“This feels weird and I hit that ball poorly.”

[MonteScheinblum]

I hear this during EVERY introduction to a change in setup or movement.

 

People like to pontificate that movements should happen naturally without any conscious thought.  Then they like to attach nefarious motives to those that say it should feel weird and it takes time to change and for results to play out.  

 

Apparently they know more than Tiger and Rory.

 

If you are happy with your game, great.  If you want to make changes and get better there is one universal truth.  You must allow time for the process to unfold.  Changing the way you do anything is a process.  If you don’t buy into the non linear nature of improving at golf, you aren’t likely to get better.

 

Tiger said it doesn’t feel better until step 3 and you don’t hit it better until step 4.

 

Here’s Rory’s view on something as simple and slightly changing his grip.

 

 

 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2-ZM2bIeCY/?igsh=NzBmMjdhZWRiYQ==

 

 

[iacas]

This plays out a few times a week…

• A student takes a lesson.
• It goes well, and he hits some better shots, while going slowly, and exaggerating it. Some are horrible, but the movement is better. Some are better. Different.
• "So, when should I take the next lesson? In a week?"
• Me, often in my head, sometimes out loud if I know the student a little bit more than usual: "Yeah… if you want to work on the same thing again."

[MBAndrews21]

 

https://www.hubermanlab.com/newsletter/teach-and-learn-better-with-a-neuroplasticity-super-protocol

[MonteScheinblum]

7 minutes ago, MBAndrews21 said:

 

https://www.hubermanlab.com/newsletter/teach-and-learn-better-with-a-neuroplasticity-super-protocol

 

[Hawkeye77]

What feels humiliating is finally getting warmed up and hitting a few 7 irons out there nicely at your target with what you think is a decent motion (which is in fact confirmed with video to be horrible) and doing a drill with a limited but correct motion at the ball and hitting a little shot that only goes about 60 yards and it’s easily the most solid shot you’ve hit all morning. 
 

Sigh. 
 

And ……. thanks Monte!

[Divot License]

I remember sitting in on a Pro giving a lesson to a promising junior in our area once. 

 

The exchange went something like
Pro - "We are going to make X change today"

Player - "This feels weird"

Pro - "It's not weird, it's different. If we accept that what you do currently is correct, then we need to do something different do we not?" 

Player - "Yes"

Pro - "So therefore different is good in this situation"

Player - "makes sense"

 

I was impressed by simply changing how the junior thought about the feel of the change he was able to get them to invest in it so much convincingly. 

 

I've got a recollection of Monte telling me (at his London clinic) something along the lines that making the change may feel different but the alternative is to keep making the same move I was making and that move is the reason I was seeking lessons. 

[Valtiel]

6 hours ago, Hawkeye77 said:

What feels humiliating is finally getting warmed up and hitting a few 7 irons out there nicely at your target with what you think is a decent motion (which is in fact confirmed with video to be horrible) and doing a drill with a limited but correct motion at the ball and hitting a little shot that only goes about 60 yards and it’s easily the most solid shot you’ve hit all morning. 
 

Sigh. 
 

And ……. thanks Monte!

I constantly do little resets like that with myself on the range, especially in the longer irons and fairway woods. A couple shots start getting loose or I’ve lost feel or focus and I stop and make little half swings and try to hit straight missiles at an intermediate target. All hands and arms with very little lower body power…just getting a feel for hitting the ball towards a thing again. If I can’t hit those centered and straight then I have no business expecting more from a full swing. 

[Hawkeye77]

1 hour ago, Valtiel said:

I constantly do little resets like that with myself on the range, especially in the longer irons and fairway woods. A couple shots start getting loose or I’ve lost feel or focus and I stop and make little half swings and try to hit straight missiles at an intermediate target. All hands and arms with very little lower body power…just getting a feel for hitting the ball towards a thing again. If I can’t hit those centered and straight then I have no business expecting more from a full swing. 

100%

 

Unfortunately, lol, the way I warmed myself up to hitting full shots worth a darn was hitting little shots - problem was I'd gotten so far away from what I'm supposed to be doing I'd regressed back to my "natural", haha, motion I've had since probably age 11 (actually even worse, probably looked better as a kid) and no doubt the little shots had the same issues, just found a way to make contact, timing up the mess of moves.  So I needed a full on Monte reset!  Good news is that drill and a couple other thoughts will get me back on the right road.

