Recommend me a good golf academy please

[david_wedzik]

Thanks, Dave!

You should have it now!

[AspiringGolfPro]

I decided it’s time to write up a brief review of the Golf Evolution Golf Academy located in Erie, PA where I’m taking my golf studies at the moment.
But before you read this, please keep in mind the following things.
1.Me 5’11’’, 190 lbsish, 24 yo Russian guy who has never ever done any sports seriously, actually a fat ass.
2.My handicap before arriving to the US was about 30ish
3.I am not a native speaker, so cut me some slack, and I beg your pardon for misusing the words, being dyslexic and not able to express myself and my thoughts in a good and correct way as well as for grammatical mistakes (both deliberate and not).

Now, straight to the review.
When I decided to go to the United States for golf studies I was looking for and expecting the following:
1)a team of highly skilled professionals with a great knowledge of golf swing and technique as well as of how to use cameras and computer programs in order to analyze one’s motion.
2)a group of people fully dedicated to greatly improve my game in all segments, i.e. short game, putting, full swing, course management. I’d expect those guys to give me a lot of understanding and in-depth knowledge rather than just giving me a couple of exercises/drills here and there.
3)Just good people and personalities with whom it would be a true pleasure to deal. That is especially important since as long as you don’t have some sort of personal contact with your coaches it is extremely tough to motivate yourself to work hard. And you need to, especially if you are trying to move up from a hacker to an almost scratch player.


Let me just say that if I was to post a report about the Golf Evolution Academy on the TGR forums (a well-known forum for skiers and boarders) I would use the words like “FKNA Awesome”, “beyond radical”, “••••in’tastic” (which are probably not appropriate on the golf forums) and even “pure sex” and “boner city” (which definitely are not appropriate at all but nonetheless get used here and there more often than needed).

As, of course, the aforementioned words are not that informative at all, I believe it is necessary to expand a little bit and give a more detailed description of what the Academy is all about.

Since you already know what I have been looking for I’ll tell you what I found:

The Golf Evolution Academy is run by Mr. David Wedzik with Mr. Erik Barzeski as his apprentice. These two guys are simply put as good as it gets and then some.
First of all I was given a fantastically warm welcome by David. He was extremely nice to me helping me with everything from the directions to the Academy to the housing. He found a great deal on housing which is actually so ridiculous that I don’t even want to get into more detail. Just know that it is freaking cheap, cozy, comfortable, perfectly located and very awesome.
Then the guys showed me around the place and since I was a true noob when it comes to living in the US gave me all the necessary information. For example, they explained me that there were much better places to eat in than McDonalds. I never ate in McDonalds back at home but in the States I just couldn’t find a better place. Dave and Erik showed me some very nice restaurants in the area. Of course, this has nothing to do with teaching golf but I’m just trying to explain how great and kind the guys are, how attentive they are to their client’s needs, how helpful they are and how they try to do everything to make their clients feel comfortable and overall good.

Then comes the golfing part and here is where they totally excel all their competition. I plan to give you a better picture of what my problems have been (both in the full swing and short game) but for this I’ll need some videos and pictures which I have yet to choose. So, stay tuned for the updates.
As for now, I’ll just try to tell you a few words about how they teach.
First of all, Dave and the team never give you a drill and/or exercise without previously explaining you why do you need this, how this can help you play better. They give you a very good, clear and in-depth understanding of golf technique without being excessively scientific. They explain very complex and sophisticated things in the simplest way possible. Also, if you ask them something (and this happens very rarely because they give you just enough explanations most of the time), they will never try to conceal anything and they’ll never say that you are not yet ready to know this or shouldn’t ask this. The guys make sure that you are with them all the time and get what they are telling you.
Second, the guys are very good personalities as you might have already understood. That means they feel a lot of empathy to you and try to support you. They’ll never let you down and try to be very optimistic all the time. But at the very same time you don’t feel like they are pulling your leg and they are not. They are very honest with the evaluations of your skill and progress but will always draw your attention to your improvements and not to your faults. This makes you feel a lot better and helps you play better golf simply because you’re in a better mood.
Third, Dave and Co. have a great ability to make you feel satisfied after every lesson. They don’t use any kinda hypnosis or drugs as you might have thought. They’ll just work with you until you get the idea and manage to do what you need to. So, after every lesson you feel lots of improvement.
And here is fourth, they never watch the clock. I prolly shouldn’t have said this but sometimes if
you paid for one hour they give you almost a two hour lesson while still charging you for 1 hour. I need to say that is something….. unbelievable and unheard of in the modern era of commercialization.

