Lesson #1
I had my first private lesson this past Friday. We focused on my swing since my accuracy for approach shots has been pretty poor (as is evident by my less than 40% GIR rate).
We started on the range for a few shots before heading into the bay for video analysis. I think video analysis is one of the best ways to improve body motion for any sport. For one, video doesn’t lie, so what you see is what you did. Also, with the right software it’s possible to draw lines to better understand angles and the geometry of body movements. And probably most important, if you have the right setup it’s a quick feedback loop, meaning you can see what you did and make adjustments in a matter of minutes.
My lesson is a good example of the adjustment benefits of video analysis. The picture below is a capture from my video where we were looking at my takeaway. On the right side is what I was doing when I arrived at my lesson (the before), and on the left side is what I need to be doing on my takeaway (the after). The red line is the swing plane my clubhead should be on during the takeaway and downswing.
As you can see, in the before (right) it’s well above and outside of the swing plane, which my body translates into an above and outside-to-inside downswing. But in the after (left) you can see that the clubhead is pretty much on the swing plane, with the clubhead nearly perpendicular to the plane, which is how it should be at this stage of the swing.
When I execute the takeaway as I’m supposed to, I get near-perfect, straight shots. It’s really pretty amazing. I do have a few other small problems in my swing, but right now if I can get the takeaway down I should see a lot more accuracy in my shots.
In fact, even though I haven’t had a lot of chances to practice the takeaway, during today’s 9-hole round I started to notice more accuracy with my shots. For the most part I was hitting the ball where I wanted to, and if I didn’t, then I knew it was my takeaway and more often than not I could feel my arms separate from my body as you can see on the right side of the picture.
The instruction continues to be awesome, and I’m glad I signed up for more lessons. I won’t share my instructors name on here for privacy reasons, but he’s good at what he does and I’m thankful he’s willing to share as much technical information about the swing as he does. I feel like I’m learning all about golf swing mechanics to the point where I can understand the how’s and why’s behind the swing. I even caught myself analyzing other golfers during the 9-hole round today.
Speaking of the 9-holes, I scored a 41, which I’m somewhat happy with considering I’m going through swing changes. My main problem today was putting and short pitch/chip shots around the green with my sand wedge, but I can’t complain too much because I really haven’t been practicing any of my short game in favor of solidifying my swing.
I also played on both Saturday and Sunday over the weekend. Saturday turned into more of a practice round as I tried to learn how to do the new takeaway. Sunday was a little less of a practice round, and I scored an 80 at LPGA International’s Champions course – my best score at that course so far. As of today my handicap has dropped to a 6.2, but as I work through these swing changes and such I expect it to level off for a little bit until I get some consistency in my swing and start working on my short game again.
Filed under: Golf Round Update, Golf Swing, Instruction
