GolfTEC Lessons

[FlipFlop]

Had another great lesson tonight as we continue to whittle away at issues causing inconsistent strikes. Something that came up really made me appreciate coaching and the complexities of golf: it's not always hitting the motion or position, it's hitting it the right way for you.

For example, when you hinge your wrist do you pull up with your trail hand, push out with your lead hand, both?

More to come when the update hits!

I’m more of a pull-up with the trail hand. I do love how I’ve heard my coach say it a few times. “It’s OK to swing your swing as long as it’s getting you to the right place consistently.” I haven’t felt forced to change my swing at all. It’s really nice working with what I do to just make it better.

 

[Nashtyone]

Had a putting lesson last night. My coach put a couple balls down about 6-8 feet from the cup in what he said was the flatest part of the putting green. The turf is starting to come up a little bit so it bunches up in a few areas. Not the best putting surface, but it was more just to see me putt.

Not the best photo quality as it's a screen shot from an ipad video but he quickly pointed out that I was very hunched over the ball and not standing with my eyes directly over the ball. He asked what my miss was and I mentioned that I tend to miss right. He mentioned that standing how I was could easily lead to that as I'm adjusting off my line with my eyes where they were

We busted out the putting mirror (that GOLFTEC was nice enough to give all participants) and had me stand with more of a bend at the waist with my eyes directly over the ball

Spent about 15 minutes taking putts using the mirror. Very quickly I noticed how much better my putts were rolling. By bending over the ball more it was so much easier for me to tilt my head towards the cup without having to completely reset my putting stance. I had a much smoother putt overall.

I will be bringing the putting mirror with me to the course from now on for my warmups. There are holes at the end where you can add in tees to create "gates" to putt through. This will show me if I'm keeping my putts straight or immediately pushing it offline.

 

[blugold]

Had a fantastic mock playing lesson. Talked a lot of course strategy. A few mulligans to work on the swing and engrain some thoughts.

It's pretty awesome when the feedback, swing video, and result all match up.

Highly recommend the hour long "on course" lesson.

 

[Nashtyone]

Had a fantastic mock playing lesson. Talked a lot of course strategy. A few mulligans to work on the swing and engrain some thoughts.

It's pretty awesome when the feedback, swing video, and result all match up.

Highly recommend the hour long "on course" lesson.

What course did you play?

Haven’t done one of these with my current coach but have done it in the past with another coach. It’s really good as you get to go through the bag and talk about different shots and strategy

 

[blugold]

What course did you play?

Haven’t done one of these with my current coach but have done it in the past with another coach. It’s really good as you get to go through the bag and talk about different shots and strategy

We did Sentry World.

It's a quirky course with odd lines and targets. Good chance to talk strategy. It wasn't about playing a destination course, just something to make me think and us talk about.

 

[blazinden]

Previously: Swing Eval 10.30.25, Practice 1 11.3.25, Lesson 1 11.10.25, Lesson 2 11.20.25, Practice 2 11.20.25

Lesson No. 3: Driver Swing
Tonight Cole and I worked on two adjustments for the driver swing:
1. Narrowing my stance.
2. Keeping my lead bicep (left arm) closer to my body on the down swing..
*Another thing Cole noticed was my transition was a little quick so we tried so get a better tempo with my driver swing.

My back swing on the wide vs narrow stance is almost identical but during the down swing with the narrow stance but my hips are able to turn a bit more in the narrow stance which results in a bit more power.

Old vs New at the the top of the back swing. *I am still a little bit high with my hands with the new swing.

Old vs New during the transition. *even though i start high still on the back swing, during the transition, I keep my arms closer to my body.

Old vs New at the bottom of downswing. *the slower practice swings for the newer swing felt very awkward but its something to work on.

I did not have my best driver swings tonight but this will be a harder adjustment than the irons. Narrowing my stance was not too bad. Trying to keep my bicep against my body and have a pulling down motion first during the downswing transition felt way different with driver than with irons. However, I will keep practicing and hopefully this becomes muscle memory.

