Whoosh

I had a golf lesson tonight with a different teacher as my regular teaching pro is recovering from knee surgery. The guy has seen me at the range and knows what I've been working on so it wasn't like starting from scratch. The major change tonight was in my posture. He filmed my swing and it was clear that I had become very stooped at address and so wasn't giving myself any chance to make a proper turn on a regular basis. He has got me standing much, much taller and with the club actually feeling like its way out in front of me. In fact all he has done was straighten it up so that the bottom of the toe was on the ground and you could only slide a 2p coin into the gap between toe and ground and not the cash mountain the gap I had would have allowed.

From this starting position its much easier to make a wide and full turn. Which brings me onto the next problem - tempo. It was great rehearsing the swing and even hitting off a tee but put a white ball on the mat and there was an irrational fear of having to get it over with. As a result my swing was breaking the sound barrier and a good turn, smooth transition and solid contact was impossible. I guess it's a trust thing. Ball on tee and slow motion swing and I can do it. Ball on mat and it goes to every compass point except straight.

So what did I learn? Well I need to be focussing more on the posture and that I need to rehearse the swing and break it down into slow motion pieces to get the feeling of where the club is going. I need to stay "in" the shot and not come up onto my toes through impact.

I have to say it was a different experience tonight. This guy was a lot more about the why and getting into position whereas my usual teach is more about placing me into the right place as I take the club back and through. Which way will work time will tell. I am happy I understand what he has shown me so I guess it back to hitting off a tee to start with until I can be trusted to swing at a reasonable speed. Good job there are no speed cameras at the range