first lesson of the year

i took to the practice range on monday afternoon for my first real practice session of the year. i worked through my wedges distance control , flight that sort of thing and was really happy with them but when i moved on to full iron shots and was quite dissapointed if im honest.

you know that feeling when even when you hit a good shot and are happy with the outcome the swing just doesnt feel right...kind of like you get away with it if you know wht i mean any way out of a tube of twenty balls i was happy with 5 or 6 shots and maybe another 5 were ok....but nearly all the strikes were good.

so when i got home i booked a lesson and 5.30 tonight the season begins for me. the goal this year is to get to 2.0 hcap so time to niuckle down.


do any of you guys take regular lessons or do you wait till the swing breaks..?

first ever paid lesson 3 weeks ago.
second is tomorrow.
made a couple of fairly straightforward tweaks which are still work in progress but seem to be heading in the right direction. mainly have to focus on 40 yards in.

How'd it go Liegerwoods?
I'm guessing you're either feeling revitalised and enthused or confused and depressed!

well where do i start ?????

it wasnt to bad. alignment was good, grip was good....now for the technical stuff.

off my own back i decided to go to a shorter more compact flat swing and it served me well for nearly two seasons but had not been so consistant of late so thats wht made me go for the lesson...any way , posture was lazy and i was over realeasing my hands at impact causing the left shot or pull hook. sometimes i wouldnt release on time and hit it right.

so the solution was to correct the posture and to take the hands out of the swing. i need to straighten out the backswing as well , not to be so inside the line.
all in all i was happy with the advice and played today and after a very poor front 9 of 43 i rallyed and came home in 33.....no difference then !!!!!

the signs are good


ban bam.... what advice did you get from your coach?

Glad you’re feeling positive L.

My two lessons have been really good thanks. Last season was my first full season since 2002, having been at Uni etc. In between I’d kept up a country membership, but only played a dozen or so rounds a year [all competitive]. Over the course of last year I quickly realised that my swing, which had been so ‘promising’ as a junior aged 16-18, had declined to being complete and utter tripe! I decided to give myself the season to try and just get used to hitting balls and playing regularly again, but having only knocked the handicap down from 9.5 to 7.7, I was pretty unhappy.

So – too the lessons. I’ve been working on a couple of minor tweaks:

Firstly, he pointed out that I was very rigid and upright at address. The simple remedy for this was to drop my hands to a more correct position, making sure my grip became more relaxed.

Secondly, my takeaway was very steep. Partly due to the address, but also I had been trying to take the clubhead straight back in line. Combining these two meant that when the shaft got to horizontal on the backswing, the clubface was almost completely closed. This meant I was taking the loft off the club, and the result at impact was a strong tendency to dig/chop down on the ball, creating some calzone like divots! Also as a result of all of this rigidness, my body wasn’t really making much of a turn on the way back or on the way through. He has got me working on tucking my right elbow into my side on the backswing to restore proper loft on the club, and making sure I was turning my left shoulder on the way back, and making sure that on the follow through I get my body round facing the target at the finish. He has suggested working mainly on little 40-60 yard pitches to try and bed this in, as it means I can keep the elbow tucked in properly, and work on striking the ball cleanly.
Finally, my alignment was a bit out. Shoulders were open at address, and feet were slightly closed.

Second lesson I requested we worked more on chipping shots, as I have really been struggling with this side of the game since ‘coming back’ to golf. Partly this might be due to having grown up on links and never really using more loft than on a 9iron, unless in bunkers, to now playing regularly on parkland. He isolated my main issue being ‘a fear of loft’, and took me out of my comfort zone by working pretty much solely with a 60 degree wedge. He got me working on adjusting the loft on the club to generate approximately the same distance [25 yards] each time, but throwing some up high, or playing some bump and grabs, and the more in-between pitch shots. All the time, he focussed on the quality of the strike as a judge of how good a shot it was, rather than the finish in relation to the target. I then spent 10mins hitting a few 6irons, so he could assess the adjustments made at the last lesson, and correct the where I wasn’t quite getting it right. We finished off with some little 6iron pitch and runs.

Still got a few weeks to work in the changes before the season kicks off, but will be having more lessons over the course of the year, probably monthly.

I want to hit my driver longer and more accurately. Nothing wrong with most of my game... but that will sort me right out.

Hence next saturday I have booked 45 minutes for one of the best guys I know for the swing to take a look at me before sitting down and identifying the problems.

I want that consistent 290 drive rather than a 200 hook, 240 cut and the odd 300 flush one. He should be the man for the job I think.

LJ

ill take that 240 cut if you dont want it but i am all to familiar withthe 200yd hook. the one shot that cost me last year was the snap hook and the pro wants me to eliminate the left side of the course so that 240 cut could come in handy.