What do you think really holds you back from improving at golf?

[tatertot]

My wife.

 

She is also a serious hindrance to my dating life.

[jdl]

I've steadily improved over time since I started playing ~25 years ago. Got down as low as a 4 a couple years ago. But in reality the past 5 or so years have been a plateau for me. I could probably take some lessons, practice more to keep improving but I'd really rather just play. If I start back-sliding too bad, I might change my mind. :)

[KC13]

Inside perspective vs outside perspective. IE; I tend to get flat on the back swing with a bit of wrist roll at the top. When feeling completely upright, I am on plane. Video has really helped. Seeing your swing works wonders.

 

- KC

[ERUddOH]

i had a dream the other night that I couldn't tee up the ball without something bothering me - the slope of the tee box (just like the range!), then it was the grass height, then the tee broke. Then the tee markers seemed too close. Then it got real windy. I'm beginning to suspect this is a mental game...apparently my sub conscious is holding me back.

[pappaf2]

i had a dream the other night that I couldn't tee up the ball without something bothering me - the slope of the tee box (just like the range!), then it was the grass height, then the tee broke. Then the tee markers seemed too close. Then it got real windy. I'm beginning to suspect this is a mental game...apparently my sub conscious is holding me back.

 

If you do a search you'll find this is a super common dream for golfers to have. I've had this dream plenty of times and it is so frustrating!

[CrickorCreek]

The shank. It has mentally crushed me. Went from a 5 to a 12 because of it. I don’t even hit them very often anymore but they’re in my head everyswing. Makes confidence performance driven. Hard to improve that that way

[Krt22]

The shank. It has mentally crushed me. Went from a 5 to a 12 because of it. I don't even hit them very often anymore but they're in my head everyswing. Makes confidence performance driven. Hard to improve that that way

 

Yep, my mental gymnastics on the course brings the shank into play. Can literally hit at the range all week without a shank, warm up with a small bucket without a shank, then hosel rocket up and down the course.

 

Drives me mad. Thinking of going to the play-it-again and trading in my clubs for some tennis rackets

[powerpushfade]

Too much time reading 'instruction and academy' on golfwrx.

[naval2006]

The vast majority of people who play golf are not gifted to play (I belong in here LOL). So to really improve at golf you do need a lot of time and drive to excel, especially when you don’t have the tools to be naturally good at golf. In over 30 years playing the game I’ve only seen two guys locally who went on to be club champions through practice and more practice. And after a few years, when they ran out of time to play, they faded away. The gifted golfer lasts way longer, but there aren’t many around.

 

So I guess this is all about good technique and loads of practice to be sharp.

 

Finally in my case I have an ok handicap to play fairly well but I’m dumber than average on the course, especially because I often get mad. In a nutshell, I steel think I can play like I did 20 something years ago but I can’t any longer and I feel often frustrated. Sorry for the rant.

[northgolf]

Stubborn mental intransigence. No matter how many times I demonstrate to myself that I can birdie any individual hole on my home course with a simple hit on the fairway, knock it on the green, one putt and move on, my stubbornness refuses to let me know it is that easy.

 

Excellent golf is really easy, I just insist on making it hard.

[Salazar]

Confidence and aggression for me. I get too worried about making a bad shot or taking a high score that I tend to get too timid. I definitely have swing faults that dont help but I could still be a lot better with the swing I have.

[legitimategolf]

I have thought a lot about my suckage, and I believe a lot of it is caused by faulty perceptions of the swing and of how the club is meant to work.

[Nard_S]

There's several mental aspects that have kept me from playing to potential.

 

1) Course management: Taking what the course AND what my swing is giving me that day. Too head strong to not accept what I brought and it hurts decision making and heightens internal noise,. Wastes a bunch of strokes.

 

2) Truly understanding the common swing mechanics and geometry of elite swings. Have had incredible misconceptions about the swing and how I rate next to sound principles of it. Work in progress, but it's a lot better.

 

3) Practice approach: For tee game focused on crushing ball and distance. For short focused on hitting spots and lines. Now I do the opposite. Aha moment was with latter, my short game at the end of last season was at an unseen level, hope my tee game goes there this year.

 

4) Mental approach: Acting, reacting and dictating in an outward fashion. Lack of external focus. Shift is being internally quiet and externally aware, heighten the senses and "take in". Game gets easier when I'm in this state, but to make it a full time habit, takes a patient continued effort.

