Getting Frustrated Again

As expected there was no chance to play this weekend but I was looking forward to a couple of range sessions especially after the way I'd hit the ball at Blue Mountain in the freezing cold on Tuesday night. I had really felt I'd turned a corner and had in my mind exactly what I was trying to achieve, especially in the takeaway with the work I've been doing with Rhys ap Iolo at Downshire Golf Centre.

I went to Maidenhead Golf Centre yesterday morning determined that I'd be able to pick up where I'd left off. In truth it was arguably even colder than Tuesday night and I was raw to the bone very quickly and to be honest my heart wasn't in it even after a dozen or so warm up shots with my wedges. I didn't hit the ball well, certainly put little or no thought into what I was trying to achieve and to be truthful wanted to get through the bucket as quickly as I could and head off home to defrost. A wasted session with nothing achieved and little to takeaway of a positive nature.

Today I enjoyed something I've not had in a long time. A proper old fashioned Sunday morning lie in until around midday. After getting up and having some lunch I headed back to Maidenhead Golf Centre to work on the swing again. It was almost tropical, at least three or four degrees above freezing, compared with the conditions of the past seven days.

However that is about as far as the good news went. I put a few swings on camera and what I thought I was doing and certainly what I was rehearsing, were not what I was doing with the ball there. It was the same fatal error for a one plane swing and crossing the hands at the top of the swing. I could have sworn I was taking the club back behind me more and it was in the correct offset position but the camera doesn't lie.

This puts me in a real predicament. Tuesday proves that it works and when it does, the ball striking, distance and flight are unlike anything I've experienced in many years. However if that is going to be a once in a blue moon event then we need to look at a plan B. I am desperate to try an make it work as I really don't want to be flitting between learning this type of swing and then going over to the two plane (or more upright) type which will also involve changes to grip and address.

I'd like to put it down to not hitting any balls from Tuesday until yesterday and the cold being the excuse for it not being a great session. I've no excuse for today though. I'll hit the range again after work tomorrow and have another go. There were some good shots in there but it we aren't getting the club set correctly in the back swing, everything else is a set of compensatory moves. I've already posted about slow progress but I'm finding it really hard to bed these changes in. I keep running the instructional videos Rhys has given me and going through the drills but to no avail.

To make matters worse, there is a four ball better ball competition next Sunday and I really don't want to be letting my partner down (again) and not doing my bit. I've no doubt the course will be fully open by then so we're in it. Right in it in my case. Looking for positives though, there is another lesson booked for Thursday evening and so we can have another go then and chat with Rhys about the lack of progression and I've got Friday off work so I can go to the golf club and really put some work in on the swing and perhaps get a few holes under my belt and see how it stands up on the course.

Why can't I make it work. Golf is a simple game played in a complicated way. I need to get rid of everything my brain and body thinks it knows and re-educate it to swing on a simple one plane axis. It should be so easy. Frustration won't help but sometimes it's hard to stay positive amongst all the mayhem and misery. The good ones are still very good which is what's driving me on to work hard and keep going down this path. Rhys seems convinced it will happen and so maybe after just two lessons I'm expecting too much too quickly from too big a change. It's just when it goes like it did on Tuesday I can see some really low scores coming as a result and the handicap tumbling. Patience Homer. Patience.