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1st lesson since 2006


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The last time I had any sort of lesson/instruction from a teaching professional was back in 2006, my senior year in highschool. The large window from then till now is that I basically stopped playing the game until mid summer of 2019. I went and played with my parents and was instantly hooked on the game again. With this season over I really started to analyze my game and knew whatever new clubs I purchased etc., nothing was going to fix the downfalls of my game without a lesson. Anything inside of 100 yards is the danger zone for me and it puts such demand on the other parts of my game, and it requires me to navigate the course tip toeing around to make sure I don't leave myself a shot I know I can't execute. And the other area I struggled with was my driver, to the point that I took it out of my bag and played with just a 3w for the majority of the season. 

Now to my first lesson in a long long time! It was a rather informal lesson, as I know this teaching pro outside of golf. He knew I was testing some drivers out and said, come by one day and you can hit them on the launch monitor and we can see what's going on. This was after I told him I had went to a local indoor simulator, I shared the data and he knew I could be hitting both drivers further based on my swing speed. 

So after warming up I started hitting some 7 irons. The best thing about this lesson was that he not only had a QCquad launch monitor, but he also had a swing catalyst sensor plate, which measures the pressure through your feet during the swing. This was a great tool not only for him to understand what I was doing, but it also allowed me to understand what he was saying as he could show me through the data. Comparing the initial swings to the swings after trying a few drills and seeing the difference in results through the data showed we were moving in the right direction. 

First we worked on slowing my transition at the top and firing my chest through impact, as I was staying down too long through the shot. This was more of just working on the feeling of my chest rotating fully through the swing. Immediately we saw more torque, measured through the swing catalyst, my swing speed went up to 96-97 mph and my carry climbed to 182-183. As I kept on hitting 7 irons the feeling was still awkward but it was something I could feel and repeat over and over. The best part of the results was not just the increase in distance but also accuracy as the first 5 shots were nearly identical, straight as can be. Some of the best feeling strikes in my life. It was like effortless power at impact. 

Pitch shots was next! My swing gets narrow at the top and I create a lot of lag and load, sergio like, and in my short game this kills me as I attack the ball at a very steep angle and basically render any bounce on the club useless, and I have full wedge grinds with 14* of bounce which do nothing for me. We started hitting some half swing shots and he wanted me to feel like I was releasing the club extremely early. And then we also worked on hitting right hand only shots. It was amazing how good impact was with just my right hand. The main feeling was that everything was slowed down and smooth. It also made me rotate my body through the shot and finish in a much better position, with the club handle to left of me and the face of the club pointing back at me. The feeling of the club using the bounce to glide instead of jabbing at the impact zone was noticed immediately.

The driver was the last thing we worked on. With the amount of lag I create and the quick transition the club gets stuck behind me and I leave the face open, resulting in a weak impact position blocking the ball out to the right, or i try to correct it by getting flippy with my hands resulting in a hook. We tried to stay with similar feelings of my irons, a slow transition, and rotating my chest. We also worked on depth in my back swing keeping my hands wider with a sense of less hinge, although there was still plenty of it. It was amazing how on camera the change is not as drastic as it feels. At impact the club and my left forearm were much straighter, my angle of attack was shallower, my swing speed stayed the same, but i was hitting the ball further and consistently straighter. Instead of a slight fade the ball was falling to left, carrying about 285. 

I hope this write up isn't too long, but I wanted to share my experience. As I love new clubs like most on this forum, there is no better way to get the most out today's technology than working with a professional to get you swinging at your best. 

 

 

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Wow... You really got a LOT out of that lesson!! Helps to have that background from when you were younger - I didn't pick up a golf club until I was 53..!

Work on that short game, and good luck with your '21 season 👍

WITB of an "aspiring"  😉 play-ah ...
Driver...Callaway Paradym (Aldila Ascent PL Blue 40/A)
5W...Callaway Great Big Bertha (MCA Kai'Li Red 50/R)
7W...Tour Edge Exotics EXS (Tensei CK Blue 50/R)

4H...Callaway Epic Super Hybrid (Recoil ZT9 F3)
5H...Callaway Big Bertha ('19) (Recoil 460 ESX F3)
6i-GW...Sub 70 699 V2 (Recoil 660 F3) 
54°, 60°...Cleveland CBX2, CBX 60 (Rotex graphite)
Putter...Ev
nRoll ER5 or MLA Tour XDream (P2 Reflex grip on both)
...all in a Datrek bag on an MGI Zip Navigator electric cart. Ball often, not always, MaxFli Tour.

