mean this in the most polite way possible. You are a 21 handicap, you are not good enough to get upset over golf. Get out and enjoy the fresh air, nature, and just have fun. If that does not cut it either get serious about improving your game or move on to something else you enjoy doing. No point in spending money to go get angry over a bad shot.

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First off, golf is weird. One day I'm apathetic and feel that I'm just over golf as a hobby and then the next day I play well and I seem to enjoy the fact I have this ability. So don't take it so hard day-to-day. Golf is a weird thing that on the one hand is totally pointless but on the other can be really fun when it goes well. And in this case, one can derive joy from many aspects of the experience: good play, the exercise, making new friends, networking, getting some fresh air and sun, etc.

However, it sounds like you're really struggling and the pragmatic half of me worries that you might be wasting your time and money.

By comparison I started when I was in my early 20s and I'm now 34. I began with a totally home-made swing and a huge slice. I played some sports as a kid so my hand-eye coordination was respectable but I had no formal golf training. Nonetheless I could always swing hard/fast and by the time I had 3-4 years under my belt I had broken 80 on a few occasions playing my weak cut. So progress should come naturally (and quickly) even despite a rather ragged swing.

Unless you have some physical disability you should be able to hit the ball well beyond 200 yards. At your age 250 should be relatively easy with today's technology. The fact that you are getting so frustrated now and have very little to actually show for your 3-4 years in the game makes me think you might be a hopeless case. But then again you said you played other sports prior? So there's a gap here. This doesn't add up.

I've never worked with an instructor formally but I can tell you that hopping around to 8 different ones ain't going to work. If you trust the guy you're with you need to see him regularly for a sustained period. But if you suck out loud then maybe golf just isn't your thing and you might consider moving on to a more enjoyable hobby?

Do you have friends who play? Are they good?

 

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in blue collar terms, "just play what you brung" LOL

 

Seriously, the way I worked this out for myself was just going to the range one day and just banging balls for a while. Not thoughts about swing, just picking a target, lining up (right or wrong) and striking the ball. After that I just watched the flight and where it landed. My focus was not on the swing at all. I just chose an appropriate target for my 8 iron distance, decided I wanted to hit a high cut, or a high fade and just made a swing. Funny thing was, as I chose to hit a high draw for instance, I found that I was just hitting that shot, more often than not. Sometimes they went straight. Then I'd try to hit a high fade. This is NOT a shot in my arsenal. Typically it resulted in a slight cut or straight(er) shot. The trajectory seemed to be in the neighborhood of what I had imagined. What happened during my Polish experimentation is that I learned if I see a target and pick a shot I can hit it pretty well as often as not.

I was so frustrated once after a round in which I lost 11 balls, that after putting out on 18 I sent the remaining ball off into the brush. Figured I'd make it an even dozen offering to the golf demons.

The next time I played I had a plan. This round I'd play a la Mickeson and hit every shot I could imagine. The score was not near as nightmarish as I thought it could have been, but I played the round for fun, with a friend who knew what I was doing. I played the next round with the same friend and we had a wager. I played only my 7 iron against him for a nominal Nassau. On the 4th hole they all decided I could use my putter if I wanted because I seemed to be putting just fine with the seven iron. I actually won the match, but it taught me that I didn't need to slaughter the ball off the tee.

For the third round, I just focused on putting the ball in play. See a target and hit the ball. Golf was fun again and I began the process of going from an 18 to a 10.

What I learned is that I can play this game. AND I can have fun at it again.

So, just see a target, decide what shot you want to hit and just swing. What have you got to lose?

 

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I used to have stretches where the longest club I would hit off the tee was a 6 iron. I'd score better doing that, lol. And it let me feel like a golfer because I was hitting decent shots instead of trudging through the forest looking for balls. So that is my advice. Tee off with a driving iron or 4 iron or whatever you have. If you have to hit the 4 iron again to get near the green, do it. Then chip and putt. Simplify by just playing irons for a while. It will help your game and your state of mind. If I was your caddie I wouldn't let you near a driver right now.

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1) you sure as hell don't need an instructor ... i've never had one and i have a 3ish handicap ... and i've never been all that athletic ... golf is a game you can absolutely get better all by yourself ...

2) figure out a way to enjoy the game first ... move all the way up to the shortest tees and play only irons ... or whatevs ... play tees that don't require driver ... as someone already said, quit worrying about distance right now ... try to hit different shots ... soft short irons ... hard hook punches ... fades ... cuts ... etc ... just for fun & feels ... and quit keeping score ...

3) watch pro golfers swing and try to mimic their swings ... adam scott, for instance ...

 

 

if two those work, great ... if all three work, even better ... good luck ...

 

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OP, I'm enjoying this thread. Thanks for posting it.

