If you’ve played golf for any length of time, you’ve probably reached a point where you want to improve your swing. Maybe you book a lesson, learn a few key techniques, and hear the classic advice: Swing changes take time—don’t focus too much on ball flight initially.

That sounds reasonable, right? But after a few buckets of shanked, hooked, sliced, chunked, or topped golf balls, doubt creeps in. You start thinking, If I go back to my old swing, at least I’ll hit some decent shots. Before you know it, you’ve abandoned your swing changes, stopped taking lessons, and fallen back into the same habits that have defined your game for years.

This cycle happens to countless golfers, and there’s a clear psychological reason behind it: our brain’s dopamine-driven reward system and the power of intermittent reinforcement.

The Dopamine Cycle That Keeps Golfers Stuck

A slot machine at a casino and a driving range have a lot in common. They both operate best on intermittent reinforcement—a psychological principle in which rewards (in this case, good golf shots) are delivered unpredictably. This is the same mechanism that makes gambling and video games so addictive.

Dopamine, the brain’s “feel-good” neurotransmitter, is released when we experience a rewarding event—such as making perfect contact with a golf ball. However, what makes golf so psychologically gripping is that these rewarding shots don’t happen every time.

If every shot in golf were perfect, the game would lose its challenge. If every shot were miserable, no one would play. But because those great shots come just often enough, they create a cycle where we keep swinging in hopes of hitting that next great shot. This is why golfers can’t resist coming back for more.

How Swing Changes Disrupt the Dopamine Cycle

When you attempt a swing change, your ability to hit solid shots temporarily declines. Suddenly, those dopamine-releasing “pure” shots become rarer, and your brain responds by craving the previous, more familiar swing—because even if it wasn’t perfect, it still occasionally produced a rewarding shot. This decrease in intermittent rewards leads to frustration, self-doubt, and ultimately, abandonment of the swing change.

The 7-Step Swing Change System: A Solution to the Dopamine Problem

To counteract this psychological challenge, we’ve developed the 7-Step Swing Change System, which focuses on ingraining new motor patterns in a way that minimizes frustration and keeps your brain engaged without short-circuiting your dopamine system.

Step 1: No Ball Drills
The ball is an objective that your brain naturally wants to hit well, often overriding your focus on technique. By starting without a ball, you can remove the immediate reward-seeking behavior and focus entirely on the new movement.

Step 2: Foam Balls
Foam balls are a powerful tool for swing changes. They allow you to introduce impact while lowering the stakes. Since your brain isn't expecting the same level of feedback as with a real golf ball, it reduces the dopamine withdrawal effect and helps ease the transition to a new swing.

Step 3: Real Ball Integration
Once your new motor pattern starts to feel natural, it’s time to introduce real golf balls. At this stage, the focus is still on the swing change rather than performance. You’re training your body to trust the new movement, but because you’ve built confidence in the earlier phases, the drop in dopamine is less severe.

Step 4–7: Performance and Course Adaptation
 After successfully integrating the changes, you’re ready to refine your skills and take them onto the course. This is where performance-based drills, pressure situations, and adaptability come into play.

Why This Works

By gradually increasing the challenge level, you avoid the dopamine crash that typically derails swing changes. Each step keeps your brain engaged by providing a structured form of intermittent reinforcement, preventing the frustration that leads to abandoning new techniques.

If you’re serious about making lasting swing improvements, following a structured approach like the 7-Step Swing Change System is the key to success.

Want to learn more about the full 7-step system and get personalized help from the coach behind it? Work with Dr. Luke Benoit online through Skillest and take control of your swing improvement with research-driven guidance.