Awareness and concentration during the swing

[tongzilla]

I am not talking about swing thoughts here. So please don't talk about that in this thread.

I am interested in the degree of awareness and concentration you guys have during the swing. Do you just step up and hit without giving a shit or do you try really hard (trying hard does not necessarily mean you tense up and swing hard- you can try hard to be loose for example) to do whatever you're trying to do?

 

[PSheehan]

For me, preshot routine is where all conscious thought and planning occurs...including any potential swing thought...when I swing it, it is free of conscious thought. "Stay committed to the process and routine" is something I practice often, and seldom can do for 18 holes in competition.

 

[Kevin Shields]

I have at least 2 or 3 things i consciously try to do each and every swing

 

[scandres]

Awareness is curative and developmental.

The biggest mistake I see in instruction is teachers and students attempting to change something that has never been experienced.

IMHO it's the reason handicaps (for the most part) don't go down, and golfers don't get better.

How could you change something you've never experienced?

 

[Bigwill]

You know I've never thought about this before. Thinking about it now, I've gotten much better results when I've focused on doing something with the ball, like curvature or trajectory. For me, the effort level feels lower than it does when I'm thinking of a swing thought or feel, but the level of awareness of the clubface and ball is much higher, I'm much more focused.

Before this thread, I would have thought that that a higher focus equals a higher level of effort or perceived intensity. Maybe not?

 

[ej20]

I have at least 2 or 3 things i consciously try to do each and every swing

I think some players are very good at blocking everything out and just disappear into their own little world.These players can play with a whole bunch of swing thoughts.I believe Nicklaus was once asked how many he had and he answered no more than five.Incredible.

Not everyone has the concentration to do this though.

 

[drewyallop]

Awareness is curative and developmental.

The biggest mistake I see in instruction is teachers and students attempting to change something that has never been experienced.

IMHO it's the reason handicaps (for the most part) don't go down, and golfers don't get better.

How could you change something you've never experienced?

An intriguing comment. Could you give a fuller explanation?

Drew

 

[birdie_man]

Always experimenting, but for me effort is not a question. Toyed around with that for a while without much good result.

The best I can tell is we are always trying something, doing something. ("task")

Effort and Intent.

I have had success with just monitoring feel. Literally- "Feel". Or executing specific, pre-rehearsed swings. (feels)

Or just generalized thoughts like "Just manage."

Then there are concepts like Clear Keys. "Automatic Action." To manage neg thoughts, anxiety, tension. "Stay loose." A "defocus" of sorts.

With swing keys it varies. Start off loose. Lct. Usually monitor whatever is driving the swing. ("locomotive") And path. This part varies for me. "Swings are more like gardens than buildings."

Still not sure about target focus. Seeing if I/how I can fit it in. Best I can tell though is we basically know where we want to hit it. Is it necessary to "grind" on that more? We align clubface, body, pick appropriate club, etc. I have had success with specific focus at times though, so I don't know.

Target focus vs. visualization/imaging? I don't know yet. There is a lot to think about, if you do think about it. Different yardages (exact and not so exact), conditions affecting yardage, shots with degrees of curvature, etc. A lot of it is a guess whether you make your decisions based more on feel or logic. But preparation helps.

For now I don't do specific routines of movements. "3 practice strokes every time", etc.

Lots of stuff depends on the person too of course.

Even with your initial post Leo. "Step up and...do w/e" or "try hard, swing hard". Opinions are opinions and anyone can give themself about any command they want, but I'd imagine people have different tendencies with this. Your "Blueprint".

 

[birdie_man]

Another question is if/how to organize all kinds of stuff like this in one's cantaloupe...

Simplicity is a good concept at times.

 

[ParHunter]

For me there are two stages to taking a shot, the thinking phase and the feel phase.
When I step behind the ball I start concentrating and I use the loosening and fastening of the velcro on my glove as a sign that I have to concentrate now (learned from Dr. Karl Morris a sports shrink, the stop sign is when you put the club back into the bag).
I then think about where I want to hit the ball, what the ball flight should look like etc. Once I step up to the ball I switch into feel mode (unfortunately the odd swing thought pops up from time to time). Make a practise swing and just try to get the feeling for the swing I want to make. And then I swing for good (and that swing usually looks totally different from my practise swing :-(

 

[dlam]

I used too, still do get caught up with too many mechanical swing thoughts. Sometimes it was because I was thinking too hard on the range and brought it to the course. Other times it was missing a easy shot because I was to rigid in my mechanical approach, or bothered by the last shot cause it didn't go where I thought it should have gone.

I try to let it go.It's not easy. But I come to realize that my mechanics was good and the problem that my shot went too short or off line is due to my rhythm that day. In fact, I believe that proper mechanics is only as good as your rhythm. The best scores I had were days when all I thought about was rhythm and alignment and few mechanical swing thoughts.