- Hi, Adam Bazalgette here, founder of Scratch Golf Academy.
Today's subject's kind of a tough one,
what to do when you've completely lost your golf swing.
It can happen to us all, it certainly does happen to us all.
I'll give you four strategies
that I think will really help you
if you'll put them in to practice.
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So what about this business of losing your golf swing?
It's happened to me countless times
and I've no doubt it's happened to you.
Hey listen, we can all hit the ball badly in stretches
on the driving range but you rarely feel
that you've really lost it there for any substantial period.
As much as anything you just keep hitting
and find some sort of timing and get some kind of
decent form going again.
So it's out on the golf course that we typically
feel that we've lost it
and there's legitimate reasons for that.
We don't get to hit as many balls as often,
you hit one ball, you sit down for a couple
of minutes or walk to the next shot.
Then you might be putting and then you hit another.
It's more difficult to time things
when you have big gaps between shots.
Secondly, there's just the natural pressures
of being on the golf course,
self-imposed for the most part I might add.
But we're all human.
None of us wants to look like an idiot out here.
We wanna play well in front of our friends.
So those are factors that make it
a little bit more difficult.
I can tell you though for a fact, your brain has not
deleted it, has not forgotten it.
It's just that you can't access it
or access it in a good fashion at that time.
I'll tell you something else as well,
I can promise you this to be true,
your swing when you're playing pretty well
and when you're playing really poorly,
looks about the same, I promise you that.
So my first tool for you when you're losing it
out there on the golf course, subtract don't add generally.
What I mean by that is don't start piling in
too many thoughts and too many ideas.
All that does is excite and wake up your conscious mind.
Remember, you really haven't forgotten the golf swing
deep down in your mind you just can't time it
and find it, just can't access it.
So the freer your mind is, the more likely you are
to get some sort of form back.
Just go off to the side, make practice swings,
clear your mind, kinda get a feel for what you wanna do
without any thoughts in there and as I say,
generally subtract don't add too much.
Okay my number two, generally pay attention
to tension and tempo.
Tension usually ruins tempo but when your tempo
is out and you're tight, that's when your timing goes away.
That's likely a big part of why you've lost it a little bit.
Let me hit one shot, see if I can find mine here on camera.
Rehearse it a little bit.
All right nice and relaxed.
That was a pretty decent swing there.
Next thing I would do, number three,
and that is put your attention, if you're gonna think
of something don't just go to some abstract swing thought,
you know keep this arm straight, shift my weight,
there's about 10,000 of them.
Put your attention a little more to what's needed.
I hit a pretty solid shot there but maybe you're picking
the ball a little too much and thinning some shots.
Put your attention to something that's a feel
for hitting the ground a little harder,
trapping the ball more.
Maybe you're just leaving the ball out to the right.
Put your attention on snapping the club face closed.
In other words, something that a little more
relates to what's needed or maybe what's missing
relative to the shots you're hitting.
All right a final tip here and this is an important one,
every one of us has tendencies.
My tendency is to tilt a bit
and get my hips sliding this way.
It's rare that I'm playing poorly that I'm not
doing something like that.
And there could be a few different outcomes
when I do that, so know your own history.
When you're struggling, go to what you typically
had a struggle with and find some of the cues
that have helped you in that area in the past.
Now friends'll often wanna give you advice
on the golf course when, you'll notice it happens
when you're struggling.
They're trying to be helpful almost always
but it generally isn't helpful,
especially if they just kinda pick something out.
Hey you know I'm watching you I can see that
this is happening or some such thing.
That's usually not what's actually happening.
It's not that helpful.
But if your friend knows your swing well enough
and they play with you a lot
and they say something like hey Bill or Jane or whatever
your name is there, you know that thing you tend to do,
such and such that you've been working on.
Kinda looks like you're doing that again.
That would be a useful reminder.
So go to what's historically true for you.
Pick out those couple of keys that have worked in the past
and just hang out there with 'em.
Make your practice swings and let it come back.
Don't force it and jump all over the map
with things you're working on.
Hope that was helpful for you.
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And of course I hope this helps you
with when you've completely lost your golf swing.
It will happen to you.
If you put these things into practice,
you'll have your best opportunity
to battle your way out of it.
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