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THP Lesson Thread

SkiBumGolfer

SkiBumGolfer

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Albatross 2024 Club
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I was looking for a thread like this and didn't find one, so figured I'd start it. Intended as a place for everyone to post recaps and other discussion on lessons they've had with pros - perhaps we can all learn something!

I just had a very good lesson today with my usual pro. Haven't seen him in a number of months, and I'm really glad I went. He took some video and observed my swing as it was and noticed that my forward shaft lean was pretty minimal and I was standing a little too tall at address. So we started working to increase my forward shaft lean and get me a little wider in stance, as well as get a little more leg flex. From there, he was continually reminding me as well to stay slow and steady on my takeaway, as I also tend to get quick there. The result of all of this was that I started flushing it much more consistently, and when I did I picked up around 10 yards of distance with every club! Astounding - it's really all about fundamentals!

At this point we started discussing shot shapes and how to approach different holes based on where the trouble is and where the flag is. We kind of agreed that my swing style really lends itself to a stock cut, which I was hitting on command. He felt that I should start working to be able to hit the draw on command as well, and so we tried a few shots working the ball the other way. After a little experimentation, I was able to create draws by strengthening my grip slightly and focusing on really active hands through the ball to close up the clubface. I really liked hitting the draw with the shorter clubs, as it seemed to eliminate the weak right miss I sometimes suffer with those clubs and it flies very close to straight.

So we summed up at the end with really 3 key takeaways to work on:

1) Emphasize forward shaft lean at address
2) Widen stance slightly and "sit down" into the stance (knee flex)
3) Slow, controlled takeaway is CRUCIAL

He gave me a few drills to work on on the takeaway, and told me I should work on hitting both draws and fades at the range with the methods we found. Overall, a great lesson and I feel really good and motivated to work on the swing!
 
Bumping this thread to see what everyones plans are for the upcoming year lesson wise (and maybe get some recaps like SBG posted above). Or perhaps this needs merged with JB's new awesome 2016 together we change thread?

For me 2015 was a nice "year off". The golf game was brutal during times but for alot of reasons I was not able to dedicate time to work on the game so the downfall was not a huge surprise.

However with a huge competitive 2016 come for me Im going to dive back into lessons. Going to be reaching out to a few people locally in the next few weeks to hopefully set something up to start in late Feb-ish to minimize the amount of "winter lessons" that are taken plan, and run it into spring.

My goals lesson wise:
1. Get nasty swing flaw corrected that has destroyed my distance.
2. Once #1 is fine tuned, work hard to get a "repeatable swing"
3. From a handicap perspective, post lessons and practicing I would like to knock off at least 5 strokes from my index. It currently stands at 16 and my low is 11.3 which was accomplished with good iron striking and putting and 0 short game. I am hoping by the end of the year (2016) to at least be in a better position to go even lower going forward with a sorted out tee game and possibly some resemblance of a short game.
4. Keep enjoying golf-While I always have a good time on the course, this year was tough because of too many bad rounds. Hoping that working on the game will help make the rounds even more enjoyable
 
I like it MikeDean441.
Before the swing flaw came about, you had the makings of heading towards single digits.

Find the coach that works for you, work hard on correcting it and you are going to enjoy the game so much more.
 
JB said:
I like it MikeDean441.
Before the swing flaw came about, you had the makings of heading towards single digits.

Find the coach that works for you, work hard on correcting it and you are going to enjoy the game so much more.
Click to expand...

Stupid swing flaw
 
I'm like you, except I took two years off. I played once a month or so, but didn't care about scores and didn't do anything to work on my game. I'm ready to get back to working on my game, and I am going to be taking lessons this year hopefully starting in the next week or so. I don't intend to rebuild my swing but hopeful can work with what I have to groove a consistent swing.
 
Wake said:
I'm like you, except I took two years off. I played once a month or so, but didn't care about scores and didn't do anything to work on my game. I'm ready to get back to working on my game, and I am going to be taking lessons this year hopefully starting in the next week or so. I don't intend to rebuild my swing but hopeful can work with what I have to groove a consistent swing.
Click to expand...

Got a place locked down? Someone you know, or going in blind?
 
mikedean441 said:
Got a place locked down? Someone you know, or going in blind?
Click to expand...
Going in relatively blind. Their is a golf Academy at the course I joined. The guy there has a good resume and I've heard positive things. I'm going to talk to him and make sure I feel comfortable. Buy unless I hate him I think having him around at my home course will be a huge plus. Last time I took lessons at golf tec which was 45 minutes away, and it was a pain. Before that I did them at a course I used to practice all the time and it was nice being able to bounce questions off of him real quick when we were both there.
 
I'm at a transition in my game right now. I am not playing terrible, but i'm not playing great either. My golf pro i used for the last two years has now moved on so I am left trying to find another coach which sucks because I had a great relationship with my old pro. First up for me is to find a new teacher to build on my game as it is currently.

