I know the conventional wisdom is to think conscious swing thoughts when you are practicing, then when you are playing to turn that off and just react and play naturally. But I think that got me into a trap today.
I've been doing S&T for a few months now, have been playing great, but still have to remind myself of the basics. Today, I think I got a little too comfortable on the course, and some old habits crept back in, resulting in some terrible shots. Once I started to remind myself to tilt, keep the weight forward, do the 2.8 swing, etc., then I got back on track. I guess it's a continuous learning process, and a few months isn't long enough for these movements to be totally ingrained for me yet.
Thanks for the reply, Tom. I will check out those books.
I think for now, till the new swing is more ingrained, I feel like I need to have one swing thought. Today, I was doing it with zero, and 40 years of old habits crept back in.
@bh11 - It's expected that you'll be taking some mechanical thoughts to the course as you're learning something new. As you ingrain the feels and gain more confidence with the swing, your brain will automatically reduce these until you're down to one - or preferably none - and can then focus exclusively on targets and strategy. At that point your game will have elevated itself to a new level.
Another excellent mental game/strategy book in addition to Gio Valiante's "Fearless Golf" is "Play Your Best Golf Now" by Lynn Marriott & Pia Nilsson. This may help you in compartmentalizing mechanical thoughts during your pre-shot so you can shut them down once you are over the ball.