A summary of my first ever golf lesson. Feedback appreciated

[Itzpiiz]

I (34m, 12 handicap) am making it my goal to break into single digit handicap level and have began my first of 3 (at least) lessons.

We began by discussing his view of the golf swing. We talked about address, back swing, and follow-thru theory for about 10 minutes before I grabbed a club. Upon getting the address position he began by correcting an issue I didn't realize I had. With a 9 iron (and honestly with all clubs except for driver) I was playing the shaft directly in line with the middle of my stance. He instructed me to have the hands forward quite a bit with the mid irons (apparently 9 irons should be 9 degrees fwd, 8 iron should be 8 degrees fwd, ect) which is the first new feeling I'm working on growing accustomed to. I believe this will help me hit down more on the ball, and in time correct my swing path. In the same theme, I then spent the remainder of the lesson practicing the swing keeping my armpits glued to my torso, backswing to waist height, and follow-thru at waist height, emphasizing following through pointing at a certain area conducive to consistent impact. I quickly began getting the swing plane down when there was no balls, but would have to correct myself when a ball got into play. I'm going to work on it as much as possible before my next lesson on Sunday and see where things go from there.

I suppose I'm writing this for two reason. Firstly to go over everything in my head, and second to get outside opinions of the lesson as a whole. For those of you who have taken lessons or are wizards of the golf swing, does this seem like a good first step in terms of forming a consistent, reliable swing?

Appreciate any and all replies.

[RickyBobby_PR]

4 minutes ago, Itzpiiz said:

I believe this will help me hit down more on the ball, and in time correct my swing path.

Take the motion of hitting down with irons and hitting up with driver and throw it away. Focusing on making a god swing and the club will do what it supposed to do.

5 minutes ago, Itzpiiz said:

I quickly began getting the swing plane down when there was no balls, but would have to correct myself when a ball got into play.

Don’t think about hitting the ball but rather the ball just gets in the way

6 minutes ago, Itzpiiz said:

I'm going to work on it as much as possible before my next lesson on Sunday and see where things go from there.

Why are you taking a lesson so soon after the first one?

[Itzpiiz]

15 minutes ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

Why are you taking a lesson so soon after the first one?

I definitely agree with both your first two points. Appreciate that. As far as the lessons, I feel as though what we discussed isn't enough in itself to take to a course and implement, it feels after the next lesson when we (hopefully) move on to discussing the entire swing as a whole that I'll be able to practice on a course and form new habits. 

[RickyBobby_PR]

25 minutes ago, Itzpiiz said:

I definitely agree with both your first two points. Appreciate that. As far as the lessons, I feel as though what we discussed isn't enough in itself to take to a course and implement, it feels after the next lesson when we (hopefully) move on to discussing the entire swing as a whole that I'll be able to practice on a course and form new habits. 

How much time do you or will you practice between lessons?

what do you think is needed to take what your lessons are going to do to the course?

[Itzpiiz]

21 minutes ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

How much time do you or will you practice between lessons?

what do you think is needed to take what your lessons are going to do to the course?

Realistically about fifteen minutes a day of practice is what i expect. I think I'm going to play 18 on Sunday before my lesson so we will see how that goes.

 

I'm hoping to achieve a bit of confidence and adaption to the changes I've already made before Sunday, however I fully expect to run into some new issues at first

[RickyBobby_PR]

2 minutes ago, Itzpiiz said:

Realistically about fifteen minutes a day of practice is what i expect. I think I'm going to play 18 on Sunday before my lesson so we will see how that goes.

 

I'm hoping to achieve a bit of confidence and adaption to the changes I've already made before Sunday, however I fully expect to run into some new issues at first

Realistically you should be taking lessons every 4-6 weeks. This would give you time to have made progress in changing the pattern your coach has you working on.

Changing patterns doesn’t happen overnight or in a week. It takes weeks and weeks to make a change. As an example of as a trainer I see a bad movement pattern in a clients squat form, I’m going to give an exercise or exercise to help fix gnat pattern. It takes 8-12 weeks of slow controlled reps for that movement patter to become natural. 15 mins a day for a week isn’t going to make much of a difference.