I know I sound like a broken record saying how awesome Dave and Erik are as coaches as well as people but that is truth which is surely gonna be proven with some video and photo files of me before and after taking lessons from them. For now, I’ll just tell you that in a 10 day period at the Golf Evolution I’ve fixed more faults in my swing than I did in 3 months at a very famous academy with a BIG name which I don’t wanna mention for the sake of ethics.

Disclaimer: I don't have any kind of commercial interest in the Golf Evolution and the only reason I wrote this is that I do believe that The Golf Evolution is a very good place and I want to a) recommend it to every golf enthusiast in the USA, if not the world; b) publicly say thanks to Dave and Erik.

Once again, sorry for the mistakes, and thanks for attention.

PS: please, stay tuned, the updates are to come.

[k14]

So is your handicap down to 4 now?

[AspiringGolfPro]

Not yet, of course, you can't drop it down to 4 in like 10 days. But I'm sooooo close!

Seriously, though, I am improving greatly and will soon kick my own ass.
Remember, golf is a sport where you need to fight with yourself all the time.

[AspiringGolfPro]

So, dear ladies and gentlemen, here comes the stuff to prove what was said above.

Of course, I do realize that I am not close to perfect or even good by any means, but who is!? My point is that in 10 days I changed my swing from craptastic to nice and now I need to further improve it and then groove it/make consistent and learn how to apply it on the course. There is a lot of work to be done yet but I feel like like I am on the right track.

1. How did I look like on the first day?

Down the line:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47116379@N02/4598813981/

Face on:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47116379@N02/4599453640/

2. Doing some drills:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47116379@N02/4598784191/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47116379@N02/4599453642/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47116379@N02/4598784205/

3. The outcome:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47116379@N02/4599467120/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47116379@N02/4599467128/


As you can see I just can't do bad things with Dave, because otherwise he's gonna hit me with this stick which quite honestly hurts!

PS: sorry for posting just the links to the videos but there is no way I can embed them from my flickr.com account.

Later I'll try to upload'em to vimeo or youtube.

[senorchipotle]

dude... your swing looks really good now. congrats man. looks like you and dave have really worked well together. with a decent putting and short game, that last swing will get you to 4 easy.

[SpringBokVol]

You are correct... that is a lot of improvement.

And you still have things to work on. Congrats!

[AspiringGolfPro]

dude... your swing looks really good now. congrats man. looks like you and dave have really worked well together. with a decent putting and short game, that last swing will get you to 4 easy.

Thank you, guys! That's why I say this dude is GOOD. ;)

[david_wedzik]

Thank you, guys! That's why I say this dude is GOOD. ;)

Ivan...THANK YOU for trusting in us and for the very kind words. You are doing the work we are simply providing direction...just keep it up and it only gets better from here!

Dave

[colin007]

dude, that is REMARKABLE improvement...are you hitting it off the toe at all? maybe its just the camera angle...

[ERdiesel]

great job and nice swing......so envious!!! I wish i could just take a week or two off and attend a golf academy, boot camp style to help me. your swing, is that what they call a one plane swing or is it a stack and tilt swing?

[AspiringGolfPro]

great job and nice swing......so envious!!! I wish i could just take a week or two off and attend a golf academy, boot camp style to help me. your swing, is that what they call a one plane swing or is it a stack and tilt swing?

I try to make a S&T; swing, obviously!

[AspiringGolfPro]

The latest update re: my improvement.

This past week was spent in Russia where I couldn't refrain from playing golf. I have played 9 holes on my local GC with a CR of 70 and SR of 128 and shot 37 (+1). By far the best round of my life - 100% fairway hit, 70% GIR and decent short game and putting.

THE conclusion: go to the Golf Evolution Academy, spend some time and money and get better, way better. Period.

[Nick Clearwater]

The latest update re: my improvement.

EVERYONE on this board should take note of the last sentence. The boys at The Golf Evolution know how to HELP EVERYONE!

[david_wedzik]

EVERYONE on this board should take note of the last sentence. The boys at The Golf Evolution know how to HELP EVERYONE!

Thanks Nick - and it goes with out saying that if you are in the Chicago area looking for help on your game DO contact Nick Clearwater - NOT just if you are looking for Stack and Tilt help either - if you want to become a better golfer get in touch for sure!