Coaching Tips:
1. Watch Tilt Instead of Turn to Start Your Downswing video in drills tab
2. Keep my stance narrow
3. Feel my bicep come across my left side in the downswing

 

[blazinden]

Practice No. 3
After my driver lesson I used some time for slow motion driver swings which as awkward as they are; I tell myself, do it and it will become easier.
I messed around for a bit with driver then asked my coach for the Ai150 7 iron with an mmt90s shaft.

I spent the last 10-15 minutes hitting the ai150 after reading through the ai50 iron thread and seeing how much people were liking them.
*I will jump over to that thread with some screen shots.

 

[blugold]

Previously: Swing Eval 10.30.25, Practice 1 11.3.25, Lesson 1 11.10.25, Lesson 2 11.20.25, Practice 2 11.20.25

Lesson No. 3: Driver Swing
Tonight Cole and I worked on two adjustments for the driver swing:
1. Narrowing my stance.
2. Keeping my lead bicep (left arm) closer to my body on the down swing..
*Another thing Cole noticed was my transition was a little quick so we tried so get a better tempo with my driver swing.


View attachment 9393009
View attachment 9393010

View attachment 9393011My back swing on the wide vs narrow stance is almost identical but during the down swing with the narrow stance but my hips are able to turn a bit more in the narrow stance which results in a bit more power.

View attachment 9393012
View attachment 9393014
Old vs New at the the top of the back swing. *I am still a little bit high with my hands with the new swing.

View attachment 9393015
View attachment 9393016
Old vs New during the transition. *even though i start high still on the back swing, during the transition, I keep my arms closer to my body.

View attachment 9393017
View attachment 9393018
Old vs New at the bottom of downswing. *the slower practice swings for the newer swing felt very awkward but its something to work on.

I did not have my best driver swings tonight but this will be a harder adjustment than the irons. Narrowing my stance was not too bad. Trying to keep my bicep against my body and have a pulling down motion first during the downswing transition felt way different with driver than with irons. However, I will keep practicing and hopefully this becomes muscle memory.

Coaching Tips:
1. Watch Tilt Instead of Turn to Start Your Downswing video in drills tab
2. Keep my stance narrow
3. Feel my bicep come across my left side in the downswing

It's amazing how they're seeing things.

I told Bekah that this is the first time I've ever taken lessons and not heard to turn my hips faster on the way down. It's great how they purely identify what needs attention.

 

[Canadan]

@blazinden how sick is it that you can completely and easily see the difference?! I love these stills you're sharing man - it's awesome.

 

[blazinden]

@blazinden how sick is it that you can completely and easily see the difference?! I love these stills you're sharing man - it's awesome.

It's crazy to see the difference in real time. Doing the slower motion swings is a weird feeling but helps understand the adjustments.
After getting used to the new feeling, you need to keep that muscle memory locked in.

 

[FlipFlop]

the feel from last lesson has been a struggle but thanks to the app and being able to double check what I’m working on, it’s starting to feel more natural. Today on course felt really good and the practice definitely showed. Without the app, I’m not sure practice would be as beneficial

 

[E.Appleton]

TLDR: Connection is my friend and will lead to more consistency. Want to feel like I'm pushing my arms out in the backswing and then need to work on firing the hips rather than turning with the body and saving with the hands leading to hooks.

This is a long one. To put it in perspective, in the app there are usually two or three 2min long clips with the coaches instruction....this lesson had FIVE so here we go. Last lesson was all about early extension and I'm starting to get a feel for that. A lot of it I think is going to come full circle next lesson because my hip movement is garbage. This lesson, however, covers a lot but mostly focuses on staying connected. Let's get into it! The before swing video: https://gt.golf/7KRy1q

First off, we are across the line a bit or at least close to it. You can see it here my lead hand is actually coming off the club a bit and that is creating more length, but also a lot of inconsistencies.

