Golf Lesson - 12.04.2006

Back to the driving range for my second lesson with Brian. It's freezing cold at the moment, typical April weather here, just a couple of degrees above zero. I did manage to go out e few times after my previous lesson to try and put into practice what I learned the first time around. Implementing Brian's suggested swing changes is not an easy thing to do, unlearning the errors that have slipped into my swing is a very counter-intuitive process, and will take some time yet.

Take aways from this lesson:

• The early hinge is coming along. Note that this is only to be applied to the short and middle irons, on the long irons and woods the arc taken is flatter, and hinging is not so pronounced early on, more gradual.
  
• Don't bend the knees too much (I guess I was exaggerating a bit based on the advice from the previous lesson), the bend should come mostly from the hips. Relax the shoulders.
  
• Avoid tension in the right arm at address.
  
• Distance from the ball: Arms should hang down naturally at address.
  
• Aiming: current tendency is to aim to much to the right of target. Practise with club lying down on the mat.
  
• Don't open the club - setup properly, and don't open up on backswing.
  
• Rotate! Trying to get to grips with my new and improved swing makes me forget to rotate properly on both the back- as well as the forward swing.
  
• Reason for going off-line (mostly fade): blocking of the left hip. Don't block, rotate!
  
• Impact bag - shows that I open up my shoulders way to far at impact. Right arm should be under left at impact, right wrist and underarm release at impact.

Helpful image (of my own device): rotate around the spine, spine therefore has to be bent from hips and straight from there on up.

A lot of work still to be done...