Lessons Learned
What I have been focusing on in my lessons
I have been attending lessons for a few years. Last year's lack of rounds and the layoff reset my lessons and what I needed to focus on. Here is a breakdown of some of the things I have focused on based on issues my instructor has seen.
Setup:
Close shoulder: This has been a problem for a long time, where I have my lead shoulder way open, which leads to slicing the ball.
Get centered and not titled: I cock my head, I never knew I cocked my head, but I have corrected doing that.
Get a little more straight up: This is a bit newer; I tend to have the ball too far away and bend over a bit.
Loose hands/arms: Calm down, my guy, calm down. Loosen those hands and arms.
Swing:
Slow down my swing (80%): I swing too hard; I have always swung too hard; I need to swing less hard. 80% is more than acceptable.
Full Turn: I don’t fully turn in my backswing. When I don’t fully turn, balls go offline a lot more. When I do fully turn, I tend to hit it with less variance.
Aim for the top right corner: I keep my arms towards my body, and my swing changes create some pretty bad hooks. The swing thought of shooting to the “top right corner of the net” pushes my arms out, negating the chances of hooks.
Weight forward on the peak. Have the body swing the clubs, and the hips lead the downswing: I lumped all this together. So, I broke my leg playing hockey years ago and had multiple follow-up surgeries after that. For a few years, I just couldn’t get my weight forward in my golf swing, so I continued to lean back, which turned into a bad habit it has taken me forever to break.
This was something that had been pointed out again and again and again and again.
I then began putting my weight forward after my arms went through with a distinct “over the top” motion. I wasn’t letting my body swing the club, which created an array of problems. So yes, I was turning, but my sequencing was way off.
This is something that frankly hasn’t clicked mentally for me. I now focus on the top of my backswing, pausing and firing the hips forward and allowing my arms to fall to the ball and through. When I do it, I am hitting a much straighter ball. I’m not 100% consistent with it, but it’s been my focus at the range and the course. If I can get consistent with this and make this movement a habit, I think it will easily take a ton of strokes off my handicap.
What are things you are working on in your game?