I can definitely relate to what you are feeling. I'm in the same boat right now. I bought my clubs 2 years ago next month. From January 2019 to January 2020 my handicap went from 36 to 26 and I felt great about it - going to be in the teens in no time! Not so fast. From January 2020 to now my handicap has gone from 26 to 24. Not nearly the result I would have predicted for myself after having played 109 rounds of golf and hit 25000 range balls during the last 2 years. Talk about frustration!!! Unfortunately I have not found a solution I am comfortable with - don't play as much and/or don't take it so seriously don't appeal to me.

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@elpollosuperloco First of all, not bad.
In my opinion, it's quite a "built up" swing.
What I can see (and I'm not a pro at all) is that the swing with the irons is more correct than the swing with the driver, even if both have more action in the upper part of the body than in the lower part.
In particular, with the driver you don't turn the hips to the target (check the first swing, you don't even lift your right foot!) which means that you're using more yoyr upper part/hands/arm, while with irons it seems you turn the hips better.
Then, I think that the swing with the driver should be more "flat": it's not bad that you make a vertical backswing, but if you don't turn your hips (and fast!), you're dead.
Conclusion: probably the problems with the driver come from the lower part of the body.
That's my 2 cents.
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@elpollosuperloco, I can't tell you how much I understand what you're dealing with. Check my thread history, you'll see I have posted, maybe even more than once, a thread about quitting.
To keep my story short, I started playing in my mid 20s, went to an instructor who was than a top 100 and now I believe top 50 instructor in the US to build the best foundation of a swing that I could even though I had played a bit as a kid and was athletic and could hit the ball, I wanted to do it right. Well for the last 5 years or so, I've had the best looking swing of any of my friends. Everybody jokes that I look like I'm a + handicap golfer on the range. I've had my instructor ask the head instructor or other really good golfers they taught on the range what they thought I shoot after watching me hit a ball or 2 and every time they'd guess low 70s. Until recently, I couldn't bring that swing to the course and my scores were terrible. More frustrating than the scores was hitting horrible shots on the course. I wanted to quit so many times. I wanted to break or toss clubs so many times. It really just felt like no matter what I did, no matter how good (or decent) my swing was, I was doomed to hitting terrible shots on the course and putting up awful scores. I had rounds where I was miserable from the 2nd shot of the day to the very last. That's 4 to 4.5 hours of frustration and misery. Even in the beginning of this season, I came home from a round like that and said I don't want to do this anymore, it's not fun.
Now, I'm not a good golfer by any means, I've only recently gotten my cap down to an 18 and just last week put up my second lowest round ever of an 85. I put up a 78 last summer. BUT, I found going from shooting in the high 90s and low 100s to shooting consistently in the low 90s has at least for me, made it feel like I'm actually playing golf and not just surviving out there and that has been huge for me mentally and allowed me to enjoy the game again.
Here are some things that have worked for me.
You have a swing that has produced low scores before. Find 1-2 feels or thoughts that must happen in order to produce that swing and focus on those. Especially when you're out on the course. When you're on the course, don't play golf swing, play golf. When you stand over the ball, have your target picked, think the 1-2 things that YOU KNOW WORK and make your swing. Do not try to change or fix anything out on the course. This has been the biggest. What this really comes down to is, you KNOW you can make a swing that works, trust it. If you hit a bad shot, doesn't matter, refocus and think of those 1-2 thoughts/feels and swing your swing. Stick to your swing and the 1-2 thoughts/feels. I can't tell you how much this has helped me. Before this, I would hit a bad shot and go into figure it out/panic mode. I'd try fixing my swing after every bad shot. This would lead to more often than not, more bad shots, frustration, cycle continues throughout round. TRUST YOUR SWING AND STICK TO IT. Now I'm not saying, swing any swing, because a bad swing will produce bad results, but clearly if you have shot some low scores and have made swings that you're happy with the result, there's a decent to good swing in there, so focus on that.

Work on your short game. Mine isn't even decent yet but since having put in a little work on it, my scores have dropped. Being able to chip more confidently has put me in much better positions on the greens. And knock on effect, has lead to increased confidence and enjoyment which bleeds into every area of your game. Work on shots from 100 yards and in and chipping around the greens. Nail down one technique that works for you. Don't worry about what the pros are doing. I'm sure what I'm doing right now isn't the prettiest and probably limits my options, but for now, it's working and I'm getting better at it and it's allowing me to play decent golf that I'm enjoying. I figure once I have this technique really nailed down and I'm shooting much lower scores consistently, then maybe I'll move onto incorporating other things into my short game. But for now, the focus is mastering this simple technique I'm using. And again, focus on one thought or feel! All I think about before hitting a short shot is "keep the hands moving" and it works most of the time for me. So start working on short game. It wasn't as fun as hitting balls on the range at first, but I've come to really enjoy going to the chipping and putting green and working on that stuff.

