Haunted by the “Ghost” of an injury

[Yuck]

Going back to late last July, I was hitting well and attempted an another USGA qualifier.  A few days before the qualifier I pulled a muscle in my lower back, left side and found I could note get my weight to my lead hip without significant pain.  I played anyway and chopped it around in the low 80’s.  In the weeks following I continued to play through the injury by stalling and throwing my arms at the ball.  While I could hit a ball on a tee, my ball striking suffered greatly.  Missing a lot of greens does sharpen the short game, but not enough.  My index started to climb to the point of being hard capped by GHIN.  

 

Finally I took about 6 weeks off to give my injury time to heal.  In my “comeback”, my back muscle feels fine other than a fear of tweaking it.  But my play has continued to suffer.  Without any actual pain, my swing continues to try to “protect” my former injury on an inconsistent basis.  My “good” swing has always required decent body rotation to keep the ball from going left.  So if I stall my body rotation, I am off the planet left.   I am actually now playing even worse now than I was when I was injured because I am stuck between two totally different patterns.  I have honestly become a hacker.  Recently I have been averaging 5 lost balls per round.  I actually failed to reach the ladies tee on a par 3!.  This issue is not that I do not know how to swing.  The issue is I have not been able to eliminate the injury compensating swing with any consistency.  Maybe it is because I am getting older, but I need any input how to totally abandon a bad pattern.  I am tired of hitting houses.

[iacas]

I didn't read much about how much, how often, or how you practice in there.

 

I'd recommend going to the range and making some slow swings at a ball on a low tee… with the correct pattern. Slowly build up speed, maintaining what you consider to be your "correct" swing. Slowly convince the subconscious side of your mind that you won't re-injure yourself while re-training your body to make your "correct" swing.

 

Or, use this as an opportunity to make some improvements that don't require what seems from reading to be a compensation. Use it as a chance to re-evaluate some things.

[Yuck]

Thanks 

[jonsnow]

On 2/18/2025 at 8:13 AM, iacas said:

I didn't read much about how much, how often, or how you practice in there.

 

I'd recommend going to the range and making some slow swings at a ball on a low tee… with the correct pattern. Slowly build up speed, maintaining what you consider to be your "correct" swing. Slowly convince the subconscious side of your mind that you won't re-injure yourself while re-training your body to make your "correct" swing.

 

Or, use this as an opportunity to make some improvements that don't require what seems from reading to be a compensation. Use it as a chance to re-evaluate some things.

Would you give the same advice to someone who has lingering left side balance issues from a stroke a couple of years ago? I'm recovered to the point that I know I'm not going to fall when I swing but my body doesn't trust that knowledge enough to get to my left side like I did before the strokes. End up hitting most shots with way too much weight/pressure still on my right side.

[GoGoErky]

1 hour ago, jonsnow said:

Would you give the same advice to someone who has lingering left side balance issues from a stroke a couple of years ago? I'm recovered to the point that I know I'm not going to fall when I swing but my body doesn't trust that knowledge enough to get to my left side like I did before the strokes. End up hitting most shots with way too much weight/pressure still on my right side.

Yep. Your body has to be trained for a new movement pattern or to get away from a compensation. Slow movements are how we retrain movement patterns.

 

you have to teach your mind the motor pattern

[jonsnow]

6 minutes ago, GoGoErky said:

Yep. Your body has to be trained for a new movement pattern or to get away from a compensation. Slow movements are how we retrain movement patterns.

 

you have to teach your mind the motor pattern

Unfortunately, my mind is somewhat resistant now to learning or remembering things...

[ShortGolfer]

Perhaps you should look into exercises for improving your balance?

 

I had a brain stem bleed and had balance issues when I first started swinging a club four years ago.  They went away after playing golf for two months on a hilly golf course.

I do remember one particularly awkward swing...

 

I expect to take a couple months to learn new stuff.

 

 

Edited February 19 by ShortGolfer

[jonsnow]

10 minutes ago, ShortGolfer said:

Perhaps you should look into exercises for improving your balance?

 

I had a brain stem bleed and had balance issues when I first started swinging a club four years ago.  They went away after playing golf for two months on a hilly golf course.

I do remember one particularly awkward swing...

 

I expect to take a couple months to learn new stuff.

 

 

Thanks, I've done a couple of rounds of PT for 6 months or so each at 2 different locations. I get better at doing the exercises they give me (& continue to do them on my own) but it doesn't seem to transfer to my golf swing. Balance improvement seems to be a hard thing to quantify.

[GoGoErky]

49 minutes ago, jonsnow said:

Unfortunately, my mind is somewhat resistant now to learning or remembering things...

We don’t like change and it’s hard to make it. 

[jonsnow]

Two things I hate the most: 1) the way things are and 2) change...

[ShortGolfer]

I find it best to do a lot of short practice sessions versus fewer long ones. If I can, I'll do a couple of short practice sesssions every day. 

 

Good luck with the rehab.