Tension in upper body

Dear golfers,

Been through a very very bad patch this period. Rhythm is off, downswing is too fast, downswing started with upper body instead of lower body. As a result, hit the shots thin or top the ball or all kinds of shots that I hit three years ago.

We all saw so many articles and suggestions to relax the upper body or remove the tension in the shoulders. I have tried all ways but the upper body and shoulders only get more and more tense, shots get worse and worse. Theory is easy but I am never able to execute anything the web suggest.

Any bros here being through this stage and manage to guide Youself back to the right path? A month ago everything seems to fall in place. I swing with lower body first, the impact point is when lower body is almost facing the target, can feel my swing so relax, can feel and see the club head crush n smash against the ball without effort. What a great feeling. All these seems to have left me now. It's been a frustrating two weeks for me since then.

Any bros have first hand experience how to bring ur shoulders and upper body from tensed to relax again?

I Would Forget The distance, and deliberately slow my downswing to try to sweep the ball.

After a few successful shot (short though), your confident will build up again, then try to get your rhythm back.

Dun rush your swing

Hello thanx for the advice. I succeeded in forgetting abt the distance but I'm so tense that my down swing is very sudden. I don't know u know what I meant but the body seems not to be under control. I told myself to slow down but yet still too fast. It's frustrating sometimes.

You can try working on pitching with a wedge to various distances inside 100m.  Can also try intentionally hitting 2/3 of the normal distance you would expect from that club, e.g. trying to hit a 7i 100m

Working on making good swings at partial speed (or with shorter backswings) should help you find your own sense of rhythm again

Something my coach taught me. Simple but difficult at the same time. Forget about the ball and how you swing.
On your downswing, just focus on moving your legs and 'getting' your body to the left side. I am assuming you are right handed.

Just riding out this phase of my golf adventure.
It started with me getting too aggressive with the hybrids.
It's a case of confident lost and swing tempo.
The bros here are giving good advice.
This is what I did.
1) Practice the swing with the orange whip to learn the rhythm and tempo.
2) Use a short tee for mid/long irons during range practice to regain the confidence.
3) If you need to think and rehearse in your mind, do it before you swing.
4) When you are ready to swing, do not think anymore, just watch the ball between your feet and GO.
Be patient and do not despair, it will come back again.

Good luck

Thanx bro for all the advice. Will try again.

HI Golf Idiot,

ON a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate the tenseness of your muscles in your:

1. Grip
2. Arms
3. Shoulders

?

I went through a similar phase as you. And I have experimented with many different techniques, lock left arm elbow to keep it straight, rotate both arms towards chest during set-up (boob squeeze), "pull the rope" during down swing, all of these made me tense up at some point or other during my swing. 

I prefer the effortless feeling and hence I adopted the "zero arms and shoulders". Which means at set-up, my shoulders and arms are totally zero, 100% relaxed with no muscles involved. My grip is probably at a 3 on the scale. Not sure if this would help you get out of your slump. Gambettee.

Would suggest you see a coach. My swing is more consistent now after seeking professional help with advanced technology providing statistics that human eye couldn't see.
Personally it is important to get a coach who can explain in layman terms the swing faults and provide drills to correct our swing faults.
I have experienced coaches with instructions such as swing faster, swing path wrong, etc. Doesn't help me... bcos how to swing faster???

Well done Nam Flog,

It will be hard for me to match u with ur new found swing n confidence.

I myself is in the mids of fine tuning my grip n swing tempo too, shots are still drawing due to me over swinging with my upper body. But I was lucky to that a fellow golfer pointed out that I "gripped" too tight which resulted me using arms power instead of the core muscle to swing.

As male, we till to associate strength to distance. But in golf, distance is actually from a relax body and smooth swing tempo.

Willytan,

Please don't be so humble. I am definitely below your level of play. Still remember the 1st time I actually found the green from 160m was with you standing behind me and helping me to align my shot. Lol. Since then I finally realised I had trouble alignment as there was parallax error with my method.. Now I use "spot alignment", which seems to be better.

Yes totally agree that if you want to be a swinger, distance has to be achieved from relax and smooth tempo.

Hi Nam Flog,
1 being relaxed 10 being tense.
My grip arms and shoulders are relaxed at address (all 1). Shoulders start to tense alittle (5) during upswing. Grip and shoulder tensed up (8) during downswing. Arms are abit more relaxed (5) but still tense.

I tried to tell myself to relax but the body doesn't listen. Feels like body is not mine. Doesn't listen to me at all. The harder I try the more tense it gets.

How do you control during ur downswing.

Hi willy thanx for your post. Yes I wanted to achieve the relax smooth tempo. That's why I am trying so hard to find ways to relax or even forget abt my upper body.

Hi swine, do you mind to share who is your coach? Where is he based?

Golf idiot wrote:

Hi Nam Flog,
1 being relaxed 10 being tense.
My grip arms and shoulders are relaxed at address (all 1). Shoulders start to tense alittle (5) during upswing. Grip and shoulder tensed up (8) during downswing. Arms are abit more relaxed (5) but still tense.

I tried to tell myself to relax but the body doesn't listen. Feels like body is not mine. Doesn't listen to me at all. The harder I try the more tense it gets.

How do you control during ur downswing.

 Hi GI,

To slow your swing down intentionally, try this. Let's say you hit 100m with your P wedge with a full swing. Then you take that P wedge and still keeping your full swing, keep trying to hit 70m with it. Keep trying until you achieve your P wedge full swing can hit 70m. I believe you will feel your body slowing down.

This video helped me a lot.

Golf idiot wrote:

Hi willy thanx for your post. Yes I wanted to achieve the relax smooth tempo. That's why I am trying so hard to find ways to relax or even forget abt my upper body.

Hi swine, do you mind to share who is your coach? Where is he based?

Hi,
I am taking lessons with Justin Han. You can have a discussion with Justin to assess him yourself before committing. 1 lesson will make a lot of difference. Better than spending time and money perfecting your mistakes at the range.
Happy golfing!

You need Thai massage to ease your tension and relax your upper body 
Lots in Bkk. For good and real massage, the old masseurs are better at it.

Hahahaha. Flashpacker no joke. I even thought of doing that to remove the tension in the shoulders. Not bkk though. Juz some local massage.

Anyway I'm Juz back from range. Definitely much better now. I would say nam flog's video and suggestion of making a full swing but intentionally wanting to hit a shorter distance helps a lot. Hit the iron pure 60% of the time. Feeling is coming back but still feel not as relax as used to be. Will work on it still. I would also say trying to keep my focus on how shld the lower body be after impact managed to remove some of the tension caused by thinking of wanting to hit the ball.
I think we have to think of more ways to 'cheat' our body and mind into relaxing.

Hi swine thanx for the recommendations.

Sometime the harder one tries, the worse it can be ... Golf defies Science. I suggest stop going to the range for a couple of weeks and engage in other sport first ... Subsequently, you can commence your range session again. I believe you are suffering from mental block and you cannot discard your bad habits if you keep going to the range to practise unless a swing coach is present to offer you professional guidance ... In additon, I believe you are too anxious to resolve this swing flaw. Be patient and relax  ... "Golf is a never ending journey ... Before we begin, we should look at where we've been ..." Quoted by the living legend, Tiger Woods ...