JohnThomas1
New
At long last i found an instructor around here that gives a superb lesson and is tour class IMO. He's a hired gun for the Greg Norman Junior Golf Foundation and travels far and wide to schools around the region. He's also contracted by the Australian Institute of Sport i believe. He's got the best young kid in the region, who captained the Australian Junior Team last year. He's got all the Video Analysis software and the like too, unlike most around here.
Ok, i am a 14 handicapper, hit the driver somewhere around 260 maybe, a 9 iron goes about 122 and a 6 iron about 154'ish. Very limited in flexibility for some reason and take it back not much farther than halfway. About 5'8. Usually hit a bit of draw, bad shots are push fades and the odd duck hook. Quite solid on the short irons, can drive beautifully for much of a day then hit something crap out of the blue. Other days might fight the driver near all day at times. Some days can drive quite reasonable the whole day.
After i was warmed up we hit some 6 irons and drivers for the video. We go inside and get down to the nuts and bolts. Doug puts my swing up against Peter Lonards for some comparison in certain area's. We go thru the setup. He's extremely happy with my grip and feet. Lonard has a little extra spine tilt than me. He says mine is borderline, and goes thru to the top of the backswing compared to Lonard. I recover well and he thinks my tilt at the top is spot on and says we will leave it alone at this stage. We go back to address. Doug draws a couple of small vertical lines on both of us, one at the back hip and one at the front ear. We go thru some motion and he does not want to see the hips sway at all. Neither of us does. He's very happy for the head to move back a little and both do. My impact isn't as bad as i thought i would see, but i definitely have some active hands. My follow thru finishes straight up and down and he's quite happy with things so far.
As we go to the back view i just know there's some advice coming. Setup is good. He draws a line from the ball thru my shoulders and i think the second was the clubshaft. The first 1/4 of my backswing shows a slightly shut clubface and it creeps a bit inside of spot on, and Lonards. Doug says both are just short of the point where he considers change needed. He says they are really not that bad. I'm again just under the perfect plane at my stunted top of the backswing. My plane coming down is excellent. Now we come to the nuts and bolts of my problems. I'm actually totally surprised we have survived this far without some wreckage. We sift thru face ons and the back view thru the next segments to fully show what is going on. Lonard has much more hip rotation going on and pulling his club thru, where as i go very very slack in the hips and flash the arms and hands thru. My right foot stays on the ground eons longer than Lonards due to slack hip rotation and not pulling the club thru. We can see i am hitting with the hands some. Doug wants me to pull the club thru with better rotation. The film in front of the ball has shown me to come out well above plane with an almost vertical clubshaft. He says this is the root of my inconsistencies. I need to pull that club thru with the pivot and finish much lower and more around the body, or maybe "swing left" Brian might say.
We went back out and Doug pulled me around to where he wanted my finish and let me feel the plane forward of the ball etc. I hit some and he encouraged me to turn thru fully with the hips and keep turning to a decent completion. Having read much of Brian in here, i think what is going on is that i need to drag and lag the club better thru the pivot and the above plane finish might simply be lack of "swivel". The feeling was of really really whipping that club AROUND left and low and to just keep turning.
All in all an outstanding lesson and one that has me determined to put in some work knowing finally that i will reap benefits. If anyone has been able to stay awake and read thru all this i would love to hear some comments and especially some potential drills and thoughts for what ails me. One really satisfying thing is that 2 weeks ago i convinced myself i was far too flat in the backswing and had just added a lot more up. Given that my swing is STILL a smideon inside and below it was the right change to make. I certainly hit some excellent golf in comp last week right after making the change. Now i just have to fix my swing in front of the ball.
Cheers
Ok, i am a 14 handicapper, hit the driver somewhere around 260 maybe, a 9 iron goes about 122 and a 6 iron about 154'ish. Very limited in flexibility for some reason and take it back not much farther than halfway. About 5'8. Usually hit a bit of draw, bad shots are push fades and the odd duck hook. Quite solid on the short irons, can drive beautifully for much of a day then hit something crap out of the blue. Other days might fight the driver near all day at times. Some days can drive quite reasonable the whole day.
After i was warmed up we hit some 6 irons and drivers for the video. We go inside and get down to the nuts and bolts. Doug puts my swing up against Peter Lonards for some comparison in certain area's. We go thru the setup. He's extremely happy with my grip and feet. Lonard has a little extra spine tilt than me. He says mine is borderline, and goes thru to the top of the backswing compared to Lonard. I recover well and he thinks my tilt at the top is spot on and says we will leave it alone at this stage. We go back to address. Doug draws a couple of small vertical lines on both of us, one at the back hip and one at the front ear. We go thru some motion and he does not want to see the hips sway at all. Neither of us does. He's very happy for the head to move back a little and both do. My impact isn't as bad as i thought i would see, but i definitely have some active hands. My follow thru finishes straight up and down and he's quite happy with things so far.
As we go to the back view i just know there's some advice coming. Setup is good. He draws a line from the ball thru my shoulders and i think the second was the clubshaft. The first 1/4 of my backswing shows a slightly shut clubface and it creeps a bit inside of spot on, and Lonards. Doug says both are just short of the point where he considers change needed. He says they are really not that bad. I'm again just under the perfect plane at my stunted top of the backswing. My plane coming down is excellent. Now we come to the nuts and bolts of my problems. I'm actually totally surprised we have survived this far without some wreckage. We sift thru face ons and the back view thru the next segments to fully show what is going on. Lonard has much more hip rotation going on and pulling his club thru, where as i go very very slack in the hips and flash the arms and hands thru. My right foot stays on the ground eons longer than Lonards due to slack hip rotation and not pulling the club thru. We can see i am hitting with the hands some. Doug wants me to pull the club thru with better rotation. The film in front of the ball has shown me to come out well above plane with an almost vertical clubshaft. He says this is the root of my inconsistencies. I need to pull that club thru with the pivot and finish much lower and more around the body, or maybe "swing left" Brian might say.
We went back out and Doug pulled me around to where he wanted my finish and let me feel the plane forward of the ball etc. I hit some and he encouraged me to turn thru fully with the hips and keep turning to a decent completion. Having read much of Brian in here, i think what is going on is that i need to drag and lag the club better thru the pivot and the above plane finish might simply be lack of "swivel". The feeling was of really really whipping that club AROUND left and low and to just keep turning.
All in all an outstanding lesson and one that has me determined to put in some work knowing finally that i will reap benefits. If anyone has been able to stay awake and read thru all this i would love to hear some comments and especially some potential drills and thoughts for what ails me. One really satisfying thing is that 2 weeks ago i convinced myself i was far too flat in the backswing and had just added a lot more up. Given that my swing is STILL a smideon inside and below it was the right change to make. I certainly hit some excellent golf in comp last week right after making the change. Now i just have to fix my swing in front of the ball.
Cheers