 

So in my case, I needed a reset for the reset.  Now I've located my little collapsible tripod for my phone - been ages since I've filmed myself (or asked my wife to when playing) - big mistake to let that go as well. So not really a "this feels weird" issue - sometimes it's "wow (darn) I remember what that felt like"  --- students need to be diligent and do their part - I tend to play well, make progress and then get away from practicing and over the course of a couple of years . . . it's Maxine Nightingale - "right back where we've started from."

[Soloman1]

and bodies change. my hands need to take a detour around my stomach starting at p6. do i change my lifestyle or my hand path?

 

people hate two things.

they hate the way things are, and they hate change.

[baudi]

People do not hate change; overcoming the resistance is the challenge. 

[MonteScheinblum]

25 minutes ago, baudi said:

People do not hate change; overcoming the resistance is the challenge. 

Yes, people want to change, but hate doing it…lol

Edited March 6 by MonteScheinblum

[TLUBulldogGolf]

I had gotten away from a drill (essentially a pause drill) I used to do and have been trying to get my game in shape for some better weather. Went back to it my last range session and hit some horrific shots but stuck with it and hit some good ones. It's so hard to stick with it sometimes, I know not to worry about contact but when everything in the drill lines up and I strike it way differently (better) it's hard to not want to chase more of that which then leads to falling out of the drill which causes some ugly shots. 

[MonteScheinblum]

1 minute ago, TLUBulldogGolf said:

I had gotten away from a drill (essentially a pause drill) I used to do and have been trying to get my game in shape for some better weather. Went back to it my last range session and hit some horrific shots but stuck with it and hit some good ones. It's so hard to stick with it sometimes, I know not to worry about contact but when everything in the drill lines up and I strike it way differently (better) it's hard to not want to chase more of that which then leads to falling out of the drill which causes some ugly shots. 

Couldn’t have said it better myself….lol

[gripandrip]

Been through this with a swing change. It took a while but soon feeling weird was the indicator that I was still on track. The worst is getting caught between the two feelings. I had a period of pretty crappy golf from a score perspective, but the overall game was improving. 

 

Eventually it became ingrained, and the game improvement was well worth the "odd" feelings.

[Soloman1]

8 hours ago, baudi said:

People do not hate change; overcoming the resistance is the challenge. 

 

ball rollback thread, liv, the metric system all waiting on line 2.

[AFcelica]

8 hours ago, MonteScheinblum said:

Yes, people want to change, but hate doing it…lol

But monte take me from a 20 handicap to a +8 I wanna Monday qualify next week just by spending an hour with you and nothing else

 

hahaha

[baudi]

12 hours ago, Soloman1 said:

 

ball rollback thread, liv, the metric system all waiting on line 2.

No worries you will do fine.

The industrial inch is based on the metric system thanks to a Swede.  

[Hawkeye77]

17 hours ago, Soloman1 said:

 

ball rollback thread, liv, the metric system all waiting on line 2.

 

The last time my wife took her hair almost black with a color job (hey, she hated it before she even got home).

[Pepperturbo]

On 3/6/2024 at 2:18 AM, Valtiel said:

I constantly do little resets like that with myself on the range, especially in the longer irons and fairway woods. A couple shots start getting loose or I’ve lost feel or focus and I stop and make little half swings and try to hit straight missiles at an intermediate target. All hands and arms with very little lower body power…just getting a feel for hitting the ball towards a thing again. If I can’t hit those centered and straight then I have no business expecting more from a full swing. 

When I feel stinky is seeping into my swing, I grab a few 620 MB mid-irons and hit the range, to do mostly the same; half swings and straight bullets at targets.  In most cases, that's my form of reminder.

[MoneyMan300]

I think some of it has to do with confidence in what the instructor is telling them is 100% the right thing to work on.   People go get a lesson and get feedback that may not line up with what they were thinking, base on all their YouTube research :). 

 

But yeah, it takes trust, commitment and time to make a meaningful change.  I recently had an online lesson and the pro suggested a grip change, as my grip had migrated a little to strong.   When I first made the change I almost hit the ball over my net and had no idea how to close the face.   It's been five weeks and over a 1000 swings and I'm just now getting comfortable with it, but I'm hitting better than before the change.

[me05501]

On 3/6/2024 at 10:37 AM, MonteScheinblum said:

Yes, people want to change, but hate doing it…lol

 

This is the universal condition of humankind IMO. 

 

We're very smart for monkeys...but we're still monkeys.