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THP Lesson Thread

I'm hitting everything way out on the toe lately. Pretty sure it's yet another artifact of my craptastical lack of extension, but I'm pondering booking a lesson this Sunday to make sure as to what's going on and that I'm working on the right issue. I know toe hits can be caused by too upright a lie angle as well, so I also want him to check that.

On the positive side, I've been hitting the ball reasonably straight lately, even with the toe hits, so I feel like things are progressing. I just know they can get even better. On the rare times when I really do fully extend and hit the center of the face rather than the toe, the results are awesome and laser precise.
 
Had my first lesson ever today. Solid local instructor and genuine nice guy. After making some lie adjustments to my irons, we worked on my weight shift when I start the backswing. I have a tendency to stay back and pull up, leading to high ball/thin shots. Worked on hitting down on the ball with the weight shift, pushing off my right foot on the downswing and extending out a little more on impact (miss is a snap hook when I get quick). Great lesson and hit some of the most solid iron shots I've ever hit. Looking forward to working on that and grooving it on the range soon


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Great short game lesson this morning. Focused on 130 yards and in (my AW). Mostly worked on 10, 20, 30 yard pitches. He adjusted my alignment, stance (more weight on the front foot, open stance) and takeaway (use the big muscles more). Went straight to their short course (100 yards or less) and hit every green with my AW. Very confident now that when I practice my technique will be correct, and I can keep building on it. I really think I can save some strokes by improving my short game. Really like my instructor and can't wait to get out and practice.
 
So I had a lesson this today, after noticing my impact was frequently out on the toe, and had a great one with my pro. I was getting almost 190 carry out of my 6i, which is so huge for me and he thought it was awesome! The work is really paying off with better distance. First thing we did was get me on video to help diagnose (will post vids in my swing thread later), and discovered that my release was a little late through the ball, meaning that the clubhead was coming through a little towards the toe. We worked on extension, thinking about "swinging to the right" in order to extend and combat my hook miss.

Then we worked on touch wedges, as I've noticed I sometimes have a tough time with good contact here. We worked on accelerating through the ball no matter the swing length, and that led to us working on a shot I've always wanted to have - the low pitch that checks hard. He had me achieve it by taking the ball slightly back in the stance, making sure to clip ball first with a downward blow, and sawing off the follow through. Had it working really well and was getting about 1000 rpm extra spin with the desired lower trajectory. Will definitely have fun with this shot in my short game practice and hopefully on the course!

After the lesson was over I worked on what we worked on a bit, and then worked some 3w and driver stuff thinking of the same things. Driver was a little squirrelly today, couldn't seem to launch it high enough. But towards the end I got it figured - wasn't staying in the shot and was coming on top of it a bit and catching it thin.

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Lesson #3 booked for tomorrow night.

Iron swing is getting there, want to focus some of the time on the driver as the miss right has gotten worse, and then the majority of the time on short game.

That will be lesson #3 of the 4 I bought, will see how this one goes before deciding on timing around 4th lesson, but that will some way shape or form be short game related as well.

Will probably sign up for another 4 as well to work on over next few months, maybe spread them out a little more
 
checking in with my pro Wednesday afternoon. just looking for something more consistent in my irons and driver, and wedges. so basically my golf swing :)


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FIRST LESSON POST:

Finally had my first lesson of the year. After waiting almost a month trying to schedule with someone, who obviously is either too busy to take on new clients or just doesn't care. I moved onto a highly recommended Pro by two other THP'ers. One is a very solid player right on single digit/ten line and the other is a higher cap like myself, but not quite as high, so it shows Mark can work with all levels.

He made one quick adjustment in my back swing that had me thrilled. I had been complaining that my swing had become too short, thus causing me a great amount of loss distance. I had chalked this up to lack of flexibility (and it still is a factor) and age. But he showed me quickly I was turning flat instead of on plane. Once I made that change the video showed a back-swing that looked much closer to the old back-swing I knew, still a tad shorter, but not near as bad.

