Back From Golf Instructor and....

[collegefbfan]

April 1st:  Finally, a golf instructor that can actually teach. I was glad to be on the simulator and not out on the range in front of a lot of other folks. I show up, and he is just finishing up with another customer. The guy at the front desk sets up the simulator and says it's all yours. Just practice a bit. I actually did just south of okay. I made contact, but man, everything was going to the right off the hosel and badly to the right. I haven't had a chance to swing any in quite awhile. So much rain and busy cleaning out our deceased friend's house. The instructor comes in, and he notices right away my swing path is pretty bad, also, I just will not finish the follow through. We do a couple of drills, and my swing path is looking better. However, I am still hitting about 80% of my shots off the hosel. And severely off the hosel.  The instructor said that I need and he wants me to have about 60% of the weight on my front foot even on the backswing. Staying on that back foot is a killer. And then in the follow through, he wants to see by belt buckle point towards the target. I am lifting my back foot heel right after contact. He wants to see it happen right before contact.  Another thing is I am raising up a lot of times during the downswing/follow though.  THE GOOD FROM THIS FIRST LESSON: I actually hit the ball. I really couldn't believe how many balls I actually hit and how very few I whiffed on. I told the guy that set up the simulator before the instructor came in that I could hit my 7 iron about 130-140 yards with my best contact shots. I was very close to being right on that. Improvement of swing path. THE BAD FROM THIS LESSON: Hitting the hosel and heel on almost every freaking swing. So many ground balls too.  Update:  Was going to set the golf net up today.  No use as it will rain here the next three days.

So, anyone here please provide some swing drills and/or swing thoughts that make you stay down in the golf swing.  I need to rotate around my spine like a pivot point and transfer weight to the lead foot.  Many thanks.

[dennyjones]

There are many, many instructional videos here.    

 

If you start a member swing, you'll get some great help.

[collegefbfan]

3 minutes ago, dennyjones said:

There are many, many instructional videos here.    

 

If you start a member swing, you'll get some great help.

Whew, not sure I want to embarrass myself quite this early.  

[collegefbfan]

Man, those videos are great so far.  Super detailed so far.  Many thanks!

[klineka]

Any competent instructor would have given you the drills that are specific to your swing faults that you should be working on.

Don't go searching for more things to fix via random videos, let your instructor dictate what needs fixed AND how to fix it. If they can't do both in a way that clicks with you then find a new instructor.

[collegefbfan]

11 minutes ago, klineka said:

Any competent instructor would have given you the drills that are specific to your swing faults that you should be working on.

Don't go searching for more things to fix via random videos, let your instructor dictate what needs fixed AND how to fix it. If they can't do both in a way that clicks with you then find a new instructor.

I totally agree.  I am on my 4th instructor.  I am driving over an hour and a half to get instruction.  The current one is by far the most helpful.  And the lessons are indoors, so rain is not a factor, which is huge because all it seems to do here is rain.  He mainly wanted me to focus on weight transfer to the lead foot/leg and follow through.  However, not a lot of drills were provided for this.  He was able to correct the swing path during the first lesson.  He was able to see that I had a lot of the pieces of the swing down, they just aren't in the correct sequence.  I know the faults won't all be fixed in one lesson.  Not necessarily trying to watch random videos for help, but I do like simple thought processes to try and improve what needs to be worked on.  Many thanks.

[Clemsonfan]

Any thought to contacting your instructor and asking what you should work on between lessons? Despite our good intentions,we might unwind his efforts with suggestions. Whenever I take a lesson I ask the instructor afterwards what are the three things I need to work on and how do I reinforce.  
 

Good luck!

[collegefbfan]

2 hours ago, Clemsonfan said:

Any thought to contacting your instructor and asking what you should work on between lessons? Despite our good intentions,we might unwind his efforts with suggestions. Whenever I take a lesson I ask the instructor afterwards what are the three things I need to work on and how do I reinforce.  
 

Good luck!

