Tangent: Swing Fix Videos

“You’re losing 21 strokes a round because you aren’t doing this one simple drill!” As a beginner, it’s easy to get lulled into thinking you need to work on whatever advanced concept is the golf influencer flavor of the week. There’s no harm in watching the videos and becoming aware of concepts. But you should always be asking, “Does this apply to my swing?” Of course, this also requires that you understand swing elements, swing faults, and your own golf swing.

Let’s say you are trying to figure out your biggest fault–hitting chunky. If you are hitting fat shots, are you shifting weight late? Is your ball too far forward? Are you releasing early? Where’s your lead shoulder? What’s your swing direction? Are you staying too low through impact? Videos may help you figure out some of these questions and point you towards getting answers. However, you also need to know how to fix it. Of course, that is what they’re pushing–they have the answer.

A great drill for better contact is drawing a line in the sand and seeing where you are divoting in relation to your impact position. If we run out to the nearest practice bunker and hit 100 shots through a line, are we going to have better contact? Honestly, if you’re paying attention, yes most likely. But, we can do better.

Hit a few shots to figure out your baseline. Then change one thing and hit a few more shots. If that fix works, great, but don’t quit. Change one other thing. Then try a combination of changes. By challenging ourselves to have a desired outcome from various approaches, we are developing a more complete understanding of the skill execution. Even if you struggle with consciously feeling swing elements, your mind and body are learning. This is the variability principle from Learning to Learn — the variety is what makes the reps stick.

Back to the sand in the line drill, possible changes include:

• Focal point–eye on the ‘ball’ or eye in front of the ball
• Ball position–just because you are hitting your ball fat doesn’t mean it is too far forward–sometimes leaning into a fault can help us better understand what is going on
• Spine angle–or vertical ball position, experiment with moving closer and further from the ball
• Weight shift–exaggerate the shift and try keeping your feet together to eliminate it
• Trail foot–keep the trail foot down
• Swing path–try both in-to-out and out-to-in (even within this, experiment with how to feel it (some like a tucked elbow to promote in-to-out, some like feeling like they are pushing their hands along the target line after impact))
• Wrist hinge–no hinge, early hinge, flippy hinge

Each of these changes should be examined: what did changing this swing element do on this swing? Is the result repeatable with the same change?

The issue with random swing-fix videos is that they are putting the focus on one problem, and generally one fix. The golf swing, as simple as it is, is really complicated. Different people will respond better to different fixes, and that answer is likely to change over time. So, if you are going to use swing-fix videos, make sure they align with your swing and your training plan. If you are working with a coach, don’t undo their work by self-coaching off script. (Self-coaching covers why imitation is a tool and not an end goal.)