I'm back home... I've been replying and reading this thread from my Blackberry the last couple of days. That's a very NICE camera Brian has. It does a VERY nice job shooting video frame by frame and playing it back on the camera's LCD. The only problem with that camera and the pictures above confirm this - that dang camera adds 20+lbs to whoever it is filming...
First and foremost, Brian - THANK YOU again! It was a great time. I learned more in the 2 hours on the first day than I have in days/weeks of instruction from other teachers. The second day blew away the first. I learned quite a bit in the playing lesson but the best part was the last hour or so on the range. I hit some of the best golf shots ever in that session.
Some of the main things we worked on were my grip, tilted shoulder turn, and twisting the club (my left wrist) to the end of the swing.
The grip, I was using a weak grip. Brian had me move a bit stronger but he also changed my hand position on the club – or how I was holding it in my left hand. During day one he literally put the club in my hand on EVERY shot. By day two, I was getting pretty good replicating this procedure.
Probably the biggest change we worked on was my backswing/take away. Brian pretty much stripped away every thing I was taught, self learned, and self fixed (band aided) and we went back to the beginning. It’s not easy turning the shoulders and waist flat when you’ve been doing it wrong so long. This in itself led to a lot of other problems I had throughout my swing. It also cleared up a LOT of things that I was not able to do or figure out in later portions of the swing. (more on this topic in a little bit)
The other thing we did was work on rotating the club through impact and through the finish. When we started working on this and I started getting the hang of it, the divot shallowed out and the sound and feel was so nice. Basically I was cupping the left wrist and when I didn’t cup it I was stopping it and not allowing the club to rotate through the shot.
Three basic things that pretty much doomed my swing. While it may be three things, those three things are going to take a LOT of time for me to relearn and “master.” I didn’t master the proper way of doing all of this in the two days with Brian. With that being said, I know what I need to work on now AND I know HOW to work on it.
There are so many things to fix in the backswing. It’s so hard to get my shoulders to turn flat. My right shoulder kept raising up – even when it felt flat to me. I can’t tell you how many times Brian said “NOPE” when I started taking the club back. When it turned flat, it was SOOOO EASY to let the club go right around to the ball – effortless. The problem for me is just keeping those shoulders flat. Brian literally showed me how it felt to do all of this. He moved the club and my body to show me how everything was supposed to work and what it felt like. Definitely something you cannot get from the videos. When the shoulders and midsection turned back flat, EVERYTHING just seemed to fall into place. When this happens the club just did it’s thing.
Probably the best piece of instruction came in the last hour. We did some wedge work and some putting work. Either would have been worth the price of the 2-day visit. I’ve watched every video Brian has put out and I’ve read countless threads in this forum. NONE of it compares to what I learned in that hour of instruction.
Today we came home and I drove 340 miles from New Orleans to Houston. Within 15 minutes of getting home a buddy called and said they were going to play a round up the street and they needed a fourth. I said what the heck and went with them. It was NOT a pretty round BUT I hit some really good shots and hit some really good putts. I also had some really bad shots and overall my score was bad. Even with the bad first showing I was pleased with the round. When I did what I was supposed to do (keep the shoulders flat and rotate the wrist) I had great shots. When I didn’t – I didn’t. I expected to go out and have some troubles. I’m still fighting the bad habits that are ingrained in my swing while trying to implement new swing characteristics that I learned two days ago. While I’m sure there are people who can simply flip a switch and make the transition, I am NOT one of those people. BUT, with some time on the range and time on the course the bad habits will be GONE – I just need to put in some time to reprogram myself… When I put the bad habits to rest today, I was very pleased with the outcome.
If you’ve read this far, thanks! I really enjoyed the session with Brian. Only time will tell how well the instruction helps me. All I can say is that I learned a LOT of stuff in those two days and I’m sure I’ve already forgotten some of it. It was an outstanding learning experience and worth every dollar!
Thank you very much Brian!
Don