[nevets88]

Lack of talent.

[Spongerob]

I have a loft problem.

As in lack of f***ing talent.

[Psyber]

Talent. My brain understands everything. It just can't seem to properly instruct my body to use that knowledge effectively.

[wmblake2000]

I have found that when I work with the rare new student who has awareness, good mental focus and a proper understanding of the learning process, that any mechanical changes we work on will be achieved fairly quickly and without a lot of time in practice.

 

This sorta reminds me of the idea of 'kinesthetic intelligence' ...aka 'talent.' Maybe this can be developed/learned (it can, over time and with effort) but only slowly.

 

That's why it's 'rare' I would guess.

 

I know what focus on movement without cognitive intervention is, but that's only after years of meditative/focusing practices and still I am not great at it in a swing. It's like I have to make a LOT of swings to open the passageway to sense/notice what my body is doing in a swing. I know others can make this connection much quicker and with more detail than I can.

 

Edit: PS. I think your comment '

The traditional golf instruction paradigm is completely broken

..' is both true and also not true, or maybe better said as, 'unavoidable' You can't teach in a mode that you don't understand yourself, and you can't learn this mode through conventional ideas. It's just where we are as a humanity. This plays out in more profound and important ways across all areas of life.

 

Teaching or trying to inspire this seems to me to be a utterly worthwhile thing to do.

[Jim Waldron]

I have found that when I work with the rare new student who has awareness, good mental focus and a proper understanding of the learning process, that any mechanical changes we work on will be achieved fairly quickly and without a lot of time in practice.

 

This sorta reminds me of the idea of 'kinesthetic intelligence' ...aka 'talent.' Maybe this can be developed/learned (it can, over time and with effort) but only slowly.

 

That's why it's 'rare' I would guess.

 

I know what focus on movement without cognitive intervention is, but that's only after years of meditative/focusing practices and still I am not great at it in a swing. It's like I have to make a LOT of swings to open the passageway to sense/notice what my body is doing in a swing. I know others can make this connection much quicker and with more detail than I can.

 

Edit: PS. I think your comment '

The traditional golf instruction paradigm is completely broken

..' is both true and also not true, or maybe better said as, 'unavoidable' You can't teach in a mode that you don't understand yourself, and you can't learn this mode through conventional ideas. It's just where we are as a humanity. This plays out in more profound and important ways across all areas of life.

 

Teaching or trying to inspire this seems to me to be a utterly worthwhile thing to do.

 

 

Well said, love the "kinesthetic intelligence" concept.

 

I based my conclusions on over two decades of doing ballstriking/golf swing fundamental, short game and putting intensive multi-day Total Immersion "boot camp" like golf schools, with several thousand students.

 

I was fascinated by the student who "got it" very quickly, and could often do the new move we were teaching right away, ie by the end of maybe 15 minutes, max. And that right next to that guy was another student who would struggle doing that new move, and even after one hour, could not do even a single swing, often even a slow motion or half speed swing, correctly.

 

I made it a point to sit next these guys at lunch and question them about what was going on with them "inside", meaning how they used their Awareness and focus and feel. It was like talking to two aliens. Totally opposite approaches. One led to consistent success and one led to frustration and failure.

 

The guys with little to zero "kinesthetic intelligence" were almost always above average "intellectual intelligence" and were so frustrated precisely because they were trying to learn the complex motor skills of golf using their default "intelligence", meaning thinking. Problem is golf is a sport and all about getting the mind and the body to connect in a profound way. Thinking does not even come close helping folks get to where any golfer wants to get to eventually: new and better body and club motion.

 

I learned how to teach the guy with no Awareness, a wandering mind and no feel his body motion to actually achieve those three things, as well as the rules for effective learning and practice.

[powerpushfade]

If anyone put in more time they would improve. The problem is that everyone thinks they will shoot in the 60's if they have more time. Not happening. We all have a ceiling.

[TeeShive]

My swing isn’t that great and I can’t figure out how to fix it.

 

Practice isn’t the issue. Most amateur swings have too many faults to consistently deliver the face of the club to ball no matter how much we practice.

 

Practice will help some but technique is the most important limiting factor for most amateurs in my opinion.

[TeeShive]

We all have a ceiling.

