STOP playing bad golf! ⛳ How to get out of a golf slump

STOP playing bad golf! ⛳ How to get out of a golf slump

If you’re in a golf slump (🙋‍♀️) and can’t seem to stop playing bad golf, this Slump Buster series is for you! I’ve been in a bit of a golf rut recently and am just not hitting the ball like I want so I thought I’d take you along for what I do when I just can’t seem to stop playing poorly. I’m giving drills, tips, and more for how to kick yourself back into gear when you just can’t seem to start playing better again.

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Hi, my name is Paige and I am in a golf slump right now, which is not great. So, I have created this new series called Slumpbuster where I’m going to show you how to get out of your golf slump. We have all been there before where everything is great. You’re feeling confident and all a sudden you hit that one shot and everything goes haywire and then you struggle for weeks, maybe months. You just can’t get out of this cycle of negativity and you hate golf and you hate yourself and none of it is good. None of it is good. So, we are going to work through it together since I am now currently going through it. And I think this will be a really fun series. So, let’s just get right on into it. [Music] So, I do a couple things when I am feeling this way. Um, number one, wear something cute. Wear nice. Cuz when you look good, you play good. I have this theory, it’s a working theory, uh, very scientific that, um, the more I cover up, the worse I play. And I know it’s silly and it’s fun. I joke about it, but it is true. When you feel good in your clothes, you play better golf. And so, wear one of your favorite outfits. Even if it’s just mental and it changes your approach, wear something cute. Next thing I do, and this one definitely probably only applies to me, but I strap the girls down. They are strapped down right now. This thing is so tight and uh I need it just as compact as possible because it does get in the way. It just does. And so, um, if you guys are like, “What happened? Where’d they go?” This is purposeful. I did this on purpose. Um, now let’s get into the real basics. Okay, now let’s get on to the real basics. So, what I like to do is when I’m really struggling with my game and, um, I just can’t really score and I’m hitting shanks. And I had one of the worst experiences of my entire life when I played golf yesterday. Um, first hole hit a great drive. Second hole, I shanked it and I was like, that’s a little unfortunate. I didn’t get up and down for my car, so I made bogey. Next hole, I shanked a driver OB. I was like, I’ve never done that before. I then shanked another driver. A driver. And then I hit kind of this weird 3-wood, shanked an iron shot, then didn’t get up and down. And I was like, “Hold on, hold on. Uh, something’s not right here.” I was having a full mental breakdown. I was almost at the fetal position and I started spiraling. I was like, “I’m never going to play golf again. I don’t know what happened. It’s like in space jam when they’re whenever their uh their ability was sucked out of them.” And that’s what it felt like. And then I hit okay drive and I was like, “Okay, maybe this is fine.” I shanked an iron shot and I didn’t know what was going on. And I had my playing partner take a video of me because I was like, “My swing feels fine. I’ve just have never hit shots like this before.” He takes a video of me. Turns out that I wasn’t actually hitting shanks. It felt like a shank because I was hitting it so far off the toe of the club that at impact in the video you could literally see the golf ball outside of my club and it felt like a huzzle because I was hitting it so poorly. And so I then I mean I was literally hitting it right like the tip tip tip of the toe. And it comes down to basics. So when you start spiraling, you spiraling, you start to um overcompensate and try to fix all these things, but it really comes down to ball position, your grip, and your setup. And so what I like to do after a round like that where I just feel a bit frazzled and I don’t know what’s going on, I like to come to the range and work on my basics. So this is step one in fixing your slump and it’s getting down to the basics. So, when you come to the driving range, don’t just start pounding golf balls. You’re going to use one of these. This is an alignment stick. You have to always practice with the alignment stick. So, what what happens is people set up, they start adjusting, they start adjusting, then they adjust their swing to get back to the target. And you will always be lined up at the right spot if you use an alignment stick. So, we’re going to throw this down. And you go. Perfect. So, I put my alignment stick down. Next thing I do is I work on my pitch shots. So, I start with a chip shot, work to a more of a bigger pitch shot into more of a uh like 80% full swing. The reason I like starting with this is because if you are struggling to find solid contact, if you can’t find solid contact with a short shot, you have no shot to find it when you’re doing a full swing. And so, this is a great way for me to kind of gain some confidence and then work on my impact position. But also at the same time I am working on my wedges and these short little touchy shots that sometimes really start to go when you are dealing with