One Week AFTER working with Brian Manzella in person

[d0n]

A little over a week ago I went to see Brian at English Turn for a day of Instruction.

This week I was able to make it to the range 4 times and play 2 rounds. I played both rounds at the same course. Prior to going to see Brian I had not played golf since January of this year. The week before I went to see him I played this course and shot a 100-something w/ a lot of max'd holes.

Thursday I played this course and shot an 87. Today I played and shot a 79!!! My best round at this course was an 82. Today I set a personal best round!

Things are definitely improving in the golf swing but it hasn't been a snap of the fingers. I've spent close to 6 hours at the range the last week hitting balls and practicing. I spent another 3-4 hours in my living room putting over the last week. At the range I spend 1/4 of the time working on my full swing, then I go over to the practice green and hit wedge shots. Once I do that for 20-30 minutes I go back to the tee line and work on the irons again until I'm out of balls. While my swing is becoming ingrained, my wedge game is getting fun. Even if I don't get on the green in regulation, a big majority of the time I can pitch it up within 6' of the hole for an easy putt. Putting is getting VERY easy too. No 3 putts in my last round and only one 3putt in the round Thursday.

One week after visiting Brian on the "Manzella Special" I am totally pleased with the instruction and while I haven't gotten down EVERYTHING we went over, I'm well on my way. AND it shows!

Thanks Brian!
-Don

 

[curtisj76]

Thanks for the update, keep us informed. It's always nice to hear everyone's experiences.

 

[Brian Manzella]

!!!

Hey don!

Great playing.

You can be as good a golfer as you want to.

All you needed was some help.

That's my job.

Happy to be able to.

 

[d0n]

Brian, one of the MOST important and best things you showed me (actually two things.)

1. How the club, hips, and arms are supposed to move from the backswing through the ball. This is also one of the most difficult things for me to implement consistently into my swing. It still isn't ingrained in to my swing yet but it's getting there. I've had a lot better success with this on short pitches as this is almost totally thoughtless now when I pitch the ball and it is literally effortless to do when pitching. I'm not sure if it works for other students but physically showing me how the arms, hips, and club was supposed to go on the swing has been a gigantic help!

2. The other was the flat shoulder turn and the "brace" of my back, hips, and midsection when I'm turning back. I've got a LOT of work left to do on this but when I do it properly I know because I can see it in the divot and the ball flight. I can feel when I tilt and I've started stopping myself. A good trigger for me when I do this is I can feel my hands going straight back instead of inside by my thigh and I'm able to stop the swing and reset.

I guess there's a third, fourth, fifth, and many others too but those two things are the biggest that I'm focusing on now.

The hands are finding the grip and that is becoming 2nd nature. I don't need to look at how I place the club in my hand I can feel it and see the lines on top of my hand.

Putting, by standing over the ball like you showed me (literally right on top of the ball) and focusing on bringing the club straight back NOT outside I've been able to make some great putts. It's taken a lot of work to get the putter going straight back instead of outside and that's what I mostly work on. Now that I have that down, I've been working on aiming. It has really made a difference. Now that I'm taking the putter straight back and straight through, I've been able to fix my "way right" putter aiming.

I put my 60* wedge back in the bag and have been practicing with it. That thing is NOT coming back out of my bag. I've been playing around with the wedge shots and I'm getting pretty comfortable with the high lob shot without opening the face or my stance. I just don't rotate my wrist like you show me and it jumps VERY high but it goes straight and it's a LOT easier than opening everything up. Haven't been so lucky on the rolling chip/pitch but I haven't had a lot of time to work on it. For now the midsole pitch is my friend and on these hard dry greens (we need rain bad in Houston) it's a GREAT shot.

The driver is also coming around great. I don't work on it at all when I go to the range. I figure it'll come around when I get all the other stuff down. When I have the driver in my hands I've got to think about to many things still (setup, mechanics, swing) but it's coming. I'm not finding all the fairways but I am able to keep it out of the woods and water. When I hit it well, its a bomb! Even the bad hits are still playable. I have a feeling I'll be asked once again to play in scrambles if for nothing more than to pound the ball off the tee.

This week I'm going to focus on the two things above (flat shoulder turn and how the hands, body, and club work through the swing) with the regular irons. Not going to work so much on the wedges this week but I'll still put in some time. Obviously going to work more on putting. I picked up a large Extreme Green that should be here Friday so I'm now committed to making golf work.

I hope to come back in September or October to see you again!