dufferman
Journeyman Pro
He just said that I was "slightly" coming from the outside, which isn't great. However, even if that is the case, the results from good shots were great - straight and long(ish!).
Rant time - lessons
- Thread starter dufferman
- Start date
He just said that I was "slightly" coming from the outside, which isn't great. However, even if that is the case, the results from good shots were great - straight and long(ish!).
dufferman
Journeyman Pro
No drills as such, just trying to get the take-away going directly behind the ball, not inside / outside. However, the lesson previous to last night was to get me taking the club outside the swing path, as it was too far inside previously.
I've been on the range probably 2/3 times a week, as well as playing. I've practiced what I've been taught (as far as I am aware) and even had him look over me whilst practicing between 2 lessons, saying things were going well.
Thoroughly confused!
I've been on the range probably 2/3 times a week, as well as playing. I've practiced what I've been taught (as far as I am aware) and even had him look over me whilst practicing between 2 lessons, saying things were going well.
Thoroughly confused!
londonlewis
Tour Rookie
so many different ways to approach this;
- stick with it and hope it pays off
- tell your pro what you want to work on and say the current changes aren't doing it for you
- cancel your lessons and work on your swing yourself
- change your pro for another one
no right answer really. But the top one seems like the worst choice to me.
- stick with it and hope it pays off
- tell your pro what you want to work on and say the current changes aren't doing it for you
- cancel your lessons and work on your swing yourself
- change your pro for another one
no right answer really. But the top one seems like the worst choice to me.
richy
Journeyman Pro
Ask HIM to write down what he wants you to do then come the next lesson if he contradicts himself you can show him in writing what he said in the previous lesson.
chrisd
Major Champion
That's what mine did as well.
He got me doing a big loopy feeling with the club face to, apparently, feel the club coming correctly from the inside. I told him that I was drawing the irons anyway but, I think, he thought I couldn't be, and glossed over what I said. I told him that video showed that I did a slight over the top move at the start of my downswing but a re route on the latter part put me in a good position at impact but he seemed intent on making me unable to slice the ball which I told him that rarely did anyway
I didn't go back for the final lesson!
lex!
Challenge Tour Pro
I think it's a long journey on a bumpy road, with the hope and expectation that it will be good fun along the way. Whatever your pro is telling you will be correct. If you were learning to drive, you wouldn't head off straight to the motorway and down to the seaside, you would find a quiet bit of layby and work with the instructor on clutch control, pulling away, braking, all the basics. Then when you've mastered those you can go on to something else. I would talk to him about your concerns, I am sure that he will listen carefully and explain all. My lesson last night (upper body coil and release) was much different to a few months ago (grip). Best of luck.
One Planer
Global Moderator
Ask a silly question, but with no drills to gain a feeling of the correct motion, how did you practice?
That's not a dig at you by the way. Every lesson with I've ever had has resulted in me leaving at the end with a drill to help gauge and learn the correct feeling/motion/position.
I can see how you can do that unless you hit x number of balls with your pro stood watching every shot.
chrisd
Major Champion
lex!
Challenge Tour Pro
Not even all those from RED school of driving? Give use all yer redundnacy cash and will give you a franchise. PGA qualification takes a bit longer.
dufferman
Journeyman Pro
It was all about feeling. The feeling I took from the lesson previous to last night stuck with me, the 3 or 4 range sessions I had went well, then I shot 86.
I hit the range a few times after, and it still felt good. Then I got to the course Saturday, it was a slow game (4 3/4 hours 3ball) and by the 7th hole I'd started getting a bit sloppy. It felt that I wasn't turning my hips / shoulders as much, and started to hit the odd shank / fat shot (I'd say 10 over the course of the game).
Then the lesson last night threw it all away. I was expecting him to tell me the reason for the shank is X and the fat shots it Y, instead he effectively said "forget what you did for the last 2 lessons, let's start again!".
But no drills - only using a smash bag to stop the out to in swing path. Which, of course, I don't have one at home / on the range!!!!
hovis
Tour Winner
I compare pro's to crack dealers. Always do something to keep you coming back.
