Tonight’s Tuesday session wasn’t as strong as the last one — some good contact mixed in with some really tough strikes and lots of pushes to the right and a few shanks which come to —
The main takeaway: turn the hips through the ball. That has to be the focus. Seems to fix most of the issues.
I’m noticing I hit the ball better when I come a little more from the inside on my backswing. The thing is, Chris told me in my last lesson to take the club back straighter, but I seem to get more rotation when I feel like I’m turning a little more going back — and then carrying that turn all the way through impact. Not sure if the answer is to shorten the backswing a bit rather than flattening it out. Still figuring that one out. I need to bring that up to Chris in our next session, which I might have to reschedule. That dumb job thing that pays the bills you know.
Distance was disappointing tonight — felt like the same old same old. My hands seem to be getting slightly ahead of the ball at impact, but I don’t think I’m actually compressing the ball like I should. I tried the erasable marker trick on my seven iron face to check strike location, and it was mostly centered, though a touch low. Hitting it low on the face probably explains why I’m not getting the compression I’m looking for. I’m hoping future lessons will help me address this. I paid for 8 lessons, not sure if I really need that many or need more, back to the doubts about improving at my age thing again, blah.
Practiced for about an hour — no games, no Par 3 on the sim. Just the drills I got from the last session working on tryin to keep the hands in front of the ball and cupping the left wrist. Sometimes I feel like my left wrist won’t quite cup like it should for the ball strike. Possible grip adjustment needed? I played a little with my grip and I seem to go back to what I am doing currently but it doesn’t quite feel right. Do I need to strengthen my wrist and forearm more?
For reference, I use the RCT balls with the R10, and they definitely feel like a meaningful improvement over regular balls for getting accurate distance readings. Research on the old internet seems to confirm that.
Playing South Suburban tomorrow night. We’ll see how it translates. But I should remember I’ll most likely get worse before I get better.