Yesterday I discussed my first lesson with Larry, his setup and swing and his physical issues of a stiff neck and shoulders, with quite a limited degree of rotation that hurt him and medical help had not cured. As a refresher course, Larry had been taking lessons for a few years and has been changed over to a rotational swing. His setup was pretty good as well as his alignment. His backswing was more vertical than rotational, but had a little too much turn that got him deep and laid off. His big problem was that his finish was completely rotational. He started his downswing by pulling his left/forward hip and shoulders as fast as he could. With that he ended up finishing with his torso facing way left of his target. His arms collapsed around his body and his club was pointing way left at around 9:00 0'clock or in baseball terms, pointing into the left field bleachers.
Larry thought his problem was his backswing. Sure his backswing was far from perfect, but that was not the main problem. His finish was his downfall, both for his inconsistent ball striking, direction and, as I told him, likely the cause of his neck and shoulder pain.
In the infancy days of teaching after figuring out the PPGS swing, I would always start working on correcting the backswing if it was not 3/4, limited turn and, of course, standing the club up to vertical. But over time I came to realize something very important that altered my focus and changed my course of action most of the time.
I began to see a pattern that if a student had a descent backswing but an awful follow through to finish, fixing the backswing very rarely improved ball striking and flight to what would be considered descent improvement. After a lot of thought, I came to the conclusion that if the student had even just a descent backswing, maybe I should fix the finish first for better results. Why? Because my conclusion was that since hitting the ball better, both in ball striking and direction were the #1 criteria for defining a good lesson, then I had to focus on the forward upswing. Why? Because you don't hit the ball with your backswing. You hit it with your forward upswing. So that is why Larry's first lesson was all about getting to a dynamically balanced T ' Finish.
When I was wrapping up the lesson, I gave Larry the #1 forward upswing drill, Skipping Rocks. Since the weather has been rather cold and not good for playing golf, I mentioned that maybe he should get a small golf hitting matt and some golf Wiffle balls to hit inside his garage or basement or off the back of his house. You can feel the impact point on the face and they will start off like a real ball straight out from where the clubface is pointed. In many cases the flight shape will also be the same as a real ball. The key is even Wiffle balls will give good feed back on your path, impact point and face angle relative to your path and target. All good information to determine if he was improving his swing to the T ' Finish.
Larry came straight back on hitting Wiffle balls off a matt, saying that a pro once told him that was no good and dangerous. I agreed if one was hitting down on the ball big time. But if one was swinging up to the T ' Finish with the thought of tearing the grass out of the ground, nipping the ball off the ground, then hitting off mats was awesome. It really gives the feeling of the club skipping or ricocheting off the mat, which is the feeling you want hitting off turf.
The last thing I discussed with Larry was that if his swing had some responsibility for his neck and shoulder pain and lack of range of motion, swinging to the T ' Finish could very much be a remedy to lessening the pain and freeing up and improving his range of motion. He really liked that thought and with that hope, along with helping his swing and ball flight, the lesson was done.
I got a call from Larry that same night. He couldn't wait to practice and play. He actually brought his wife and went to his club, hit some balls on the range and then played nine. He reported that his ball striking was much improved on the range and on the course. He hit the ball the best and shot one of the best scores he has in years. He said that every shot that was blocked or pulled, he definitely missed his T ' Finish going past and around his torso. He said overall he was really happy and for the first time in a few years he had some confidence in his swing and solid hope for getting his game back, maybe even better than ever.
I love hearing students being happy about swinging and hitting it better, especially really sick ones after their first lesson. Just before ending the call Larry gave me an, 'Oh Yeah, by the way, thought you would like to know, after practicing and playing, my neck feels the best it has in years. You were right about the T ' Finish maybe helping my neck.'
Oh Yeah, I love hearing about students hitting it better. But I really love hearing that the PPGS has helped their stress, strain and pain problems. That really makes my day!
(Note to Inner Circle members: click here for details on our next golf school (when you follow this link you'll be asked to log in.)
The Surge!