- Find a new teacher and build on my swing and correct flaws
- Get to a single handicap by attacking my GIR. That is one stat that has to improve for me to get where I want to be.
- I'm already ok at putting, but feel like I can take that to the next level
- Practice my short game (inside of 120) and become automatic. I should always hit a green from that distance.
 
As it stands now, I'll have the opportunity to spend some time with Tadashi next month on the course. While not a formal lesson, I will certainly take away a few things that I can follow up and practice on my own. Then follow that up with a series of video's in the Swing Tips section with him to continue the work.
 
i take lessons with the head pro at a local cc at which i am not a member, so i completely understand that i am not a priority for him. my work pretty much zaps practice and play time for a 4-month stretch starting mid-january, and my golf game really suffers because of it. i reached out to the pro to get some video of different parts of my game, and drills to work on in my off season to try to stay sharp. he never responded. i even saw him at a social function and talked to him for a little while, and he didn't say anything about my request. so i guess it's time to move on.

i think i'm going to head out to the grand cypress academy to talk to them about a practice and lessons annual membership. with minimal traffic it's about 25 minutes from my house, so with a 2-hour practice session that's a 3-hour commitment at a time when my family doesn't get a whole lot of my time anyway. but assuming i do, my focus will be:

- improve my technique and proximity to the hole on chips, pitches and sand shots
- improve my consistency on 50-130y wedge shots
- improve my ability to hit my lines on putts inside 10'
- work on a more consistent driver swing
- make fw a weapon instead of a liability
- tighten up dispersion and consistency of contact with irons

and golf fitness is something i want to focus on. i need to lose a good bit of belly fat, but i'd also like to get golf stronger. tahoe bum has posted something about a book that helped him, but i don't recall the title.
 
Great topic. Also looking to sign up for some lessons to help tighten things up and improve my game. Most likely will be going in blind with who to use. Hoping to go from an 18 to a 10-12 hcp. I know its possible, its the dreaded few holes of death that always seem to find its way on the scorecard. I think a lot of my focus will need to be with the short game to help eliminate wasted strokes.
 
THP Lesson Thread

mikedean441 said:
Bumping this thread to see what everyones plans are for the upcoming year lesson wise (and maybe get some recaps like SBG posted above). Or perhaps this needs merged with JB's new awesome 2016 together we change thread?

For me 2015 was a nice "year off". The golf game was brutal during times but for alot of reasons I was not able to dedicate time to work on the game so the downfall was not a huge surprise.

However with a huge competitive 2016 come for me Im going to dive back into lessons. Going to be reaching out to a few people locally in the next few weeks to hopefully set something up to start in late Feb-ish to minimize the amount of "winter lessons" that are taken plan, and run it into spring.

My goals lesson wise:
1. Get nasty swing flaw corrected that has destroyed my distance.
2. Once #1 is fine tuned, work hard to get a "repeatable swing"
3. From a handicap perspective, post lessons and practicing I would like to knock off at least 5 strokes from my index. It currently stands at 16 and my low is 11.3 which was accomplished with good iron striking and putting and 0 short game. I am hoping by the end of the year (2016) to at least be in a better position to go even lower going forward with a sorted out tee game and possibly some resemblance of a short game.
4. Keep enjoying golf-While I always have a good time on the course, this year was tough because of too many bad rounds. Hoping that working on the game will help make the rounds even more enjoyable
Click to expand...

Good stuff, buddy. I will be following along your journey and as someone who had an off year in terms of competition and just not playing like I wanted to in 2015, I am looking forward to getting back out and trying to get my game back to a state I am happy with.

The teacher I have worked with the last few years just took a job with Cleveland/Srixon so I will have to find someone new to work with though it will probably be someone else at the same club who teaches the same principles of the swing so that will be a smooth transition I hope.

Improving my putting and getting confidence with the driver off the tee are my top goals. Continuing to improve my short game is next on the list as it is in a pretty solid spot right now.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Your handicap story is an exact replica of mine Mike. I was once a 12, but I'm back to a 17.

After struggling all year, I've made a major improvement in my swing in about the past month. My contact is so much more solid and my ball flight is so much straighter and penetrating. I know I'm close. I'm still scoring around 90 though because I've played so little golf my short game is not where it needs to be.

I've got two lessons worth of credit with a local pro, so once we get through winter, I'll be using that to re-sharpen the short game and hopefully get back to the 86-ish and below range I once was.
 
I will be working with a pro named Tim Brown ( no JB - not the football player! ) at Wyncote golf course in Pa.He worked with my son, and the results were amazing! My teacher I used to see passed away suddenly in 2014, and we were friends as much as student / teacher. One look and he would have me straightened out. Still think about him.

Good thing about Tim is, he worked and is friends with Martin Hall - so I hoping he can introduce me to Martin - and more so Sara!
 
Nice bump Mike! Glad this has caught on. That lesson from the first post is still helping me - I've consistently got 5-10 more yards than I had prior to it. Looking to take another in January to see how I'm progressing and see if anything else needs tightening up.

