A month to prepare for Manzella lesson

[honez1414]

I stumbled on to "Confessions of a Former Flipper" some time last year and immediately loved Manzella's style. I had been working on trying to move my low point forward after reading Clampett's Impact book but hadn't had much success. I decided to try to read TGM to push further and it was very slow going. I ended up on youtube searching for a few TGM definitions and that was how I was first exposed to Mr. Manzella. I immediately purchased the rest of his videos and patterns and have been hooked ever since.

The TGM- low point forward experiment ended up making me a duck hooker who couldn't make his way around the course because I had no concept of the D-plane. I'm still not sure I understand much about it but i've got the basic idea down now thanks to the forum. I enjoyed NSA and telling my friends about it but it doesn't really fit me because I have no trouble hitting the ball left. High hands helped alot with the SD pattern and NHA introduced me to my first fade in a very long time.

I said all that to say this. I have no idea what pattern I fit to but what the patterns have done for me is to help diagnose "my last shot". I think I understand why i hit a hook and hit a fade and am able to correct the next shot but i can't summon the perfect shot shape at will. I'm the mulligan king i guess.

What i have done for myself is schedule a lesson with Mr. Manzella at the end of March. I'm taking advantage of the "Instruction Special" that shoud give me about 8 hours of instruction over two days. What i need from the forum is guidance on how to prepare. This will be my first lesson from a professional and I want to make the most of it. Should i commit to a pattern? Or continue learning as much about each so I'll be that much closer to what Brian will try to do with me? Any ideas or advice would be appreciated.

 

[d0n]

I too am going to seeing Brian next month with the same program. I had a nice 20-30minute chat with him on the phone Tuesday. He told me "I recommend that you don't practice, just play golf until you come see me." Brian said he prefers to work with the students natural swing instead of layers of fixes. He actually told me a lot of things - the man can talk and he's as funny on the phone as he is in the videos.

The best thing you could do is call him and he'll tell you what you need to do. If he doesn't respond to this topic, send him an email and tell him when you're coming and that you would like to talk with him on the phone. He'll give you his number and tell you to call.

 

[Richie3Jack]

I can't speak for Brian, but as Kurt Cobain once I said 'come as you are.'

Brian has repeatedly stated that when he teaches he tries to attack what the root cause of your problems and then fix it. So I would imagine he needs to see what you really are so he can take the steps to fixing the problems.




3JACK

 

[Jim Kobylinski]

There is nothing to prepare for when you come to see Brian Manzella or any of his Academy instructor, well i take that back.

Come prepared to leave hitting it better

 

[Kevin Shields]

I can't speak for Brian, but as Kurt Cobain once I said 'come as you are.'

Brian has repeatedly stated that when he teaches he tries to attack what the root cause of your problems and then fix it. So I would imagine he needs to see what you really are so he can take the steps to fixing the problems.




3JACK

I hope the lesson ends a little better than it did for 'ol Kurt.

 

[honez1414]

thanks, d0n. you're exactly right. I spoke with Mr. Manzella again and he recommended i just play and not try to focus on changing my swing too much between now and the lesson.