You'll also notice the wrist position is a bit open. My back swing is really good until I hit the top and it breaks down. That leads to coming in steep and again, getting disconnected as you'll see here. The steepness leads to releasing the club early and another symptom of flippy hooks.

The last one is a weird one. My hinge was created by pulling up on the club. You can do it many ways, but what we're seeing is the pull feel is pulling my arms a bit close to my body. You'll see what I mean when we get into the solutions.

I get quite disconnected in the downswing. That trail arm is not connected and creates a lot of lag, but also means I need to time things perfectly which is inconsistent and leads to my most common miss: the flippy hook.

GolfTec does a great job of really showing you how to succeed. Here's Charles Howell III mirrored for a lefty. He creates great width in his backswing and is pushing the club out whereas I am pulling the club into my body. I do a great job to here

Then it breaks down here where I pull the club into my body

So I need to focus on keeping that club away as I finish my turn

I'm going to lose some of that lag but it will increase consistency a lot because the arms won't be breaking down. So how do we work on that? Enter my new friend THE CONNECTOR. This is a training aid that's a foam ball with 3 rods in it. You squeeze the ball with your forearms and never lose connection. Instantly it keeps you connected

Look how much more connected my trail elbow is to my body without forcing anything. No more trailing elbow lagging and pushing to save it

Speaking of early extension, in this video I was trigged by my heel still coming up, but the position is completely different. Before it would come straight up leading to that humping motion, now it's more at an inside angle which indicates a push which is much better

Even the follow through is different. Look how much more upright, square, controlled, and balanced this is

Putting it all together here is the after swing video https://gt.golf/CJxR9K

I think The Connector is going to be the first swing aid I actually buy. I love that you can take full swings with it. You do not need to adjust anything other than hold the ball in place. It seems to really put it all together for me and solve a lot of problems on its own. This week I will be practicing with it and focusing on firing the hips, staying upright and controlled/balanced, and continuing to manage early extension. I expect next lesson will be all about firing the hips. In the lesson I was getting about 2-2.5 inches of hip movement. I think tour average is double that, so I got a ways to go. Need to start doing @That post mobility stretches I saved as it's going to save my swing

If you read all the way through, thank you. This is a long one, but there's a lot going on and a lot of achievable progress to be made!

 

[JHolt]

Woke up this morning with a little muscle soreness in some new places. That means the practice is working and new muscles are being engaged. And that's exciting AF. I ran into my old coach last week and we caught up about where my GolfTec lessons are taking me and he was super jazzed to hear that early extension dies this year. He tried to help me find the feel to really push off the back foot and it never clicked. It's starting to now and I'm pumped!

Did your coach give you a % weight shift to your left foot on the backswing?

 

[E.Appleton]

Did your coach give you a % weight shift to your left foot on the backswing?

We didn't talk any numbers. Just go til it's loaded. May get more into it as we fine tune but right now is more broad changes

 

[JHolt]

We didn't talk any numbers. Just go til it's loaded. May get more into it as we fine tune but right now is more broad changes

I misspoke, I meant right side on backswing, which is back foot. Was curious because my coach said max 70% on right side load but did talk about pushing hard off it.

 

[E.Appleton]

I misspoke, I meant right side on backswing, which is back foot. Was curious because my coach said max 70% on right side load but did talk about pushing hard off it.

Yeah the shift forward is important. Staying back on it leads to a lot of weird stuff that can happen (and I've explored all of em lol)

 

[FlipFlop]

TLDR: Connection is my friend and will lead to more consistency. Want to feel like I'm pushing my arms out in the backswing and then need to work on firing the hips rather than turning with the body and saving with the hands leading to hooks.

This is a long one. To put it in perspective, in the app there are usually two or three 2min long clips with the coaches instruction....this lesson had FIVE so here we go. Last lesson was all about early extension and I'm starting to get a feel for that. A lot of it I think is going to come full circle next lesson because my hip movement is garbage. This lesson, however, covers a lot but mostly focuses on staying connected. Let's get into it! The before swing video: https://gt.golf/7KRy1q


View attachment 9393100
First off, we are across the line a bit or at least close to it. You can see it here my lead hand is actually coming off the club a bit and that is creating more length, but also a lot of inconsistencies.

