Opinion & Analysis
Swing thoughts vs. swing feels: Which is the key to better golf?
What really divides the best golfers from the weekend hackers? Perhaps much is attributable to innate talent. However, it seems the best golfers simply play the game a different way between their ears — and that doesn’t mean they’re using a better combination of swing thoughts, says Jim Waldron, founder of Balance Point Golf School.
We talked to Waldron about his efforts to help golfers master this maddening game. In short, Waldron sees better players occupying a different mental space on course, one unmarred by swing thoughts and efforts to control various aspects of the golf swing.
Jim Waldron, founder of Balance Point Golf School.
“I listened to this great interview the other day with Neil Young about how he creates music…how it’s about getting out of your own way,” Waldron says, equating writing a guitar riff with perfectly struck 7-iron.
Waldron grew up caddying outside of Chicago and has been in the golf business ever since. He is well-versed in The Golfing Machine, Mac O’Grady’s work and biomechanics, and he teaches primarily in California, Hawaii and Oregon.
We spoke with him to learn more about his development as a golfer and instructor.
“At the same time I took up golf, I took up karate from one of the top martial artists in the world,” Waldron says. The crossover influence of the martial arts training on his fledgling golf game helped him learn a quality, repeatable swing quickly. Waldron learned the importance of slow-motion mirror training thanks in part to his karate work.
What’s wrong with teaching and how it got that way
Waldron discussed the unique evolution of golf and the way he believes it has created a “dysfunctional culture for learning.”
“Golf evolved in a way that teachers were not respected by their wealthy students,” he says. “Because there was such a power and wealth imbalance…hiring these guys from Scotland with third- and fourth-grade educations to come over to teach them to golf. They weren’t even allowed in the clubhouse. You can’t say, ‘Hey, Mr. Rockefeller, your swing sucks!’ So the incentive is to lie to the student, give false positive feedback, which we still do today.”
As Waldron says, ”The bulk of golf instruction, both written and oral, is about learning mechanics to the level of conscious mind, execution, and understanding only.” In other words, Waldron sees too much emphasis on swing theory and not enough on practice.
Waldron also sees the necessity of self-promotion for teachers in the present industry climate as potentially destructive.
“I think the game is in a crisis right now…the people we’re gaining, we’re losing a lot of those beginners. There’s huge competition among teaching pros, which tends to lead to less-than-accurate information. It’s gotten to the point that whoever has the coolest-sounding teaching approach gets the most eyeballs on social media…I’m not a fan of that.”
“I try to base my teaching on what works, not necessarily on what’s marketable,” Waldron says.
So, what does Waldron think works?
While the approach at Balance Point is notable for the emphasis on on-course performance, Waldron notes that he spends 90 percent of his time teaching people better mechanics, doing mirror work and range work.
However, regarding the other 10 percent of his teaching efforts, Waldron says, “I always start with mental focus training…at least if they’re a 10 [handicap] or higher. It takes time in the student’s mind to prepare the ground for actual training.”
Ultimately, the goal is to “transmit ideas to the subconscious mind.” Most golfers know consciously what they want to be doing. The trick, according to Waldron, is to get the body to cooperate. Slow-motion practice in front of a mirror and semi-mastery of swing aspects are the preliminaries to good on-course play.
Waldron’s view on swing thoughts
An element of Waldron’s teaching that is perhaps unique, is his approach to swing thoughts. “If you tell people it’s OK to use swing thoughts on the range, but don’t use them on the golf course, that’s crazy…My philosophy is you don’t use swing thoughts ever,” he says.
Waldron distinguishes between “swing thoughts” and “swing feels.” “If you talk to really good players… when they say swing thought…it’s very seldom a thought; it’s almost always a feel,” he says.
The three sensory channels
In order to convey the difference between the two, Waldron imparts the distinction between the three sensory channels the brain can operate in. And while the exercise may seem excessive, it’s an important foundational understanding for playing better golf, in Waldron’s mind.
Here’s Waldron’s exercise in full for distinguishing between the sensory channels.
Channel 1: “Put one hand on your shoulder. Rotate your head and look at it. Now when you’re looking with your eyes, we call “external visual channel.” Rotate your head back to center and close your eyes and picture your hand on your shoulder, that’s what we call “internal visual channel.”
Channel 2: “And when you hear an internal voice, that’s the auditory channel. And then you say out loud, “I am touching my shoulder.” That’s your external auditory channel.”
Channel 3: “The third channel is feel. So if you squeeze your hand on your shoulder and kind of pulse, and you get to the point where you’re only feeling the sensation and you’re not seeing the picture anymore, and you’re not talking about your hand on your shoulder. That’s the kinesthetic or “feel” channel.”
