June 17th – Lesson Notes
I felt a little out of sorts warming up before the lesson, but after a few warm-up shots we got going. Progress check: still baby steps, but I can see real signs of improvement — it’s just coming a little slower than I’d like. I keep reminding myself, and telling Chris, that I need to be patient.
I started by asking Chris about my foot placement — whether I should keep my toes flared out a bit more to get extra turn, especially given my age. He said that’s fine for now while I’m still getting everything squared up, but eventually I’ll want to bring my feet in, especially the back one. For now, my toes stay slightly flared out at setup.
We also talked a bit about Chris trying to qualify for the Colorado Open this year — he’s got a tournament coming up in Wyoming in a few weeks.
I’ve come to the number 1 conclusion that I have to eliminate my sway! Even if I do everything else perfectly, the sway throws off the whole swing, so that’s my number one focus right now. Along with that, I’m working on following through properly instead of hitting off my back foot, which is always a bad habit. I’m trying to think about making sure my ass is facing the target. Does it turn completely that way, no, but it feels like I get a good turn and helps with my shoulder turn as well.
All shots are recorded and you get to watch yourself right after each swing. It really helps to see what is and what is not working, It’s still a little unnerving but also kind of fun to watch my swing on camera. It never looks the way you picture it in your head, but it’s a great way to see what is happening. I’m also noticing that when I do hit a bad shot now, I usually know exactly what went wrong. Before lessons, a bad shot would just leave me wondering what happened — now I can actually diagnose it myself, which feels like real progress.
The last big focus was releasing the club through my follow-through. I’d been holding the shaft lean and keeping my wrists turned too long, coming across the ball a bit, which was causing me to pull most of my recent shots. Now I’m working on finding my release point, changing my release plane, and swinging out slightly more from the backswing. That should be the next piece that helps me start hitting the ball more consistently out of the middle of the face.
Hitting the middle of the face is huge — I started the day catching a lot of toe shots, but we got that cleaned up and I was hitting the middle of the clubface much more consistently, and my distance picked up because of it. It’s not something I can always feel on my own, even hitting balls in my garage simulator, but it shows up clearly on the TrackMan at the practice facility.
Next things to work on: keep ironing out the sway, and keep working on releasing the club through the follow-through. I also need to continue to fire my hips thru the shot, makes a huge difference in distance. Next lesson is in two weeks.