Forum Member tester for the Paradym X driver (2023)
Forum Member tester for the ExPutt Putting Simulator (2020)

followthrough.jpg

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3 hours ago, cksurfdude said:

Wow... You really got a LOT out of that lesson!! Helps to have that background from when you were younger - I didn't pick up a golf club until I was 53..!

Work on that short game, and good luck with your '21 season 👍

I was very fortunate to be introduced to the game at a very young age. But it’s never to late to join the fun.

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18 hours ago, cksurfdude said:

Wow... You really got a LOT out of that lesson!! Helps to have that background from when you were younger - I didn't pick up a golf club until I was 53..!

Work on that short game, and good luck with your '21 season 👍

My thought as well.  The other thing that I find amazing (a little maddening in a jealous way) is that he has a 2.9 index and struggles off the tee and on approach shots.... come on man, share some of your misery!! 🤣

:ping-small: G410 Plus, 9 Degree Driver 

:ping-small: G400 SFT, 16 Degree 3w

:ping-small: G400 SFT, 19 Degree 5w

:srixon-small:  ZX5 Irons 4-AW 

:ping-small: Glide 2.0 56 Degree SW   (removed from double secret probation 😍)

:EVNROLL: ER5v Putter  (Evnroll ER5v Official Review)

:odyssey-small: AI-One Milled Seven T CH (Currently Under Product Test)

 

 

 

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3 hours ago, fixyurdivot said:

My thought as well.  The other thing that I find amazing (a little maddening in a jealous way) is that he has a 2.9 index and struggles off the tee and on approach shots.... come on man, share some of your misery!! 🤣

Well, I don't struggle off the tee, I struggle with my driver. I can hit my 3w 245-250 carry, and at my home course as well as other courses I play in the area I don't need a driver, which is why I took it out of the bag midsummer cause sooner or later I was probably going to snap it in half, so instead I sold it on a forum. For example at my home course that has 3 par 5's, two of them I need driver to hit the green in two, the other one I can hit 3w and a long iron into the green. Every other hole on the course I can hit a 3w or a long iron off the tee and be hitting a short to mid iron into the green. In most cases a driver puts me in a position I don't want to be, hitting a less than full shot with a wedge. So I have learned to manage my game to play with what I have, but it holds me back in being able to attack certain holes where players who can hit a wedge close to the pin take advantage of their distance. Instead of leaving myself a 100 yard wedge shot, I'd rather be hitting my 9 iron into the green from 150. 

And it is misery cause although maybe half my scores may be very good, I have plenty of bad rounds with multiple double or triple bogeys. And I'm still nowhere near as good as I was when I was a teen. I was fortunate to have some great opportunities at a young age and was able to work with some excellent coaches and practice alongside with some amazing players on a daily basis. But it's made my expectations high regardless of how long ago that was, because I know I'm capable of a higher level of play as I have done it before.  It's extremely frustrating because I know one part of my game, short game, holds me back so much. I can be playing with someone who could be a 10 handicap, and I'll out score them but they honestly have a better short game than me. I really don't care about a driver in the bag, it's not something that will have a huge impact on my scoring, but it is fun to rip drivers and it will be the easier thing to fix for my game in 2021.  My short game is like a 20 handicap and I'm going to have to spend hours and hours working on it and building confidence to the point I can trust in my ability to hit the shots when they matter.  

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  • 5 weeks later...

Had my 2nd lesson last week. We started off by using K-motion, a device that captures 3D data of your swing using sensors on your body. There were 4 sensors, 1 attached to my glove, my left arm just below my bicep, a waste sensor just below the belt line, and a upper body sensor that would be located on your upper back. 
 

After collecting baseline measurements we started using the K motion to get myself in a slightly different position at address and impact position. With live data displayed on a screen that was close to where my club face was, I was able to do repetitions of getting myself in the correct angles etc. with confirmation from the screen. After getting those feelings down we then worked on translating the feeling of that impact position into the swing.

In my swing I’m leaned over to long through impact. And at address I tend to have a tad to much knee bend along with be slightly hunched over with the back, and not enough bend in my hips. Getting myself in the correct position at address was so helpful with getting my body in a better impact position. I would not only be rotating my upper body better but this also helped with my lower body and legs delivering power to my swing. The force plate would show that through impact my legs would deliver power in multiple spikes, which is not ideal, but with these changes we were seeing less spikes and more of a singular spike showing the power is being delivered in one continuous motion. 
 

