A Light Bulb Moment

Yesterday was the second of four planned lessons before the onslaught begins next year to right the golfing wrongs of 2010. I've run out of time to reach my goal of single figures. I'm disappointed but pragmatic. I've not played much in the last three months (competitively at least) and so it was always going to be hard to reverse the upward trend in my handicap. I'm quite pleased in a sense that I managed to keep the increase below a whole handicap point (11.3 to 12.1) and now I can focus on refining the technique over the winter months and come out ready for the 2011 season.

Those of you keeping up to date with my rollercoaster ride will know that in the last few weeks since my last lesson I had one magical day at the range where everything clicked and three or four further sessions where it has been better than before but wasn't quite right. I was getting so frustrated. I explained this to Paul Harrison my teaching pro and was reassured when he said he'd been keeping a close eye on me as I worked on each range session and that he was actually pleased with what he'd seen. We discussed what I'd worked on in the last lesson and the feeling of it being 90% there and he took some video footage.

There it was, clear as day. Although I'd changed the way my hips moved from a sliding to a turning action and had a better position at impact, on top of the ball compressing down on it, the left hand side wasn't firm and the left leg was buckled. It meant that a lot of the good work I'd done from takeaway and back into impact was being negated. Once we'd gone through some drills and I got the feeling of how it should look and feel I hit a few balls and it was back to "happy days". The ball fizzed off the face and flew in a straight, penetrating flight. Of course I didn't grasp the concept immediately. That would have been too easy and so I did slip back into "jelly legs" at impact a few times but on the whole another step forward.

I went back today, my golfing mojo positively bubbling with enthusiasm. I have to say it was somewhat bitter in the wind, conveniently blowing straight back into the bay, and for the most part I was the only fool there. It started so well with the wedges and I was in a very happy place. However once I really got into the meat of the session I couldn't get it working. My stance felt awkward and I felt as though my posture was too stooped and I kept hitting balls way left. It became a battle between focusing on feeling relaxed over the ball and working on the straighter and firmer left leg. In the end I lost interest. I couldn't get into a decent routine. The good ones were exactly as they should have been but in between there was some real rubbish.

So what have I taken away from the weekend. On the plus side Paul is very happy with the difference in my impact position. It has taken away the big high cut I use to hit when I spun my hips out of the shot too early and we are making a much better contact more regularly. On the downside, I've not really got to grips with the new change as well as I'd hoped and it is going to need some hard work this week to ingrain the right feelings.

The lightbulb is still shining though. Lets hope we don't have a power-cut.