What do you do when your game falls apart?

[scjones1]

What keeps me out of ruts and gets me through my days where I feel like I'm aiming with a sawed off shotgun is the fact that I've always kept a golf journal. I start each entry with how I feel mentally along with a goal to accomplish that day. I then add what my shots felt like and the results throughout each day of practice and play. I record all the good and the bad.

 

After awhile, I realize that the good is actually pretty darn good and the bad isn't so bad after all. It has been my method of being able to stay mentally focused. Reading back to entries where I have played well tends to get me out of ruts pretty quickly, no matter how I am swinging.

[platgof]

I had six rounds of pure hell! I was topping everything, and it was a disaster! I have never been so frustrated. Then I noticed I was lifting my heels at impact. So I started planting my left heel at impact, which kept the hips level, and no more topping. After that I shot one of my lowest rounds.

[DrainedTheEagle]

Q:

What do you do when your game falls apart?

 

 

A:

 

 

Grab a round to make the s--- show easier to deal with :)

[scruffynick]

I've had a year or so of total crap......large amounts of red wine usually works...oh and hybrids are essential!

[DivinDave]

When I feel it going south, it's because I loose my timing and tempo. For me, that means a too quick take away and too quick at the top, so I just try and slow it down some. I take a club longer and 3/4 shots. That usually at least slows the bleeding a bit with my irons. Sometimes it takes a couple of weeks to get over it.

 

Im still looking for a cure for the putter. The last few rounds my putting has been just terrible.

[Petunia Sprinkle]

I take advantage of it while the magic lasts.

[thomz0_]

Q:

What do you do when your game falls apart?

 

 

A:

 

 

Grab a round to make the s--- show easier to deal with :)

 

She is so cute. Lol

[Swi24]

For a month now I've been trying to get my game back to respectable. The most frustrating thing is a certain tweak on the range will work one day and then be a disaster the next. My timing and tempo feel horrible. I feel stuck at the top and like I'm blocking everything with my front side on the way down. I'm fairly certain a horrible over the top motion is at least partly to blame but I feel powerless to stop it.

 

I'm hoping someone on the forums might have some insight into these issues I'm currently having:

 

Hitting All irons off the toe

Weak, weak slice with Driver. Even topping it like a hack!

Fat/Thin contact

[Nomad Golfer]

For a month now I've been trying to get my game back to respectable. The most frustrating thing is a certain tweak on the range will work one day and then be a disaster the next. My timing and tempo feel horrible. I feel stuck at the top and like I'm blocking everything with my front side on the way down. I'm fairly certain a horrible over the top motion is at least partly to blame but I feel powerless to stop it.

 

I'm hoping someone on the forums might have some insight into these issues I'm currently having:

 

Hitting All irons off the toe

Weak, weak slice with Driver. Even topping it like a hack!

Fat/Thin contact

Need to spend some time with a pro. Body swaying, head lifting, stance, tensed up, could be any of those and more. See a pro

[J2putts]

Actually applied this today . Went to range today ..and hit everything decent except driver. Just felt really out of whack..and even started hitting shots right, which is not my normal miss at all. I just started to swing my driver at 50% speed , just hitting shots about 175 yds. Focusing on solid contact. Slowly built up my tempo..and started hitting straight /draw once again.

[Exactice808]

So I had one of those days yesterday, Its funny.... "When your game falls apart" there really is only 2 choices.

 

1) Get mad, get frustrated and let it implode

2) Get Focused, laser in on your basics and will it out.

 

 

yesterday was just one of those days, Par, triple, Par, Par, par, double, Par, Triple, Par, Par, Quad, Par, triple......etc.....

 

Had 4 OB's and 1 water........2 of the OB's were on 1 hole........(quad) and 2 shanks..... I never shanks........(sorry golf gods)

 

Anyways, I could have gotten mad, I could have given up..... but I stopped and looked at my reasons for errors rather than compounding the errors. I even learned something new about my swing that I was not coherent of......