Still a few months away from the start of the season so I will be able to get some more lessons in without worrying of seeing results, but I’m very happy with the progress and direction we are going. So far I’m seeing a gain in distance, hitting my 6i just over 190yds carry. Lots of work to go to get this engrained so my distance control and iron play continue to be a strength in my game. But I love how this is actually simplifying my swing motion and should make it more repeatable. 

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  • 3 months later...
On 1/6/2021 at 8:40 PM, wely324 said:

The last time I had any sort of lesson/instruction from a teaching professional was back in 2006, my senior year in highschool. The large window from then till now is that I basically stopped playing the game until mid summer of 2019. I went and played with my parents and was instantly hooked on the game again. With this season over I really started to analyze my game and knew whatever new clubs I purchased etc., nothing was going to fix the downfalls of my game without a lesson. Anything inside of 100 yards is the danger zone for me and it puts such demand on the other parts of my game, and it requires me to navigate the course tip toeing around to make sure I don't leave myself a shot I know I can't execute. And the other area I struggled with was my driver, to the point that I took it out of my bag and played with just a 3w for the majority of the season. 

Now to my first lesson in a long long time! It was a rather informal lesson, as I know this teaching pro outside of golf. He knew I was testing some drivers out and said, come by one day and you can hit them on the launch monitor and we can see what's going on. This was after I told him I had went to a local indoor simulator, I shared the data and he knew I could be hitting both drivers further based on my swing speed. 

So after warming up I started hitting some 7 irons. The best thing about this lesson was that he not only had a QCquad launch monitor, but he also had a swing catalyst sensor plate, which measures the pressure through your feet during the swing. This was a great tool not only for him to understand what I was doing, but it also allowed me to understand what he was saying as he could show me through the data. Comparing the initial swings to the swings after trying a few drills and seeing the difference in results through the data showed we were moving in the right direction. 

First we worked on slowing my transition at the top and firing my chest through impact, as I was staying down too long through the shot. This was more of just working on the feeling of my chest rotating fully through the swing. Immediately we saw more torque, measured through the swing catalyst, my swing speed went up to 96-97 mph and my carry climbed to 182-183. As I kept on hitting 7 irons the feeling was still awkward but it was something I could feel and repeat over and over. The best part of the results was not just the increase in distance but also accuracy as the first 5 shots were nearly identical, straight as can be. Some of the best feeling strikes in my life. It was like effortless power at impact. 

Pitch shots was next! My swing gets narrow at the top and I create a lot of lag and load, sergio like, and in my short game this kills me as I attack the ball at a very steep angle and basically render any bounce on the club useless, and I have full wedge grinds with 14* of bounce which do nothing for me. We started hitting some half swing shots and he wanted me to feel like I was releasing the club extremely early. And then we also worked on hitting right hand only shots. It was amazing how good impact was with just my right hand. The main feeling was that everything was slowed down and smooth. It also made me rotate my body through the shot and finish in a much better position, with the club handle to left of me and the face of the club pointing back at me. The feeling of the club using the bounce to glide instead of jabbing at the impact zone was noticed immediately.

The driver was the last thing we worked on. With the amount of lag I create and the quick transition the club gets stuck behind me and I leave the face open, resulting in a weak impact position blocking the ball out to the right, or i try to correct it by getting flippy with my hands resulting in a hook. We tried to stay with similar feelings of my irons, a slow transition, and rotating my chest. We also worked on depth in my back swing keeping my hands wider with a sense of less hinge, although there was still plenty of it. It was amazing how on camera the change is not as drastic as it feels. At impact the club and my left forearm were much straighter, my angle of attack was shallower, my swing speed stayed the same, but i was hitting the ball further and consistently straighter. Instead of a slight fade the ball was falling to left, carrying about 285. 

I hope this write up isn't too long, but I wanted to share my experience. As I love new clubs like most on this forum, there is no better way to get the most out today's technology than working with a professional to get you swinging at your best. I've been a golf fan since college. I even wrote a study on this topic. Of course, this resource https://studymoose.com/essay-types/common-app-essays for teaching students helped me a lot. The teachers really liked my work.

 

 

It's amazing how good a lesson can be. You are very lucky.

Edited by Grace McDonald
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