I met Larry for his first lesson with me. He called me because his best golfing friend recommended me as I had helped him regain his swing and more after double knee transplants and a hip replacement. During my 'State of Larry's Swing,' game and physical abilities and or liabilities investigation, I found Larry's scores have gone from regularly shooting in the high 70s and low 80s up into the 90s. His relatively consistent ball striking and ball flight of straight to a slight draw, has morphed into a nightmare of pulls and hooks to mostly blocks, thin blades and slices. And for good measure, he threw in that the occasional 1 in 10 shots was a shank. Larry mentioned he was without any confidence, and no matter what he did, nothing worked. In fact, things were only getting worse. When I asked about any physical problems, he mentioned a repaired left knee and a sore neck and shoulders constantly aching with limited turning range of motion that medical treatment had not been able to help.
Larry chose his target and began hitting a pitching wedge at the start of my filling out my setup and swing diagnosis and prescription form. I saw his problem on the first swing, and wrote it on the back of his D/P form. I ask a lot of questions of the student during this time. I also want them to talk and make as many comments about their swing and shots as they want as that is how I learn more about their game. Larry was in tough shape mentally. He had no confidence or trust in anything.
Larry's setup was overall pretty good and I graded him a B+ to A-. His weight distribution was a little too heavy on his forward side which made him quite often get ahead of the ball in the forward upswing. As for his swing, he had a good straight back into the mitt takeaway and a pretty decent degree of vertical to the top of his backswing, which was ¾ in length but was laid off and deep at the top due to over turning his shoulders. Larry mentioned that his backswing, in his search for a new swing, had reached way beyond parallel and he worked hard to get it back to ¾.
I asked Larry what he felt was his primary problem and what he had been working on. He said he was sure it was his backswing. Because every time he felt he was in the right position at the top of his backswing he hit a good shot. His problem was he could not find that position often enough or even get close to it.
He mentioned that all lessons he took the past few years were all about making as big a backswing turn as he could, getting the club pointing at the target line so it was at 10:00 o'clock at the top of the backswing. His downswing thought was to pull and turn his hips as fast as he could through the ball. This, as I saw, caused him to finish way left of his target and his arms folded and collapsed around his left/forward side with his left elbow at or below his belt. He had also read the 1 plane /2 plane book and he was definitely, in terms of the book, a 1 plane rotational swinger.
During the swing evaluation, Larry did not hit one good shot. The descent ones were all either slightly chunky or fairly solid with toe down deep divots that were weak right blocks and short. There were very few pulls, no hooks and then, as he said, the occasional shank.
My evaluation concluded that Larry's shanks were not shanks but wide open face blades to the right. Some were low on the face and sounded like a shank, never mind looking like one. A few were hit higher up on the face, sounding closer to solid. In all cases, the impact grass stain was not on the hosel but in close to the center of the clubface, proving he was hitting the ball with his face wide open at impact. The big question was why?
The answer was simple. He was under releasing his right/lower hand palm up approaching impact. The next question was why was he under releasing his lower hand palm and clubface skyward? His finish was way too deep and left of his target and his arms folded and collapsed around his torso like a cheap chair to an 'El Foldo' arm finish.
The prescription was simple. I taught Larry to swing up to a T- finish, torso square to the target. His right/lower hand finishing close to his left/forward ear is the key to the T – Finish position. This caused his arms to finish in an equilateral triangle in front of him where his elbows, the base line of the triangle, were parallel to the ground. From there he immediately recoiled his arms and the club, pulling it back down in front of him. This further squared his torso to the target at which his club must also be pointing which assured he was square.
Larry's practice swings were absolutely awesome right from the first one.
What I liked and he recognized and commented on was he was hearing a swish and that his into a through impact and swing up to the finish was so much faster with less effort. And he really liked that he had much better balance in his finish despite more speed. Practice swings were great so Larry earned a golf ball. He was eager and ready and sure he would hit a good one. But that was not to be. He hit a mediocre weak pop up block right. The next was his non-shank open blade to the right. And then another and another.
I stopped the hitting and asked him to tell me his downswing to finish thoughts. His answer was simple, since he was feeling his arms and club swing faster, he was trying to pull and turn his hips and torso faster in his downswing. There was his problem and the fix was easy.
I pointed out to Larry that pulling his hips and torso faster and more through impact, he was moving sooner, faster and farther ahead of his ball before impact. His right or back hip was in the way of his arms and hands releasing to square up at impact. And, in fact, the pulling left was actually causing them to not only not square up but actually do the opposite and under rotate his right/lower hand and club face up skyward, which is wide open, and causing the shank like shots. Larry had his body running away from his arms and club and they could never catch up to square up for a solid and square impact.
The prescription was simple. He must slow down his hips and legs and keep them what feels quiet and still until impact and then let them turn through as he swings up and stands up to his T – Finish. We had enough success immediately. He was hitting relatively good shots that had good shallow divots and solid impact, and a relatively straight to even a draw shape.
I concluded the lesson with some drills. Then he asked if he should only practice and not play. My answer was if he had a good practice session, take his swing to the course as that is the ultimate test. Larry called me that night to give me a wrap up of his practice and on course experience and state of his tight and aching neck, which I will reveal tomorrow.
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