 

 

I just went back to the basics, I just went back to a single swing thought and I was able to grind out the remainder of the day. I chalked it up as a bad round and to me.... thats what it was, no one is perfect and you will have good days and bad days, for me is its how well you handle the bad days!

 

 

GL to all that struggles, its real.....

[joker2]

Buy a hot dog @ the turn...

 

[robrey85]

I try to remember that there are just some things that are out of my control.

 

For example; course conditions, my playing partners, bad/good bounces, etc...

 

It helps.

[Andrew Bond of Glencoe]

I fell apart today. I am a low single digit handicap and I stunk up the course today and shot a 91. I don't even remember the last time I didn't break 90.

 

A couple of things that I tried to remind myself.

 

1) I just came off having the flu.

2) Hadn't swung a club in two weeks and had about 20 swings in the range and 7 were shanks

3) more than anything I think of golf as the ying and that yang. If I am willing to accept shooting under par, I have to accept those days when par destroys me.

[ryanv16]

I've got a healthy distraction for the masses on this topic...balance. For good players that have the wheels fall off, this is often the culprit, but it's really hard to diagnose. It's always easier to think "well my tempo, going to quick", etc.; I actually believe that for those that shank as moving upper body too fast could cause an over the top OR moving lower body too fast puts the knee in front of the hitting plane causing hands to move further away than needed. But for general ball-striking woes, if you start changing your approach mid-round, things could get worse before they improve.

 

We've all seen this; people that start off a round fine then wheels fall of. Or, those that have rough starts and get in a groove...balance. We overcomplicate the swing sometimes, so best to keep it simple. Try this, do a standing squat in the heels when you start to drift. That feeling when you are upright almost feels like you are stabilized in the ground. This is a similar notion that keeps certain unnecessary things from popping up in the swing like swaying, out of whack weight distribution etc.

 

Maybe do this in the woods where no one sees it. Come out and close out the round strong. If you tell yourself to change your swing mid-round, could lead to more trouble. Just blame balance and focus on it. On the contrary, there are some that strike the ball really well, but have issues over cutting/drawing, terrible lines, distance control issue; in that case, may benefit from altering swing slightly.

[dunn]

Shot 74 on sat and 84 on monday.....it's golf, you just grind through it and use a lot of duct tape........I have never in my life been as pissed off as I have on golf course......some days it's easy to let go of but other days its totally unacceptable......

 

It's usually tension and expectation that ruin the round.....rythm and tempo are everything.....you don't have to have a perfect swing, far from it but you do have to have good tempo and rythm for your swing......and that's one thing best in world have is great tempo, rythm and balance.....their swings are all different and not perfect......

[Hateto3Putt]

Shot 74 on sat and 84 on monday...

 

Don't feel bad, this morning I shot a 36 on the front and a 47 on the back.....

[dunn]

Lol, doesn't help.....pretty much as bad as it gets for me

 

I can usually manufacturer some type of shot that prevents me from going high....

 

Heck pros shoot 80 every once in awhile

 

Funny thing was my 74 wasn't even a good ballstriking day.....just made birds to cancel out bogeys....84 was 2 birds which makes it even worse......I do have a 85% new bag of clubs but doubt it would have mattered.....when swing is off its off and it was.....

 

10 shots is avg number for most between good and bad....some times Lil lower and sometimes higher

[Exactice808]

Shot 74 on sat and 84 on monday...

 

Don't feel bad, this morning I shot a 36 on the front and a 47 on the back.....

 

Dont feel so bad Shot 83 Sunday and 100 yesterday......

 

Lost the swing..... was 1 over after 4, then 15 over after 7...... I found the hooks had 6 OB in 3 holes......

[Two3]

One of the best things you can do is set up triggers for certain things that happen out on the course. Things can go bad and you can hit bad shots even on good rounds, but the key is stopping the bad before it compounds into a terrible run or even round of golf.

 

For example, you could set up a trigger as simple as a word or phrase for each time the ball hits the bottom of the hole. It could be something like "Done" or "Next Hole" ...something that reminds you to leave the result on that hole and move onto the next.

