billren2k3
New
Love this forum...wanted to share my experience and how Brian's videos and forum have helped. Natural shape has always been a draw...left hander disguising as a RH golfer ( blame it on hockey...plant the left leg, tilt, and let it rip. I know Brian has referenced football quite often but a "slapshot" translates well to golf when you want to snap your chain!). Then one day the slight draw I had no idea how I was hitting turns into a full scale hook. Absolutely clueless as to how it is happening so I decide to get some help.
Golf pro is a nice guy...known him for a long time through other sports, was very experienced so I assumed this would be a successful and relative painless. Although I did not realize it at the time I was in for quite a journey!
Soooo...I arrive for lesson #1, get loose and start hitting balls for him. Sure enough first few balls were fine with a slight draw quickly turning into big hooks. Again, I had no idea what I am doing and had never taken a lesson before so I was all ears. He was actually very cordial asking about my normal shot shape and what I wanted to accomplish so definite plus points for not trying to ram anything down my throat. 5 minutes of great conversation...and then the madness ensues:
- Decided we needed to change my swing plane...less outside in. Made a lot of sense. Problem arose when my slight draw...which was now a big hook turned into a fade which he was just a perplexed with as me. I improved my swing plane pretty quickly actually but was not getting the desired result with ball flight.
- He then decided my right shoulder was too low through the ball which is what was causing the problem. He wanted my right shoulder high and cutting across the ball to the left...This really helped as my sight draw which had turned into a big hook, turned into a moderate fade was now a full scale banana ball. I lost about 20 yards per club...probably 40 yds with my driver! I really struggled with this move with my shoulders as every other sport I had played ( hockey in particular ) taught you to plant, tilt and fire through it...rotation is towards the ice not around the body ( WOULD HAVE LANDED ME IN THE PENALTY BOX EVEN MORE AS I WOULD HAVE BEEN THE FIRST PLAYER IN HOCKEY TO GET A HIGH STICKING PENALTY WHILE SCORING A GOAL!!!). Anyway, golf is tough and you'll get worse before you get better right...
- Here's what comes next...pull the handle ( shank city ! ), draw lines on a computer screen until my eyes are blurry, positions, positions, positions...everything so static as speed and yardage continued to drop. This goes on for 4 more lessons and I walk away probably to his relief and totally frustrated as well and decide to stop playing for the rest of the fall and through the winter ( we get a lot of it around here! )
Spring comes, scars were long since gone and decided to give it another go. After another season of hockey the old swing is back ( plant, tilt, and throw everything I have at it ). So is the old swing...slight draw that starts turning into a hook again but I can play it and there was no way in hell I was going through that experience again. There has got to be a way...so what do most people do when there is a problem you can't fix...you google it!
Call it divine intervention, minor miracle, whatever but one of the first hits that comes up is a link to a thread from Brian's forum. Can't even remember what it was now but found it interesting...kept reading for a few weeks, found a few links of Brian on youtube and fireworks start going off...start buying Brian's videos...COFF, NSA, NHA, Soft Draw etc...not all of it fit me but I learn a lot about the swing...flat left wrist ( try hitting a slap shot while flipping your wrists...believe me it will be the 1st and last time! ), axis tilt, body pivot, snapping your chain, focus on dynamics...not static positions, etc...golden!
I'm almost finished rambling now so I'll get to it...my swing path was too inside out and my face was open but I was swinging further right than where the face was pointing. When I fixed my swing plane THE CLUBFACE WAS STILL OPEN causing the slice. My god I got it pretty quickly once I understood. COFF taught me how not flipping and walloping it with your pivot translates from other sports, NSA taught me clubface control, NHA taught me plane control, and soft draw ( left hander playing right handed so I still prefer to pull with everything I have ) reaffirmed to me that golf is like any other sport...it is dynamic and not static even though I do not prefer the pattern I still learned something from it.
The ball does not curve to the swing path...everyone on this forum knows this. I learned the hard way that even experienced instructors do not know this...subsequently people are wasting money and frustrating themselves if the instructor does not have the right information
I should have been a relativity simple fix but I learned a lot:
- thank the golf gods I found this forum
- people need to learn the basics on how a golf ball flies...D plane
- getting great information and instruction is vital...just like any other sport I need to put the work in and make it stick
- a LOT of other sports translate well to golf...snapping your chain is universal.