Putting is still a bit of a mystery for me but I've improved greatly in this area this year. I've always been good at reading greens but my speed control was way out of whack. Last year my instructor had me try this out. Before your round go to the putting green, find the flat area, and make a straight putt where your stroke is the length from your right pinkie toe to your left pinkie toe. Now walk off how many strides that is. Do that maybe 2 more times to make sure it's consistent. That's now your gauge for every putt. So say that putting stroke length gets you a putt that travels 8 strides, when you get on the course, walk off how many strides your ball is to the hole while your buddies are putting or whenever is easiest. If you're 8 strides away, bam, you now have a gauge for your speed control. If it's less than 8 strides, maybe the stroke will be from right big toe to left pinkie toe. Play with this a little and see if it works for you. Remember, green speed will change course to course and also if you tee off early in the morning, the greens will likely be slower in the beginning of the round than later in the round so adjust accordingly. Now if that doesn't work, and it only worked somewhat for me, I got this from Bob Rotella's book, and seems to be working for me this season, pick your target and visualize you rolling the putt in. Tell yourself you're holing the putt, no matter how far of a putt it is. Believe you're holing your putt. Really focus on the target and then putt. Apparently the body and brain work much better together on sending something to a target than anything else you may try in golf. So what I do, I read the green and figure out my line. I pick my target and start visualizing how my ball is going to roll over the line perfectly and into the whole over and over. I imagine the ball going in the hole over and over as I'm reading the line, the slope, looking at the whole, setting up to my putt. I'm just thinking about the ball going to the target. Once I'm setup at my ball, I look at the whole, stare at the target I want my ball to roll in over, take a deep breath, look down at my ball, continue to keep the visual of that target in my minds eye, count 1-2, and then putt. I'm no amazing putter but this has helped immensely. I'm now regularly 2 putting and 1 putting where before I would 3 and 4 putt and was just all over the place in terms of speed. I do use a line on my ball to line it up on the start line I want. This should also help.

Make sure you're actually aiming at your target. I know that sounds silly, but my first few years, I'd just look at where I want the ball to go, step up to the ball and let her rip. I thought I was lined up properly but a lot of the time, I was not. Now, before any shot, I stand behind the ball, find an immediate target in front of the ball from a few inches to maybe a couple of feet, that is in line with the target, walk up to the ball as I'm focused on that immediate target spot, and I'll set my club down with the leading edge facing square to that immediate target. I'll then adjust my feet and body to the leading edge, this way I now know I'm all squared up to the target. Now you may need to adjust this a little depending on the ball flight you play or how you manufacture that ball flight but again this provides you a gauge. I hit a push draw, so I'll leave my feet and body square to target, but I may pick something a couple of inches to the right of my original target line and let the leading edge face that. So again, play with it a little, or don't and just setup square. Doesn't matter, at least now you'll know you are aimed and setup to target. One less thing to be worrying about. One more thing to be confident about.

Focus on target. In Bob Rotella's book, Golf is Not a Game of Perfect, he talks about target a lot. With driver, iron, short game, putting. Our mind and bodies find it easier to send something to target than to think about the mechanics of getting it there. So yes what I just mentioned above about picking target and an immediate target is part of this. He also mentions picking targets out in the fairway from the tee box like a tree or edge of a sand trap. When hitting a chip, a target on the green. So always have a target in mind, focus on that target in your minds eye and send the ball to target.

Mentally, I am trying much harder not to go into panic mode. Before, one bad swing, would send me mentally into an abyss. Now I hit a bad shot, I'm not trying to figure out what I did wrong, I'm thinking ok, what do I need to do on this next shot to scramble and save par or bogey or even double bogey if that's where I'm at. I keep myself in the hole and focus on that. I'm not thinking about my swing, I'm talking to myself about staying in the whole and salvaging a low score on the whole. I'll literally get myself pumped up and laser focused to salvage double bogey if I have to. I'll challenge myself to save whatever score I need to. I still hit bad shots and get frustrated and discouraged but I'm getting much better with this. By trusting my swing and sticking to the same 1-2 thoughts/feels, I'm not letting my mind get crazy there, check. Now I'm thinking, ok lets fucking go save bogey. And then I'll do my whole routine and everything and swing my swing. If I hit another shot that doesn't go where I wanted it to go, mentally again I go ok fuck, now lets go save double bogey, lets get this done. This has been a huge help in staying in the rounds mentally.