On more of a serious note if you can tell from ball flight and strike what and why its happening then you dont need a pro. For example, i know when i start missing left and right i have got back into my old habit of coming too far from inside. Dont need a pro for that. But the question is, do you know your swing? My handicap has tumbled since i stopped my lessons. I stil have one if I'm stuck with something but you know you best
On more of a serious note if you can tell from ball flight and strike what and why its happening then you dont need a pro. For example, i know when i start missing left and right i have got back into my old habit of coming too far from inside. Dont need a pro for that. But the question is, do you know your swing? My handicap has tumbled since i stopped my lessons. I stil have one if I'm stuck with something but you know you best
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lex!
Challenge Tour Pro
Is this post really going to help the guy?
dufferman
Journeyman Pro
Well I found out that my right knee straightens up when I start hitting the ground / slice first. So that's something to keep an eye on. But I feel my swing is too new to rely solely on my knowledge of it to keep it going correctly. Maybe I should give it a month before my next lesson, see what happens. If I can keep control of it, and correct faults I find, maybe I'll be ok!
One Planer
Global Moderator
Thing is, especially in golf, what you feel isn't always what you're actually doing (Feel vs Real).
I'll give an example.
When my pro had me first start changing my take away, it felt very strange and totally un-natural. To be honest it felt wrong. Even though I knew what my pro had me working on was correct it felt wrong as it was such a vast departure from what I was doing that, again felt correct to me.
I walked away from the lesson with a take away that I felt I couldn't use. I also walked away with a set of drills to work on.
I did the drill(s) my pro gave my religiously at home every night for, give or take an hour. Not hitting balls, just hitting positions. I'd also do this at the range when I went (2 or 3 times a week) and actually hit balls.
After about 6 weeks, when I went for my next lesson, the video evidence was completely different. It was now my original take away that now felt wrong and not the one I'd spend the last month and a half working on.
It got to the point where I didn't have to think about the changes to that section of my swing, my body put itself into the correct position(s), all because I had drills to work with that put me into the correct position as opposed to what felt like the correct position.
For me, feelings aren't the best way to learn as, well, as I said above. Feel, doesn't always, mirror real.
One Planer
Global Moderator
Is this in the backswing or towards impact?
el marko
Head Pro
So you've admitted you're not bothered about getting to single figures. But he still decides to completely change your swing even though you feel you're hitting it really well? Sounds like he just wants more of your business rather than a few tweaks to help you.
I'd say find a new pro.
I'd say find a new pro.
duncan mackie
Money List Winner
here's the thing about feeling and change in a golf swing..........when you start to implement a change you get a feeling associated with that change ie it's a relative feeling.
consider the issue of shoulder turn (to avoid your specif area) - if you are asked to take more or less shoulder turn you will have a feeling associated with whats more, or less, when you are being coached. Over time you will take more, and more and more turn if you continue to work on that feeling.......so when you go back you will be told to take less (and probably come on here with a :rant
this is why working to such feelings aren't good ways to work. This isn't the same as a specific feeling; it's the relative ones you should avoid. In many ways the concept extend s to more and less as well - more of less than you were will quickly go the same way as you change, but continue the mantra of more or less against your new paradigm.
as to your best round etc - well done on any progress but the description you put with it suggests that you weren't in the right place to go forwards, but were making the best of what you had.
a long post mainly mirroring what Foxy wrote earlier!
chrisd
Major Champion
Will it be a crash course
RollinThunder
Assistant Pro
I was bought a voucher for 6 lessons for christmas. I think communication is key, and you should tell him exactly what you want. A good thing about our pro, is that he made a point about getting the ball to do what you want it to do, rather than focussing super specifically on parts of the swing (flat left-wrist, etc), and in turn, your swing will get better. It sounds like your pro is the super-technical type, who wants to build a perfect swing, rather than helping you to get the ball where you want it to.
I decided to split mine in half, having 3 lessons just generally focussing on a getting a better game, and just letting him do his thing (with video feedback), and the other 3 focussing on specific areas that I wanted to improve (hybrids, woods off the deck, etc).
I decided to split mine in half, having 3 lessons just generally focussing on a getting a better game, and just letting him do his thing (with video feedback), and the other 3 focussing on specific areas that I wanted to improve (hybrids, woods off the deck, etc).
dufferman
Journeyman Pro
Top of the backswing. He called it 'collapsing the knee'
