Keep Swing Thoughts Short Simple, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
Keep Swing Thoughts Short Simple, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

So, once you've grooved the perfect technique out on the practice ground, you want to take that on the golf course and you want to make sure that you can take out the good bits of your golf swing but without all the jumbled thoughts that might have actually help you get to that good swing. So when I'm working with golfers on taking their practice game out onto the golf course, we generally go with taking two swing thoughts and only two thoughts. All the rest is just going to clutter your mind and stop you from actually executing the good swing that you know you're now capable of, so two thoughts, but ideally two thoughts in different parts of the swing. If we break the swing down into three areas, we've got set up, backswing, and downswing. I wouldn't want to have two thoughts in my downswing and it happens too quickly.

There are too many different bits going on and to try and change two thoughts is a bit of a rush. So, take two thoughts but put them in different parts of your swing. So, it might be a little grip change. Well, I can make a little grip change here in my set up and once I'm happy with my grip change, I can then forget about my setup and think about maybe a shorter swing. So, I've changed my grip and I can forget about that. Now I think about a shorter swing and I could hit the ball nicely. And effectively, I've only had one thing to think about during the swing and one thing to think about in my setup.

If I was trying to change a shorter swing and a more closed club face at the top of my swing, that would suddenly seem like too many bits in that area. I would have nothing to think about here, nothing to think about the downswing but two bits to go wrong at the top of my swing. So when you're working on the practice ground, try narrow down your swing thoughts, try and work on the priorities, maybe even speak to your coach and say, “What are the two most important bits that I need to go away and work on?” And if possible, put those into different parts of your swing: is it setup, is it backswing, or is it downswing. And if you can take those two thoughts out onto the golf course, hopefully your mind will be clearer and your golf will improve.

 2012-04-05

So, once you've grooved the perfect technique out on the practice ground, you want to take that on the golf course and you want to make sure that you can take out the good bits of your golf swing but without all the jumbled thoughts that might have actually help you get to that good swing. So when I'm working with golfers on taking their practice game out onto the golf course, we generally go with taking two swing thoughts and only two thoughts. All the rest is just going to clutter your mind and stop you from actually executing the good swing that you know you're now capable of, so two thoughts, but ideally two thoughts in different parts of the swing. If we break the swing down into three areas, we've got set up, backswing, and downswing. I wouldn't want to have two thoughts in my downswing and it happens too quickly.

There are too many different bits going on and to try and change two thoughts is a bit of a rush. So, take two thoughts but put them in different parts of your swing. So, it might be a little grip change. Well, I can make a little grip change here in my set up and once I'm happy with my grip change, I can then forget about my setup and think about maybe a shorter swing. So, I've changed my grip and I can forget about that. Now I think about a shorter swing and I could hit the ball nicely. And effectively, I've only had one thing to think about during the swing and one thing to think about in my setup.

If I was trying to change a shorter swing and a more closed club face at the top of my swing, that would suddenly seem like too many bits in that area. I would have nothing to think about here, nothing to think about the downswing but two bits to go wrong at the top of my swing. So when you're working on the practice ground, try narrow down your swing thoughts, try and work on the priorities, maybe even speak to your coach and say, “What are the two most important bits that I need to go away and work on?” And if possible, put those into different parts of your swing: is it setup, is it backswing, or is it downswing. And if you can take those two thoughts out onto the golf course, hopefully your mind will be clearer and your golf will improve.