I hope any of what I shared helps. I know how frustrated you are, trust me I do. I can get very frustrated pretty easily. I could literally be on the range and hit 40 perfect draws with every club right before a round, walk onto the course and shoot a 105. I can't tell you how angry, miserable, frustrated, disappointed, demoralized I would feel. Like I said, look through some of my threads, you'll see. Try some of these things out, they've really really helped me to play some ok golf but more importantly be able to enjoy playing this ok golf. Do I still think I should be shooting in the low 80s with the swing I have? Absolutely. But at least when I'm scoring low 90s, I feel like I'm actually playing a round of golf and I'm not playing golf swing on the course and I'm not surviving shot to shot/swing to swing, and that has been a huge difference in enjoying the game.

I put a lot in here so let me know if you have any questions! Good luck!
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Finding a good coach can be really tough and seems like that is the case in certain geographical areas based on what I read on here. I've been lucky with someone local who was a great help to my daughter and to me when I decided to get serious about getting better about 12 years ago or so. Then I met Monte and the person I was working with locally needed to be gone quite a bit during the season for a few summers and between seeing Monte in Cali as a nice pre-season late winter/early spring trip and/or attending his clinics I've kept up with that - this will the first summer in a long time I've had to miss any kind of session with him in person, but about ready to pull the trigger on the remote live lessons he offers - elbow to the point where I could practice a decent amount if I wanted to.

I haven't read where you've identified your location, maybe you now have, but if you even identified it pretty generally, if you are looking for in person, you'd probably get some good PMs from some folks to explore, maybe even some on here not so obvious, so to speak. Otherwise, Monte, iteach and the AMG guys have pretty solid online instruction (you've learned the hard way on the self-teach Youtube rabbit hole).

You've spent a ton of money so far, what's a little more if you wanted to experiment with a remote and live session with Monte or send vids to someone else and get a sense of what they see? Maybe just one or two things you'll never stumble on or that are just being missed or not understood by the current eyes on your swing - now, if it's a big swing change, lots of commitment on your part from that point, but if not, who knows (not saying anything would be an "easy fix" BUT wouldn't it be nice to get a concise opinion and recipe for success about the specific things in your sequence that could change to put you on a better path AND understand and "get" why? Then you are on the way to some really good things, IMO. Might be a fun experiment.

Just my $.01 - no instructor here, for holes 5-16 last night hit my driver horrible, just horrible, but some really, really good holes turned what could have been 88 into 79. I had a great time with the guys I was playing with, but of course on the way home was a little grumbly with myself until I sat down and looked at my card and realized I had a 79 with triple and two doubles, pretty sure I've never done that before and a few years ago I'd have been dancing a jig about breaking 80. So even as you get better, you are still a golfer at heart and sometimes nothing seems good enough. Just perspective and I'm not very good at it most of the time.

It's a game (and a sport!) - don't let it beat you up.

 

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LOL, just looked at the vids you posted - your scoring may have you at a 21 handicap but to my totally untrained eye you don't swing like any 21 I've seen whose potential stops at 21 (not that there is anything wrong with being a 21).

Lots of folks to choose from, I'll selfishly point you to Rebellion Golf, send a vid to Monte, get his thoughts, "visit" with him about a remote live session or two (that's in quotes because Monte can be monosyllabic in word, if not paragraph, lol) and you aren't out much compared to where you've been. If it isn't for you, big deal. If it is, look out - you'll get better!

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If you aren't playing the game to make a living, then play it to enjoy it- even if you have to change your expectations.

Golf is hard and progress is not linear.

Agree with the comments that getting a consistent, effective pre-shot routine for grip, posture and alignment often is better than focusing on positions.

Realize that the best players in the world routinely have scores that vary by 5-7 shots. if your best scores are in the low 80's, you will have lots of rounds in the high 80's. Nothing you can do about it. That's golf.

Rogue ST Max Graphite Design MAD
Rogue 3HL and 7 wood
Sub 70 4/5/6 949x Hybrid
Sub 70 699 Pro Black 7-GW Recoil 680 F4
Sub 70 JB Forged Wedges 54/58

Odyssey EXO Seven Slant

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I agree, there's a lot of potential in his swing.

Still, watching the video, I think he should improve some parts of the swing, mostly the hips turn.

 

 

Anyway, I never took a lot of lessons (which means 3/4 a year), but I'm quite interested in tecnique and read/saw a lot of videos/books.

I have my "favourite" teacher and go to him when I don't feel comfortable with my swing.

But I used to go to a high quoted instructor who was heard to say to another instructor something like "don't tell him everything, otherwise he'll not return" speaking about a golfer.

I realised that, to correct an error, he made me do the "opposite error" to compensate, not the "right swing" or mt swing better.

I quit him and now I go to an instructor who wants me to have fun in the course and shoot lowest scores possible, giving me only one or 2 right things to work on.

 

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