Inconsistency

[Pete]

Hi

I’ve just completed day 35 of the program and am struggling with consistency with my irons, when I hit it well it’s very good but a higher percent of my shots I am miss shanking, I’ve never shanked my irons until, this program. We have just come off winter mats and are now back on grass and this has made it worse, played 10 holes today and strugggled with consistency.

[Michael]

Pete I definitely understand. I had another tough range session today. I think the biggest problem I have is that I’m simply not completing the movements properly during my swing even though I’ve been progressing through the program I thought fairly well. I have way too many swing thoughts even though I try to clear my mind of it. It’s just hard not to think of how my arms should be pushing out, the pressure levels that I should be at etc. when completing my swing properly. It’s just very hard for me to put those aside when Im swinging. I know ultimately my goal is to not think about any mechanics at all but during the learning phase it’s hard. Then when you don’t get any positive feedback from a good shot it becomes more disconcerting and discouraging. Having said all of that I am still optimistic that I can do this because at the end of the day I’m simply trying to build a consistent swing that I can go to over and over again rather than these random tips that don’t ever get anywhere. That’s why I am sold on the program but admittedly range days like today get me down a bit

[Pete]

Michael I’m with you, I don’t want anymore tips and poor advice this program is fantastic and I’m very optimistic about my game improvement, when I do manage to hit a shot correctly there is a definite different to shots I would normally hit, like you said it’s difficult not to have swing thoughts when stood over the ball the way this program is designed takes any element of doubt in relation to if I’m doing it right or wrong in so many ways, just the inconsistency I’m experiencing is so vast that it’s knocked my confidence at little.

[Tathata Staff]

Pete,

I’m sorry you are struggling with your irons and shanking them. We have filmed a support video recently for another student who was having similar issues with shanking some shots and I have included the link below for you to also view this video.

Without seeing your swing, we are unable to know exactly what the cause is but we believe this video will help.

If you have have further questions after watching the video please let us know.

Surfing with Strength

[Tathata Staff]

Michael,

Thank you for the time are putting into the program! I see you are through Day 26, that’s awesome. You are correct in saying that the program is not a quick fix, even though we see instant improvement with some of our students. The path of the program is built to mirror how you would learn a martial art, which takes some time and repetition. We recommend going back into any of the previous days that make sense to you to repeat or any of the routines to re-train and build the muscle s. If you have any specific areas of the program that you have questions on please let us know, we would be happy to help.

How are you liking the mental training exercises? We see some of the quickest improvement and understanding from students when doing the mental training exercises. These exercises help build strength and reverence to your training, who you are and to where you are going or the outcomes you want to create in your game.

When moving from your training at home to the range and to the golf course, it’s okay to think about the movements and wondering if you are doing them correctly or not but this is not spontaneous, reactionary or playing from your heart. If you’ve played other sports you know that once you are on the field or court you are not thinking about mechanics, you just play. Once we think about mechanics on the golf course, we are stopping time or stopping the flow of energy. The next time you go to the golf course have a sense of the moments ahead being better than they have ever been, without knowing how or why.

If you have any other questions let us know.

[Pete]

Thanks for the response, played another 10 holes and had pretty much the same out come, when I hit the irons well I believe I am probably adding 10-15 yards to my distance which is great but 95% of my shots are shanks, I’m hitting driver pretty consistently but I’m at a loss with my irons, I did watch the video which made sense but I’m really struggling.

[Les]

Hi Pete. I struggle sometimes on the range with hitting hosel rockets and doing so does make me question if I am trained.

Usually what I find through some analysis is that I am getting out of sync with my body and my arms. Either I am coming too far from the inside – “getting stuck” – or I am standing the club up through impact pushing the head out and hitting the hosel.

For me, I go back to the baseball throw and surf to level movements and being a little more gentle with my pressures coming into the strike. I want to make sure that I have acceleration through the strike and that I am being safe with the club face.

Making a radical swing change can take a lot of time. One cannot just think their way into a new swing and it takes practice and drilling. I have just completed the program and am now going back through spending a week working on one of the chapters along with the strength movements. Like you, when I strike the ball well it is better than it has every been and then there are those few times during the round when I will hit the ball and wonder what the heck was I doing there. Out on the course is the last place our swing changes show up and as long as I do the work I know it will show up when my body is ready to execute.

Keep up the good work and be patient.

[Lance]

Great video. It explains well what happens when the right hip spins towards the target line at the start of the downswing in lieu of the knees surfing.

The presentation in the video was organized smartly to demonstrate both the problem and the correct movement.

Thanks for sharing.

Lance

[Pete]

Hi Les, thanks for your comments and encouragement, I truly believe in what I’m being g taught via the program, there is without doubt in my mind “no quick fix” I’m just looking for a little bit of consistency which given time and patience will know doubt come, hope your enjoying some great golf.

[Lance]

Like the support video above, Surfing with Strength, is there an area with this site housing this collection?

[David]

Lance – Funny you ask. Here is a recent post on that subject.

Bryan Hepler Video Q/A

[Pete]

So again another poor session at the range, got 100 balls and hit them extremely poorly a mix of topping and shanking, dispite slowing down and trying to remove thoughts from my practice I still really struggled, I’m now on day 38 and am lost if anything I’m hitting the ball the worst than I have ever done, I seem to be able to do the movements and the pressure routines well enough but coming to a real life shot making isn’t happening at all, it’s totally blown my game to bits, I’m sure there must be something significant I’m doing wrong but I had my swing videoed tonight whilst practicing and it looks ok to me nothing majorly obvious, guess you just have to keep practicing but I never imagined I’d go backwards with all the talk of out in front.

[Michael]

Sorry Pete – best advice I can give you at this point (even though you are actually farther along then me) – is send video swing to tathata swing analysis and let them look at it in great detail and they will help pinpoint where you current deficiencies are and show you which areas to keep working on – given the frustration I think the cost is worth it and bet it will get you back on track and starting to build confidence again

I received this info from tathata when I inquired about it – I’m going to do it soon myself but want to at last finish chapter 3 first

“would definitely recommend you doing a swing submittal instead of the online video Chapter Follow-Up just because we would want to see your swing and offer feedback from there. With the swing submittals we are able to talk over your swing, speak to what we are seeing and maybe even put up some of the greats in comparison. We also provide a video of us demonstrating what we saw in your swing and how we recommend you moving forward to enhance and train this area. We see great improvement from students who send in a swing, who receive an understanding of what they are doing absolutely correct and the things we would like to enhance”

Link http://legacy.tathatagolf.com/tathata-online/

Best going forward

Mike