Were you born with a swing?

[cnosil]

I have a fairly natural swing. I remember when I first started to learn the game my instructor told me I had a natural swing. Later when I took up golf again and took lessons again the instructor said I had a good swing. Even when taking lessons I don't practice what they we telling me to do yet I am able to incorporate the fix. I do have swing flaws but I have been able to work itch them to play good golf. I can also attest that having a good swing does not mean you will play good golf.

[Canucklehead]

For me I guess it is a yes. I started playing at age 2 and was scratch by my mid teens. I hit a lot of balls growing up because I enjoyed it and for really no other reason. I was in the pre Tiger era when golf was not the cool sport to play.

 

My son has ability but has to work on his swing whereas my middle child is just a natural. She picked up a club and immediately knew what to do with it. Same for her with softball, basketball, soccer and dance.

 

 

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A friend was like that. Went out for the first time (after a couple range of outings) with some hand-me-downs. Not long but damn it was like he was throwing darts

 

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[Canucklehead]

When I was about 8, there was an older gentleman down the street from us who was having a garage sale and I bought a bag of 25-30 for $5. Went home and started hitting pinecones the length of the back yard. They're basically a whiffleball and can't fly very far. But I was able to get good enough I could hit them over the fence and into the alley. I had to stop once I could hit them into the neighbours yard.

 

When I first brought the clubs home, my mom watched me a few times from the kitchen window and she said that she learned from me how she should swing a club because it was such a smooth swing. So I guess I was born with a decent swing.

 

Didn't really swing a club for a few years but when I got back into it I was going through a growth spurt which didn't really stop until a couple years ago. Just finally starting to figure my body out again and become more consistent.

 

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[revkev]

My current teacher used to work for Manuel De La Torre at Milwaukee Country Club. My teacher in Wisconsin knew him well also.

 

Great teacher

 

No way that I was born with a golf swing. I was born with certain abilities that have made me reasonably good at certain things. I played baseball into college so you might say that I have good hand eye co-ordination. I could hit a golf ball well even when I didn't play golf. I saw someone earlier say that baseball and golf don't mix. I guess I disagree, I think there's lots that translate, in fact the more we know about baseball the more we see players trying to adjust their AoA.

 

At any rate I learned to play golf by copying other good players. I wish that I had taken lessons earlier. I was in my 40's when I started serious lessons. But I did have solid fundamentals despite it, good grip, athletic set up etc.

 

 

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[chisag]

... Awesome topic. Teaching was a real eye opener for me as I could instantly tell if a person had previous athletic training and/or ability. The kinetic chain is pretty much the same for all sports and those that hit a baseball well, threw a football/baseball or had a good jump shot understand how the body works, even if subconsciously. Moving the feet, rotating the hips and arms and being loose but dynamic. Those that did not have that previous experience almost always use their body poorly and are too tight. 

 

...  I did not start playing golf until my late 20's and the swing came easy, shooting in the low 90's my first time out and quickly into the 80's. But fine tuning and getting to a zero index took years and years of hard work, and learning "how to play" took even longer. 

 

... My last thought is golf is much more unique from a mental aspect than any other sport. Most want to make the ball do what they want it to do. IE land on the green, avoid a lake or trees, produce high iron shots, etc. Of course we cannot do any of that because we want to. We see players all the time try and lift the ball by scooping or raising up the shoulders and body or lean back on the right foot trying to get the ball higher in the air. You have to trust your alignment and your swing. Good shots are a reward for swinging freely without guiding and most importantly not caring about the result. It is what makes the game so difficult imo and the reason so many have good practice swings and bad real swings because they are focused on the result and not the process. It is such a difficult game! 

[PlaidJacket]

I don't know that I had more of a knack for golf than other people as much as I've put in a ton of reps and had lessons from the start. I was a pretty crappy high school golfer and my first year of college wasn't much better when the pressure was on but mental game finally matured to where I could put together a complete round of golf at around a 19 or 20 and trust that my game was good enough. Still a good ways to go though.

 

 

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Now that we've played.. once anyway. You've got a solid game. Especially your short game. And don't forget you were the medalist at SugarTree back in April. 70 something I think it was. I'm pretty sure with another round or two on the course and you shoot even lower. Have you spent that $100,000 you won yet?

[RockingCPA]

I've watched a lot of people play this game, and have concluded that some people were born with a God-given swing.

And unfortunately, some were not.

 

Those with, are usually decent strikers, those without, just can't seem to consistently hit the ball.

 

Those with- who work at it diligently, are the singles

Those without - rarely break 90

Those without, but with a burning desire, get into the 80's, by having a short game, putting, and a brain in use.

 

Those with- can play once a month and shoot 80's.

 

Those with- have had a swing their entire lives, be it baseball, hockey, whatever...

