Perfect divot with practice swing

[scoot123445]

I'm sure this has been covered and asked alot of times before but it's driving me crazy!!! I have a serious mental block when I take my swing! If I take a practice swing and try and take a divot after the ball I get a perfect divot everytime! I don't do this on the course BTW,in the rough or practice area! I could could take ten perfect divots in a row and the step up to the ball and hit it thin or top it!!! Dont even make contact with the ground! I'm due to give the game up because I can't get over this! I swear if the ball was in the way on my practice swing it would be a great shot! Help!!!! Thanks 

[Rdailey9108]

4 hours ago, scoot123445 said:

I'm sure this has been covered and asked alot of times before but it's driving me crazy!!! I have a serious mental block when I take my swing! If I take a practice swing and try and take a divot after the ball I get a perfect divot everytime! I don't do this on the course BTW,in the rough or practice area! I could could take ten perfect divots in a row and the step up to the ball and hit it thin or top it!!! Dont even make contact with the ground! I'm due to give the game up because I can't get over this! I swear if the ball was in the way on my practice swing it would be a great shot! Help!!!! Thanks 

I'm sure it has to do with no ball being there or target to focus on. Whenever there is a ball your club face maybe open and causing you to early extend and not hit it solid. Just a guess. 

[GoGoErky]

A comment from Monte in another thread about practice swings

 

 

[MonteScheinblum]

What you do in a practice swing is meaningless.  Practice swings are non functional, regardless of how good they look or feel.  
 

You have a chronic issue in your swing and you just address it.

[chigolfer1]

[otto6457]

10 minutes ago, chigolfer1 said:

Look on the bright side.  We didn't get a video of a practice swing then slag through several pages of well meaning swing tips that are completely useless.

 

[Golf_Goof]

Not to derail, but I was thinking lately about a similar aspect of this. 

 

One trait of tour pros when they hit driver is the way the tee reacts afterward, i.e., flipping straight up in the air and backwards a little. not in all cases but fairly regular I reckon. 

 

I wondered if there was any value in trying to practice hitting tees without a ball to try to achieve this reaction and if that could be transferred over to a real swing? 

[North Butte]

On 8/1/2023 at 1:35 PM, MonteScheinblum said:

What you do in a practice swing is meaningless.  Practice swings are non functional, regardless of how good they look or feel.  
 

You have a chronic issue in your swing and you just address it.

The one purpose they can serve, especially for "beaver pelt" divot takers, is tripling or quadrupling the damage you do to the course during a round. Practice swings are very effective at this!

[MountainKing]

Didn't the AMG guys, or somebody do a recent thing showing video of what somebody thought was a perfect practice swing and the face was 45 degrees open?

[chigolfer1]

I will say, it's amazing to me that your body, essentially subconsciously, does all these weird, convoluted things to hit the ball correctly in a "real shot" vs. a practice swing.   I feel like there hasn't been enough study or much written about how sorta miraculous this seems to be.  

[MonteScheinblum]

2 hours ago, chigolfer1 said:

I will say, it's amazing to me that your body, essentially subconsciously, does all these weird, convoluted things to hit the ball correctly in a "real shot" vs. a practice swing.   I feel like there hasn't been enough study or much written about how sorta miraculous this seems to be.  

Here’s my unscientific study.  I’d say over the last 10 years I’ve shown 100 golfers how awful their practice swings actually are.

 

”Monte, look how pure my practice swing is.  I don’t EE, flip or cast and look how smooth my tempo is.”

 

in those 100 efforts, without exception, the club was wide open at impact.  As mentioned, as much as 45*ish.  In addition, all the shots would have additionally been slower in club speed than Mrs. Havercamp and plagued by chunks, tops, shanks and/or toe shanks.

 

Then when the EE, flip, cast and poor tempo were added, it was a functional shot.

 

The reverse was true.  When I put them in a static position where the actual root cause was removed (vertical shaft, stuck on right side, extended lead wrist, etc.), they miraculously avoided such “common faults that are necessary to hit a decent shot.

 

The people on this forum are very educated compared to the golf community at large.  If you removed EE, casting, flipping, stalling, quick transition, etc. and did nothing else, the golfer would be way worse.

 

I have tendinitis in my left knee…..no, you have a fracture in your right foot causing you to limp and over use your left knee the wrong way.

 

The autonomic response that causes golfers to create an additional “swing fault” to create a negative times a negative equals a positive math equation, is a similar response as flinching and blinking eyes when an object is surprisingly coming at your face.  You don’t have time to think.