Bad habits creep back in, That’s what we fight when changing a golf swing.

I’ve been focussing on tee shots for quite some time now and thought some solid progress had been made with my swing overall, but then went out and teed it today for a post-Christmas round and, for the life of me, couldn’t figure out how to find a fairway. I played 18 holes and didn’t manage to hit a single fairway with either my driver or 3-wood and towards the end of the round I needed to know what was going on.

Luckily, Mary gave me a clip on camera tripod for my golf bag so I could shoot a couple of tee shots as I played. I was pretty dismayed by what I saw. It looked like this:

Sorry about cutting off the backswing, I’m just getting used to the new setup and thought I had plenty of room. I’ll figure that out with a bit more experience with the new camera and clip system.

As you can see, it’s basically my old swing and the only difference is that I am holding the face off through impact which causes a big push fade/slice. I have, for a long time now, been trying to get my swing steeper and work on being more on plane through the ball, and I can do it on the range, but I now realize that when I go out on the course my old, and bad, habits are still prevailing in my tendencies.

I found this fascinating today as I thought I was keeping a one piece takeaway and getting tall with the club in the top of my backswing, yet obviously my swing is flat again and still across the line. I think the only thing that I actually was doing today was messing with the club face through impact causing a two-way miss.

Very interesting.

The funny thing is that I have been so focused on my tee shots that the rest of my game is suffering a bit from it, yet my tee shots thus far have only gotten worse. It’s a process and this is just what you have to go through in order to get to the next level, but I would be lying if I said it wasn’t frustrating. When you want something so bad you are willing to work on it every day for hours and weeks/months later end up feeling like it is further away than when you started can be daunting. But, you have to remain faithful and know the only way through belief in what you are doing and continuing to push yourself to make it work.

New Years is just around the corner meaning it is time to establish some goals for 2014. Top on my list is to finalize and own this swing change. It’s the only way to get down to scratch this coming year and the most important thing on my golfing growth list. I can’t wait to get down to the desert (or is it dessert? both right now sound nice) and work with coach Bruce a few times this January. In the meantime, though, I will continue to shoot video of my swing and make sure I am making the correct changes both on the range and, more importantly, on the course.

Speaking on that topic, please download and read this article by Harvard’s Dr. Dan Schacter. It’s a wonderful piece and worth the read:

Dr. Dan Schacter: Remembering the past to imagine the future: the prospective brain

I will have a full list of goals soon. What is everyone else working on through this winter and throughout the new year?

On an aside, if you purchased something from Amazon through that search link on the side bar, thank you! It turns out it does work and although it isn’t a huge sum of money it’s a great way to help support the project. Very much appreciated!

I hope everyone out there had a Merry Christmas and is about to have the most wonderful New Years possible.

Thank you for continuing to read the blog and for putting up with my somewhat sporadic posts over the past couple of months. I promise to write more regularly from here on out and talk about everything that is going on with the project.

10 Responses to "Bad habits creep back in, That’s what we fight when changing a golf swing."

Richard Hayes says:

December 26, 2013 at 8:54 pm

The best thing I can recommend you do is focus on one specific swing thought to get you striking the ball better. It’s obvious you know what you’re doing wrong and have a good idea how to correct it, but it seems your brain is getting in the way. Next time you’re on the range think of something like maintaining a good spine angle – if that doesn’t work, try another one. Keep it simple, and don’t focus too much on what the club is doing because it’s your body that you really need to control. I’m no expert, but I do tend to hit driver pretty well. Hope it helps.
Did you change or stayed? says:

December 26, 2013 at 11:58 pm

[...] was reading about the Dan plan where the golfer is changing his swing and to his surprise he taped it and he was doing his old [...]
KyleH says:

December 27, 2013 at 4:40 am

Dan, you might also want to consider that your grip may also be contributing to how much you take the club to the inside. (I don’t know if this is something you and your coach are working on). Someone whose grip you might want to take a look at is Rory Mcilroy. I know he’s been struggling lately but I think he has a pretty solid ‘neutral’ grip. Check out some “face-on” videos of him on youtube and see what you think. Additionally, he’s also got a great one-piece takeaway you might want to check out as well. I know it’s generally not good form to give swing advice to someone in the middle of a swing change (or ever, for that matter, and with a coach no less!) but taking the club back way to the inside was something I struggled with as well and I found that sorting out my grip got me started toward getting my club back on plane. In many ways it feels like you’re relearning your swing almost from scratch but it’s definitely worth it in the long run. Taking the club back behind you is really no place you want to be.
Richard Chen says:

December 27, 2013 at 6:23 am

Strange there are so much wild up and downs. Few days ago, you shot one under for nine holes with hitting both 3-woods in the fairway. Then, 77 for 18 hole round. Now, no fairways hit all of a sudden.

The factors controlling and influencing clubface angle at impact are back of leading hand, and leading forearm orientation, effective loft of clubhead, grip pressure change, hand position over ball, rear hand palm orientation, and clubhead toe position relative to clubhead heel.

The standard is to have the back of the leading hand facing the target at impact (approximately depending whether a “strong” or “weak” grip is used) to square the clubface at impact. This is the standard guideline. There are other additional leading hand guidelines for squaring the clubface at impact like some top pros have mentioned having the leading hand thumb pointing at the ball at impact (although the leading thumb should not be used as the force to turn the club as this can cause stress and injury to the leading thumb. For these pros, the leading thumb is used only as a guideline, and it is not used to provide force to turn the club. The last three fingers of the leading hand (together with the leading hand heel pad) are used to turn the club. The leading forearm like the back of the leading hand also face toward the target at impact to square the clubface at impact.