View attachment 9393105

You'll also notice the wrist position is a bit open. My back swing is really good until I hit the top and it breaks down. That leads to coming in steep and again, getting disconnected as you'll see here. The steepness leads to releasing the club early and another symptom of flippy hooks.

View attachment 9393106
The last one is a weird one. My hinge was created by pulling up on the club. You can do it many ways, but what we're seeing is the pull feel is pulling my arms a bit close to my body. You'll see what I mean when we get into the solutions.

View attachment 9393103

I get quite disconnected in the downswing. That trail arm is not connected and creates a lot of lag, but also means I need to time things perfectly which is inconsistent and leads to my most common miss: the flippy hook.

GolfTec does a great job of really showing you how to succeed. Here's Charles Howell III mirrored for a lefty. He creates great width in his backswing and is pushing the club out whereas I am pulling the club into my body. I do a great job to here
View attachment 9393114

Then it breaks down here where I pull the club into my body
View attachment 9393115
So I need to focus on keeping that club away as I finish my turn
View attachment 9393116
I'm going to lose some of that lag but it will increase consistency a lot because the arms won't be breaking down. So how do we work on that? Enter my new friend THE CONNECTOR. This is a training aid that's a foam ball with 3 rods in it. You squeeze the ball with your forearms and never lose connection. Instantly it keeps you connected
View attachment 9393119
View attachment 9393120
Look how much more connected my trail elbow is to my body without forcing anything. No more trailing elbow lagging and pushing to save it
View attachment 9393121

Speaking of early extension, in this video I was trigged by my heel still coming up, but the position is completely different. Before it would come straight up leading to that humping motion, now it's more at an inside angle which indicates a push which is much better
View attachment 9393122

Even the follow through is different. Look how much more upright, square, controlled, and balanced this is
View attachment 9393124

Putting it all together here is the after swing video https://gt.golf/CJxR9K

I think The Connector is going to be the first swing aid I actually buy. I love that you can take full swings with it. You do not need to adjust anything other than hold the ball in place. It seems to really put it all together for me and solve a lot of problems on its own. This week I will be practicing with it and focusing on firing the hips, staying upright and controlled/balanced, and continuing to manage early extension. I expect next lesson will be all about firing the hips. In the lesson I was getting about 2-2.5 inches of hip movement. I think tour average is double that, so I got a ways to go. Need to start doing @That post mobility stretches I saved as it's going to save my swing

If you read all the way through, thank you. This is a long one, but there's a lot going on and a lot of achievable progress to be made!

Really detailed breakdown! I love seeing how the Connector is helping you keep the trail arm synced up. One thing I’m curious about. Now that you’re feeling more width in the backswing, are you noticing any changes in your transition timing? Sometimes cleaning up connection can make the downswing feel either way quicker or way slower depending on the player. Wondering how that shift feels for you and whether it’s smoothing out the sequencing or creating new sensations you’re still adjusting to?

 

[E.Appleton]

Really detailed breakdown! I love seeing how the Connector is helping you keep the trail arm synced up. One thing I’m curious about. Now that you’re feeling more width in the backswing, are you noticing any changes in your transition timing? Sometimes cleaning up connection can make the downswing feel either way quicker or way slower depending on the player. Wondering how that shift feels for you and whether it’s smoothing out the sequencing or creating new sensations you’re still adjusting to?

Oh yeah I feel a lot different. It feels awful and awkward lol. I do well with some changes better than others and this one will take some time

 

[FlipFlop]

Really good practice yesterday. My coach was there in between lessons and hung out with me for the full hour. He really liked where my swing was at. We started talking about wedges and needing to get dialed in on distances. He asked me to hit 3 just normal swings. 82-85 yards each. He says ok go half that and hit 40 yards. I’ll be damned! Right on the number . He said ok you know your normal is 82-85 and half that is 40. Go in between and hit 60. Boom, 61 yards.

