Why don’t you swing as well as you want to? What’s in the way? I call the gap between your current state and your desired motion the obstacles of your golf swing.

My conclusions are derived from a decade of coaching and, more importantly, from self-exploration across basically every swing style in golf.

I’ve conducted seven major swing changes on myself, alongside coaching countless students, and I’ve picked up a lot of knowledge along the way.

For me, the obstacles have some roots that are worth discussing.

Obstacle 1 – The Perception of Your Motion

Most golf swings are “too small.” Let’s keep it simple: if you have a bigger motion, it becomes much easier to accomplish the athletic task of squaring the clubface on the golf ball.

You’ll also have a much larger pathway to accelerate the club and generate centrifugal force, which translates directly into clubhead speed.

Mechanics get all the attention in instruction, but simple concepts like this should never be underestimated.

If you start perceiving your motion as bigger, you’ll gain massive advantages. I’ve written an article on how most golf swings are misunderstandings, and you can read it here.

I wrote another article about why Jack Nicklaus swing works and that can be read here.

Obstacle 2 – Your Need for Control is Too Big

All golf swings are created while balancing the need for power and control. This relationship is often skewed toward control, which means you lose out on the benefits of being a great power creator.

To achieve a great golf swing, you need shallowness and slight inside tendencies. Sure, you can be a power fade player as well, but most base motions demand a slight inside entry into the golf ball—and these tendencies often come naturally with good power creation, at least in old school golf.

The point is: we all want power and control, and it’s much easier to add control to a power state than it is to add power to a control state.

Focusing too much on control comes with a whole bunch of disadvantages.

An in depth article here.

Obstacle 3 – No Appointed Leader = Too Difficult Swing

Most golfers, especially those interested in golf technique, have a mechanical checklist a mile long running through their heads over the golf ball. This isn’t good for anyone.

One of the biggest insights I’ve gained in studying golf is this: you need to appoint a leader to your motion. Something that drives all other things, something at the top of the hierarchy. For me personally, it’s the perception of a swing arc as the leader.

Why? Because when you do that, you can simplify your thought processes and become much more abstract in your motion.

In other words, you can start having a much easier-to-achieve golf swing.

Read this article about it, please.

Obstacle 4 – You Aim the Wrong Way

As a right-eye dominant right-handed player (70–80% of all golfers), we perceive the golf shot slightly skewed.

Over time, this causes us to aim slightly to the right on every shot.

This is very natural—but also very detrimental—because it makes the athletic task of hitting a straight shot much harder.

I can’t say for sure, but I would assume that 90% of over-the-top swings originate from this misperception.Put another way: your best shots are likely right-side misses, and you might not even know it. Check out my Youtube video about it!

Obstacle 5 – Lack of Knowledge = Tension and Doubt

I can’t say that I fully understand the golf swing, but I know enough to put my mind at rest. Do you?

In our modern world, we feel the need to know everything (I’m guilty of this myself—it’s what drove my decade-long study of golf), and that can actually be a problem.

When we don’t really know, we become tense.

If you truly know enough about your motion, your mind will relax and your perception of your golf swing becomes simpler.

You want to play golf in a “stupid” state, if you will—because that’s all the brain can handle over the ball.

You can read this rather complex article about this subject for more insight.

Obstacle 6 – Unrealistic Expectations of Abilities

Thinking that you need to hit a perfect golf shot every single time is, in my opinion, one of the biggest subconscious contributors to tension and a lack of enjoyment in this game.

Allow yourself to suck.

I miss all the time—and that’s fine. It’s natural. Golf is hard.

But here’s the key: you need to miss in a way that doesn’t cost you too many strokes. Most of my misses are (inspired by Jack Nicklaus) thin and slightly to the right. This is the minimal danger zone on most holes and this leads to less lost strokes when missing. To be honest this is basically the goal of your golf swing: produce a motion that works and makes the misses acceptable. Read this article about power and control where I walk into a bit deeper. Click here to open it.

This is what I base my FMM coaching around: a simple, old-school, swing-arc inspired motion that keeps the swing from being disastrous, while still maintaining achievability and power, so the game remains fun.

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