Have you ever changed pro and realised your dropped a huge....

[Oddsocks]

.... B****** in doing so. I used to have lessons with a guy who knew my swing inside out, had pretty much stripped it and rebuilt everything bar my grip and had me striking the ball the best i ever had. the problem was he was a range pro and the range in which he worked is now undergoing a mega construction rebuild due to world of golf putting an adventure golf section in around it.

With this work going on the range had been reduced to 125 yards with huge nets errected so that you can work on strike/swing stuff but you dont really get to see much in the way of ball shape etc. With this situation not being the best option for lessons, i turned my back on my old pro and booked a lesson session of 5 (Big mistake when will i learn) at a range nearer to me, and since then i can only explain that the wheels have certainly fallen off.

It seems that the new pro/assistant pro is trying to change so much to what i would refer to as a text book swing, that i now have little or no faith in my golf. I find i no longer hit 4i and have little fait with 5i, and everything seems to have become very inconsistant. Yesturday was our monthly medal and to say it was scabby was a major under estimate. i counted around 20 duff chips into greens that were pretty simple to hit. All day i was driving like a demon, leaving myself in great positions for pars or bogeys at most, yet i can only sum up my round by finishing d-bogey, d-bogey, d-bogey, d-bogey, 8 shots dropped in 4 holes.

The question that is now sitting in my head " do i go back to my old pro and deal with the facilities there "

A prime example is my dispersion rate is through the roof, out of 5 par 3's yesturday, i hit one, which was the shortest, the other 4 (max distance of 150 yards were all missed.

Other stats
GIR 3/18
fairways hit 10/13
putts 32
up/down saves 2/3
sand saves 2/2

it just seems my iron play has fallen away, and my irons from 7i down used to be a saving part of my game,.

Any thoughts.

 

[bobmac]

If you have paid for the lessons, go to the new guy and ask him to give you a chipping lesson and TELL him what you want him to help you with.

 

[robbest3offthetee]

Personally i would go back to your old range and concentrate on striking the ball well,then shaping your shots will come later....

 

[Oddsocks]

bob, my chipping has always been pretty strong. me and my old vokey have a bond, but yesturday im sure it was slepping with someone else behind my back. On thursday night i had a wedge session at the range, 50 balls with each wedge, PW, 52* & 60*, randowmly picking different targets whether they were nexts, marker posts, range fence posts and my wedges were hot. yet yesturday i was fluffing 30 yard chips for the fun of it, thinning wedges and all sorts

I have had a couple of lessons with the new guy now and all he keeps saying is grip grip grip. now i know i play with a strong grip, but this has never caused me the problems that im facing now. i stated at the start of the lessons i wanted to work on a more neutral grip, but that it im almost convinced this guy is going to have me using all lessons just on grip.

 

[rickg]

Identical thing happened to me when the A1 driving range at Borehamwood closed for major reconstruction except for the huge nets which allow you to hit about 100 yds.

The difference at my place is that the pro is able to carry on teaching me at a nearby range which is part of the franchise, (Nevada Bobs).

Is your old pro willing to go to a different range to give you lessons as this may be a solution for you?

 

[Oddsocks]

Personally i would go back to your old range and concentrate on striking the ball well,then shaping your shots will come later....

sorry rob my first post may be slightly unclear due to the range only now being 126 yards long, you dont get to see the flight shape of anything longer than a wedge. its hard to work on shots when you cant see the shape of them, but you only get to feel the strike. what looks good for 125 yards could be a mega hook at 160/170 and so on. ive never worked on really trying to shape the ball, and i play with a natural draw which i beleive comes from a stronger grip and a slihgtly flatter swing plane, but at the old range you simply cant work on anything realistically other than strike,

 

[Oddsocks]

Identical thing happened to me when the A1 driving range at Borehamwood closed for major reconstruction except for the huge nets which allow you to hit about 100 yds.

The difference at my place is that the pro is able to carry on teaching me at a nearby range which is part of the franchise, (Nevada Bobs).

Is your old pro willing to go to a different range to give you lessons as this may be a solution for you?

This may be something i need to consider. the issue is both ranges are around 20 mins appart and a 45min lesson could be taken up just on traveling times to and from he's place.

 

[robbest3offthetee]

To be honest mate if the guy who knows your swing really well has given you stuff to work on cant you just work on that at the other range,rather than have lessons with this other guy,then see how long the refurb of your range is going to take,I know my mate did the exact same thing as you and it ruined his game so much he actually gave up the game..

 

[viscount17]

time will tell. went to see my pro to book lessons over the winter and - he's gone! another one bitten the dust as the numbers taking lessons dwindle.
had one lesson now with his previous boss so I'll just have to see what happens.

 

[Oddsocks]

ive got another lesson tomorrow with the new guy, if this lesson doesnt show any reward then next week i may drop in a try and sneek a lesson with the old pro to compare.

 

[robbest3offthetee]

Oddsocks,see how the lesson is going then if you feel no improvement tell the guy exactly how you feel and maybe he will do something about it,good luck mate...

 

[JustOne]

I used to have lessons with a guy who knew my swing inside out, had pretty much stripped it and rebuilt everything bar my grip and had me striking the ball the best i ever had

I've seen your swing... he needs punching!