your slump. So really small um just trying to find center of the face. After I feel really good with my chip shots and pitch shots, I then work into my irons. And normally I do 975, but I’ve really been struggling with my pitching wedge. This is the club that um has been the culprit for a lot of these I call them shanks, but they’re like really really off the toe. And so I like to practice the clubs that I’m really struggling with. And so I’m going to use my pitching wedge and I’ll kind of jump around in my bag. Um but first I’m going to do some of my favorite drills to get myself synced up. I notice that when I am in a slump, I get really out of sync. And so I try to find my timing in my swing because again, you’re out there, you’re spiraling. I really can’t say spiraling. I need to stop using that word every single time. Like um when you’re having a fullblown mental breakdown on the golf course, you feel like your body, your mind is running and you’re trying to keep up. And that’s how I feel on the golf course where I’m already thinking of the next thing and not doing this and not doing that and not doing that, but I I feel out of control. It’s such an odd feeling and if you’ve been through it, you know, but you just feel like everything in your body is moving so fast and you can’t slow it down. And so these are some drills that I like to do to get me back in sync and also working on my grip ball position and how far away that I’m standing from it. It’s also another reason why the girls get strapped down because sometimes when I am in my normal form, um, I start to reach for it because I feel like I need some space here and before I know it, I’m so far from the golf ball and then when I come in and swing, I I’m here and I come and swing and then I’m right there. And that’s exactly what was happening. Um, and so when I have the strap down, I actually can have my arms hang properly. And so when I’m playing like rounds that matter in competitive rounds, um, that’s when I’ll wear like a double sports bra or something with a ton of compression, um, because that’s how I hit the golf ball the best is when I feel like they’re strapped down. this mostly for um how far away I’m standing from it because it really helps me get like nice and close and tight because I can just come back on my swing instead of here. I feel like I need that space to get around them. Um so we’re going to do some drills to like sync up my swing right now. I’ve always really struggled with the stop at the top drill because my body is so out of sync. And so this is one of my most favorite drills, but it’s also a drill that I struggle with the most. And this is great for everyone. It doesn’t matter your skill level while you’re working on your swing. Just getting that position at the top, feeling it, and then seeing how your weight transfers through the ball will really, really help you. So, if there’s one drill that I can recommend, do this one. This next drill is a new drill and one that I don’t think I’ve ever done on the channel before and it’s to we need a name for it. So, if you have a name for this drill, comment down below. Um, but it’s to work on your weight transfer. So, what I tend to do is I get kind of down and squatty in my swing and then I don’t transfer my weight forward. I turn my hips and I get quick with it and I get stuck here. And then that’s where you get the dreaded two-way miss. And so you get the hooks, you get the slices. None of it is good. Um, so this drill is to kind of you lift your heel up, play on your foot, and then you turn through. So, this one for me, and I’ll do some like step drills to feel this, but I really want to feel like this foot is pushing down and my body is moving that way. Boom. Boom. That’s what I’m trying to feel instead of Don’t want that. You want Because when your hips are moving, they’re not actually moving this way. They’re moving this way. They’re moving that way. That’s your transfer. It’s not this. People say quick hips and it’s not that. You don’t want that. You need to move here first and then you can fire your hips. But if you fire your hips from this position, you’re only going to do this. That’s where you get those slices from. As you can see, I really kind of struggle with this one. Um, I’ve hit a couple lefties, little chunkies. Um, I just don’t really get my hips moving in the right way. So, this is a great drill for me to do. Okay. So, Now that we’ve done our drills and we’re feeling pretty good, we are going to practice and be deliberate while we practice. So, I’m not going to pull a pit, pull a pit. Every single shot, I’m going to slow it down. Maybe go through my routine a little bit and try to really focus on every single shot like it’s out on the golf course because I can get in a rhythm here and I’m hitting great shots and I feel so good and then I get on the golf course and I I panic because it just feels so different. And so if you deliberately practice in the way that feels like you’re out on the golf course, it’s going to be easier to bring your game from the range over to the course. And so that’s what I’m going to do now throughout my entire bag. I’m going to work on some different shots. I’m really going to focus in on my target. I’m going to go through my routine a little bit. And I’m really going to slow it down. It’s not about how many golf balls