The other changes are much more ingrained bad habits and will take time and work to correct
  • Starting the move down with my shoulders as opposed to the lower body, so we worked on the slight bump/turn of the hip
  • swaying back off the ball as opposed to keeping my body centered over the ball as I turn
  • And not making any sort of pivot, thus leaving all the weight hanging back on my right side as opposed to transferring it to my left
  • Also my shoulder open to the my target line at impact as opposed to square
  • Lastly standing up coming out of the shot as opposed to keeping the bend toward the ball in my follow through.


I loved the fact he uses Trackman and a video app called hudle. We didn't get too concerned about the trackman last night, but will spend more time with the data and info from it later. Mainly wanted to work on some fundamental changes.

Hudle is a great app, as I had the video's by the time I got to my car and I was able to view each swing frame by frame to really see what he was talking about.

it will involve a lot of work and dedication on my part to make these changes. But he is convinced I can definitely be hitting quality golf shots, with some work. This was evidenced by one of my last shots of the evening with a 6 iron that pretty much all the stars aligned and resulted in a 160 to 165 yard shot with a high draw ball flight. That never happens on my shots, it's always a low fade!!

He grinned and said, "How do you like that? That's a golf shot!"

Ended the lesson with a smile.
 
My last lesson was a good one.
I've learned that I've lost a decent setup and MUST focus on that!

My tempo is improving, have to focus on that forward shaft lean, and getting head over the ball with irons. The new overlap grip is becoming more comfortable.
Swing speed (per swing caddie) is rising throughout the bag, so I have that going for me....

Another lesson next weekend, can't wait!
 
Lesson 3 with Scott in the books.
He said he had "heard" through the grapevine (Misike) that I had been playing better. I told him I had been but I was still throwing strokes away. He asked what was causing the majority of them and I responded poor tee shots (either really far right or OB) and then anything inside of 105 yards.

We started working on 60 to 80 yard shots, my 2 main problems was 1. the length of my swing on partial shots, and 2 not turning my "trunk" through the ball. My half swing was really 75%, my 75% was really full swing, that's going to be something I just have to work on. As we progressed and I focused on swinging through the ball the "touch" and distance was much better than when I had started. I do have to make sure to have my stance more wide and not as narrow as I had been to help the cause.

After that we worked on short 10-20 yard chip shots. We tweaked my setup immediately to be more open with the front foot and waist and after the first thin line drive I really got into a groove. His big thing with these shots along with setup and putting more weight on my front foot was to think low takeaway and low follow through into impact. We mixed up targets and distances and I really felt pretty good one we wrapped things up with it. He also suggested using my SW more and more and to stop relying so much on a lob wedge from everywhere. SPent some time moving the ball around in my stance and seeing the difference in trajectory by just doing that, which would come in handy later.


The driver lesson was really quick, I explained the misses continue to be off the planet right and that I didn't feel like I was doing anything differently than what we had went over and he again believed the shaft was "too whippy". So I told him on the course I had used a few peoples XR 16 driver in the last few weeks and seemed to hit it really well so he grabbed one to try. I had also mentioned that I only hit about 6 of 30 fairways this weekend so it would be tough to get any worse that that.


3 swings
242 down middle
257 down right side
265 straight down the middle


After that, he said we are done with the driver swing lesson and shut the trackman down. We had to kill some time so went out to their short game course (27 holes) and worked on 40 to 60 yard shots.




I think I ended up hitting 9 of 11 greens, 1 rolled through the green and 1 missed short. I'll take that any day of the week. 1 of the pins were in the front of the green so had to focus on hitting that one higher in the air, so we moved ball forward and just like that all 3 shots hit the green and 2 were around 5 feet, I'll take that any day.