 

You could do the same for a bad shot off the tee, or even a trigger for every shot you hit that removes judgment and the possibility for that negativity to compound.

 

I have implemented things like this and it really works. ...Do it, but only if you're interested in becoming a mental ninja!

 

Hope this helps!

[juliette91]

How do you get out of a rut / bad place on a day when your game falls apart? How do you shake yourself back into focus and get over a bad shot?

 

When I come of the rails I simply try to remember the basics of my swing. I slow down, I have a smoke. I try to block distractions out. One shot at a time.

 

 

The other day my pal and I were playing a round at the simulator (its cold up here in 'sota) and about halfway through he totally fell apart. To his credit this has happened to him before on epic proportions. Once he loses it, its over and there is no getting it back. He would be best served to head to the clubhouse for a sandwich and a beer. At the end he kept saying, "I just wish this was over."

 

4 days later we attempted the sim again, after 3 holes he tapped out. Swing and confidence utterly destroyed.

 

I think for most of us our first instinct is to give advice when something like this happens but it rarely works for the person at the time.

 

What helps you when it falls apart and how can I best help someone else?

 

What helps me is realizing that the difference between the way he used to hit it (better I assume) and what he is now doing that feels like "falling apart" is very very very minor. I urge your friend not to start tweaking his swing. Your advice seems spot on to me insofar as it's limited to slowing down the swing tempo a bit to allow the sequence to show up.

 

What I do to accomplish this is to tee up a 7 iron, put my feet super close together almost touching each other, and try to hit the ball. He will not be able to swing hard at it and will be relegated to a much slower swing + the balance issue will force him to pay attention to the sequence more, which is the whole point.

[chch3]

I got down to almost a 10 HC a couple years ago. I felt like I plateaued with doing things on my own, so I ended up taking lessons after that season. My goal was to get to a single digit HC. This year I am struggling so much that golf has become unenjoyable. I don't know if I have too many swing thoughts, or my swing is just crap. I think it might be both. I used to fade everything, because I was coming over the top a little bit. My fade is gone and now I am hitting a draw, and I hate it. I am beginning to be able to get my irons to fade again. The only good thing about this is, I learned how to move the ball both ways. The real struggle has been with the driver tough. I am hitting giant hooks with my driver. I actually can hit my utility iron further than my driver right now. I just feel like I have gotten worse after my lessons. Should I maybe try a new instructor to get a different perspective?

[Strike Force]

For accomplished golfers with plus or low handicaps that have swing problems creep into their game the golfer usually only needs to regain his/her tempo (backswing vs. downswing ratio), which almost always takes care of any timing, rhythm, sequencing or balance problems, and abolishes the need for any manipulation of the club or clubface that was initiated due to losing their swing tempo in the first place. Rarely does the golfer's swing mechanics get so out-of-kilter that it can't be fully rectified and corrected quickly when the golfer regains his/her swing tempo.

 

Tour players consciously, or even unconsciously, work very hard to maintain a very precise and narrow control of their swing tempo. Without exquisite tempo they would definitely not be tour players. That is just how extremely important swing tempo is! When something falls apart in the golf swing of really good golfers - it is almost always either their tempo or alignment. Forget about positions, and focus on motion. Meticulous attention to precise tempo should be sought and mastered and become the #1 thing to focus on during the swing. I think tempo (the speed ratio of the backswing compared to the downswing) is first and foremost the most important aspect, and the most overlooked trait, of the golf swing. If there is a mystical secret of success for the elite that play the game at the highest level, this is it...

 

The goal is to maintain a flawless sense of consistent and impeccable tempo in your golf swing, which amounts to finding 'lightning in a bottle' as the reward!

 

[WidespreadPanic]

Take a week or two off and then get back at it like nothing happened.