you hit. It’s about hitting each one with a certain focus on every single shot. And that really helps you cuz again in this if you’re really struggling on the driving range and you get like really quick too, this will help slow you down where you don’t get in that pattern where you’re like where you know it’s like you just don’t know what happened. And that’s the same feeling that happens on the golf course. And so if you can learn to slow yourself down when that starts to happen on the driving range, you can apply that technique over to the golf course when that happens because it will inevitably happen. It just happens in golf. And the next thing too is be so kind to yourself. And this is me actually speaking to myself. Like take my own advice here. Um sometimes when you’re not playing well, you get so down on yourself. And always remember, your self-worth is not tied to your score. I’m gonna say that one more time. This is very, very important. Your self-worth is not tied to your score. It’s so easy to feel that way with golf. And we’ve always felt down in the dumps when our game isn’t going our way. It kind of reminds me of this weather right now. And this is what it feels like inside my brain. It’s overcast, it’s windy, it’s raining, there’s no sunlight. And so, you need to be your own sunlight. and it will help you get out of the slump faster. The more that you hate on yourself and you talk poorly to yourself, um it’s just going to add more fuel to the fire and we don’t want to do that. We want to put the fire out. We want you to have sunlight again. So, be just so kind to yourself through this entire process because even the best players in the world go through this. We’re seeing it with most players right now. It’s just what happens with golf. And if they’re going through it with all of the resources and help that uh they have and how good they are, then we’re also going to struggle with it, too. And we’re going to have it more than not. So, always remember golf looks like this and be so kind to yourself when you’re on the down and really enjoy the ups. So, listen to that page. And gray that into your noggin because I just really struggle with that. It’s so hard to not feel like you’re just a pathetic piece of crap when you’re playing bad. And I need to be crying to myself and you to be kind to yourself. Alice hit. With that said, I keep telling my videographer to [Applause] with the little shanks that are happening right now. So, safety first. [Music] So now I hit a couple go through my routine. It’s so interesting because when I’m out here I feel so free and it’s easy and it’s flowing because there’s no consequences to a bad shot out on the driving range. And when I get onto the golf course, I’m like, “Don’t hit here. Don’t hit here. Here, don’t hit here.” And so I’m trying to feel a trigger point for me. And so when I’m at the top of my swing, I almost feel like my back is to the target a second. And then I fire through. And when I’m on the course, I don’t feel that because I’m so quick. And so I’m really trying to find one trigger point in my swing where I’m able to replicate that on the golf course because you don’t want to be thinking about anything mechanical unless it’s like ball position grip, how far you’re standing away from it. But your trigger doesn’t want to be I have to focus on my hinge or I have to focus on the position at the top unless that’s a feeling. So unless instead of thinking mechanics, find a feeling, a trigger, and that’s all you’re going to be thinking on the golf course. You want to focus on hitting shots and not working on your swing. We work on our swing here, and we play when we’re on the course. And so I like to just find a trigger point. And that’s what I’m trying to find right now. And now it’s raining. It’s just I’m so negative when I am like out here and again it’s like the rain’s reminding me. It’s like don’t be negative. I feel like I feel like Eeyore, you know when you have like a cloud like a rain cloud above you when you’re playing bad and you just get so negative with your self-t talk and even like every shot now I’m like I’m going to shank it and I’m like I know I’m not going to shank it but it just gets in your head. So you need to like fake it till you make it and get that confidence. Okay, we’re going to move through the bag now. I struggle with my long irons. Um, so then I’m going to skip for my pitching wedge. I actually like my nine and my eight and I’m going to go through uh my seven then my five. [Music] [Music] [Music] So, I struggle most with my six and five iron. They are my nemesis clubs. And so, I spend majority of my time with my five iron. I’ve just never been a really good iron player because I tell myself I’m not a good iron player. And this is going to sound like really woo woo, but like you do manifest how you’re feeling and how you talk to yourself. And so since I always talk about not being a good ball striker, I’m not a good ball striker. And I’ll get on the range and I hit it great and I get on the golf course and I feel lost. And so I’m really just trying to work on like my timing and feeling feeling these shots, but also being aggressive. I think sometimes I get and and I think people have probably seen this on the golf course, I don’t follow through. And so I’m really focusing right now on following through and really