Lost and confused

Hang in there @kunal.katre! Take comfort in the fact that it keeps getting more and more simple as you progress. I have felt the same way you do. I, reluctantly at first, have gone back to the very beginning a number of times, to get past stubborn hurdles. I think the biggest reason for the frustration, in my case, was rushing through the school thinking I was going to be shooting in the 80s within a month. You simply can't rush the process. You have to master every level, in order. I know we all want to get to the full swing as soon as possible but, doing so, too early, impedes the progress of the system. As you dial in the setup, you'll notice the results of bad shots improving. Like, your, fat and thin shots are still occurring but, the ball starts travelling down the fairway more often than it did prior to the changes in your setup. If you review the chipping section along with dialing in the setup, your scores will start to come down, noticeably, pretty quickly. Like, these two things, alone, allowed me to start breaking 100. Then I parked myself in chapter 2, where I still remain and was able to gain, 50 yards on my drives. I went from barley able to break 200 yards with the drive, and that was rare, it was usually 185, to getting anywhere from 220 on mishit to personal best of 255 in the middle of the fairway!

I can also say that, my biggest leap forward in ball striking, and the shift from playing "golf swing" to playing "golf" happened after reading the book "Fearless Golf: Conquering the Mental Game" Dr. Gio Valiante, Mike Stachura

In essence, let the crap happen, laugh it off and move on to the next shot. It sounds ridiculous but, it changed everything for me. In coming up to each shot, and thinking through what I want to happen, helps with the visualization. What this helped change was, the surprise, in my results, started happening in the mishits and not the good shots. In changing my perspective, from, "I hope this ball goes well" to "What I want this ball to do" I was able to feel validation in my my setup and preparation for the shot instead of surprise that the shot went so well. I started getting surprised that the bad shots don't go as planned. Then, after looking over a bad shot, my thoughts turned from, "dammit..." to, "hm, thats interesting, I wonder what I did there" and "Oh well, if I can't find it I'll just take a drop and move on."

The idea of taking a drop and moving on also helped me overcome the frustration. It's like "oh well, no body got hurt..." You really can play good golf with an errant shot or two on a hole. You can recover from 2 bad shots with one great shot! Lets say you're on a 400 yard par 4. Your driver slices to the tree line 180 yards out. Then, you're 220 out and you thin your 3 wood (I'd actually probably go 9 iron here but the old me would be 3 woodin' it!) and send I worm burner 85 yards up the edge of the rough. Now you're only 140 yards out, you pull out your 8 iron, or whatever your happy 140 club is and you stick the green, 2 putt bogey! Be happy with a bogey right now and saved a blowout! Now, getting frustrated with the drive, might effect the next shot because you're not thinking about the next shot, you're stewing on the last shot, how can you succeed if you're stuck on the previous, perceived, failure?

On blow out holes, upon sinking the put, finally, my thought is, "Man, I'm glad thats over!" LOL I do say a lot of these things out loud on the course too! A lot of times, after playing a round with people I've never met met, I get compliments on my attitude toward the game. I encourage people to talk about their game during the round and chat with them about what they want to do in their next shot if happen to be near by. This sometimes catches them off guard but, makes them stop for a second and think about it, sometimes. I've even been able to pull people out of the dark place they, got themselves into, over the frustration of a few bad shots just by chatting.

Ok this long drawn out post is just to say, go slow in the school and never think "ok, I got this..." and change your attitude to make it more fun and the progress will come much more rapidly than, rushing to become, a miracle, scratch golfer, overnight and getting frustrated that the miracle hasn't materialized.

Sorry for the long, blathering of my mindless dribble... these are as much, if not more, for my own mindset, as anyone else's.

Thanks,

Danny