As for taking anything to the course somethings may carry over quicker than others and at different pace for some compared to others. What I learned in GGs course is you just make your swing on the course knowing that you put in the time on the practice tee. Your first round you might have one swing that happens from what you’ve been practicing, the next round it could be a couple. You can’t play golf swing on the course you have to put in the time practicing and it will naturally carry over to the course in time. Justin rose has been working on a move that he said recently finally clicked after 11 years of working on it.

 

 

[Itzpiiz]

27 minutes ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

Realistically you should be taking lessons every 4-6 weeks. This would give you time to have made progress in changing the pattern your coach has you working on.

Changing patterns doesn’t happen overnight or in a week. It takes weeks and weeks to make a change. As an example of as a trainer I see a bad movement pattern in a clients squat form, I’m going to give an exercise or exercise to help fix gnat pattern. It takes 8-12 weeks of slow controlled reps for that movement patter to become natural. 15 mins a day for a week isn’t going to make much of a difference.

As for taking anything to the course somethings may carry over quicker than others and at different pace for some compared to others. What I learned in GGs course is you just make your swing on the course knowing that you put in the time on the practice tee. Your first round you might have one swing that happens from what you’ve been practicing, the next round it could be a couple. You can’t play golf swing on the course you have to put in the time practicing and it will naturally carry over to the course in time. Justin rose has been working on a move that he said recently finally clicked after 11 years of working on it.

 

 

I appreciate your input! For now I'm going to trust the process laid out for me and see how things progress. I'll make a follow-up post down the road. 

[MacTourney]

3 hours ago, Itzpiiz said:

We began by discussing his view of the golf swing.

I suppose I'm writing this for two reason. Firstly to go over everything in my head, and second to get outside opinions of the lesson as a whole.

Many instructors, not all but many,  should start each new lesson series with the following statement- "what I'm really going to show you is my bias toward how my sequence works for me".   It would have been more productive discussing your view of a swing and watch what you do first because we all have a swing inside us and real pros know how pull that out from the student.    There are many many ways to move that ball forward.  The part about shaft lean at address with irons instead of a more mid-line placement is truly negotiable as long as one's sequence allows the arms through low point.  

34 minutes ago, Itzpiiz said:

I appreciate your input! For now I'm going to trust the process laid out for me and see how things progress. I'll make a follow-up post down the road. 

Looking forward to it. Good luck.  

 

 

[Itzpiiz]

4 minutes ago, MacTourney said:

Many instructors, not all but many,  should start each new lesson series with the following statement- "what I'm really going to show you is my bias toward how my sequence works for me".   It would have been more productive discussing your view of a swing and watch what you do first because we all have a swing inside us and real pros know how pull that out from the student.    There are many many ways to move that ball forward.  The part about shaft lean at address with irons instead of a more mid-line placement is truly negotiable as long as one's sequence allows the arms through low point.  

Looking forward to it. Good luck.  

 

Thanks!

 

One further tidbit relevant to this story is that the instructor is a CPGA pro, and owns the driving range in my town. I've been borderline obsessed with the range for the past 3 years and have been a frequent customer. He's seen me swing A LOT over the last three years so it's not as though yesterday was my first time meeting the guy. But yeah, great point in saying "what I'm really going to show you is my bias toward how my sequence works for me". We'll see how it goes!

[RickyBobby_PR]

14 minutes ago, Itzpiiz said:

Thanks!

 

One further tidbit relevant to this story is that the instructor is a CPGA pro, and owns the driving range in my town. I've been borderline obsessed with the range for the past 3 years and have been a frequent customer. He's seen me swing A LOT over the last three years so it's not as though yesterday was my first time meeting the guy. But yeah, great point in saying "what I'm really going to show you is my bias toward how my sequence works for me". We'll see how it goes!

There’s a lot of pros that are PGA professional as and aren’t good instructors. There’s some really good ones that aren’t part of the PGA program or any other