being aggressive and firing um through with my body. And uh it really does, you do hit better shots when you’re free through your swing and really just kind of letting your athleticism uh take over. I always like to say you’re an athlete, right? And if you’re going to do any other sport, it’s really intuitive on what you want to do. And sometimes golf isn’t the most intuitive sport, but you still want to be an athlete. And so I always try to remember that you good hand, you have good hand eye coordination, you’re athletic, you can hit a golf ball, have confidence, and just just swing it. And I think sometimes we get so locked up in our head of all the mechanics, but really at the end of the day, you’re an athlete, be an athlete, trust yourself. solid. This is also all the grounds crew is going to hate me for this one because you do want to have proper divots and go backwards. But if you’re really really struggling, give yourself some good lies. Honestly, tee it up in front of the divots. Uh use a tea. Get confidence. Go to a place with mats. Like you just want to keep building your confidence. And so don’t give yourself some tough lies just because you want to have the perfect divot um pattern. Tee it up. Get confidence. And that’s really important, too. So, don’t worry about sometimes giving yourself a preferred lie when you want to hit a good golf shot because you’re building confidence and that’s so important. Another thing I like to think is just deliver the club to the back of the ball, right? Like you get so in your head about all these things and it’s like club goes up, club goes down. Try to find the ball. Try to keep face square. Sometimes you just need to overly simplify it to get back into a good routine and not get so try all these different things. Just deliver a club back a ball. And that’s kind of all I’m thinking right now. And sometimes you’re going to hit a really bad shot. That’s going to happen. Uh just try not to then or use the spiral. There we go. Yeah, I chunked that. I hit a bad shot. News flash. I’m not Tiger Woods. I should hit bad shots. So instead of that going, “Oh no, I did this. I need to overorrect and do this now.” Just laugh it off and be like, “Man, that was a really bad shot.” I don’t know what happened there, but that was just an anomaly. Uh golf, you have to be so precise on what you’re doing that sometimes it’s just like that much of an issue that causes that shot. So, take a second, walk it off, take your time, and then get back into it. And then I smoked it. So again, it’s like nothing really that bad happened. And also I hit a bad shot and the world cup spinning like it’s okay. It was really interesting. because I played a lot of golf with um amazing athletes and they just have this this mentality in their mind, but there’s still something about golf that can really humble you and I was playing with a surgeon and we were just kind of talking about this and he said that I love golf. I’m not very good at it, but the best thing ever is if I miss a three-footer, it’s fine. if I make a mistake in surgery, someone could die. And so he said that and I was like, well, that’s a good perspective. Like, we really do make it feel like it’s life or death out here and that missing a three-footer could be the biggest thing that could ever happen. And it’s like, no, that’s not true. Like, have some perspective. Like, golf is a luxury that we get to play and that we’re lucky to play. And if you miss a three-footer, the world will keep spinning. nothing bad will happen. And always remember that because that that’s helped me a lot too. And sometimes you try a feel like that one. I felt sometimes I I feel a little out of control. So, I was like, “What happens if I stay more over the ball?” Well, that didn’t work. And now I know that it doesn’t work. And so, I won’t do that feeling when I’m on the golf course because sometimes when you’re on the golf course and things start going haywire, you try new feels for the first time and it doesn’t work. And so, I now I know that that’s not a feel that I like. So, it’s trial and error out here as well. And so make sure you are trying new things because you want to see what works and what doesn’t. Bryson Divo told me this when we were doing our swing lesson together and you guys can go check that out. Um, but I was having issues hooking it and he told me something, tried two swings. He’s like, “Stop.” Like, “Don’t make it work.” I feel like some people will be like they’ll try the same feeling or tip over and over and over again and sometimes that tip just doesn’t work for you. So if it doesn’t work for you in a couple of swings, switch it. Don’t keep trying to make yourself make that tip work or that feeling work. Just try something completely different. So that feeling was stay tall on it and that works for me. So now I will replace that old feeling with this feeling. And now I’m going to try to replicate that again. And I like to finish out each club with hitting three good shots in a row. When I was a gymnast and we were trying to get a skill, my coaches would always say, “First time’s luck, second time coincidence, third time skill.” So if you can do it three times in a row, then you feel like it’s more ingrained in your body. I didn’t hit it well. So now I got to start over again and hit three more. Now I can move on. I’ve actually