How to Make a Swing Change in Golf

Now, what exactly is a “swing change”?

Every day brings fresh challenges and opportunities for golfers.

That is not what I am referring to.

I’m referring to the deliberate pursuit of a better golf swing through an indoor golf simulator or driving range practice.

Since our main focus isn’t on shooting a score when playing golf, the offseason (winter) is an ideal time to accomplish this.

There are three main groups of golfers I usually encounter:

• People who play golf but have no idea how to alter their swing
• Players who aren’t interested in modifying their swing but would like to improve their game
• Golfers who are so preoccupied with perfecting their swing that they fail to really play the game

No matter your stance, I believe this is an area that is frequently disregarded when it comes to golf lessons offered online. We should discuss it then.

What is a swing change in golf?

There is a lot of talk regarding “swing changes” in the golfing community. The golfing community has a heavily skewed perception of what it takes to alter one’s swing because of Tiger Woods.

Tiger Woods most notably remembers a time during the 1998–1999 season when he was unhappy with his golf swing and had a “major overhaul” with Butch Harmon. Even though he nevertheless accomplished a great deal during that time, it paled in comparison to the results he obtained following the adjustments from 2000 to 2005.

In golf, there are two types of swing changes:

1. Major (“overhauls”)
2. Minor (“tweaks”)

Both require different approaches.

What is a small change in swing?

A small change to many facets of a swing, including as the grip, stance, alignment, posture, or ball location, is called “tweak.” You might undertake an exercise to eliminate the “sway” you feel during the backswing or to bring your takeaway closer to the plane of the ball.

These kinds of swing changes shouldn’t be infrequent in golf; generally, they improve your game.

For instance, I believe that during every practice session you should concentrate on your alignment and posture. You will never master these!

What is a Major Swing Change?

Tiger refers to a “major” swing shift when he discusses his swing practice during the 1998–1999 seasons. “Major” meant to other golfers “minor,” but for him it comprised the following:

• Made his left-hand grip less forceful.
• Correct posture
• Keep the club under hands in the takeaway.
• Flatter left wrist at top level.
• Shorter follow-through; lots of weight-lifting helps to permit some of these new stances.

You can change your swing by changing your takeaway, top-of-swing, downswing transition, impact, and post-impact stances. Or maybe Tiger has a mix of all of them!

For these kinds of changes to work, you usually need either a better understanding of the golf swing (which I want to teach you on this site) or the help of a qualified and experienced coach.

Besides that, you have to do them over and over. Making all of these changes at once can hurt your game if you don’t do it right.

It seems like every day is a “major” swing change when you’re just starting out or still working on your swing!

Don’t worry. You should have a plan and know what you want to improve. The worst thing that can happen in practice is to not have a plan and try to fix things as they come up.

How to Make a Swing Change

9 times out of 10, when a player tries to make a big (or even a small) change to their swing, one of these things happens:

• Confused by conflicting golf advice
• Practicing the right things in the wrong way
• Frustration

This won’t happen if you remember these things when you make a big change to your swing.

Swing Change Tip #2: Check your Fundamentals

Before you make any big changes to your swing, make sure your grip, stance, alignment, posture, and where the ball is in the air are all good.

If you haven’t learned the basics, changing the way you swing won’t fix the real problem.

Many swing problems can be fixed by learning the right way to hold the club or line up with your target.

This should be the most important thing for most players, even if it takes a long time (months or even years).

Swing Change Tip #3: Check your Information Source

If your base is strong, you should think about why you are changing your swing.

Was someone who you didn’t know telling you that your backswing plane was too straight while you were on the range? Did your boss let you know? Is your teacher someone you can trust?

Before you try to make a big change, you should probably find out how dependable the sources are.

It is not a good idea to make big changes to your swing from one teacher to the next. If you keep playing this way, your game will stay stuck.

It’s more important to be consistent than to be accurate in golf. There are a lot of professional players whose swings aren’t quite right. Failure to be “right” over and over again was the key to their success.

Swing Change Tip #4: Set a Time Boundary

I believe that big changes to a swing have a start and an end, but smaller changes can go on for a long time.

You shouldn’t decide too quickly to change your swing if you have a lot of golf planned in the next few weeks, especially if you want to compete or play a lot of games. The best time to do this is during the off-season.

Whenever I want to change the way I swing, I go to the range and hit a lot of balls for five to ten days. I don’t play at all during this time because I know that trying to play too soon might make me act out again.

Swing Change Tip #5: Record Your Golf Swing Often

These words will sound like old tyrants to people who read The DIY Golfer often.

Feelings are not real things.

Record your swing on video every day for 5–10 days (or 10–? days if you don’t practice much) to see how much you’re improving.

It’s not always the same when we “feel” our golf move as when we see it. A video camera is a great thing to buy if you want to see how different “feelings” affect your swing. See my post on videotaping and studying your golf swing for more information on this subject.

Swing Change Tip #6: Integrate Your Swing Change on the Course

The last part of adjusting a swing is being able to use the new swing on the course.

It might be tempting to go back to your old swing positions, but you need to trust the change you have made.

You might need to come up with a basic idea of the swing in order to get into the right places on the course during your first few days back.

After a couple of weeks of playing with the new swing, you should feel good about it. Then you can enjoy golf without worrying too much about it!

Learn more about this in my article called “How to Take Your Game From the Range to the Course.”

Swing Change Tip #7: Beware of Overcompensation

If you’re like me, you tend to overcompensate when you change your swing direction.

At first, it will be hard to get used to the new position during the swing shift. After a little practice, the change will feel natural.

Having a video of your swing is good because I tend to overextend myself when I’m almost done changing my swing. It’s not good for me to go from having a backswing plane that is too straight to one that is too flat!

Final Thought

Because this post has covered a good deal of ground, let’s go over it again…

• Minor swing changes and big swing changes are the two types of swing alterations.
• Each and every golfer ought to incorporate some minor swing adjustments into their practice sessions.
• Minor adjustments to the swing will take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks before they begin to feel comfortable with the new movement.
• Before attempting to make significant swing modifications, you should make sure that you have sound basics, that you have a reliable source of information, that you have a period of time during which you are not required to play, and that you have a method to record your improvement.
• Any significant swing adjustments will take a few weeks to complete, and it will take even longer to get them to function properly on the course. It is not a good idea to try to make a significant swing alteration if you do not want to practice!
  Having said that, I will see you the next week.