So today, I finally started taking lessons....

[slodsm]

I wasn't sure when would be an "appropriate" time to actually start paying someone to fix everything wrong with me but I have to say, this was the best money I've spent since I picked up a club. My grip I picked up from other people who told me everything I was doing wrong. My stance, I picked up the same way along with a few magazine articles. My swing, I got from a mixture of baseball and possible birth defects.

Within 10 minutes, he had corrected all of them to a more appropriate form and I was actually hitting a ball straight and in the general direction of where I wanted it to go. Within an hour, I no longer felt like a moron because it started to feel natural to me now and I was no longer stressing about "is this going to go over the top of the ball or drive into the ground before I even reach the ball".

I went immediately after the lesson to a local course and played the front 9 finishing 10 over with 2 doubles and 1 par. Nothing spectacular BUT I can see a serious improvement in confidence because my misses were all long (I was actually making good contact with the ball most of the time) instead of all right. It's a beautiful thing to pick up a 3w and know it's going to be somewhere in the fairway when you're done.

His parting words were to get ready to buy new clubs because I would need stiff shafts by the end of the year. I based all my previous purchases off of the distance I was getting per club and thinking I had an incredibly slow swing speed. Apparently my swing speed is actually rather fast, I just didn't hit the ball well at all (obviously).

For the other hacks like me who are actually wanting to get serious about becoming a better golfer, all the equipment in the world won't make up for someone who actually know how to convey information combined with an explanation to make it stick and then walk you through the steps over and over until you get it right. I'm playing 18 the next 4 days and then going for a follow up Friday and very optimistic that I may actually be able to consistently play an enjoyable round of golf by next year without the frustration of 1 good swing out of every 10 bad ones.

[Beachcomber]

Good to hear.  Golf is a beautiful game once you really start to trust your swing.  Good luck on your personal journey!

I only have a few tidbits of advice...

**Make sure you take detailed notes on what your lesson covered.  Maybe take a video of what you're working on so that you don't forget what your instructor taught you in your lesson.**

I provide this simple advice as for myself...  Going back and watching some of my old videos, and lessons has really helped me understand where I'm going - and how I got there.

[tiger187126]

i will give you another insider tip:

at some point you'll lose everything and go back to feeling like you've never hit a golf club before. it will be absolutely infuriating because you know you can make good shots.

just take a deep breath, make some fully committed and over-exaggerated (i work on in to out) practice swings, and take a smooth swing.

also, understand what has been fixed so that when you're having trouble you can remember the move your pro taught you to get you out of your bad habit. it takes a while to break muscle memory, but just keep working at it.

[slodsm]

Thanks for the tips gents. I caught myself on two holes this afternoon (the two doubles of course) doing one of my most blatantly wrong motions which cost me a stroke both times.

I had been told when you reach the bottom of your swing you should push through with the right hand to increase club head speed at the moment of impact and increase distance. I have practiced that sooooooooo many times over the last 6 months or so that it was very hard to remove that movement from my swing but out of 45 swings I only let it creep back in twice.

I'll eventually get this down. When I learned to shoot trap and sporting clays, I just spent a ridiculous amount of money on shells and range time and learned it on my own until I was able to take home quite a few trophies with just some tips from other older experienced shooters here and there. I thought I could do the same with golf but today has shown me otherwise and before I spent another 2 years ingraining this mess into my muscle memory so deep I couldn't get it out.

[lostmyballs]

Do you believe that you couldn't discover the fixes this coach suggested to you by yourself?

[slodsm]

Honestly no. The results were quite drastic but the changes were minute. The moved my left hand maybe 10 degrees around the grip, my right hand down maybe 1/2 an inch and the position of my thumb and index finger. He moved my position at address up closer to the ball which felt off when he did it, then he worked in the weight transfer from foot to foot which I thought I was doing already and in the end, his adjustments and explanations for WHY (the most important part to me) he made those adjustments were not huge but the results were immediate and impressive for someone of my skill level.