been hitting my woods out of everything quite well. So, I don’t think I’m going to hit too many of these because I think sometimes that when you’re in a slump, there’s something like I don’t know, even when you’re a bad mood, you almost lean into it even more because you like to throw yourself a pity party. And I do that. Maybe that’s is a me problem. I’ll talk about that in therapy later. Um, but I noticed I would do this all the time on the driving range before a round of golf, especially competitive round of golf that I always believed that if I hit it well on the range, I’d hit it bad on the course. And if I hit it bad on the range, I’d hit it good on the course. And so I’d almost force myself to start hitting bad. And even if I’m in a slump and I start to get out of the slump, I almost like work myself back into it because I’m hitting so many golf balls. And it’s like, it’s okay. You can stop when you’re ahead. Like when you feel like you’ve made good progress and you feel like you’re a good spot, stop. There’s nothing saying that you have to hit for hours and hours and hours. Sometimes that can do more harm than good. Um and so don’t again practice with a purpose and be efficient. Um and don’t work yourself into trying to like hit bad shots. Maybe Okay, I’m now I’m saying it out loud. I’m like, you’re crazy. But it’s true. I do that sometimes. I think it’s just like misery loves company and you you like to feel these pity party and the poor me thing sometimes when it comes to golf and it’s like don’t do that. Don’t do that anymore. Don’t keep hitting until you start hitting it bad. And I don’t think any of this is like on purpose. It’s all subconscious. It’s just something about golf that you just start to do this stuff. And I’ve done so much work like in therapy and with sports psychologists that like I’m aware of all these issues, but it’s so hard to like apply it to yourself when you’re doing it because it’s just it just happens. Just comes and it’s hard to get out of this mindset. kind of shank that one, but that’s fine because I’m mo I’m testing out how far or close away I want to be from the golf ball because that’s something I struggle with. And so I’m finding that good point sometimes. That one was I was actually a little too close. There we go. It is interesting how like when I’m filming this video, if I talk about something negative, I actually hit a bad shot. And then when I am like trying to pump you up and pump myself up and talk about things that are positive, I actually hit good shots. So your head is so incredibly important to hitting good 12 shots. See, that was positive and I hit a positive shot. So again, the last thing you say before you should hit a golf ball should be something positive um or nice about yourself or something or about the shot. Like there’s so many times where you step up to it and you’re like, “Don’t hit it here. Don’t do this.” And it’s like, “No, I’m going to hit a great shot right here.” Watch. Because I said I was going to hit a great shot. Your mind is a powerful tool. And just like with your golf swing or in the gym or with whatever you do, you have to train it to work properly. And so you have to train yourself to be positive and to trust yourself and have confidence. Bam. All good shots. It works. So now we’re on to my driver. And I used to have the driver yips and full swing yeps and I still do pretty bad when I was playing golf competitively. And I’ve talked about it. When my parents would come and watch me, they’d have to walk up the right and the left side because we didn’t know which way it was going and I just lost so many drives. And so there’s nothing worse than standing on a tea and not knowing where it’s going. And so just like getting out of a slump, it’s getting out of the yips. You can apply everything to the same. I know people are like, “How do you get rid of the yips and it applies to chipping and putting it’s really all it’s all mental.” Um, and so what I like to do with my driver is swing really really free and try to stay tall on it and that seems to help me. That wasn’t good. I kind of hit that so far on the toe, but I was so far away from it. Like that’s the thing. I hit it right here with an open club face. Um, but I was like I was reaching a little bit and that’s what happens on the golf course. I start reaching. I want to hit it far. I’m like hit ball far and I start doing that and it’s like no you actually need to feel tight. Much better. And then periodically come back and check your target. I bumped it and I felt like I bumped it and that last shot was right of my target but I hit it well. Um, so keep checking because you could just knock it with your feet and stuff. [Music] I hope you enjoyed episode one of my new series, Slump Busters. And we made some really great progress today, not only physically, but also mentally, which is really honestly the most important part of this journey. So, I really hope you enjoyed today’s episode. Like, leave a comment, subscribe to my channel, and on the next episode of Slump Busters, we are going to take what we apply today on the course. We’re going to take what we apply today on the range and take it to the golf course and we’ll work through it together. This is you and me. We’re in this together, and we are both going to get out of our golf slump. So, I’ll see you next time.