You should never play “a mind full of mechanics golf swing” on a round of golf. I agree with that, but at the same time it’s hard not to think at all. For me, swing thoughts are a gift from above, and I use them for more than just a brain placeholder during my shots.

Roughly six years ago, I started dabbling with the thesis that well-developed swing thoughts (or intentions) can, if they’re correct, actually stimulate a better and more consistent motion.

Over the years, I’ve worked with thousands of students, and more than 90% also wish to think about something—so this work wasn’t only for myself but also for the advantage of student development.

Swing Thoughts vs Drills in Swing Change

Drilling definitely works. I’ve performed seven major swing changes and have worked mostly in the mechanical drilling setting. It works—and the better the drill, the fewer the repetitions. You need something in the ballpark of 3–5,000 reps per drill to make it count.

Usually, a pattern change requires you to drill 3–4 different drills, so counting between 15–20,000 reps is a pretty accurate estimate of the time needed for change.

So what about swing thoughts as a driver for swing change? During drilling, certain feelings surface, and I started thinking about using these feelings as drivers instead of the stagnant starting and finish positions.

This worked very well. And when I dove even deeper—thinking about which abstract concepts could actually facilitate the motion that the feeling was creating—stuff really started to happen.

With the right perception of your own motion, or “inner image” as I call it, you can use specific swing thoughts in the downswing and follow-through to accomplish roughly the same result as the more difficult drilling route. With one big difference: you need WAY fewer repetitions.

The demand is that you use swing thoughts connected to the driving elements of your golf swing. (Read this article here to see what I mean.)

Swing Thoughts in Development – An Example

To make this somewhat digestible, I’ll use my own swing model here to describe how it works.

1. It all starts with how you perceive your motion. This is where you need to put in some work. If you have an outside-in pattern, you’re likely seeing a limited view of a golf swing. So we start there. I perceive my motion as a big Paris wheel, if you will, and I make the golf swing arc the absolute leader of the show. This hierarchy is not only important—it’s paramount for the rest to function. I’m a “the club leads the body” kind of guy, if you will.
2. I clarify my intention for the downswing. I call this the engine ignite and use either a feeling of a big downswing arc or a hammer/ax to put speed into the system early. In old-school golf, you want to get that speed going so you can harness it. This swing thought, initiated from a certain backswing position thanks to old-school fundamentals, gets the juices flowing and starts presenting loads of centrifugal force (power) into my motion. I don’t care about the result at this point—I just do this until I hook the golf ball.
3. Once this becomes more or less automatic, I have a pretty decent power swing with less-than-desired control. This is where the follow-through feeling comes in. I try to get my hands to a centripetal position, which carries the motion all the way to the finish. This actually accomplishes a sniff of the holy grail in golf—it adds more speed and control at the same time.
4. Both intentions start to feel more familiar, and after a while I can forget about the downswing. My swing becomes finish-bound, and I feel connected to the outcome of my shot.
5. Over time, the swing thoughts start becoming more “soft.” Almost “feathery” in your mind. This is when you start to strike the sweet spot of performance. I have no scientific evidence for this, but here it goes: the softer the swing thought, the less tension I swing with. And a body without tension, more often than not, delivers better motions.
6. I also cater to my swing’s dynamic change over time. If I’m too follow-through bound for too long, I’ll lose some downswing, and then I train downswing intentions to ignite the engine again—and vice versa.

There’s nothing more to it, to be honest. The above is written from more than 10 years of experience dabbling in swing change. What I don’t write—maybe the most important part—is this: you don’t need to work with mechanics at all. They happen with the correct intentions/swing thoughts.

All parts are equally important, but point one—the perception of your motion (your inner image)—is the gatekeeper. Address this first, and the route to change opens.

The above process takes 3–5,000 reps to conclude, but the first point requires knowledge. That’s why I created my FMM Toolbox with 65 videos to unclog your mind and help you accept why the old-school golf swing really isn’t that hard. With the coin drops that come from understanding your motion, you can start to perceive it in a more adequate way.

Ever tried to impersonate someone else—say, a Tour Player—and hit an awesome shot? The reason for your performance was your perceived motion.

Swing Thoughts – why only Downswing and Follow Through?

You need to match your precious swing thoughts to the areas of the swing where we can actually think. Otherwise, they almost completely lose their potency.

So here’s roughly how it works:

• The backswing is pretty much thinkable.
  
• The start of the downswing has slight thinking ability and demands abstract, simple swing thoughts (or intentions).
  
• The whole striking zone (p5.5 → p8 for the swing-savvy) has about ZERO thinking ability, and this is what I call the BLACK ZONE of swing thoughts.
  
• The follow-through is thinking territory again—also difficult, though similar to the early downswing.
  

So the point is this: we need to get our minds to focus on the chronological parts where we can actually influence our motions.

Swing Thoughts – Catering to the Black Zone in our swings

I also wish to clarify one thing and simultaneously link over to another article on this topic – the impact zone is really the decider of the entire golf shot right? And it’s almost unthinkable from a brain perspective. 

As mentioned above, I call it the Black Zone of the swing from the mind’s perspective.

So how do you deal with impact? 

Go to the article for the long answer. Short answer: You don’t deal with impact, you let it happen as an incidental event created from the combination of your downswing and follow through swing thought.

This pill is hard to swallow for most since control is on our DNA’s but that’s really it. Influence impact through downswing and follow through intentions. Let it happen and you will be surprised how your consistency will shoot through the roof.

Swing Thoughts – As Tools for managing your Swing on the Course

As I mentioned earlier, I—just like most students I’ve ever met—want to think about something. Having a big empty vacuum in your head while swinging is nearly impossible. So that’s the first benefit of swing thoughts: they give you something to do.

The second benefit is even more powerful: swing thoughts can be adapted to your shot making.

For example, if one day I’m hitting it a little thin and fading the ball too much (push-fade style), it usually means I’ve put too much emphasis on the follow-through. By shifting my swing thoughts to actually completing the downswing instead, I can change that ball flight immediately.

That kind of adaptability is gold. It can turn a frustrating ball-striking round into something much better—simply by steering your focus toward the right part of the motion.

Summary

I use active swing thoughts—the softer the better—both for swing changes and for course play. I encourage my students to paint perceived motions that support their development, and to build reliable, recognizable, and soft swing thoughts they can trust on the course.

Having coached for nearly a decade, I can’t emphasize enough how powerful the right swing thoughts can be. They don’t just guide your development—they’re far more efficient than chasing pressure traces or locking yourself into mechanical positions.

For the past six years, I’ve worked from a simple thesis: the old masters didn’t make the swing harder—they made it easier. That’s the heart of what I teach in the FMM Swing Academy.

If you take just one idea away from this article, let it be this: figure out what in your perception of your motion is limiting you. That awareness is the real unlock for swing change.

For example, if you tend to come over the top, your limitation isn’t physical—it’s perceptual. You believe that striking the ball is an active action. In reality, you need to paint a bigger downswing arc and let the strike happen. Then, after a while, you can actually build in efficient follow through action into your motion.

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