The effective loft of the clubface is decreasing rather than increasing during the release to square the clubface. Because the clubhead and the club shaft are not in a straight line, the clubface angle and the clubface loft are linked as the club shaft turns. For example, closing the clubface will require the clubface loft to decrease at the same time, while increasing the clubface loft will result in the clubface to open at the same time. They are linked. To close the clubface during the final release will require to clubface loft to decrease somewhat also.

If the grip pressure changes between setup and impact, the change in grip pressure can unintentionally rotate the club handle to cause the clubface to change between setup and impact. If the grip pressure of the leading hand changes from light to tight from setup to impact, the clubface will tend to be a little more closed than intended at impact. If the grip pressure of the leading hand changes from tight to light, the clubface will tend to be a little more opened at impact than at setup. The reverse happens if there is grip pressure change of the read hand between setup and impact. Changing grip pressure tends to cause the fingers to rotate the club handle somewhat, which results in clubface angle change between setup and impact.

The rear hand palm face toward the target at impact as the clubface turn to square at impact.

At the start of the release, the toe of the clubhead is behind the heel of the clubhead by a large amount. During the release, the toe of the clubhead starts to catch up with the heel of the clubhead, so that at impact the toe is even with the heel of the clubhead. Some top pros visualize this toe catching up with the heel of the clubhead during the release to help square the clubhead. After impact, the toe can be visualized to pass the heel to encourage draws and hooks, or the toe can be visualized to not pass the heel to encourage fades or slices. A further visualization step can be visualizing the clubhead to “fly” down the target line after impact like an airplane.
Ryan N says:

December 27, 2013 at 9:52 am

Curious what your golf bag camera clip on tripod consists of. Thanks!
Charlie says:

December 27, 2013 at 8:27 pm

In your first driver swing — wearing your yellow shirt with the bright blue sky — I notice a very pronounced dipping and twisting of your head as you enter and travel through the impact zone. The movement is more than Tiger’s down-up lowering, as you can see if you follow the twisting of the bill of your cap.

Are you aware of this? Do you or your coaches have an idea whether this is the cause or effect of your doing something unusual through the impact zone?
paul says:

December 29, 2013 at 8:55 am

Hi Dan. Im just glad to see you working hard and caring a lot about what you are doing. I check back to your site and see how you are doing every month or two. I love seeing how far you have come in a short time (i was a 32, 2 years ago and am a 15 now). I am also trying to see how well i can do in 10000 hours but i am spreading it out over 40+ years.

I think you might benefit by just enjoying golf for a month or two. Thats my two cents.
PNGA says:

December 29, 2013 at 8:53 pm

Dan
The best way to get better quickly is to spend hours practicing your swing in front of a mirror. Take the ball away and your focus be be entirely on the technique. I coach an NCAA golf team and this type of practice is mandatory for all of my players.
Good luck.
Aaron says:

December 30, 2013 at 7:07 am

Great to see an update with some of the ups and downs included. More of this please!! We want to support, give us content!! Give us content!
Richard Chen says:

December 30, 2013 at 11:50 am

In the above video, by clicking the “play”/”pause” button rapidly, it is able to freeze the frame at the exact moment of impact, as well as the frame just before impact, and the frame shortly after impact.

There is a noticeable difference between the impact positions and the setup positions. At setup (address,) the rear arm is extended very straight with the rear elbow away from the body. At impact, the upper rear arm, and the rear elbow are glued to the body with the rear arm well bent. In addition, the leading elbow is further outwards, and higher than at setup, which increases the difference in heights, and in the outwardness of the two elbows at impact. The triangles formed by the leading and rear forearms are tilted much differently between the setup and at impact. At setup, the “face” of the triangle formed by the two forearms is parallel with the target line. At impact, the “face” of the triangle formed by the two forearms is tilted well opened away from the target.

In the frame just after impact with the clubhead swung a few feet past the tee (ball impact) position, the rear arm is still fairly bent. Hogan’s five fundamentals book would have both arms fairly straightened out for a brief moment by this point after impact. Woods photo sequences would have the rear arm fairly straightening out even before that. For Woods, the rear elbow has rise up and off the side of the body by impact, so that the rear elbow is just slightly below the level of the leading elbow at impact, so that the triangle formed by the two forearms is only slightly tilted backwards away from the target, so that the face of the triangle is almost parallel with the target line, as Woods has the clubhead swinging a little inside-to-out at impact.

Without a frontal camera photo sequence, it is difficult to say what the effects are of the very bent rear arm going through the impact zone. The severe tilt of the forearm triangle away from the target at impact implies the clubface remains opened at impact. Without a frontal photo sequence, it is difficult to say whether the rear shoulder has shifted to close to the ball to prevent the rear arm to start straightening out during the release to let the rear hand to rotate to close to face the target by impact.

If the rear arm is bent like at impact during setup, the stance will need to be a little closer to the ball. It may be that the hands and forearms are not rotating toward the target enough during the final release just before impact, so that the back of the leading hand, and the palm of the rear hand are not facing the target enough by impact.

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