We wrapped things up by working on an assortment of greenside chips. And just like earlier, open stance, weight forward and takeaway low. His big thing here was using your eyes to visualize your landing spot, something I never bothered with in the past, I was just trying to keep the ball on the darn green and not kill anyone with a thin rocket. I had 1 whoopsie but everything else was really solid, came away really happy with what I saw in just a short amount of time.


Scotty continues to be an amazing instructor. He really does a great job of simplifying things for me, keeps the lesson real casual and loose but we get a lot done in the time we have together. He said he has been impressed with how quickly some of the changes have been made with the swing and that we continue to head in the right direction.
 
Another swing clinic in the books last night. It was pretty good, but I'm ready to get back to 1-on-1 lessons. I get a lot more out of them, most of the people in the clinic need more help than me.

I have still seen some improvement and I'm able to have almost a completely neutral grip without fear of losing it right 60 yards. Of course it's still taking a bit of time to get warmed up to that and getting my swing in sync. It takes forever going left and right before I get it centered. Sidespin is down quite a bit and most of my shots are just a push or pull now. I gotta start getting in more solid reps and getting my good swing engrained.

We also had a lesson in chipping and that did help a lot and it's something I can practice at home. Should really help shore up things around the greens with more practice. I really needed the help getting up and down and was happy I was there for that.

I've got 2 more weeks of the swing clinic and then I can get back to 1-on-1's. The clinic is helping my all around game, but the all around improvement is coming as fast as it was.
 
I see this as a lesson. I just scheduled my first match Friday afternoon as part of my course match play championship. I have to give the guy 2 pops. I've never played match play before. This should be a good learning experience. If I win, I move on to the next round. Working out my strategy, which so far is to play one hole at time and have fun. :glasses-nerdy:

edit: my lesson lesson today was canceled due to snow.
 
went for my "physical" with my instructor.

the good: the range is short and you can't hit driver, so we took some balls out to #9 and he had me hit driver. after 3 shots he said the ball was too consistent for him to mess with and we went to the chipping green. so I guess that's good.

the bad: where do I start? it's not the pro's fault, but after seeing my swing on video it's just terrible. I have almost a nonexistent wrist set in my back swing. I have a throw at the top, then reset it about waist high, something I have had since we started working together 3 years and honestly it's not any better. my hips rotate open decently at impact, but they stop and my right knee doesn't rotate through leaving too much pressure on my right toe. it was honestly very discouraging.

the worst: chipping and pitching needs a complete overhaul. I set up with the face open to the target, then pull the club across my body to try to square it, hence the toe contact and often bladed shots. he had me set up more square, and try to get my arms more in front of me into the finish. I cannot do this for the life of me, but will keep working on it.

the fixes: much earlier wrist set, kind of working on what Freddie and Blu talked about with zero weight. finish the backswing. into the downswing, imagine the clubhead is stuck in tree branches. and into impact really get the right leg/hip rotating through.

I hit some excellent iron shots when I was grooving this, but it's a very new move so obviously needs time.

for the pitching, working on clubface alignment, not leaning back to help the ball in the air, and finishing with the arms in front of my chest and the club more folded (feels like a flip).

for chipping, feeling like the club stays perpendicular to the ground after impact instead of releasing much. again, feels awful.

I started hitting balls at 1:30, and including the hole and a half my buddy and I played I finished at 5pm. I was encouraged after yesterday's round, not so much after today.


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Had a pretty good lesson tonight, my main issue is not turning my hips on the downswing. I need to do the chair drill about 1,000 times before the Gauntlet!

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Took lessons last year and was working on a swing change....to stop casting, coming OTT and getting a more inside out swing path. Been a little under a year since then and went back for another lesson today. Amazing how much better I've been swinging....gained 20yrds in distance. Unfortunately...looks like I'm gonna need to change shafts.

Was working on my weight transfer and trying to cut down on how much I sway away from the target on my backswing.

My instructor was named the Metropolitan PGA teacher of the year...which is pretty cool.