Practice turned into him calling numbers and me just trying to hit them by knowing the feel of full and half swings. Pretty crazy how consistent I could be with that.

We finished off the last 20 minutes or so testing out some new irons. Fitting will be coming very soon I think.

 

[E.Appleton]

Really good practice yesterday. My coach was there in between lessons and hung out with me for the full hour. He really liked where my swing was at. We started talking about wedges and needing to get dialed in on distances. He asked me to hit 3 just normal swings. 82-85 yards each. He says ok go half that and hit 40 yards. I’ll be damned! Right on the number . He said ok you know your normal is 82-85 and half that is 40. Go in between and hit 60. Boom, 61 yards.

Practice turned into him calling numbers and me just trying to hit them by knowing the feel of full and half swings. Pretty crazy how consistent I could be with that.

We finished off the last 20 minutes or so testing out some new irons. Fitting will be coming very soon I think.

Your coach seems absolutely awesome. Like one of those people born to teach and has a real passion for it. Love to see your progress with everything in such a short time!!

Last night I went to do a 30min practice but it was a lot less productive lol. The projector was weirdly glitchy and I lost 10min of my 30min session. Going to try and see if there's an opening tonight for more and Thurs I have an hour scheduled to really grind with the Connector. The connector is my new best friend and worst enemy.

 

[FlipFlop]

Your coach seems absolutely awesome. Like one of those people born to teach and has a real passion for it. Love to see your progress with everything in such a short time!!

Last night I went to do a 30min practice but it was a lot less productive lol. The projector was weirdly glitchy and I lost 10min of my 30min session. Going to try and see if there's an opening tonight for more and Thurs I have an hour scheduled to really grind with the Connector. The connector is my new best friend and worst enemy.

He really is awesome. I think I’ve had one practice session where he didn’t stop in and talk golf with me. And it’s not just me. I can walk in and he’s right there with another student or he jumps right in with the person coming in after me. He genuinely cares about everyone getting better and enjoying golf. That’s the feeling I get from all the coaches at my center. They love golf and want students to love it too.

 

[E.Appleton]

After yesterday's rather crummy practice session, I called my local as I saw they had 90min free in the evening to ask if they could sneak me in for additional practice time. Our plan grants us 90min a week to practice, but at the discretion of the store, additional time is possible. They said "sure we have no one using the bay, come on in" because they're great.

Starting to click a bit with this swing change. I wish I took pictures of the screen and will do so next time, but it looks much better. Key changes:

• Gripping with lead pinky: I was over the line, first off, and creating that length by letting the butt of the club come away from my hand. This leads to tons of inconsistencies as you can imagine.
• Keeping trail elbow tucked to my body as well as I can. This is an area that will improve with stretching and flexibility
• Knuckles down but not letting them drag across my body for a big body turn pull
• The biggest one is the word 'PUSH.' I want to create hinge by pushing the lead hand out. I want to create that length and feel a stretch (for now) as I turn, using that push to turn my body in the backswing. Finally, I want to push with the inside of my trail foot to fire my hips.

After some iron work (go see the AI150 thread for fun numbers) I used the last 8-10 min to work on driver. Feeling quite good about the swing and the results:

 

[FlipFlop]

After yesterday's rather crummy practice session, I called my local as I saw they had 90min free in the evening to ask if they could sneak me in for additional practice time. Our plan grants us 90min a week to practice, but at the discretion of the store, additional time is possible. They said "sure we have no one using the bay, come on in" because they're great.

Starting to click a bit with this swing change. I wish I took pictures of the screen and will do so next time, but it looks much better. Key changes:

• Gripping with lead pinky: I was over the line, first off, and creating that length by letting the butt of the club come away from my hand. This leads to tons of inconsistencies as you can imagine.
• Keeping trail elbow tucked to my body as well as I can. This is an area that will improve with stretching and flexibility
• Knuckles down but not letting them drag across my body for a big body turn pull
• The biggest one is the word 'PUSH.' I want to create hinge by pushing the lead hand out. I want to create that length and feel a stretch (for now) as I turn, using that push to turn my body in the backswing. Finally, I want to push with the inside of my trail foot to fire my hips.

