Thursday, May 14, 2009

Summary of my Golf Lesson.

Your drive landed on the short grass, you are 135 yards from the pin and figured that you want to attack the pin. Sets up and go ball!!!!! it ended up in the greenside rough. This is what i have been going through the past month. My shot dispersion has never been worse. Tried some practice at the range, however it's still dispersing wildly. I am not hitting a consistent slice, hook, push or pull. It is more of a combination of all four. Conclusion is... Yes, I suck and my swing is just out of sync. To counter this problem, I took a lesson with a PGA professional, Chuck Mayhew. This is the first time I ever took a golf lesson that I have to pay for. This better be working, I thought. What an amazing result it yields. After taking just one lesson, we figured that my alignment was way off, therefore I need to somehow manipulate my wrist and body to hit the target. Result? INCONSISTENCIES. The second thing we figured out was that I am having too much unnecessary movement during my golf swing, my body is moving everywhere and I tend to slide instead of turning my body towards the target.
The first thing we worked on was my alignment. The first time it was changed, it felt so awkward, it feels as if you were hitting the left side of your target. Chuck warned me that at first your aim would feel out of whack, but you are actually aiming at the right target. He said that because I have been developing a habit of aiming improperly, a good change would feel unnatural. The second thing that we weren't suppose to be working on but figured out, was how my head was tilted away from my shoulder tilt. This in turn induced my head and body to slide during the backswing, which consequently alter my spine angle. To compensate the sliding motion, what I did was return to my previous position by sliding back instead of turning. What would this translate to? INCONSISTENCIES. To counter this tendency, I tilt my head away from the target and try to keep my head steady. This would encourage a turn rater than a slide and the steady head would also keep your spine angle steady. Imagine that your whole body is an elastic cylindrical tube ( most probably that's what others perceived me as, an Xtra Large one :)) . If the bottom was bolted down to the floor, it can still be moved left to right, however if the top was also bolted, all that it could possibly do is turn. This will yield more consistency and amazingly enough, more power from the coil of your body.

After that one hour lesson, it took me about 3 more range sessions to absolutely get a hold of this new concept, getting the club square at impact and breaking the old habits. Hope this helps.

1 comment:

  1. Wow, taking lesson from a PGA professional is awesome! They would definitely be the best people to learn from. After all, there’s a reason they are called professionals. They have a keen eye on what makes a swing right or wrong, so you were in very capable hands. Anyway, how is your swing now? Have you continued to learn golf?

    -- Sofia Karg

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