Here's a vid he took during the lesson.

 
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Getting a tune up tomorrow to work on my take away. Pretty excited about it. Coming in inside again and it's leading to pulling the ball.
 
I've got a lesson Sunday after taking about a month off to practice a bit and actually play a few rounds. The thing that I'm pleased with about my lessons is I feel I finally have a foundation of knowledge and frame of reference for my ball striking. Before, I knew the symptoms of my problems but not the root cause. Now, I know more about my swing tendencies and what I need to work on to improve ball striking.

The confidence I've had in my irons in my last 2 rounds is like nothing I've ever had before. I actually feel confident standing over the ball that I can hit the green, versus not knowing which way my miss would be.


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I've just had a putting lesson then 45 minutes practicing what I was trying to be taught. The last few rounds my putter has felt like a wet noodle, with absolutely no feeling of where the face was. I've been hitting more greens but then a 3 or even a 4 putt would happen. I did an Aimpoint Express course a couple of years ago and am confident on my lines and where I want the ball to start, but my alignment and just general feel has been getting worse and worse especially on putts over 6 foot or so normally ending up with a weak low miss, shorter ones I just seem to be able to bang in without really thinking about them.

We started off around 10 foot putts. My arms were to straight, head not over the ball, standing to upright, wobbling my head and getting all handsy especially my right hand which was taking over and trying to control the putt, effectively flipping at the ball. So back to basics and a good stable set up, concentrating on shoulders and keeping my head still. I'd never really paid attention to my grip so he made a few changes to it but I still had that sloppy feeling, especially when we moved onto longer putts.

He then got me to hold the grip between the flat of my palms and I hit several like that. The feeling was strange but the results were 100% better especially on 30 - 40 footers, distance control was good and I could feel the putter again but still a little sloppy or soft feeling in hands as if I wasn't in control of it. We then experimented with different grips to try and firm up what I was feeling. I've ended up with a kind of claw grip, where the thumb pad of my left hand nestles nicely on the corner of the grip and I just place my right hand thumb and fore finger around the lower part of the grip keeping the fingers straight. This gave me good distance control, no flipping and keeps the face straight. Tried it from all different distances and no more weak low misses, more were missing on the high side and stopping within 1 - 2 feet of the pin. I'll keep practicing this grip and see what happens on the course.
 
Going to schedule lesson #4 very soon, probably middle of next week. Ideally would like just a few swings with driver and irons to make sure everything is on point and then the LARGE majority on short game as that is what is crippling me at the moment. And definitely some time in the bunker.

That will be lesson #4 of the 4 pack I bought. Might re-up for maybe 2 more after that.
 
No lessons for me, but lots of work using videos from my previous lessons. I've been having some great results, so I'm gonna keep at it, and sneak a new lesson in in a couple weeks.


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I had my first lesson this past Saturday with a new instructor. Pretty excited to get started and I'm going to sign up for his five pack, which will be over 8 weeks. I hope to really get things grooved over that time.

First lesson was positive, worked on my tendency to align slightly left. Then the bulk of the time was focused on making a full turn and working from behind the ball. Try to eliminate my tendency to sway and instead get posted on that left leg. Amazing the ball flight difference, I usually smother the ball and the adjustment was producing a much higher flight. Going to the range this afternoon to work on the new feels.
 
Swing clinic #4 out of 5 is in the books, with rainouts it's been 6 weeks since we started. I'm glad I signed up for it, I think it's really engrained the basics of the swing, setup, and takeaway. I am looking forward to getting back to one on one lessons, it's kind of turned into a supervised range sesh. I did run a couple things by the instructor and saw some really nice improvement last night. Got my shoulders squared up and was getting a lot better dispersion. I also started working on getting some more lag built into my swing, it really loosened up my wrists and got my path more in line and my release was a lot better. It turned out to be one of the best ball striking and ball flight days I've ever had and I hit every club in my bag better yesterday.
 