After some iron work (go see the AI150 thread for fun numbers) I used the last 8-10 min to work on driver. Feeling quite good about the swing and the results:
View attachment 9395168

It’s been said multiple times but deserves it again. The customer service has been fantastic!

That bit about the pinky gripping is something I need to work on too. I get the butt end of the club separation causing those issues just like you do.

 

[E.Appleton]

Tonight's practice reinforced that things are starting to click with this new feeling and that's it wasn't a fluke.

Much better shoulder turn. Elbow close to the body. Good weight shift without sway. I really like what I'm seeing there. Focusing on keeping pressure with the ring finger and pinky as well.

Also looking a lot better on the early extension I think. Let's not focus on the flippy hands, that's for another lesson.

Interestingly with the new irons I've been much more successful with the 8 iron up than the 9 iron down in terms of consistent strikes. Will talk with Coach about it Tuesday. Happy with the progress of this week after feeling relatively lost on Tuesday. Trust the process!

 

[FlipFlop]

Had a lesson last night and something kind of clicked. When I was in there a couple days ago for practice, I was kind of up and down on my ball striking. My dispersion had gotten wider and I wasn’t feeling great. When I walked in today my coach asked me what I wanted to work on. I told him I was feeling something is off in my swing. The back swing and transition were feeling like I had reverted to my old bad habits. He said “I’m glad you said that! I saw it during practice but wanted to see if you could figure it out.” Personally I like this method of coaching. Give me some time to see if I can learn to spot where I’m wrong and pull myself back on track in a round.

He said that I wasn’t as far off as I thought I was and that something we hadn’t talked about yet was causing the inconsistency. My turn or lack there of was the culprit. I was still following my thought of “start the back swing with the right shoulder going back.” The problem is that I was pulling too much with the right shoulder, almost like doing a dumbbell or cable row with just the right arm. The left shoulder would follow a little, but I was driving the swing with the right side and not the left.

In this pic, you can see that my left shoulder turn much at all compared to the pro and even though I’m pulling my right shoulder, it gets stuck and you can’t see it come out behind.

So how do we address that? Well he set up my favorite training tool, the Bio Feedback that makes the audible ring when you hit a certain number. For this it was my back shoulder getting to 90°. Coach also got out the alignment stick and had me practice turning so I don’t push the stick with my shoulder to point out to the right. Doing it right should turn on an arc and slide under it keeping it pointing down the line.

We practiced the turn without a club and focused on drive the turn with the left shoulder. Push back to 90° and hear that sweet sound confirming I got there.

Once I got the feel of that down, we moved to one arm swings. Left hand only on the club, keep the right arm quiet, hear that sound.

Much more turn here

Before on the right, after on left

Some real big improvements in the positioning there swinging with one hand. Time to move to two. We did that slowly by taking it back with left hand only, put the right on at the top, then downswing. The thought here was also “up, down, up” to get the hands not wrapping around my body. Once I got comfortable with that, full two handed dry swings.

Before on the right again here.

Not just better shoulder turn was achieved, but also a better hip turn!

And much better impact and follow through positions on the right side here after the change.

I have some drills to work on now which are also going to be my pre round warm up to make sure I go on course with this change in mind.

Warmup:
1: Left handed swings with wedge thinking up, down, up. 5 dry then 5 hitting balls. All at 30%

2: left hand takeaway, right hand only, swing. 5 of these no ball.

3: 5 full swings hitting a ball.

Overall I was very happy with the progress I saw in this lesson an extremely happy that my coach takes the time to explain and make sure it’s done in a way that resonates with me. Looking forward to practicing this through the weekend and taking it to the course for a couple rounds next week.