Restarting lessons

[larmen]

I took a bit of a break since August as we moved house, and to that point my game had deteriorated to topping more or less every shot.

The new place is in driving distance to Silvermere, so earlier this week I took the plunge again and topped a bucket into the range. The shot tracer really only recorded 8 out of 60 balls, that is how bad it was.

So I booked myself a lesson for today. During the warm up with my old setup I got 15 of 18 balls well down the range as I reviewed my grip at the end of the last range session. I was well happy with that.

The pro then arrived and watched me for a handful of shots, then warning me he has to ask me to change a lot.

I changed the grip, I changed the distance to the ball, I changed the stance, I changed the swing path.

The before video felt really well for me, but it looked like a tall stick, and steel capped shoes would be advisable to me.

The after position felt like a SAS stress position, but it looks really good (comparatively) on video. And while not every ball is flying straight yet I think out of 50 balls I might have topped 2 or 3 max. I was hitting fairly consistent 5 irons while usually everything over the 8 has me shaking with fear.

It’s surprising how what I think what I am doing is totally different to what I am actually going. But I am happy to finally hear that nice connection of club to ball again.

I just have to keep the consistency again. Hopefully I can progress enough to brave myself into a tee again.

I also really like that range. I often have problems following the ball during dawn, but the tracer makes that a little redundant.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I like the Silvermere range and their launch monitors. The quality of the balls are brilliant too. I'm pleased you got something that's worked but the hard work starts now and you've got to keep working on the changes shown to make them a permanent fixture. I'm sure you'll keep moving forward

 

[Grant85]

It’s strange the people who go for lessons, especially with regards to a full swing lesson, and are surprised about the number of things they are asked to change.

Obviously people don’t often drop money on a lesson and go ‘yeh, I’m hitting the ball really nicely and just looking for some positive reinforcement.’ It’s generally ‘I literally can’t hit the ball’.

It certainly must be a real skil / discipline to give a player of modest ability a few things that he can realistically work on to improve.

In my experience lessons have always been worthwhile, albeit you get to realise very quickly that pros are wired to leave you feeling overly positive about your game and your 1 hour with them.

 

[larmen]

I am booking a block of lessons in January/February for sure, also just ordered a privilege card to get discount on range balls.

I expected him to change the grip and the distance to ball, for the path I was surprised that he told m the opposite of what I am doing.
My last pro told me it feels strange at 1st when he moved my path from inside to out, I think I kept pushing it further out once I was corrected. Now the new pro has to take me in again.

Basically, it's like anywhere, once I stop taking lessons I get sloppy and into old bad habits. I just need to keep in the habit of having regular control lessons once I start swinging it nicely.

 

[bobmac]

Basically, it's like anywhere, once I stop taking lessons I get sloppy and into old bad habits. I just need to keep in the habit of having regular control lessons once I start swinging it nicely.

That doesn't need to be the case.
A good pro should teach you how to analyse your swing and fix any problems that are likely to arise yourself.

 

[dronfield]

I think lessons are always useful, particularly at the start of a season for a check up re the basics ie, grip n posture.
It is very easy for faults to creep in that a trained eye can quickly spot and address.

Agree that a good pro will explain the reason a particular bad shot or swing fault is happening, to enable you to "self fix", but i do think that sometimes we think that we are doing what the pro told us, but this may not always be the case.

I certainly will be starting a series of lessons in March ahead of the new season.

Rich

 

[Parsaregood]

Through the summer I have a ' lesson ' every 5 weeks, sometimes more in winter if I'm making changes. I play off +1, i don't really say I'm getting a lesson rather I see my coach simply because he knows what works and it's a case of little changes and maintenance rather than teaching me anything. I know a fair bit about the swing but ' feel ' and real are completely different and 2 heads are better than 1, I'd say it's a great idea to see a pro for a half hour session regularly, that way you don't fall too far off the beaten track as they say

 

[HomerJSimpson]

That doesn't need to be the case.
A good pro should teach you how to analyse your swing and fix any problems that are likely to arise yourself.

It's a valid point Bob but a lot of us, myself included have a lot of idiosyncrasies in our swings. When we have lessons, the pro is usually very good at calming these down to allow a functional swing and we go away hitting it nicely. However a lot of these flaws are totally ingrained (my overswing for 35+ years a classic example) and so bad habits do come in. I tend to also get too far away and my posture becomes hunched and I take it away very much on the outside and come OTT and steep. These I can recognise and do a lot of work on checking my posture and drills to take it way lower, slower and working more inside. I do find however that when I take lessons every two months or so, the thirty minutes are brilliant for him to just check my swing and give it an MOT. He usually doesn't re-invent the wheel. We could spend the winter breaking it apart and finding a modern functional swing that is much shorter and technically correct but I'm hitting OK more often and have felt in 2018 playing more rather than practicing and having lessons has had a more positive impact on my game

 

[Parsaregood]

It's a valid point Bob but a lot of us, myself included have a lot of idiosyncrasies in our swings. When we have lessons, the pro is usually very good at calming these down to allow a functional swing and we go away hitting it nicely. However a lot of these flaws are totally ingrained (my overswing for 35+ years a classic example) and so bad habits do come in. I tend to also get too far away and my posture becomes hunched and I take it away very much on the outside and come OTT and steep. These I can recognise and do a lot of work on checking my posture and drills to take it way lower, slower and working more inside. I do find however that when I take lessons every two months or so, the thirty minutes are brilliant for him to just check my swing and give it an MOT. He usually doesn't re-invent the wheel. We could spend the winter breaking it apart and finding a modern functional swing that is much shorter and technically correct but I'm hitting OK more often and have felt in 2018 playing more rather than practicing and having lessons has had a more positive impact on my game

I had an overswing until I was about 21, i couldn't not do it if I consciously tried, what sorted it was changing my swing plane, as I trained myself to swing more on plane (left arm plane more in line with shoulder plane) it just eventually fixed itself so basically the overswing was a direct result of too upright of a left arm plane or swing plane which allowed the right elbow to rise and the swing to be long and loose. I was a decent player before I fixed this(2 hcap) but I used to have a big leg drive and almost a reverse c finish because of the need to shallow the club on the downswing but I used to sometimes suffer lower back pain and also knew as I got older I wouldn't be able to swing like this and also the desire to improve as I started to play less other sports