After back to back rounds of bad iron play, had a lesson with Erika this afternoon to see if we could correct the issue.

She noticed instantly that I was sliding back slightly in my takeaway and that the takeaway was too quick. Slowed it down, stopped the movement and started striking the ball beautifully.

We then worked on changing the club position at the top of my backswing, making sure the grip was pointing down when I got to the back of the swing.

We finished up working on my swing path. Erika noticed that I my hands were coming too far inside during the downswing, causing me to cut against the ball. She had me doing a drill with 3 balls on separate tees, and I had to hit ball on the middle tee without touching the other two. The result saw a nice draw on my iron swings. Have seen work to do.


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About six months ago, I decided to overhaul every piece of my swing. It took a few tries to find the right coach, but I'm happy with the person that I eventually settled on. We worked in a fairly logical order: grip, posture, takeaway, transition, release.

Fast forward to now, and I am just starting to dial-in the release. We moved from a very active, flippy, timing-based release to more of a "stable" release. This was a huge change for me, and the toughest thing to commit to and stick with, despite a big, long dip in my weekend round scores. I had a bad two-way miss for months, while I stumbled through figuring out how to keep my hands very passive through impact. I got so frustrated at one point (about a month ago) that I considered (momentarily) taking a break from golf for a while.

The new release has been a hard move for me, personally--bowing the wrist at the top of the swing, turning hard through the ball and swinging to the left. In the past week, something happened and things have finally started to click. I'm more excited about playing now than I ever was. This newer release should help me keep things more consistent.

In my last lesson, my coach was pumped about the progress that I had made, and he's one of very few compliments. There was a lot of validation there for me.

It's been a long, frustrating road but it was something that had to be done to continue to get better. Just wanted to vent here, and for anyone else who feels like they're in a similar spot to where I was recently...stay committed to it. The temptation to regress back to my old swing was huge--through 2 epic golf trips and a THP event, but I held strong. I think this will pay-off big time.
 
Had my first lesson in almost 2 months today. For many reasons, I haven't played much golf in the past month, but when I have played, I've been struggling much more with the driver than my irons. So we first looked at my iron swing using an 8 iron, and my backswing tempo was way too fast which got me too steep with my arms. Slowing down the backswing to what felt like 75% effort resulted in much better contact, with 160 yard carry on 8 irons via GC2. Feeling a slower takeaway for me makes me engage my shoulders and chest more, instead of yanking the club away with my arms and hands.

Then we moved to driver, which was much more of a struggle. I get much more loose at the top of backswing with the driver, making it much harder to square the face at impact. Again, I had to try to feel a slower, shorter backswing without any added hand action at the top. There were a lot of hooks and pushes in the session, but it got better as the lesson went along. The picture below is the last ball I hit, we chose to end on it because I can't do any better than that!

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I'm happy with how today went because I have 1 clear swing thought to focus on in the next few weeks. I'm also going to have a playing lesson and another indoor lesson before my big tournament at the end of June, hopefully I can make some improvements by that time.
 
Lesson 4 of 4 tonight with Scott. Spent some time talking about where the game is and whats happened on the course then we got to work.
Hit maybe a dozen balls with my 7I most went straight a few leaked right a little he didnt have much to say just that i know what i uave to do on those. He did comment it looked like i was hitting the ball longer.

Then he only let me hit 3 drives all of which i hit well and he said its a waste of time to keep going.

Next 20 minutes were all partial wedge shots working on address posture and turning through the ball. Thats a work in process.

Then played 9 holes on the short course with my 54* worked on longer shots and greenside as well. Gotta work on length of takeaway and keeping chin up but confidence will be huge here.

No luck working on sand game they were renovating rhe traps and wouldnt be done til tomorrow.

Anyhow..Gonna keep it going with the lessons no turning back now. Scott has been a phenomenal teacher and the money spent on these lessons has been money well spent
 
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