Practicing without focus on mechanics?

ctjuniorffldcounty · January 23

Has anyone found success practicing for results vs mechanics? I’ve been more focused on ball flight, distance etc., not how I get there swing-wise. This has been a godsend as somebody who has completely destroyed a swing before by Over-analysis.

https://imgur.com/gallery/1L76hL0

that being said, is there anything major in my swing that could cause big issues? I know it’s not the best mechanically, but it’s definitely helped me make the ball what I want to do more often. Thanks!

iacas · January 23

Without boiling it down TOO far (or maybe I will), there are two kinds of practice:

Practicing to change a new movement pattern or to learn a new skill.
Practicing to raise the level at which you can apply the skill you have.

Sounds like you're enjoying being in the second group right now. Nothing wrong with that.

ctjuniorffldcounty · January 23

1 minute ago, iacas said:

Without boiling it down TOO far (or maybe I will), there are two kinds of practice:

Practicing to change a new movement pattern or to learn a new skill.

Practicing to raise the level at which you can apply the skill you have.

Sounds like you're enjoying being in the second group right now. Nothing wrong with that.

I see what you mean, thanks. I've also heard that some people just respond better to externally-focused practice vs internally focused.

iacas · January 23

14 minutes ago, ctjuniorffldcounty said:

I see what you mean, thanks. I've also heard that some people just respond better to externally-focused practice vs internally focused.

That's a different thing altogether (and typically whether internal or external focus you're in the first bullet point when talking about those).

ctjuniorffldcounty · January 23

6 minutes ago, iacas said:

That's a different thing altogether (and typically whether internal or external focus you're in the first bullet point when talking about those).

That's what I mean though. I practice "hitting the inside of the ball" or feeling a draw, rather than filming my swing and trying to get slotted mechanically.

iacas · January 23

11 minutes ago, ctjuniorffldcounty said:

I practice "hitting the inside of the ball" or feeling a draw

Okay. To me, that's not the same as:

1 hour ago, ctjuniorffldcounty said:

Has anyone found success practicing for results vs mechanics? I’ve been more focused on ball flight, distance etc., not how I get there swing-wise.

The latter reads to me like "whatever my swing is, I'm just trying to get better at hitting my wedge 110 yards" or "I'm just trying to get good at that swing" and the former is a practice mode with the intent of changing mechanics (whether by internal or external focus, or both).

PedronNiall · January 24

I've had a lot of positives come out of working from an external focus, but I agree with iacas' differentiating what type of practice you're engaging that alongside. If you have strong natural hand-eye coordination you can literally do nothing but concentrate on the back of the ball and stripe it the majority of the time while having some very ugly things leaking in from a technical aspect. Anecdotal, but I've found a balance to be combining good attention to intentional setup and takeaway with my only downswing thought being hitting the ball with the center of the face.

There's research showing that starting out with an external focus method does help make for faster improvements for golfers, tennis players, and so on. Most of us have our eyes open when when the club is approaching the ball, so concentrating on actually hitting it makes sense. Even while doing that I'm still very aware of creating a good starting point with my stance & setup as well as being deliberate about the backswing. Maybe one day my brain will have it down so well I can go full zen, but hip slide and other not so fun things seem all to happy to say hello if I tune out too much as of now. I also still video myself doing those single thought swings to verify what's going on.

Jack was happy getting it down to one swing thought so I don't feel like that's a bad place to be. Hope that was actually helpful, hah.