Anyway...tks for tolerating the ramble. Getting off my soap box now!
Oh, still talk to the pro all the time around the course. Brought up the D plane once in a conversation...lost him in seconds and dropped the conversation. Nice guy...outdated approach.
Golf pro is a nice guy...known him for a long time through other sports, was very experienced so I assumed this would be a successful and relative painless. Although I did not realize it at the time I was in for quite a journey!
Soooo...I arrive for lesson #1, get loose and start hitting balls for him. Sure enough first few balls were fine with a slight draw quickly turning into big hooks. Again, I had no idea what I am doing and had never taken a lesson before so I was all ears. He was actually very cordial asking about my normal shot shape and what I wanted to accomplish so definite plus points for not trying to ram anything down my throat. 5 minutes of great conversation...and then the madness ensues:
- Decided we needed to change my swing plane...less outside in. Made a lot of sense. Problem arose when my slight draw...which was now a big hook turned into a fade which he was just a perplexed with as me. I improved my swing plane pretty quickly actually but was not getting the desired result with ball flight.
- He then decided my right shoulder was too low through the ball which is what was causing the problem. He wanted my right shoulder high and cutting across the ball to the left...This really helped as my sight draw which had turned into a big hook, turned into a moderate fade was now a full scale banana ball. I lost about 20 yards per club...probably 40 yds with my driver! I really struggled with this move with my shoulders as every other sport I had played ( hockey in particular ) taught you to plant, tilt and fire through it...rotation is towards the ice not around the body ( WOULD HAVE LANDED ME IN THE PENALTY BOX EVEN MORE AS I WOULD HAVE BEEN THE FIRST PLAYER IN HOCKEY TO GET A HIGH STICKING PENALTY WHILE SCORING A GOAL!!!). Anyway, golf is tough and you'll get worse before you get better right...
- Here's what comes next...pull the handle ( shank city ! ), draw lines on a computer screen until my eyes are blurry, positions, positions, positions...everything so static as speed and yardage continued to drop. This goes on for 4 more lessons and I walk away probably to his relief and totally frustrated as well and decide to stop playing for the rest of the fall and through the winter ( we get a lot of it around here! )
Spring comes, scars were long since gone and decided to give it another go. After another season of hockey the old swing is back ( plant, tilt, and throw everything I have at it ). So is the old swing...slight draw that starts turning into a hook again but I can play it and there was no way in hell I was going through that experience again. There has got to be a way...so what do most people do when there is a problem you can't fix...you google it!
Call it divine intervention, minor miracle, whatever but one of the first hits that comes up is a link to a thread from Brian's forum. Can't even remember what it was now but found it interesting...kept reading for a few weeks, found a few links of Brian on youtube and fireworks start going off...start buying Brian's videos...COFF, NSA, NHA, Soft Draw etc...not all of it fit me but I learn a lot about the swing...flat left wrist ( try hitting a slap shot while flipping your wrists...believe me it will be the 1st and last time! ), axis tilt, body pivot, snapping your chain, focus on dynamics...not static positions, etc...golden!
I'm almost finished rambling now so I'll get to it...my swing path was too inside out and my face was open but I was swinging further right than where the face was pointing. When I fixed my swing plane THE CLUBFACE WAS STILL OPEN causing the slice. My god I got it pretty quickly once I understood. COFF taught me how not flipping and walloping it with your pivot translates from other sports, NSA taught me clubface control, NHA taught me plane control, and soft draw ( left hander playing right handed so I still prefer to pull with everything I have ) reaffirmed to me that golf is like any other sport...it is dynamic and not static even though I do not prefer the pattern I still learned something from it.
The ball does not curve to the swing path...everyone on this forum knows this. I learned the hard way that even experienced instructors do not know this...subsequently people are wasting money and frustrating themselves if the instructor does not have the right information
I should have been a relativity simple fix but I learned a lot:
- thank the golf gods I found this forum
- people need to learn the basics on how a golf ball flies...D plane
- getting great information and instruction is vital...just like any other sport I need to put the work in and make it stick
- a LOT of other sports translate well to golf...snapping your chain is universal.
Anyway...tks for tolerating the ramble. Getting off my soap box now!
Oh, still talk to the pro all the time around the course. Brought up the D plane once in a conversation...lost him in seconds and dropped the conversation. Nice guy...outdated approach.