 

If you have "it" be thankful.

Those who don't, but still devote to the game- I salute you.

 

It's an odd thing, who got the "swing" and who didn't...

Methinks Mr. Sluggo42 may have been thinking of me, when he made this thread.  We have been golf buddies for going on two years, and play every week.  When we first starting playing, he thought I just sucked and didn't have much knowledge about the game or the swing, so he'd try to teach me stuff I knew, but just wasn't very good at.  Read on...

 

A little on my background: 

I started playing golf when I was 39 and I just turned 60.  I have been blessed with some useful talents.   I'm an excellent musician (some say I'm great, but that is not for me to say). I moved to LA in 1980 to become a "rich and famous" rockstar and found out just how much competition there was here.  At 25 I realized I better find another profession that actually has some relationship between how hard you work/how good you are vs how much you earn, so I put myself thru college.  I graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Accounting and passed the CPA exam on the first try, so I had a lot of success at becoming proficient at everything I tried.  

 

THEN CAME THE HUMBLING GAME OF GOLF.  Admittedly, I was never a great athlete, but I was good at anything that involved hand/eye coordination, and with my other successes, I had every expectation that I could become good at golf, as well.  Over the years, I have spent thousands on lessons, spent countless hours practicing, watching videos and studying the game and the mechanics of the swing.  I could teach someone else, but just couldn't do it very well myself.  You've heard the saying, "Those that can do, those that can't teach".  Quite frankly, I've worked my ass off to try to be good, and I was truly just OK. SOOOO frustrating!   I could usually shoot in the 80's, and I've had two holes-in-one.   In the past couple months, I've finally had a breakthrough, and with NO help from a professional teacher (Sluggo has helped.tho).  I only broke 80 twice in 21 years and I've shot in the 70's three times in the past month.  I took this past Thursday and Friday off, and played 54 holes in 36 hours.  I walked the first 36 holes and shot 74, 80 and 81.  I made 26 pars, 4 birdies, 4 doubles and the rest bogeys. My handicap has dropped from 15.6 to 10.8 in the past month, which is the lowest it's ever been and, and after 21 years, I FINALLY feel like I'm a good golfer. 

 

WHY DID I HAVE TO WORK SO HARD JUST TO BE MEDIOCRE??  

Probably, because I fell into Suggo's category of someone NOT born with a natural swing.  God knows it wasn't for lack of trying.  Would I rather have been born with a natural swing?  HELL YES!!  I love golf and it's definitely been like a sadistic, love/hate relationship.   I've told my golf buddies, you can be a terrible human being with absolutely no redeeming qualities, but if you hit the ball 300 yards, I want to be like you.  LOL

[Rickp]

I've watched a lot of people play this game, and have concluded that some people were born with a God-given swing.

And unfortunately, some were not.

 

Those with, are usually decent strikers, those without, just can't seem to consistently hit the ball.

 

Those with- who work at it diligently, are the singles

Those without - rarely break 90

Those without, but with a burning desire, get into the 80's, by having a short game, putting, and a brain in use.

 

Those with- can play once a month and shoot 80's.

 

Those with- have had a swing their entire lives, be it baseball, hockey, whatever...

 

If you have "it" be thankful.

Those who don't, but still devote to the game- I salute you.

 

It's an odd thing, who got the "swing" and who didn't...

Floundered for years until I took some lessons from a teaching Pro named Bob Intereri. Didn't try to change but worked with what Mama gave me.

I shoot 15 handicap and can 80 occasionally.

 

 

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[EthanSterlingPrice]

Now that we've played.. once anyway. You've got a solid game. Especially your short game. And don't forget you were the medalist at SugarTree back in April. 70 something I think it was. I'm pretty sure with another round or two on the course and you shoot even lower. Have you spent that $100,000 you won yet?

lol I spent a little bit. Everyone played really well for how the weather was that morning, we gotta do that again, it was a blast!

 

 

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[cksurfdude]

.. ..

WHY DID I HAVE TO WORK SO HARD JUST TO BE MEDIOCRE??

.. ..

 

Yeah! .. that comment sums it all up really well for 'the rest of us'.....

 

Great story, btw!!

[chisag]

For me I guess it is a yes. I started playing at age 2 and was scratch by my mid teens. I hit a lot of balls growing up because I enjoyed it and for really no other reason. I was in the pre Tiger era when golf was not the cool sport to play.

 

... I grew up in Greensboro NC an I think we had one public course and 4 CC's in the late 60's. The high school golf team wore long cuffed white pants, a white long sleeve bottom down shirt and a black tie. Nobody played golf back then and it was most definitely not cool. I think Freddie Couples was the first to bring a care free khaki pants loose fitting soft polo to the game instead of the bright polyester color and patters that were also very uncool back then and as you said, Tiger took things to a whole new level. 

