Lesson success

[Lee73]

Hi all,

so I had my first proper round after buying some new clubs, it was so fustrating as I guessed it would be, slicing every drive and going out of bounds etc etc, I really though I’ve wasted my money and was ready to give up before I’ve hardly started....any I booked a half hour lesson with a PGA proffesional to see if he could help not holding much hope.

so turned up for the lesson and he talked about the slice ie physics etc etc then told my about my grip and having my thumb on top of the club he then recorded me take a shot then we sat down and analysed it, he noticed I had an arched back which was making me hold the club to close to my body, he said my back swing was perfect but on my down swing I was kind of chopping down rather than like a smooth circle...anyway we went back the the range which you can only use 7 iron max and the balls went dead straight and over 150 yards!!!! He said I have potential to be a very very good player which obviously made my day, so when the lesson finished I hit 2 buckets of balls thinking now he’s gone I’d be rubbish again.....I wasn’t nearly every ball went dead straight and just over 150 yards, so thought I’d sneak a 5i shot and that went straight to and looked like it went to 190 yards!!

im so happy!!

 

[ScienceBoy]

im so happy!!

Sounds like the pro did their job there!

I love that post lesson feeling, like after a good massage.

 

[Siren]

Great story, a good pro is worth his weight in gold.

Remember to keep working on what he has suggested and book regular lessons.

 

[Bunkermagnet]

Well done and keep practising. Just remember those good shots when you're having those moments of frustration and it isn't going right.

 

[Grant85]

Most Pro's are good teachers.

But every Pro is a good motivator. They are obviously taking cash off you and the psychology for most folk is to want an instant reward for giving up the cash. A Pro will always try to leave you on a positive after a lesson.

Also why it can be important to commit to a bank of lessons at the outset as this can be far far more valuable than just the odd one off lesson where you are only going to work on 1 or 2 things.

 

[Jensen]

Finding the right Coach is so important. I can vouch from experience. The Pro who can teach according to your swing and can communicate efficiently is worth their weight in gold.
After much frustration, I've now just had my second lesson with a new Pro and very slowly things seem to be taking shape.

 

[Lee73]

Thanks for the replies, Great advice to remember them shots when things aren’t going good and I’m going to practise practise practice, I really doubted he could getting me hitting straight never mind far....I’m still in shock!!

 

[Aussie Swinger]

Ok, this is long, but stick with it. So I pretty much self taught myself from magazines when I first seriously started playing at age 28. Got down to 8 and stagnated till around age 34. I remember the turning point as if it was yesterday. Me and my friends went to the open at Troon in 2004, we took our clubs to play at Loch Greene and Dharley when we was not watching the pros. My game had gotten really bad, almost over night, and I was at rock bottom. The final ignominy came when my mate said “ I bet I can hit my wedge further than you just hit that driver” - he did! I decided there and then to either give up totally, or pay for some lessons. When I got back home, I went to my home Pro at Mullion Golf club, Ian Harris. He took me down the academy and gave it too me straight after about seeing 10 of my shots. “Right, you are going to have to make some pretty fundamental changes...” he immediately gave me a strong grip, which was taboo in every golf magazine I’d read at the time” (unlike which it seems to be the new power players way these days” . He also said I would regress at first, but if I stuck with his teachings I would be ok. He was the “Yoda” of golf. In a nutshell I had 6 lessons of him over a four month period. He would not let me have more than one lesson in every 3 weeks to grind in each new 1 or 2 thoughts or process’ he gave me (he could have milked me for 3 lessons a week as I was so desperate, that said everything about his integrity to me).
6 lessons that have been the only 6 lessons I’ve ever had, and are always the fundamentals I go back to when I feel I start to get off track.
Oh yeh, and since those lessons, I’ve only ever been off a handicap between 4 and 7 since. The crowning glory, I won the club scratch only 3 or 4 years after I had them.
Ian Harris, I think he maybe teaching out of West Cornwall these days. I would recommend him to anyone wholeheartedly who is serious about getting better.

 

[Lee73]

Nice story, lessons certainly help massively and when I’m back off my holidays in certainly going to be booking some more.