First Range Lesson

[Travtex]

Just to get this out of my system: OMFG.

The difference in one hour of finding the right teaching pro for you cannot really be put more succinctly: OMFG.

Before this lesson, I could hit my five iron about 150 yards, maybe fifty percent of the time. The rest of the shots were usually pulls, blocks, tops, fats, etc. After finishing today's lesson I put the last 15-20 balls 150 yards down the range with much higher trajectory than I'm used to with a nice and loose 7 iron.

Like the first Golf Galaxy guy, I was basically told to do absolutely nothing to change my swing. (My iron swing was referred to as "Sexy".) With some tweaks to setup, ball position, and a minor weight adjustment... I found myself learning how to cut, fade, draw, and dead-away straight shoot the ball.

My hybrids became hittable -- 180 yards of carry out of a divot with my 21*. My formerly useless 3w is apparently capable of putting the ball 240 yards down the fairway.

Unfreakingreal. At the present, my official Game Improvement Plan is basically all short game lessons 'til I break 90 with regularity. Once I'm better than bogey (Considering my available practice time, who knows if there'll ever BE such a day), we're to go back and make some minor swing tweaks that I'm not allowed to know about yet. *laugh*

Have to say, thinking to myself that I'm going to draw the ball about twenty yards... and then actually doing so -- is all kinds of an awesome feeling for a first year noob.

I basically hit all of the best shots of my nooblet golfing career in the space of one hour, and I'm all kinds of stoked.

(Random aside: I'm naturally hook-prone, so learning to draw the ball was surprisingly easy. It's a bit tougher to cut, and I tend to hold off on the release a bit too long, but... It was much easier than I had expected, particularly with my ginormous super game improvement slazenger shovels.)

(Random aside 2: I'm almost disappointed that I -just- found a monster deal on a set of Nickent 3dx hybrid irons. 90 bucks altogether, but I'm half scared a change will have me regress. Actually, I'm half scared I'll regress ANYway, but still...)

[FHopper]

Congrats, I am looking for lessons but no way I will be as successful as you.

[Travtex]

Congrats, I am looking for lessons but no way I will be as successful as you.

Dunno -- The results were well above and beyond any expectations I might've had.

[RS22]

This is what I tell everyone I ever meet that is beginning to play golf. Get a lesson or set of lessons from a Pro who can put your swing on camera for you to see and then illustrate the things he wants to do to your swing so you have a better visualization of what you need to do. It takes all the guess work out of it, it puts you down the correct path sooner, and to be honest, 99.9% of great golfers get or have gotten many lessons to help them achieve greatness. Very few golfers can self teach themselves to scratch golf. Get lessons and speed up your progress.

[iacas]

So... what'd this guy have you do and what'd the other guy have you do? What was the difference?

[Travtex]

So... what'd this guy have you do and what'd the other guy have you do? What was the difference?

Tiny things, in terms of actual motion... Huge in terms of contact. (Let's face it, you're hitting a 1" ball with a 1" or less sweet spot at 100mph. He could tell you to comb your hair differently and there'd be an effect.)

Golf Galaxy pro... basically, he told me the swing looked great and I basically had to hit a million range balls to get the contact groove down. My range pro... given the bonus time of knowing me, my usual swing, and my practice regimen... adjusted my ball position, my hands at address (I had a monster forward press that he backed off a good deal), and my balance/weight.... yet also told me the swing looked great, etc. One thing I discovered was that "Balanced" felt "Back" to me, in terms of weight... I soon realized that this was because my left (back) knee was a bit jacked up and I tend to favor it. My 'Balanced' was actually strongly favoring my back leg. I went through a brief period of fats and thins as my body adjusted to the new feel.

[Travtex]

To add to the original problems, he pointed out that I tended to have a HUGE forward press before drawing back on my hybrid/wood swing. That's one I have trouble noticing, so it'll be a work in progress.