@Glenn Oneal - Ideally I'd like to see you get down to zero and be purely target-focused on the course, but it will certainly take some time to get to that point. So realistically, perhaps you can have no more than two mechanical thoughts during a round for now and then whittle that down as the swing becomes more ingrained and natural to you.
An excellent book that may help you with your overall approach to the game and navigating through the hiccups is "Fearless Golf: Conquering the Mental Game" by Dr. Gio Valiante. I’ve recommended it to many of your fellow online school members and have received excellent feedback from them. Beyond that, it’s a good idea to have a reliable “default swing” that you can dial up mid-round when you sense that you are beginning to leak some oil. Many members use the swing provided by Drill 2.8, which is actually the full swing minus just a couple of power accumulators. In fact, one member - @Ronald Burkholder - recently played five consecutive rounds using just 2.8 and he shot in the 70’s each time!
I have two swing thoughts before I swing (in my practice) I’m still working on removing one of them once I feel like I’m comfortable with one or the other being automatic. 1) Shoulder down and tilted 2) Swing punching down with the trail arm for power and consistency.I basically say shoulder & arm in my practices then clear my mind and set up to the ball. Whatever happens happens once you hit the ball.
Paralysis from analysis. I used to listen a lot to a podcast by a guy named Fred Greene, he has a lot of people on his show that deal with the mental aspect of the game. They usually advocate not thinking. I'm not sure the golf swing is a simple as walking and other complex things that we do without thinking about it, but there is some merit to what they are saying. I got my brother many months ago to listen to one of the podcasts where this was advocated, he shot even par over nine holes from doing this, no swing thoughts at all. Easier said then done....
@Glenn Oneal - Ideally I'd like to see you get down to zero and be purely target-focused on the course, but it will certainly take some time to get to that point. So realistically, perhaps you can have no more than two mechanical thoughts during a round for now and then whittle that down as the swing becomes more ingrained and natural to you.
An excellent book that may help you with your overall approach to the game and navigating through the hiccups is "Fearless Golf: Conquering the Mental Game" by Dr. Gio Valiante. I’ve recommended it to many of your fellow online school members and have received excellent feedback from them. Beyond that, it’s a good idea to have a reliable “default swing” that you can dial up mid-round when you sense that you are beginning to leak some oil. Many members use the swing provided by Drill 2.8, which is actually the full swing minus just a couple of power accumulators. In fact, one member - @Ronald Burkholder - recently played five consecutive rounds using just 2.8 and he shot in the 70’s each time!
I have two swing thoughts before I swing (in my practice) I’m still working on removing one of them once I feel like I’m comfortable with one or the other being automatic. 1) Shoulder down and tilted 2) Swing punching down with the trail arm for power and consistency. I basically say shoulder & arm in my practices then clear my mind and set up to the ball. Whatever happens happens once you hit the ball.
Paralysis from analysis. I used to listen a lot to a podcast by a guy named Fred Greene, he has a lot of people on his show that deal with the mental aspect of the game. They usually advocate not thinking. I'm not sure the golf swing is a simple as walking and other complex things that we do without thinking about it, but there is some merit to what they are saying. I got my brother many months ago to listen to one of the podcasts where this was advocated, he shot even par over nine holes from doing this, no swing thoughts at all. Easier said then done....