Had my first golf lesson.... What the .... is happening!

[Jeremie Boop]

Originally Posted by iacas

These kinds of things are difficult for me to comment on because if I say anything negative it will often be taken the wrong way. But here goes…

We're successful with our students because most people get better quickly, and most people get better quickly because we prioritize properly.

I've almost never seen "tempo" and "alignment" be the #1 priority, especially for a higher handicapper.

Jeremie, answer this for me if you could: which of the 5 Simple Keys® did he work on in your lesson? Because all good full swing lessons tend to work on one of those things, as they're the true commonalities of the game's best players.

... Not one of the things listed in those 5 was addressed. If anything he tried to stop me from swinging on the diagonal path from the inside out and swing more towards the left or straight along the line....

[iacas]

Originally Posted by Jeremie Boop

... Not one of the things listed in those 5 was addressed.

Well, then…

[Jeremie Boop]

Originally Posted by iacas

Well, then…

From looking at the videos I think one of my main problems is not having a steady head. Of course, there's no real way to know that unless I have someone video me hitting shots and I don't have that luxury.

[14ledo81]

Originally Posted by stoverny

My feeling (probably heresy on this board) is that lessons are a little bit overrated as a general rule.  There is so much good info in books, online, youtube, etc... that it is easy to find an online instructional style you like and work with that.

I felt this same way before.  Now I realize that I do not have the knowledge to look at my swing and fix my own faults.

I feel the golf swing is a series of causes and effects.  A good instructor can look at a swing at a certain point and see the direction its going.

I may be able to see that my lift is not flat at impact or my head is moving some, but I do not know what is causing these things.

Someday (when I find time to do it right) I will get the proper help, and finally get better at this game.

[Jeremie Boop]

Well Erik, I'd say my self diagnosis based on your 5 keys was pretty accurate. Went to the range tonight and focused on keeping my head steady and was killing it. I still had bad hits but not nearly as many as usual. I had to stop hitting my driver because I was launching them over the hill that's meant to stop the balls from going into the field behind the range... Also test hit a cobra adjustable fw wood set on 4 and was very happy with it. That may be my next purchase instead of a new driver. I want to thank you for commenting on this thread which made me look at the 5 keys videos. If not for that I may have struggled with this issue for who knows how long.

[SloverUT]

As has been said on here before, and I will repeat again.

Lessons are a valuable tool and totally worth it if you are serious about golf.

However, that statement is only true if you find a quality instructor that knows how to teach properly.

There are many PGA professionals who are good golfer but struggle to convey what they know to other people.

[theworldengine]

you need to give it time.  ingraining new swing ideas take months to effectively implement at the bare minimum.  maybe you did not expect that these changes would take such a long time

[Jeremie Boop]

Well, one thing the guy had me do screwed me on this hole. He was having me move the ball forward in my stance. So, following his advice I hit my first shot on this par 3 which ended up going way left in the water... I teed up another ball, hit my 3rd shot with the ball in my normal position and hit this shot. 180 yd pin with my 7i.... I think I may cancel my next lesson and just get in on the lessons Erik does online. Thanks Erik for pointing me to the videos for the 5 keys because focusing on keeping my head steady is what made this shot possible.

Ended up playing 18 in 2 hours and 20 minutes. Shot 93 with 3 lost balls and 3 3 putts. So if I had avoided those things I would have had a decent 80s round. I can see it coming now though. I'm hitting a lot more quality shots than before if I can just stop hitting a hook off the tee I'd be happier and shooting even better.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by Jeremie Boop

Well, one thing the guy had me do screwed me on this hole. He was having me move the ball forward in my stance. So, following his advice I hit my first shot on this par 3 which ended up going way left in the water... I teed up another ball, hit my 3rd shot with the ball in my normal position and hit this shot. 180 yd pin with my 7i.... I think I may cancel my next lesson and just get in on the lessons Erik does online. Thanks Erik for pointing me to the videos for the 5 keys because focusing on keeping my head steady is what made this shot possible.

And to be clear about my earlier post (I have a bit more time now, not trying to catch up after being gone)…

5 Simple Keys® works so well largely because it forces golfers to work on the true commonalities of the game's best players while still leaving room for plenty of individual things. We don't care if your tempo is fast or slow (though 3:1 is often found among the game's best, it's perhaps only about 80% commonality - I actually didn't have a problem with that part of your lesson per se), we don't care if you take it back like Rickie Fowler or Ray Floyd so long as you can deliver the sweetspot down an appropriate plane, and so on.

The Keys ARE what the best players do, so you can change your grip (often affects Keys #5 and #4), you can work on "getting to your left side" more (basically Key #2), you can work on hinging your club up to your nose sooner (Key #4), you can work on all sorts of things, but they should be able to fit into a Key because otherwise you're simply doing something that the instructor likes, not something that's done by virtually all of the game's best players.

This chart isn't a joke:

[Slk1981]

I started playing golf seriously around Feb this year and was shooting 115 to 125 every week, I hacked around the course losing 10-12 balls a round

Had my first of 3 lessons around two months ago and am now getting into the 90s nearly every week, This weekend I shot a 89

Lessons have helped me a great deal in understanding what I am doing wrong, Without them I would have never known what to fix and how to fix it

[Jeremie Boop]

I think I hit too many balls last week. I went to the range 3 times and golfed in league then again Saturday and Sunday. Saturday went ok but Sunday was horrible. I couldn't hit the ball for crap. Is it normal for this to happen if you've swung the club too much in comparison to what you are used to?