[juliette91]

For accomplished golfers with plus or low handicaps that have swing problems creep into their game the golfer usually only needs to regain his/her tempo (backswing vs. downswing ratio), which almost always takes care of any timing, rhythm, sequencing or balance problems, and abolishes the need for any manipulation of the club or clubface that was initiated due to losing their swing tempo in the first place. Rarely does the golfer's swing mechanics get so out-of-kilter that it can't be fully rectified and corrected quickly when the golfer regains his/her swing tempo.

 

Tour players consciously, or even unconsciously, work very hard to maintain a very precise and narrow control of their swing tempo. Without exquisite tempo they would definitely not be tour players. That is just how extremely important swing tempo is! When something falls apart in the golf swing of really good golfers - it is almost always either their tempo or alignment. Forget about positions, and focus on motion. Meticulous attention to precise tempo should be sought and mastered and become the #1 thing to focus on during the swing. I think tempo (the speed ratio of the backswing compared to the downswing) is first and foremost the most important aspect, and the most overlooked trait, of the golf swing. If there is a mystical secret of success for the elite that play the game at the highest level, this is it...

 

The goal is to maintain a flawless sense of consistent and impeccable tempo in your golf swing, which amounts to finding 'lightning in a bottle' as the reward!

 

 

So well said! I tried to say something similar in my earlier post but your post really says it much better. Even though you kind of constrain the application of your advice to plus or low single digit handicappers it probably is spot on to help even a 20 handicapper. If a 20 handicapper had exquisite tempo chances are she/he wouldn't be a 20 for very much longer.

[blum81]

Take a week or two off and then get back at it like nothing happened.

 

Cheers to this. I'm on my 2nd week off. Will be back at it next weekend. Normally it's enough to forget what ever bad habit I picked up but lately that philosophy doesn't work as much these days.

[Nomad Golfer]

Take a week or two off and then get back at it like nothing happened.

 

Cheers to this. I'm on my 2nd week off. Will be back at it next weekend. Normally it's enough to forget what ever bad habit I picked up but lately that philosophy doesn't work as much these days.

Play table tennis every evening for a week, you will be surprised how much faster and crisper your reflexes become. This applies to any sport. I used tt as part of training for competition badminton and squash.

[MeikoKaji]

For accomplished golfers with plus or low handicaps that have swing problems creep into their game the golfer usually only needs to regain his/her tempo (backswing vs. downswing ratio), which almost always takes care of any timing, rhythm, sequencing or balance problems, and abolishes the need for any manipulation of the club or clubface that was initiated due to losing their swing tempo in the first place. Rarely does the golfer's swing mechanics get so out-of-kilter that it can't be fully rectified and corrected quickly when the golfer regains his/her swing tempo.

 

Tour players consciously, or even unconsciously, work very hard to maintain a very precise and narrow control of their swing tempo. Without exquisite tempo they would definitely not be tour players. That is just how extremely important swing tempo is! When something falls apart in the golf swing of really good golfers - it is almost always either their tempo or alignment. Forget about positions, and focus on motion. Meticulous attention to precise tempo should be sought and mastered and become the #1 thing to focus on during the swing. I think tempo (the speed ratio of the backswing compared to the downswing) is first and foremost the most important aspect, and the most overlooked trait, of the golf swing. If there is a mystical secret of success for the elite that play the game at the highest level, this is it...

 

The goal is to maintain a flawless sense of consistent and impeccable tempo in your golf swing, which amounts to finding 'lightning in a bottle' as the reward!

 

totally agree, once i started focusing on rhythm and breathing my ball striking is much much better under pressure. question is, in the moment of heightened pressure, etc...how do you maintain that tempo? recently, i was really 'in the zone' and swinging freely but the results were bad. in retrospect, i think, i was almost too 'in the moment' and my tempo had actually sped up. i hit the sweet spot with everything but just didn't go where i expected. i try to replicate reality on the range and that really helps and i had a great range session but on the course you can really get deeper into the moment....

[platgof]

Bring the right elbow in on the down swing.

[uitar9]

I usually 1. put my driver away and 2. really concentrate on keeping my normal setup 3. remember I'm not a pro, I'm a hacker