Prolonged slump
 

I would be curious to hear if any of you have either worked through a prolonged slump or helped someone with the same. I am in the midst of just that - a slump in iron play that has spanned multiple seasons. Woods and short game are fine, and actually improving in large part to TGM and this website. Irons are, in a word, terrible.

I posted in "The Mental Approach" because this slump has created constant negative and fearful thoughts over all iron shots, but especially those where penalty strokes are facing me (eg water, OB, etc). Any techniques that you may have used yourselves (or in your teaching) to deal with this would be greatly appreciated.

A related question, a common response from others trying to help is "stop thinking, just play". If only they knew I was into TGM and this web site! What are this site's members opinions on that comment. Can TGM set up paralysis by over-analysis?

Thanks
3Putt

I had the same slump. Driver ok, short game ok, Irons, not ok. I changed from Single Wrist Action to Standard Wrist Action (Sequenced Release) and it was over. How stupid was that. Make sure that the Back of the Iron and Shaft are laying flat against that plane in the downswing and release. A Flat Wrist is not a Flat wrist. But, that's probably not your problem.

My intent was not to get into the mechanics, more the mind's response to the mechanics. But your comment re sequenced release is perfect. What has happened throughout this slump is something like this:
swing 1 - for whatever reason I negelect to "roll" into impact. Massive, weak push.
swing 2 - my mind/body won't let that happen again. Smother hook.
swing 3 - paralysis

3Putt

This isn't mysticism. The only Mind response is either understanding or confusion. The Only thing that you're teaching the Mind, is to handle more frustration. Give you mind more information (knowledge).

If you put an airplane into a Tail Spin, it will do so all on its own all of the way into the ground. The same with Golf Mechanics. Every next motion is the result of the previous dependant motion added with newly introduced motions.

EXAMPLE: Ben Doyles "Catching the tail of the dog" after "Sitdown" is a motion/action to sycronize the #3 Accumulator Roll. It did not cause the Roll, but added something to it.

Homer Kelley said:
And:
The second quote means to slightly arch your Left Wrist anytime during the delivery path (is the WAY) to OVERRIDE the Automatic swivel. Such times are needed in very short motions like chip shots where an automatic swivel would have needed about 4 feet of Clubhead travel. See VJ Trolio and Greg McHatton, both are examples of Non-Automatic versions of the Swivel. They Pre-Swivel(before uncocking). This way, your hands won't swivel because you removed the MECHANISM that allows a Swivel (Centrifugal Force causes the Un-Bending of the Left Wrist and Rotation around the longitudinal Center of Gravity of the Golf Club). But you still need the Left Hand in Swiveled Alignment so it's call a Non-Automatic Swivel.

I've actually been playing pretty well for the past month after my latest lesson with Ted, but for me getting out of the slump is usually a mechanical issue and then getting the feel for when you are in the proper mechanics.

After my latest lesson with Ted I had to take a week off for a medical procedure to be done. Ted and I worked on right forearm takeaway and right forearm tracing with the plan to improve my backswing alignments so I won't come over the plane on the downswing. Probably the thing I struggle with most which usually leads to steering. When I got back to play, I couldn't hit anything worth a squat for about 3 days on the range. Kept coming over the top, kept trying to swing out to the right, and couldn't stop coming over the top.

On the 3rd day on the range I was really itching to go out and play, but I wanted to start hitting some shots. Eventually I said to myself 'if you keep coming over the plane, lets try to get wayyy under the plane.' Then I thought 'let's try to hit a roundhouse hook with a 9-iron.' So I would have a square stance and clubface to the target, but take the club wayyyy inside and then try to make a very prononced in-to-out path. And I started hitting shots crisply and straight, with a small fade to them.

That's where I really started to learn 'feel from mechanics.' Because later on I would try to take my normal takeaway and backswing, but with the roundhouse hook downswing it would not work. Eventually I said to myself 'what are the differences in FEEL between when I take my roundhouse hook backswing and my normal backswing.' I then felt differences in my right elbow and found out that I wasn't performing the right forearm takeaway properly. Furthermore, I realized that I get in trouble when my right elbow gets away from my body too much. My old backswing was actually quite fine, but for me the elbow gets too far away from the body.

Since then I've played quite well and I'm down to a +0.3 index. However, just the other day I 'struggled' and shot 76-74 at a course and was doing it with smoke and mirrors and hitting a lot of big cuts which was driving me insane and I was coming over the top again. Eventually I went onto the range after the rounds of golf and found that once again, my right elbow was getting too far away from my body...this time at address...and it was causing me to get that elbow in poor positions and come over the top. When I figured that out I started hitting shot after shot about as good as I possibly can at this moment.

