Done the right thing?

[ScienceBoy]

What you have described is VERY similar to my situation except that I have spent hundreds of pounds on lessons to get to 12 in under 3 years.

I have been coming from the inside too much and now working at getting on plane, I too have a poor shot that is blocked right (or worse) or over drawn.

I have found the answer lies in my chest. If your wedge technique is like mine then you "hit the ball with your chest". You set an angle then maitain that anlge but square the club by rotating your body, this gives amazing amounts of spin with lots of control.

I took this and applied it to my main swing and suddenly my bad shots have all but disappeared, I hit the ball 10 yards further with greater control.

I would suggest you start with your wedges (you WILL hit more shanks at first, no doubt about that) then move up to 3/4 9 iron shots, then 9pm to 3pm 5 iron shots, finally ending up with full shots and your woods.

It takes less effort to hit the ball futher and you find the sweetspot more. I had to combine this with Sergios tips from the last mag and adding in a little more knee flext.

The results (playing with two balls on some holes) were 2 eagle putts and 3 birdies in 14 holes.

 

[duncan mackie]

i really dont understand this ''you've got to expect your golf to get worse before its gets better after a lesson''

neither do I, but then again I can't see it in this thread so where did it come from?

there is a world of difference between a new player going to a pro, or an established one going to one for a tweak or specific like chipping, and an established handicapper agreeing with his (or her) pro to make fundamental changes in order to get past current limiting factors.......this is likely to result in 'worse' golf for a period for most.

and yes this does apply to pros as well; many many have elected to make such changes with exactly this impact on their performance being visible to all.

 

[bladeplayer]

i really dont understand this ''you've got to expect your golf to get worse before its gets better after a lesson'' if you went to a guitar lesson and you left playing worse you'd want your money back. is this what they teach pro's on their first day. day 1 being ''how to drop in a get out clause on your lessons''

Depends on what your changing , it takes time for a new swing or type of shot to become natural & youl find (well I do) you get stuck somewhere between the old & the new for a while & you struggle ,

if your playing golf for a while you will have a swing that repeats itself whether its a good swing or not , if you want to change it to a good swing then the natural set up & swing you had, will fight the new swing & set up until the new becomes the natural ..

 

[Doon frae Troon]

Say the new way of golf thinking was to reverse your grip with the dominant hand at the top of the grip.
You could believe that this was for you but it would take loads of time and practice for it to feel 'right'.

In that scenario, do some of the above posters really think the Pro would get the pupil to improve after ONE lesson.

Much depends on what the pupil wants. I had a guy who was on holiday playing all the top courses in the area.
He decided to start the week with a lesson.
He played off about 12 with an absolutely hellish swing.
I got him to hit half a dozen balls, all of them pretty good.
End of lesson, no fee charged.
I was not going to ruin his much planned for holiday.

If you want a swing re-build that will make you a much better player, that takes time, hard work and patience.

 

[One Planer]

So, started playing golf around 6/7 years ago and have been pretty self taught getting down from high 20s to a best case 12, with only the odd lesson when real problems have arisen.
Stayed at 12/13 for a few years and starting to creep up and noticed that my bad shots vary from a sharp right, to a pull hook, so I have gone to a well known top 100 golf coach for a course of lessons. He has made a few changes and told me to come back in 2 weeks and I have committed to him that I will practise what he has told me for 3/4 sessions per week. The changes are pretty dramatic, for instance I used to have a flat/inside takeaway and now I'm working on getting far more on plane and vertical, but this is having some instant negative effects. I would say 80% of my hits are hozel rockets. At the lesson it was 95% so some slight improvement, but still I have gone from someone who could normally get around and shoot a score to someone who has just had to pull out of this weeks medal and also a work golf day next week as I'm completely unable to hit a golf ball.
Have I done the right thing? Has anyone else had to go through this pain before?
Just got back from the range and it was pretty embarrassing standing in a bay where I used to hit my fair share of sweetly struck shots to a jibbering fool who looked like his first day with a club.

I'm at this point myself.

My game, currently, is in a bit of a shambles. I know what my pro has me working on is correct, I've just got to stick at it.

It's the same for everybody when something is changed, it takes a little while for the xhanges to bed in, depending how severe the change is, obviously.

Stick at it pal. We'll get there :thup:

 

[Swingalot]

Stick at it pal. We'll get there :thup:

Will do:thup:
Just amazed how bad I have got! It is hard to convince myself the changes are for the better at the moment, but with the added support from the majority of replies, I will make it!