 

True but I think the ceiling is much higher than we give ourselves credit for

[Downtown_Brown_41]

Changing my swing every other week

[RobertBaron]

I’d say the 5 biggest things holding me back are:

 

1. I have a 90/10 ratio of playing golf swing to playing golf. Need to get on the course far more and deal with the challenges, especially the mental ones, playing a round of golf provides.

 

2. I’m always tinkering

 

3. I’m only able to practice off perfectly flat mats and get into fits hitting from rough and uneven lies. Don’t really have much of option here unless I’m willing to go way out of my way to find a course with a grass range

 

4. I almost never practice putting. Though I’m not terrible.

 

And 5. My driver is typically a mess and I don’t have the endurance to practice it like I did 25 years ago when I was in high school and playing competively.

 

ETA:

 

6. I feel like my swing is always a moving target.

[GolfyGolfy]

My back. I can’t go to the range and work on anything anymore and just have to play once on the weekends. I want to but it’s really hard on my back, even putting. I can however practice short game fairly easily

[jslane57]

We all have a ceiling.

 

True but I think the ceiling is much higher than we give ourselves credit for

I think the ceiling is lower than most folks think. People think they can science/analyse/practice their way to a better golf game than their athletic potential. But golf is a sport, and the ceiling is in the exact same place it is for any athletic endeavor a person is to choose. Once a person accepts their potential, improvements truly can be had through course management and such.

[OrangeGravy]

We all have a ceiling.

 

True but I think the ceiling is much higher than we give ourselves credit for

 

For some yes, others it's much lower. I have a group of about 10 friends that I've played with over the last 20 years or so. Out of the ones that play the most and have taken lessons and actually try to work on their game, only 1 of them has improved appreciably. The rest of us show up to play after not playing in months and play the same as we always do and it drives them nuts. They always ask why we don't put in more time to get better because our game doesn't degrade over long lengths of down time. I always say, I'm fine with where I'm at for the amount of effort I put in.

 

It would be cool if everyone could afford to go out and play everyday more or less for 6 months. Where you end up after that would tell you whether or not you have any talent. If you did that and your number hardly moved, you're pretty tapped out ceiling wise. You could take lessons and really grind out a few strokes, but I think it would be a rare case that could improve significantly at that point. One other indicator might be how much maintenance you require to stay where you're at? If it takes a lot of work to maintain, you might be close to your ceiling.

 

All just my opinion of course. I have no credentials or data to back up my theories!

[Kenny Lee Puckett]

only fine wine gets better with time.

[hack2489]

only fine wine gets better with time.

 

And some spirits, like aged bourbon and scotch.

[hack2489]

 

...

 

What is keeping YOU from reaching your golfing potential? Why aren't you where you want to be with your golf game?

 

Interesting topic. Having just read the replies and comments to date, none really cover it for me.

 

Time, yes, when other commitments were higher definitely impacted. But, I started golf as a teenager and think not having lessons meant I never knew how to swing a club correctly so I gave up.

 

Came back to it in my 30s, and got better equipment suited to me and took lessons, practiced and sort of got better. Handicap hovered around 27.

 

But. Still didn't know "what" to do to swing the club properly.

 

12mobths ago I embarked on a path to improve. Got fitted clubs, took lessons and practiced. Handicap down to 18.

 

In January a shot a PB 12 over, which included an even par back 9. But, haven't gone close since. Why?

 

I think, I believe, it is mental approach. Years of trying to "hit" the ball keep coming back into my swing and I stuff up.

 

For me, I feel it is about changing my thought process to the game, to playing, to stop "hitting" and trust the swing.

 

I believe it's my ego. I want to smash it, and golf being a game of opposites, I end up miss hitting. When I just swing and let the club flow through, let the swing dynamics create the club head speed, it works.

 

So, why can't I just do that all the time?

 

My mind, brain, mental approach.

 

So, from me, I think the greatest fundamental that is holding me back is the stuff between my ears.

 

 

[TeeShive]

We all have a ceiling.

 

True but I think the ceiling is much higher than we give ourselves credit for

I think the ceiling is lower than most folks think. People think they can science/analyse/practice their way to a better golf game than their athletic potential. But golf is a sport, and the ceiling is in the exact same place it is for any athletic endeavor a person is to choose. Once a person accepts their potential, improvements truly can be had through course management and such.

 

Just going to have to disagree I guess. Bigger faster, stronger, taller people aren’t trying to guard , takle, or block us. It’s just us and the ball. Ball doesn’t care if you’re fat, slow, or short. A sound swing can produce results.