There's plenty of drills from TGM that can help cure your ills, but once I learned what feel truly is and how to learn feel from mechanics, my game shot off like a rocket because now I can use those feels in order to execute the proper mechanics on a consistent basis. And if I get in trouble, I know now where to look at in regards to what the culprits of my ills are.




3JACK

Photo Finishers
 

This is the promise of 'Alignment Golf' versus 'Position Golf'.

There are many 'methods' that can help the golfer break 100. And 90. And even 80.

But how does one build a Golf Stroke that challenges "Old Man Par" and then goes beyond?

Once the conceptual and structural work is done, only the golfer's own sensibilities to precision alignments can guide. On the PGA TOUR, a "mere" two shots per round in Scoring Average means the difference between silly money and folding sweaters.

Witness the 2009 stats-to-date of Steve Stricker (#1 Scoring at 69.02 and #4 Money with $3,076,236) and Vaughn Taylor (#88 Scoring at 71.00 and #125 Money, aka "keep your card", with $294,164).

For the complete list of horses and their standings in the annual race:

http://www.pgatour.com/r/stats/info/xm.html?108

http://www.pgatour.com/r/stats/info/?109

May the best horse win.

If only by a nose.

I may be thick but I can't figure out what you're driving at with this statement.

If making bad shots equates to teaching the mind to handle more frustration, then are you suggesting I restrict my golf to the range in the pursuit of more knowledge/information?

Playing and practicing is your choice and not part of my recommendation.

I was trying to say that remembering to Roll is a compensation for not having components Aligned to Roll. Hitting Hooks wasn't over correction for poor execution but if you keep telling your mind it is, then in the end you'll become more frustrated. You don't have a "Roll" built into your Alignments. Forcing a Roll when you're not aligned to roll is not the solution. More knowledge. Learn the Alignments of a Sequenced Release.

Maybe you need a 'go-to' swing for when you're unsure of yourself.

And at the risk of bragging, there's no doubt I have a lot more room to go. My putting has been so-so at best as I rarely 3-putt, but don't make much of anything outside of 10 feet. In our last lesson Ted and I worked on putting because my alignments were looking great and now I am rolling the ball noticeably better just less than a day later. I also can greatly improve distance, but coming off of major surgery back in late October, doctor's orders say no really heavy exercise for at least a year and I figure I'm in the beginning stages of creating a repeatable stroke.

I play with a group of guys that are 3-15 handicappers about twice a week. Then I play with my ole man and his friends every Saturday and they are in the 12-20 handicap range. It's amazing how these guys worry about things that are not all that important if completely unimportant for that matter. Things like 'straight left arm' and the length of the backswing. Every time my ole man hits a ground ball he curses at himself for 'looking up.' I then told him that he actually doesn't look up most of the time he hits that ground ball and that his left wrist is so bent at impact it makes it almost impossible to not hit a bunch of ground balls. I then filmed him on the range (secretly, believe it or not) and then showed him and I still don't think he believes me, but he's hard headed.

For me, Alignment Golf gets the golfer focusing about things that they really need to focusing about (3 imperatives, 3 essentials) and then provides a path to get there and each path is customizable for each golfer and then provides customizable FEEL so they can repeat those things they really need to focus about over and over again.




3JACK

I think the key is to be open to allowing your mind to more knowledge/information or whatever in order to get proper mechanics. Because with the proper mechanics, then you can start yourself on the right path to get the feel.

Feels are subjective. TGM is a feel oriented book, IMO. I believe Homer Kelley fully understood that feel was extremely key to a golfer's success because it could make the swing repeatable. I also believe that Homer Kelley saw that the problem was that feels are subjective.

For instance, as far as keeping the FLW at impact I try to feel a very slow start down. I also feel a bit of a 'palm heel strike' right into the ball with my right arm/right hand. That may not work for you, but it works for me. In Yoda's video lesson with Colin Neeman, Collin's best shots were when he felt he was driving the ball right into the ground instead of driving it into the air. Works for him, may not work for you.

We got there by understanding the right mechanics first and then coming up with the feel that works best for us. This feel then allows us to repeat these mechanics over and over. I believe this was one of Homer Kelley's main goals of TGM, provide a system where golfers could come up with their own feels in order to repeat the proper mechanics.

When you say 'My intent was not to get into the mechanics, more the mind's response to the mechanics'...you appear to be missing the big step in creating a repeatable stroke.




3JACK