Smiffy
Grand Slam Winner
Been a bit down with my game recently, hitting a lot of fat/thin shots and generally lacking distance (what little I had) with my irons especially.
Booked a course of 3 lessons with the assistant pro at Cooden, Sean Creasey.
I'd heard he was a pretty good teacher, and rather than change lots of different things and fill your head with too much, he concentrated on maybe one or two things at most.
I got there a little bit earlier to warm myself up, started by hitting a few PW shots and then moved down to 7 iron.
I hit a few "good" ones, but most of them were typical shots for me at the moment, weak ball flight and not much distance.
He arrived just before 10, introduced himself and asked me a little bit about my golfing background, and what problems I was experiencing at the moment with my game.
I mentioned the fact that I was swaying a lot, that I wasn't getting the distances I used to get, and that my divots were all pointing left of target where I felt I was coming over the top.
He got me to hit a few shots while he video'd me, and then we sat down to see the results.
Noticed straight away that my hands were way too low, too close to my body. This caused me to "hunch" over the ball too much, and the toe of the club was way in the air at address.
Also, I was taking the club away much to much on the outside, and I was having to move my hips back out of the way to enable my hands and arms to get to the top of the backswing.
This then had the effect of my casting from the top, and the angle of attack with my 7 iron coming right across the ball, hence my divots pointing almost 45 degrees sometimes to the left.
Jeez, I knew it was bad, but this just highlighted it.
He checked my alignment and was happy with that, feet, hips and shoulders all pointing at target, and he checked my grip too. He was happy with that despite me always having played with my right forefinger pointing down the shaft like a "trigger". He said that this fault could lead to sloppy hand,wrist action, and it would be best if I could get rid of it, but wasn't overly worried too much at this stage. The rest of the grip was fine.
He got me to simply move my hands away from my body more, which had the effect of straightening my spine. Felt quite drastic at first, but I soon got the hang of it. And he got me to feel the clubhead being taken away on the correct line. I had a couple of practice swings set up like that, it felt a bit weird but he video'd it again and showed me the before and after. Couldn't believe the transition in such a short space of time!
He then put a ball down and I gave it a bash. Bloody hell!! Exactly on target, and a superb flight, powerful, and a good 20 yards further than I'd been hitting it before he turned up.
I then hit about 10 or so more shots, I monkey one in amongst them, but all of them landed in a nice group about 150 yards down the range. He showed me the video of the one that I had mis-hit, (thinned it) but that was down to me swinging a bit too fast. Even that one was much, much better than my previous swing!
It's work in progress, but I promptly paid my money (he is offering a course of 3 lessons for £45.00) and I have got my next lesson booked for 7th January.
But it's really good that I saw such dramatic effects straight away, and I have now got something to work on at the range.
The practice facilities at Cooden are brilliant, much better than either Highwoods or Crowborough. Despite my previous hatred of mats and ranges, I can see me spending a lot of time up there.
I might even start a blog!!
Booked a course of 3 lessons with the assistant pro at Cooden, Sean Creasey.
I'd heard he was a pretty good teacher, and rather than change lots of different things and fill your head with too much, he concentrated on maybe one or two things at most.
I got there a little bit earlier to warm myself up, started by hitting a few PW shots and then moved down to 7 iron.
I hit a few "good" ones, but most of them were typical shots for me at the moment, weak ball flight and not much distance.
He arrived just before 10, introduced himself and asked me a little bit about my golfing background, and what problems I was experiencing at the moment with my game.
I mentioned the fact that I was swaying a lot, that I wasn't getting the distances I used to get, and that my divots were all pointing left of target where I felt I was coming over the top.
He got me to hit a few shots while he video'd me, and then we sat down to see the results.
Noticed straight away that my hands were way too low, too close to my body. This caused me to "hunch" over the ball too much, and the toe of the club was way in the air at address.
Also, I was taking the club away much to much on the outside, and I was having to move my hips back out of the way to enable my hands and arms to get to the top of the backswing.
This then had the effect of my casting from the top, and the angle of attack with my 7 iron coming right across the ball, hence my divots pointing almost 45 degrees sometimes to the left.
Jeez, I knew it was bad, but this just highlighted it.
He checked my alignment and was happy with that, feet, hips and shoulders all pointing at target, and he checked my grip too. He was happy with that despite me always having played with my right forefinger pointing down the shaft like a "trigger". He said that this fault could lead to sloppy hand,wrist action, and it would be best if I could get rid of it, but wasn't overly worried too much at this stage. The rest of the grip was fine.
He got me to simply move my hands away from my body more, which had the effect of straightening my spine. Felt quite drastic at first, but I soon got the hang of it. And he got me to feel the clubhead being taken away on the correct line. I had a couple of practice swings set up like that, it felt a bit weird but he video'd it again and showed me the before and after. Couldn't believe the transition in such a short space of time!
He then put a ball down and I gave it a bash. Bloody hell!! Exactly on target, and a superb flight, powerful, and a good 20 yards further than I'd been hitting it before he turned up.
I then hit about 10 or so more shots, I monkey one in amongst them, but all of them landed in a nice group about 150 yards down the range. He showed me the video of the one that I had mis-hit, (thinned it) but that was down to me swinging a bit too fast. Even that one was much, much better than my previous swing!
It's work in progress, but I promptly paid my money (he is offering a course of 3 lessons for £45.00) and I have got my next lesson booked for 7th January.
But it's really good that I saw such dramatic effects straight away, and I have now got something to work on at the range.
The practice facilities at Cooden are brilliant, much better than either Highwoods or Crowborough. Despite my previous hatred of mats and ranges, I can see me spending a lot of time up there.
I might even start a blog!!