On my own, I would have never even contemplated the things he changed because I honestly thought I was doing them right but my timing was wrong. By the time he was through with me I realized I couldn't have been more wrong unless I held the club backwards. I just didn't understand the physics behind properly striking the ball.

Most sports I've learned on my own completely, MX when I was younger, I crashed until I got it right (my body pays for it now). Then on to softball, shotgun sports, IDPA/USPSA sanctioned pistol competitions etc. Aside from MX (I never got beyond a C class racer there) I made it to the top in my region in sanctioned competitions at least once. With golf, it's a whole different ball game (pun intended) and it's going to take me longer and probably a lot of lessons but I think the reward will be greater because it is in fact harder.

Others may vary but I wouldn't have been able to correct these issues on my own.

[AmazingWhacker]

Sounds like a good lesson! I had a similar experience 4 months ago. Within just a few lessons I went from being totally awful to something approaching a bogey golfer. All of a sudden I could crush the occasional 3 iron and golf got a whole lot more fun. I actually took a follow up lesson today and got some great insights into how I can improve even more. Taking lessons with the right teacher can make such a huge difference.

[slodsm]

Yep, a good teacher who can convey what he knows with some meaning behind it is worth his weight in gold.

I have the majority of my issues from the tee and fairway, I avg 34 putts per round and I rarely ever three putt a hole, I just can never get the ball from the tee to the green in anything resembling an orderly fashion. The lessons are what I am hoping will steer me towards that goal and so far so good.

[RoyHotPower]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tiger187126

i will give you another insider tip:

at some point you'll lose everything and go back to feeling like you've never hit a golf club before. it will be absolutely infuriating because you know you can make good shots.

After a month of instructions, this is how I was striking my clubs over the weekend - I hadn't really been frustrated at all up to this point.  After flubbing it up at the range I drove straight to where I am taking lessons and spoke with my coach about what was happening.  My coach immediately described the outcome of my shots (topping) and reminded me to fall back on the most important thing we are trying to address, and then to also forget from time to time the drills and have fun with my wedges (my favorite clubs).  It worked!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beachcomber

**Make sure you take detailed notes on what your lesson covered.

And this is very true too.  Not only do I practice everyday, I review my notes.

[slodsm]

Well I jumped the gun a bit on my iron search thanks to a broken 8i this morning. At some point I've struck something probably trying to get out of trouble and cracked the shaft right above the hosel and I didn't know until today. I was cleaning my irons prior to going to play and found it so I made a trip by Edwin Watts on the way to the course, traded them in for a decent amount considering the broken 8i and picked up a set of TM Burner 2.0's in 4-Aw with stiff steel shafts. I played a round with them, like the clubs a lot but I'm having to work on my distance more because I'm overshooting. I clubbed down 1 on the 3 par 3's for the course and usually ended up right on the fringe of the green requiring a little chip to get on.

My wedge shots are absolutely beautiful (for me), long irons are nice compared to normal although I still don't have a huge amount of distance and I worked on consistency with the 7-9i after my game on the range. I have to say the stiffer shafts seemed to have helped because distance wise I have tight grouping, left to right not so much but that's me, not the club.

I'm still shooting my average scores but I haven't picked up a driver since the lesson, 3w and down only he told me which kills my tee shots BUT keeps me in the fairway. All in all, I'm happy with the purchase and the lesson and can't wait for a follow up Friday. I find myself slipping back into trying to murder the ball with the wood or the long irons because it's in my muscle memory but my approach shots and wedge shots have improved drastically.

[lostmyballs]

The tips he gave you, you could have found them on your own in a golf book, for example, I'm assuming?

What is the benefit of paying for an instructor when you could have looked the corrections up in a book?

I don't mean to demean your action, despite how it sounds. I am interested is all. Thanks for answering!

[SloverUT]

Originally Posted by lostmyballs

The tips he gave you, you could have found them on your own in a golf book, for example, I'm assuming?

What is the benefit of paying for an instructor when you could have looked the corrections up in a book?

I don't mean to demean your action, despite how it sounds. I am interested is all. Thanks for answering!