“We either see an internal image of something, or we talk to ourselves,” Waldron says. “Ninety-nine percent of people during the golf swing are seeing internal visual images of what they want their body or club to do. When you talk to really good players, they tend not to do that type of thinking during their swings.”
Swing feels > Swing thoughts
So when Waldron talks about “swing feels,” that’s what he means. From this initial understanding a student then seeks to repeat the sensations and movements initially worked on in slow motion on the golf course.
Students ought to seek to “learn a new piece of the swing, then forget about it so that it can become automatic,” Waldron says. “It’s the way every other sport is taught. But in golf it sounds weird.”
The failure to do so, and the reliance on swing thoughts and efforts to control aspects of the train will create, at a minimum, a detrimental flinch, and at worst, a yip.
Of course, there’s much more to Waldron’s thinking about the golf swing and on-course performance. To learn more, visit balancepointgolf.com, and see what GolfWRX Members are saying about Balance Point Golf School in our forum.
As the editor-in-chief of this website and an observer of the GolfWRX forums and other online golf equipment discourse for over a decade, I’m pretty well attuned to the grunts and grumbles of a significant portion of the golf equipment purchasing spectrum. And before you accuse me of lording above all in some digital ivory tower, I’d like to offer that I worked at golf courses (public and private) for years prior to picking up my pen, so I’m well-versed in the non-degenerate golf equipment consumers out there. I touched (green)grass (retail)!
Complaints about the ills of and related to the OEMs usually follow some version of: Product cycles are too short for real innovation, tour equipment isn’t the same as retail (which is largely not true, by the way), too much is invested in marketing and not enough in R&D, top staffer X hasn’t even put the new driver in play, so it’s obviously not superior to the previous generation, prices are too high, and on and on.
Without digging into the merits of any of these claims, which I believe are mostly red herrings, I’d like to bring into view of our rangefinder what I believe to be the two primary difficulties golf equipment companies face.
One: As Terry Koehler, back when he was the CEO of Ben Hogan, told me at the time of the Ft Worth irons launch, if you can’t regularly hit the golf ball in a coin-sized area in the middle of the face, there’s not a ton that iron technology can do for you. Now, this is less true now with respect to irons than when he said it, and is less and less true by degrees as the clubs get larger (utilities, fairways, hybrids, drivers), but there remains a great deal of golf equipment truth in that statement. Think about it — which is to say, in TL;DR fashion, get lessons from a qualified instructor who will teach you about the fundamentals of repeatable impact and how the golf swing works, not just offer band-aid fixes. If you can’t repeatably deliver the golf club to the golf ball in something resembling the manner it was designed for, how can you expect to be getting the most out of the club — put another way, the maximum value from your investment?
Similarly, game improvement equipment can only improve your game if you game it. In other words, get fit for the clubs you ought to be playing rather than filling the bag with the ones you wish you could hit or used to be able to hit. Of course, don’t do this if you don’t care about performance and just want to hit a forged blade while playing off an 18 handicap. That’s absolutely fine. There were plenty of members in clubs back in the day playing Hogan Apex or Mizuno MP-32 irons who had no business doing so from a ballstriking standpoint, but they enjoyed their look, feel, and complementary qualities to their Gatsby hats and cashmere sweaters. Do what brings you a measure of joy in this maddening game.
Now, the second issue. This is not a plea for non-conforming equipment; rather, it is a statement of fact. USGA/R&A limits on every facet of golf equipment are detrimental to golf equipment manufacturers. Sure, you know this, but do you think about it as it applies to almost every element of equipment? A 500cc driver would be inherently more forgiving than a 460cc, as one with a COR measurement in excess of 0.83. 50-inch shafts. Box grooves. And on and on.
Would fewer regulations be objectively bad for the game? Would this erode its soul? Fortunately, that’s beside the point of this exercise, which is merely to point out the facts. The fact, in this case, is that equipment restrictions and regulations are the slaughterbench of an abundance of innovation in the golf equipment space. Is this for the best? Well, now I’ve asked the question twice and might as well give a partial response, I guess my answer to that would be, “It depends on what type of golf you’re playing and who you’re playing it with.”
For my part, I don’t mind embarrassing myself with vintage blades and persimmons chasing after the quasi-spiritual elevation of a well-struck shot, but that’s just me. Plenty of folks don’t give a damn if their grooves are conforming. Plenty of folks think the folks in Liberty Corner ought to add a prison to the museum for such offences. And those are just a few of the considerations for the amateur game — which doesn’t get inside the gallery ropes of the pro game…
Different strokes in the game of golf, in my humble opinion.