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk
 
I have a lesson this weekend, my first in quite some time. My goal is pretty modest - I want to be able to get off the tees when I'm at Bandon in a couple of weeks.
 
Been having lessons over the winter to work on the takeaway and position at the top of the swing, leading to a better line to the ball to increase consistency.

File%20Dec%2030%202%2031%2003%20PM.png


Top of old swing on the left, the new controllable version on the right. The range sessions after the lessons have been a lot straighter than before, so just need to get the muscle memory sorted now. Got a few more lessons in the next few weeks to check it's all still moving in the right direction.
 
Great bump Mike, fun is a tough one sometimes for me on the course, if I'm playing bad it's tough to step back a bit and have fun.

But I know if I would put the time in and get the proper lessons scheduled, rather than just here or there, I could make some real progress.

It's funny, when you joke or comment about your tee game I know exactly how you feel, and when your tee game is off, it starts every hole out on the wrong foot, you're playing catchup the entire hole/round.

I'll be following your progress closely buddy. Good luck!
 
I have played golf, off and on, for over 25 years but never got down to respectable figures. Not that that bothers me. I much rather be able to play consistently, to the extent that I enjoy hitting shots as near to perfection as I can and to not be an embarrassment to my playing partners. As to the rest, its just not on my radar. There are other things in life that have a higher priority for me.

At first I had no idea what these teacher guys were talking about. It was all just mumbo jumbo to me. But after a while, I began to understand that it was a language, one specific to golf. I began to realize that this was a way to understand how a swing works. As anyone who has studied a specialty of any sort, without being able to talk the language of that science, you can’t begin to understand the subject proficiently.

Fortunately, Found a great pro at a golf dome in the area that was able to help me in understanding. Without that help, it would probably have been beyond me. It has given me the ability to analyse and understand my swing. Its enabled me to understand what other experts mean when they talk about the golf swing. It certainly helps when discussing issues with my golf coach.

Difficult as it has been, learning the language of golf has been both beneficial to my game . For that, I am extremely grateful. I feel very fortunate to have arrived at my age and have so much to look forward to.

I am not on 90 golf yet , But I do have the desire to get there and I feel confident that if I continue with my understanding of the golf swing, I will probably get very close. I can no longer practice as much as I used to but what practice I do now, is much more focused. Over the years, I would have spent hundreds of hours on the driving range but I realize now that most of it was wasted effort.

Many would mock my golf swing now as it looks robotic. But I'm learning it step by step. We spent 3 lessons on just the grip only, and another 2 on just the takeaway. In my third month and haven't hit a ball yet, but I was assured I will be hitting a few shots after my 10 th lesson I was told. So far it has been all mirror work an hour per lesson.

So now I spend a lot more time watching, reading and thinking and maybe about a tenth of the time, practicing. I try to get out once a month for a round and while I am doing that I am really enjoying the journey.

One could say, mission accomplished …….but we all know how wrong that can be
smile.png
 
Chip said:
I have played golf, off and on, for over 25 years but never got down to respectable figures. Not that that bothers me. I much rather be able to play consistently, to the extent that I enjoy hitting shots as near to perfection as I can and to not be an embarrassment to my playing partners. As to the rest, its just not on my radar. There are other things in life that have a higher priority for me.

At first I had no idea what these teacher guys were talking about. It was all just mumbo jumbo to me. But after a while, I began to understand that it was a language, one specific to golf. I began to realize that this was a way to understand how a swing works. As anyone who has studied a specialty of any sort, without being able to talk the language of that science, you can’t begin to understand the subject proficiently.

Fortunately, Found a great pro at a golf dome in the area that was able to help me in understanding. Without that help, it would probably have been beyond me. It has given me the ability to analyse and understand my swing. Its enabled me to understand what other experts mean when they talk about the golf swing. It certainly helps when discussing issues with my golf coach.

Difficult as it has been, learning the language of golf has been both beneficial to my game . For that, I am extremely grateful. I feel very fortunate to have arrived at my age and have so much to look forward to.

I am not on 90 golf yet , But I do have the desire to get there and I feel confident that if I continue with my understanding of the golf swing, I will probably get very close. I can no longer practice as much as I used to but what practice I do now, is much more focused. Over the years, I would have spent hundreds of hours on the driving range but I realize now that most of it was wasted effort.

Many would mock my golf swing now as it looks robotic. But I'm learning it step by step. We spent 3 lessons on just the grip only, and another 2 on just the takeaway. In my third month and haven't hit a ball yet, but I was assured I will be hitting a few shots after my 10 th lesson I was told. So far it has been all mirror work an hour per lesson.

So now I spend a lot more time watching, reading and thinking and maybe about a tenth of the time, practicing. I try to get out once a month for a round and while I am doing that I am really enjoying the journey.

One could say, mission accomplished …….but we all know how wrong that can be
smile.png
Click to expand...
10th lesson and havent hit a ball? You are way more patient than I am.
 
I moved this year so need to find someone down where I moved to work with. Really want to find someone that is willing to do playing lessons rather than just on the range. Will have to see what I can find.
 
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