So you had a bad week and the timing was off..... and?

 

[Oddsocks]

as i said justone, he "had" me hitting the ball well, the new guy is obvioulsy failing tdo this. its nothing to do with the knob on the end of the club

 

[HRC99]

I sympathise, mate. I had exactly the same thing moving from one pro to another. I ended up going back to my original one as I just felt that I could work with him.

The new one seemed to think that I was doing everything wrong and that I'd almost need to learn from scratch again. That wasn't what I wanted.

To be fair to him, perhaps I did not set out my expectations and objectives very well with him. And I didn't share my frustrations particularly well either. But I just didn't really click with the guy at the end of the day.

I think it is a big problem for you if your original guy's facilities only allow you to hit up to 120 odd yards. That isn't really going to cut it in the long term if you want to progress.

There must be lots of pros around your neck of the woods that have better facilities and you might get on with better.

I'd be tempted to be frank with your new guy and spell out your concerns to him. Give him a lesson or so to try and turn it around and, if it doesn't work, go and find another pro.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

 

[Oddsocks]

well i spoke with the new pro today in quite alot of detail and explained that for what ever reason i seem to be developing a wider range of faults instead of fixing the main one that i originally went to him for.

I was nice as he responded well saying that he wasnt happy with the results if thats what im finding, and i have a 1 hour video lesson booked for tomorrow. My original fault was a grip that was strong and becoming stronger meaning my draw was turning into more of a hook. we narrowed this down to a very strong right left hand, which after around 3-4 weeks and around 500 balls the newer grip seems to be feeling less alien. All i can think of is that the newer more neutral grip may have changed something else in my swing which is what is causing my dire iron play which also seems to have lose power as well as accuracy. 3 weeks ago my 6i was good for 165-175 yards, yesturday with a very slight head wind it struggled at 155 even with a 99% strike. ive noticed as well as losing accuracy my irons have suffered real big power loss. im not bothered about having to hit a 6i instead of a 7i if its on target, but when your suffering power and accuracy loss in the same time frame im sure they must be related. hopefully the rest of the lessons will pull out the fault.

 

[Matty]

I've had lessons with a few pros (I REALLY need the help!).

I tend to book one lesson to start. At this lesson I'm letting the pro assess me and my swing but I'm also assessing the pro - do I like them? Can I understand what they are telling me? Are they making sense? Are they making me feel good or bad about my golf and my swing? Are they trying to change too many things?

If I like them then I'll go back, if not then I don't.

I guess it's a little late for you having block booked 5 lessons but I think that, since you've paid, make the most. Go see this new pro and make sure you have an agenda for them to focus on - like your chipping.

Then once you are done with these lessons, if the pro still hasn't changed your mind about being a long term bet, go back to your original guy.

 

[Oddsocks]

That is pretty much my plan matty, i think i have 4 lessons left, so two double lessons specific to one area would use this very quickly.

As you said you can click or grind with pro's, my first ever pro i couldnt gel with, he would give you 5 minutes of advise, then just mope around while you hit 10 balls, then 5 mins of advise and repeat. When i went with pro 2 there was a click, silly things like when you was on the range, if he was giving a lesson to someone else and see you practicing incorrectly, he would think nothing of walking over at the end of that persons lesson and giving you 5 mins of he's time for free. I wouldnt have even considered leaving pro 2 if it wasnt for the fact that the construction work restricted their facilities somewhat.

 

[JustOne]

See if you can get him to email you a couple of your swings.. or all of it. Then you can upload it to Youtube and I'll draw lines all over it for you...

 

[Oddsocks]

so you want to draw pics and tag my images with "just one woz ere ".... lol

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I think I am pretty well qualified to comment on this subject . I was using a guy that I'd stuck with since starting back properly about 5 years ago and have followed him as he's moved around the local area. He got me from 20 back to 11 in two years and there were a fews wins and a lot of top three finishes along the way. He moved to Maidenhead last year and then was out just after the snow for 3 months for knee surgery.

In the meantime I needed a few fixes and so drifted along to a guy I'd known at the range I use and who had seen me swing and knew what I wanted to try and do. I've used him for four or five lessons now and although he is more technical than the other guy he gets it over in a very easy to understand way and gets you to feel the right positions to make it easier to understand how it all works.

It wasn't a conscious decision to move but more necessity at the time and wanting a continuation now we've started. The big task for the winter is to stop the loss of spine angle on the downswing PERMANENTLY.

I have used another pro from Sand Martins for a few lessons too, again because he was available quickly to fix a few issues (shanks and chipping mainly). The problem though is if you go to too many pros you'll start getting conflicting advice which is why I've not gone back to Sand Martins for any other full swing lessons. The pro was a decent guy and knew his stuff so it wasn't like the OP and not gelling but more a case of just wanting to keep it simple and have one source of information to stop my poor brain getting scrambled.

At the end of the day I'm really happy with the guy I use now and he's a top coach too which is a bonus http://www.n1golf.com/n1golftuition/pros-pharrison.asp

We get on really well and the plus side for me is that he sees me when I'm practicing and so can cast a quick eye over between lessons to make sure I'm doing the drills properly or getting into the right positions. It is imperative that you have the bond between pupil and coach or you'll never fully trust him or the stuff he shows you.