Anyway, I believe equipment company engineers are genuinely trying to build better equipment year over year. The marketing departments are trying to find ways to make this equipment appeal to the broadest segment of the golf market possible. All of this against (1) the backdrop of — at least for now — firm product cycles. And golfers who, with their ~15 average handicap (men), for the most part, are not striping the golf ball like Tiger in his prime and seem to have less and less time year over year to practice and improve. (2) Regulations that massively restrict what they’re able to do…
That’s the landscape as I see it and the real headwinds for golf equipment companies. No doubt, there’s more I haven’t considered, but I think the previous is a better — and better faith — point of departure when formulating any serious commentary on the golf equipment world than some of the more cynical and conspiratorial takes I hear.
Agree? Disagree? Think I’m worthy of an Adam Hadwin-esque security guard tackle? Let me know in the comments.
@golfoncbs The infamous Adam Hadwin tackle ? #golf #fyp #canada #pgatour #adamhadwin ? Ghibli-style nostalgic waltz – MaSssuguMusic
Episode #16 brings us Cliff McKinney. Cliff is the founder of Old Charlie Golf Club, a new club, and concept, to be built in the Florida panhandle. The model is quite interesting and aims to make great, private golf more affordable. We hope you enjoy the show!
Last week, I came across a reel from BBC Sport on Instagram featuring Scottie Scheffler speaking to the media ahead of The Open at Royal Portrush. In it, he shared that he often wonders what the point is of wanting to win tournaments so badly — especially when he knows, deep down, that it doesn’t lead to a truly fulfilling life.
View this post on Instagram
“Is it great to be able to win tournaments and to accomplish the things I have in the game of golf? Yeah, it brings tears to my eyes just to think about it because I’ve literally worked my entire life to be good at this sport,” Scheffler said. “To have that kind of sense of accomplishment, I think, is a pretty cool feeling. To get to live out your dreams is very special, but at the end of the day, I’m not out here to inspire the next generation of golfers. I’m not out here to inspire someone to be the best player in the world, because what’s the point?”
Ironically — or perhaps perfectly — he went on to win the claret jug.
That question — what’s the point of winning? — cuts straight to the heart of the human journey.
As someone who’s spent over two decades in the trenches of professional golf, and in deep study of the mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of the game, I see Scottie’s inner conflict as a sign of soul evolution in motion.
I came to golf late. I wasn’t a junior standout or college All-American. At 27, I left a steady corporate job to see if I could be on the PGA Tour starting as a 14-handicap, average-length hitter. Over the years, my journey has been defined less by trophies and more by the relentless effort to navigate the deeply inequitable and gated system of professional golf — an effort that ultimately turned inward and helped me evolve as both a golfer and a person.
One perspective that helped me make sense of this inner dissonance around competition and our culture’s tendency to overvalue winning is the idea of soul evolution.
The University of Virginia’s Division of Perceptual Studies has done extensive research on reincarnation, and Netflix’s Surviving Death (Episode 6) explores the topic, too. Whether you take it literally or metaphorically, the idea that we’re on a long arc of growth — from beginner to sage elder — offers a profound perspective.
If you accept the premise literally, then terms like “young soul” and “old soul” start to hold meaning. However, even if we set the word “soul” aside, it’s easy to see that different levels of life experience produce different worldviews.
Newer souls — or people in earlier stages of their development — may be curious and kind but still lack discernment or depth. There is a naivety, and they don’t yet question as deeply, tending to see things in black and white, partly because certainty feels safer than confronting the unknown.
As we gain more experience, we begin to experiment. We test limits. We chase extreme external goals — sometimes at the expense of health, relationships, or inner peace — still operating from hunger, ambition, and the fragility of the ego.
It’s a necessary stage, but often a turbulent and unfulfilling one.
David Duval fell off the map after reaching World No. 1. Bubba Watson had his own “Is this it?” moment with his caddie, Ted Scott, after winning the Masters.
In Aaron Rodgers: Enigma, reflecting on his 2011 Super Bowl win, Rodgers said:
“Now I’ve accomplished the only thing that I really, really wanted to do in my life. Now what? I was like, ‘Did I aim at the wrong thing? Did I spend too much time thinking about stuff that ultimately doesn’t give you true happiness?’”
Jim Carrey once said, “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.”
Eventually, though, something shifts.
We begin to see in shades of gray. Winning, dominating, accumulating—these pursuits lose their shine. The rewards feel more fleeting. Living in a constant state of fight-or-flight makes us feel alive, yes, but not happy and joyful.
Compassion begins to replace ambition. Love, presence, and gratitude become more fulfilling than status, profits, or trophies. We crave balance over burnout. Collaboration over competition. Meaning over metrics.