Oh yeah for sure.  He has told me to send a video or two after I have practiced some.  However, three days away for anniversary and the rain here, I haven't had the chance.  I am wondering if I can clean out the garage and put my net in there.  The rafters might be a little low.  We will see.

[billchao]

8 hours ago, collegefbfan said:

The current one is by far the most helpful.  And the lessons are indoors, so rain is not a factor, which is huge because all it seems to do here is rain.  He mainly wanted me to focus on weight transfer to the lead foot/leg and follow through.

The first sentence and the last one in this quoted part seems to contradict each other. How did he show you how to transfer your weight properly without having you do a drill or two?

[collegefbfan]

2 hours ago, billchao said:

The first sentence and the last one in this quoted part seems to contradict each other. How did he show you how to transfer your weight properly without having you do a drill or two?

I mean he has been the most helpful so far in that the others didn't do much for my swing.  This instructor showed me a few drills to keep the club from coming over the top, evened out my swing path, and saw that I was making the mistake of falling back on my trail foot at the point of contact or a little after that.  We did a few drills there that helped a lot of other things.  However, I know that in my head/mind/body/thought processes or whatever that I just don't want to follow through (belt buckle towards target at or near the end of the swing).  I know there is no way that a one hour lesson was going to cure all the problems of a 50 year old beginner, especially one that doesn't want to turn the body around the spine.  And my head or upper body wants to raise up also.  That is a lot to remedy in one lesson.  The videos that were posted here that I thought were good/great in that there are some simple thought processes presented.  One of them was put a piece of tape on a full length mirror about where your sternum is.  Then, turn the body to where your left shoulder is at the same spot on the mirror as the tape.  Things like that click in my mind better.

[billchao]

20 minutes ago, collegefbfan said:

I mean he has been the most helpful so far in that the others didn't do much for my swing.  This instructor showed me a few drills to keep the club from coming over the top, evened out my swing path, and saw that I was making the mistake of falling back on my trail foot at the point of contact or a little after that.  We did a few drills there that helped a lot of other things.  However, I know that in my head/mind/body/thought processes or whatever that I just don't want to follow through (belt buckle towards target at or near the end of the swing).  I know there is no way that a one hour lesson was going to cure all the problems of a 50 year old beginner, especially one that doesn't want to turn the body around the spine.  And my head or upper body wants to raise up also.  That is a lot to remedy in one lesson.  The videos that were posted here that I thought were good/great in that there are some simple thought processes presented.  One of them was put a piece of tape on a full length mirror about where your sternum is.  Then, turn the body to where your left shoulder is at the same spot on the mirror as the tape.  Things like that click in my mind better.

Ok that does provide a bit more context. Everyone has multiple things they need to fix in their swing and as a beginner that’s magnified. It’s basically impossible to fix all of those things at the same time. It’s why we like to talk about fixing your priority piece here, that is the one (or sometimes two but they’re related) things that give you the most bang for your buck, so to speak. So it’s entirely possible your instructor didn’t give you drills for it because it’s not something he wants you to work on currently, but simply something to keep in mind.

Focus on the things he did give you drills for and once you have those down you can take on more.

[klineka]

5 minutes ago, billchao said:

Focus on the things he did give you drills for and once you have those down you can take on more.

Not only once you have the drills down, but once you can hit full speed shots both at the range and on the course demonstrating the desired changes to the swing should you be thinking about taking on more.

It's one thing to do the changes in slow motion in front of a mirror, it's another thing to do them while hitting a golf ball, and even another thing altogether of doing it while on the course.

[TN94z]

I recently swapped instructors as well. I am actually working on staying down too. But he gave me 2-3 drills and that is all I am focused on. I don't want to add in other things from videos and end up putting a kink in his overall plan.

I would just hammer the drills he gave you until you have those down. This way you can go to your next lesson and most likely move on in your progression. Another thing he has me do is at the end of the lesson, I will make a video with my phone of him going through all the drills he wants me to do along with examples of what I was doing wrong and why the drill will help fix those issues. I really like this aspect versus just writing down the drill names. Just a thought.