 

[matriga]

I don't think changing someone's swing radically is a good idea. If the player got to his hcp that way, it must be ok. I believe the pro should try and understand your swing first and then start making adjustments on YOUR swing. He shouldn't try to make you have the perfect swing. IMO if a pro can't adapt to you, then he might not be that good ...

 

[Wooky]

Personally, I think it depends on your own expectations & what you want from the game.
1. How low do you think you could get handicap wise, with limited practice / playing time?
2.What handicap would you be happy with
3. How much are you prepared to spend on lessons
4. How much mental torture you are prepared to endure getting their.

 

[kid2]

S
If you want a swing re-build that will make you a much better player, that takes time, hard work and patience.

I couldnt agree more.......To the OP..... I was in a similar position to you.....First ever lesson was last November after teaching myself to play the game i got to 14......
I was loosing the ball all over the place at times and just got plain sick of not knowing where to aim off the tee......
So i bit the bullet and booked 8 lessons that lasted 5 months....

I went from throwing the club way outside the line to coming down on plane or slightly inside out now....It wasnt easy and its still not fully there....I expected for it to at least take 12 months to get right and set that as my target and made a promise to myself that no matter how disheartened i got that it'd be worth the effort.....Last three rounds iv had were Nett Level Par.......And they were all down to a shocking short game and dodgy greens full of sand....... My swing is starting to level out now and im trusting where i want the ball to go.....No better feeling than having a tighter dispersion and knowing where your ball will start and finish....

I spent nearly 10 weeks having all manner of nasty shots....There was 1 instance where i shanked 3/4's of a bucket of range balls until i actually creamed 1 the way i was supposed to.....
Thats what drives me on.....You cant expect a swing that you've been using for the past few years to all of a sudden change after 1 or 2 lessons......It dont work that way...You have to trust what your Pro is getting you to do and to stay with the programme.....

Clubs are littered with Mid Handicappers that will always stay at that because they thought that a few lessons would sort there flaws and they weren't prepared to put in the effort........That wont be me.......

So keep the chin up and drive through the bad patch but stick with your programme....You'll enjoy it all the more once it starts to fall into place.....

 

[Stuey01]

A Sherman is only a few mil from being spot on, your swings may not be as bad as you think. Give it a chance.

 

[ScienceBoy]

A Sherman is only a few mil from being spot on, your swings may not be as bad as you think. Give it a chance.

For me its caused by not being able to maintain my angles through my swing. The root is in my setup, get that right and I can maintain my angles, get it wrong and I struggle to maintain my angles, sometimes resulting in a toe shot, sometimes a "heel".

 

[Swingalot]

Well all, just thought I would update you all. After a few 1000 balls at the range and a handful of shocking rounds in between, I have finally started to turn the corner and I'm actually enjoying my golf again!
Have a weekend away coming up and at one stage I was going to cancel as I was dreading the thought of it, but now can't wait.
Just hope this will give others who are going through the pain of a swing change and/or lessons a little lift, as I know how demoralising it can feel when you appear to have grown the ability to play golf like an demented octopus.

 

[virtuocity]

Well all, just thought I would update you all. After a few 1000 balls at the range and a handful of shocking rounds in between, I have finally started to turn the corner and I'm actually enjoying my golf again!
Have a weekend away coming up and at one stage I was going to cancel as I was dreading the thought of it, but now can't wait.
Just hope this will give others who are going through the pain of a swing change and/or lessons a little lift, as I know how demoralising it can feel when you appear to have grown the ability to play golf like an demented octopus.

Good stuff!

Just read through the thread and funnily enough I had a lesson yesterday and was shermaning everything.

This is because I was focussing on SHORT BACKSWING, FOLLOW THROUGH WITH THE HANDS, CLUBHEAD CONTROL and 1000 other new things.

As such, I forgot that to hit the golf ball, it might be wise to use straight arms.

Will just take time to lose the new swing thoughts into something a bit more natural.

 

[Swingalot]

Good stuff!

Just read through the thread and funnily enough I had a lesson yesterday and was shermaning everything.

This is because I was focussing on SHORT BACKSWING, FOLLOW THROUGH WITH THE HANDS, CLUBHEAD CONTROL and 1000 other new things.

As such, I forgot that to hit the golf ball, it might be wise to use straight arms.

Will just take time to lose the new swing thoughts into something a bit more natural.

Yeah sounds not far off where I was. With a few too many thoughts, my hands were basically freezing and the club head was just staying open throughout the whole swing,so no matter what I did with swing plane it always lead to bad results. Went over time from consistent shermans, to consistent pulls/slices, then fades and now I'm mainly straight and can start to hit a draw with a little change.

If you had seen me a few weeks ago you would have told me to take up darts!