Interestingly, if we zoom out, we can apply this same model to nations and cultures. Countries, like people, have a collective “soul stage” made up of the individuals within them.
Take the United States, for example. I’d place it as a mid-level soul: highly competitive and deeply driven, but still learning emotional maturity. Still uncomfortable with nuance. Still believing that more is always better. Despite its global wins, the U.S. currently ranks just 23rd in happiness (as of 2025). You might liken it to a gifted teenager—bold, eager, and ambitious, but angsty and still figuring out how to live well and in balance. As much as a parent wants to protect their child, sometimes the child has to make their own mistakes to truly grow.
So when Scottie Scheffler wonders what the point of winning is, I don’t see someone losing strength.
I see someone evolving.
He’s beginning to look beyond the leaderboard. Beyond metrics of success that carry a lower vibration. And yet, in a poetic twist, Scheffler did go on to win The Open. But that only reinforces the point: even at the pinnacle, the question remains. And if more of us in the golf and sports world — and in U.S. culture at large — started asking similar questions, we might discover that the more meaningful trophy isn’t about accumulating or beating others at all costs.
It’s about awakening and evolving to something more than winning could ever promise.
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Guia
Dec 12, 2016 at 7:20 pm
Is there an unwritten rule that you can’t use Both?
RP Jacobs II
Nov 28, 2016 at 7:53 pm
Excellent article Jim!!
As a +2.8 when health issues forced me from the game in 2012, I don’t know of ANY Players(Captal “P,” Plus Ams & Pros) who had swing and mechanical thoughts in their head while swinging.
Not on a course…
Not under pressure…
No way, No day Never~
There is a reason that less than 1% Play at scratch or better competitively however as you said, we have become inundated with form over function, stats data and numbers over feel and the unfortunate thing is that who this really hurts are your mid/higher cappers who are just flooded with thoughts, positions and theory.
For the majority of golfers it is not a swing as much as a manipulation of the club.
We all know where that leads, lol
Great thoughts!!
Fairways & Greens My Friend?
Richard
Golf Booster
Nov 22, 2016 at 10:41 am
I’m a very mechanical person and need a thought for my backswing and a second thought for the follow-through… This forum has mixed opinions. I guess it’s whatever best works for each golfer 😉
Scott
Nov 21, 2016 at 3:47 pm
Interesting. Would swing thought vs swing feel depend on how you learn? I agree that some specific swing thoughts can cause paralysis by analysis, but maybe one specific swing thought helps with feel. For example, I struggle with tempo. I picked up a swing thought or “tempo thought” from this web site a month or so ago which really helped. I say the words to myself during my swing and it has really helped, especially since I do not have much practice time as it gets dark very early now.
Maybe that is considered a feel thought?
Bryan
Nov 21, 2016 at 2:57 pm
for me its usually something like this:
1. Diagnosis – what was my ball doing that I am trying to correct?
2. Thought – what change needs to occur? Face alignment? Path? AoA? etc. etc. etc.
3. Feel – what should the fix for the above feel like?
4. Range/Practice or warm-up – Swing trying to feel the right feeling to produce the shot I want
5. Match – Throw most thought/feel out the window and play with the best swing I brought to the course. Sometimes its a fade, sometimes its a draw. Sometimes I need to grind it out because I’m not striking it well. Unfortunately as a 8-9 handicap I am not as good as I think I am on most days, but I tend to do best when I go with the swing I have, set my line accordingly and stay aggressive through contact. When I’m actually in a match or round I do all my “thinking” behind the ball when visualizing a shot and go for it once I set up. It’s certainly helped me over the past few seasons I’ve seen my scoring average drop. It’s too easy to get distracted and put on a bad swing if you’re thinking about your shot once you set up over the ball.
Double Mocha Man
Nov 20, 2016 at 1:36 pm
My new swing thought is… feel.
bill
Nov 19, 2016 at 6:08 pm
No, it’s NOT the same thing. “Thought” and “Feel” are different. I play by visualization and feel. I don’t fill my head wondering if my alignment is correct, or if my weight distribution is correct, or if my club is on the correct path (back swing and down swing). Too many “thoughts” interfere with good ball contact. Also, there’s no such thing a a good or bad swing. All that matters is getting the club face into proper position through the hitting zone. Some golfers look very mechanical,,,,others look like octopi falling out of a tree.
WillyNilly
Nov 19, 2016 at 8:08 pm
Common – don’t tell me that you didn’t notice Mr. Bacon himself setting 5 snare traps … but you are correct we tend to get in our own way in life way too often :o)