[Sluggo42]

Methinks Mr. Sluggo42 may have been thinking of me, when he made this thread.  We have been golf buddies for going on two years, and play every week.  When we first starting playing, he thought I just sucked and didn't have much knowledge about the game or the swing, so he'd try to teach me stuff I knew, but just wasn't very good at. .   In the past couple months, I've finally had a breakthrough, and with NO help from a professional teacher (Sluggo has helped.tho).  I only broke 80 twice in 21 years and I've shot in the 70's three times in the past month.

, I FINALLY feel like I'm a good golfer.

Hmmmm, all those professional teachers and nothing.....

Hanging out and shooting with me?

 

Priceless!! Lololol

[Rickp]

Hmmmm, all those professional teachers and nothing.....

Hanging out and shooting with me?

 

Priceless!! Lololol

Backcharges @ $45.00 per hour, hmmm no sticks coming up!

Happy u could help him out!

 

 

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[RockingCPA]

Hmmmm, all those professional teachers and nothing.....

Hanging out and shooting with me?

 

Priceless!! Lololol

Well, yes, playing with players that are better than you (you, for example) does help to elevate one's game.  There are a couple other things I did that made a huge difference, but I figured my "story" was bordering on novella length, so I left that out.  Kind of quickly, two other things:

 

1.  In January 2016, my wife and I did the Arbonne 28-day detox and learned how to eat healthy.  I lost 14# the first month and just kept going.  At my peak, I was 217# and now, I weight 170# and I'm staying there  At only 5'9", 217# provides a pretty good spare tire to have to turn against, and being 47# lighter makes everything easier and stressful on joints.  The combination of losing weight and working out has made a huge difference, for me.  I'm in better shape at 60, then I've been in since my early 30's, and my weight is the same as it was when graduated high school.  

 

2.  I subscribed to Top Speed Golf and I just LOVE the detail and the curriculum in Clay's online course.  My "day gig" is I'm a CPA, so I'm very technical by nature.  That's just how my brain works, and feeding me small bits of info with a drill to work on doesn't seem to work, for me.  I need the "big picture" and where we are and how we're getting there.  Top Speed Golf was $47 per year when I signed up, which is less than 1/2 the cost of a lot of a single lesson i have paid for.  Sometimes you need another set of eyes and video to see what you're doing, but this system helped me a lot.  

 

Another thing that helped was I built my own golf mirror with an acrylic mirror from Home Depot for about $50 and about $20 in PVC piping and hot glue.  So, mine cost me about $70 +/- vs $250-$300.  I took a couple video lessons earlier this year and they had one of the professionally made mirrors at the range, that I found very useful.  Feel vs real can often be very different and it helps to SEE what you think you're doing.

 

Forget all that, it was 100% my golf buddy Sluggo42.  LOLOL

[Big money]

Top speed golf looks like a solid program.Clay seems very informative and caring as well.Very similar to what I see in Jim Venetos.Two powerhouse online instructors

[Rickp]

Well, yes, playing with players that are better than you (you, for example) does help to elevate one's game. There are a couple other things I did that made a huge difference, but I figured my "story" was bordering on novella length, so I left that out. Kind of quickly, two other things:

 

1. In January 2016, my wife and I did the Arbonne 28-day detox and learned how to eat healthy. I lost 14# the first month and just kept going. At my peak, I was 217# and now, I weight 170# and I'm staying there At only 5'9", 217# provides a pretty good spare tire to have to turn against, and being 47# lighter makes everything easier and stressful on joints. The combination of losing weight and working out has made a huge difference, for me. I'm in better shape at 60, then I've been in since my early 30's, and my weight is the same as it was when graduated high school.

 

2. I subscribed to Top Speed Golf and I just LOVE the detail and the curriculum in Clay's online course. My "day gig" is I'm a CPA, so I'm very technical by nature. That's just how my brain works, and feeding me small bits of info with a drill to work on doesn't seem to work, for me. I need the "big picture" and where we are and how we're getting there. Top Speed Golf was $47 per year when I signed up, which is less than 1/2 the cost of a lot of a single lesson i have paid for. Sometimes you need another set of eyes and video to see what you're doing, but this system helped me a lot.

 

Another thing that helped was I built my own golf mirror with an acrylic mirror from Home Depot for about $50 and about $20 in PVC piping and hot glue. So, mine cost me about $70 +/- vs $250-$300. I took a couple video lessons earlier this year and they had one of the professionally made mirrors at the range, that I found very useful. Feel vs real can often be very different and it helps to SEE what you think you're doing.

 

Forget all that, it was 100% my golf buddy Sluggo42. LOLOL

Definitely Sluggo was the reason!

 

 

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[Sluggo42]

Rick seems to be a very intelligent person...; )