I think the benefit of lessons is not necessarily the drills he gives you, although they will help.  For that matter, I can find advice on just about every aspect of golf on youtube or these forums.  The difference is nobody on youtube or these forums is regularly watching your swing.  What you are paying an instructor to do, as a beginner, is to watch your swing and find your flaws so that they can be fixed.  And then he gives you drills so that you continue to swing correctly.  It is very hard to instruct yourself on your swing because even if you are wrong it often "feels" right.

[kymonopoly]

For anyone who has taken lessons,

How did you find your teacher?  Was it word of mouth, friends who have taken lessons from someone or just go to your favorite course and talk to the teaching pro there?  I haven't had any friends or acquaintances take any lessons but I am looking for a "good" teacher?  Thanks for the input.

[reedf]

Originally Posted by kymonopoly

For anyone who has taken lessons,

How did you find your teacher?  Was it word of mouth, friends who have taken lessons from someone or just go to your favorite course and talk to the teaching pro there?  I haven't had any friends or acquaintances take any lessons but I am looking for a "good" teacher?  Thanks for the input.

I simply got to know the teaching pros at my local course where I have been playing a lot this year. Just talking before and after a round. One in particular, showed interest in what I was doing and offered some free advice on several occasions. He expressed an interest in helping without trying to talk me into paying for lessons. That made it a no brainer for me when I felt it was time to take a real lesson.

Originally Posted by lostmyballs

The tips he gave you, you could have found them on your own in a golf book, for example, I'm assuming?

What is the benefit of paying for an instructor when you could have looked the corrections up in a book?

I don't mean to demean your action, despite how it sounds. I am interested is all. Thanks for answering!

If I had a nice video system where I could watch and analyze my swing, I probably wouldn't need a lesson yet. As you said there a ton of free resources to use. I have gotten the basics pretty much in place and have been striking the ball pretty well recently. I felt this was the best time for my to have my first lesson (yesterday). He pointed out several subtle things and very quickly had me hitting the ball straighter and more consistently with less effort. He didn't need to make any big swing changes, just a little tuning. IMO, this is what a good instructor will do, unless your current swing is totally hopeless and needs an overhaul.

[Willie Malay]

Typical response on a golf website from those that can't play: "there's no way you need stiff shafts, dude"(because they can't hit a ball over 200 yards). But good for you for getting lessons and good luck with the new clubs, when you decide to get them.

[Beachcomber]

Originally Posted by Willie Malay

Typical response on a golf website from those that can't play: "there's no way you need stiff shafts, dude"(because they can't hit a ball over 200 yards). But good for you for getting lessons and good luck with the new clubs, when you decide to get them.

Huh?  Did I miss someone saying this?

[slodsm]

Originally Posted by lostmyballs

The tips he gave you, you could have found them on your own in a golf book, for example, I'm assuming?

What is the benefit of paying for an instructor when you could have looked the corrections up in a book?

I don't mean to demean your action, despite how it sounds. I am interested is all. Thanks for answering!

People learn in different ways, you personally may be able to read a book and glean all the information needed and correct all your issues yourself. I however don't retain anything that way, I'm a hands on person. The changes he put into everything I was doing were small enough I actually thought I was doing it right as per videos, articles, etc etc BUT once he made the change, explained why he did, and then showed the results with another 10 smooth swings with a 6i and my balls were going straight and close to the same distance each time.........

He did this probably 10 different times, change something small, watching me swing, make another adjustment, watch me swing, and over and over. The results were better than I could hoped.

As for the benefit of paying him, well, why do people take their cars to a mechanic when it breaks down? Back when I did custom fabrication on cars and chassis setup I billed 85 an hour because I was good at it and you got your moneys worth. I pay this guy a similar rate for the same reasons, he delivers me a good product for my money and to me it's well worth it.

[slodsm]

Second lesson today, still concentrating on ball striking but he turned the trackman on to let me see what I was doing etc. I was swinging a 7i anywhere from 80-88 mph when I'd stop thinking about it and just swing the club. If I can just translate that to my round this afternoon I will be happy. I tend to put too much thought into doing it right and I cut my follow through short etc but progress is progress and I'll eventually get there.