Yesterday I had the pleasure of taking a playing lesson with Brian. I'm very glad that we did this because my on-course swing was very different from my practice range swing. Brian saw what he needed to see, plus it was simply a helluva lot of fun just playing with him. He is one mean ball striker, by the way.
As a bonus, who should ride over to the 15th tee? None other than Mike Jacobs and Ben Doyle! Mike is a cool guy and terrific teacher, but I simply am in awe of Ben. Fortunately, I hit my best drive of the day while Ben was watching. When we reached the green, Ben complimented my chipping motion.
I'm 59 years old, but felt as if I had just pleased my teacher in grade school. What a thrill. Incidentally, I've scheduled a lesson with Ben for a morning in August. I can't wait.
Today, Brian and I worked on eliminating the funkiest over-the-top move in the history of golf. Basically, we worked on:
1. putting the ball more forward in my stance
2 reducing my hip turn to 30-45 degrees, rather than the hard-to-manage75 degrees that I started with.
3 using a much shorter backstroke. It *felt* as if I were just using a chip backswing, but the video showed that I was actually using about a 7/8 backswing.
4. swinging under a plane stick, with the "belly (hairless) side of the forearm facing up.
5. swinging at 50-70% speed.
The results: Drives that went further than my "swing out of your shoes " shots yesterday and, most importantly, not a single duffed drive out of all the balls I stroked, NOT "hit" in a 2-hour period.
Go see Brian. He's a great instructor and a terrific guy.
gumper
As a bonus, who should ride over to the 15th tee? None other than Mike Jacobs and Ben Doyle! Mike is a cool guy and terrific teacher, but I simply am in awe of Ben. Fortunately, I hit my best drive of the day while Ben was watching. When we reached the green, Ben complimented my chipping motion.
I'm 59 years old, but felt as if I had just pleased my teacher in grade school. What a thrill. Incidentally, I've scheduled a lesson with Ben for a morning in August. I can't wait.
Today, Brian and I worked on eliminating the funkiest over-the-top move in the history of golf. Basically, we worked on:
1. putting the ball more forward in my stance
2 reducing my hip turn to 30-45 degrees, rather than the hard-to-manage75 degrees that I started with.
3 using a much shorter backstroke. It *felt* as if I were just using a chip backswing, but the video showed that I was actually using about a 7/8 backswing.
4. swinging under a plane stick, with the "belly (hairless) side of the forearm facing up.
5. swinging at 50-70% speed.
The results: Drives that went further than my "swing out of your shoes " shots yesterday and, most importantly, not a single duffed drive out of all the balls I stroked, NOT "hit" in a 2-hour period.
Go see Brian. He's a great instructor and a terrific guy.
gumper