- Joined
- Sep 1, 2004
- Messages
- 6,548
- Reaction score
- 4,985
I went for a lesson on Friday. I am playing quite well now so it would have been easy to pay lip service to it, but I am looking to build in a lot more consistency to my swing this year. My goal is to get to a 3 index. I have known for a while that I need to work on some fundamentals on grip, posture and alignment to move my game forward. The Pro I went to is a really cool guy and I have had a few lessons with him before. He asked me what my goals were and I said I really wanted to work on my swing this season and was prepared to put the hours in. So he pretty much tore my swing apart!! But he also did it in a modular way saying that I should work on building my swing a bit at a time.
He has given my 5 things to work on over the next few weeks
Of course with 27 things to focus on my game is now going to be in the crapper over the next few weeks. On one drive on Saturday I froze over the ball and eventually ended up hitting a smothered hook that felt awful. However there were also a lot of positive swings and I still shot a decent score (+4).
I am planning to keep this as a lesson log over the next few months and track my progress.
He has given my 5 things to work on over the next few weeks
- I was squatting down over the ball, with too much knee flex. I have found it very difficult to stand more erect, with big pressures on my lower back. I am 6'1" and flexing my knees was the only way to get down to the ball. However it appears I have had my weight too much on my heels. By moving my weight towards the toes it was much easier to stand taller. So now I stand upright as tall as I can be, bend from my waist first and then very slightly flex the knees. A SIMPLE REVELATION!!
- Hands ahead of the ball. I had my hands dropping back ever so slightly behind the ball. So now I am setting them ahead of the ball at address.
- Turning the shoulders. I was not rotating my shoulders on the way back as much as I should. This was leading to me picking up the club on the way back. I need to take a low slow take-away and then concentrate on fully turning my shoulders. By keeping my chin high, I am now working at getting the left shoulder under the chin. Boy I can really feel the tightness in the shoulders, but on the positive, it feels as if I am much more wound up, like a coiled spring.:hunter:
- Keeping my height consistent throughout the swing. I tend to dip or come up during the swing and follow-though. This sometimes leads to slightly thinned or heavy shots. He has me now trying to maintain my height throughout. No drill here, just awareness.
- Clearing my left hip and getting off my right foot. I am still a little behind the ball on impact with my weight not transferring quickly enough from my right to my left side. At impact, with my weight still on my right, my forearms and wrists are a blur and I tend to hit a block or a hook if I over-compensate. Trying to be less handsy. This is probably the biggest thing I have to work on and I have tried snapping my left leg straight, and trying to focus on turning my left hip sharply behind me (if that makes sense). That will be the focus of my next lesson in a few weeks time. I will try and build in the posture stuff into muscle memory so I don't have to think about it.
Of course with 27 things to focus on my game is now going to be in the crapper over the next few weeks. On one drive on Saturday I froze over the ball and eventually ended up hitting a smothered hook that felt awful. However there were also a lot of positive swings and I still shot a decent score (+4).
I am planning to keep this as a lesson log over the next few months and track my progress.