New plan from the Pro?

[Bullitt5339]

With the advent of them moving my place of business less than a mile from a golf course and driving range, I have been hitting balls everyday at the range this week and loving it.  I seem to be making much better contact by doing this.

But the Pro at the course who I have had lessons from before in the past and really helped me out asked me about doing a 30 minute lesson 3 times a week to help get my game back in order.

My only thought is whether 30 minutes really enough to make considerable gains in my game.....

[cbrian]

You can get some decent work done in 30 minutes, but it depends on how good he is as an instructor and how well he knows your game going into the lesson. However, I'd be a little concerned about the 3 times a week part (especially if you are talking about full swing lessons).   You could maybe do supervised practice sessions and/or work on other aspects of your game, but thats still a lot of times to see one another in a month. The value would also depend on your goals and what needs to be addressed to get there.

[birlyshirly]

I get 30 min lessons, but I think I need at least a week or 2 between lessons to consolidate. And that's with hitting balls nearly every day.

[Bullitt5339]

Originally Posted by cbrian

You can get some decent work done in 30 minutes, but it depends on how good he is as an instructor and how well he knows your game going into the lesson. However, I'd be a little concerned about the 3 times a week part (especially if you are talking about full swing lessons).   You could maybe do supervised practice sessions and/or work on other aspects of your game, but thats still a lot of times to see one another in a month. The value would also depend on your goals and what needs to be addressed to get there.

I think you hit the nail on the head.  We didn't discuss the details, but he knows my game (or lack thereof) very well.  When we were doing regular lessons, I would do well and make changes in my swing when he was there, constantly monitoring me.  But as soon as I got out on my own, I could (or would) not maintain the changes, even on the range.

When I got to the course, I always reverted back to my crappy swing, unless I was playing by myself on a perfectly empty course.  Whenever I played a round with my buddies, I would somehow instantly revert back to hitting the ball horribly.

I would assume given the problems I've had in the past, that it would be more as you suggested and be supervised practice sessions to ensure that I'm sticking with the changes to my swing.

I need to update my Handicap Index, because over the past 6-8 months, it has shot up to a 22 from a 14.  My goal in golf is to shoot consistently in the low 80's.  Not just when I'm playing by myself, but to be able to do that when I'm playing with my friends.  I want to be more consistent with ball flight and shot shape.  I want to lose those completely horrible shots where I stab a fairway wood in the ground or hit the ball completely off the toe and having it shoot 45* right.  I don't care about improving distance over my decent shots now, I'm perfectly happy with hitting my driver 230-240 and hitting my 7 iron 150.  I just want to be more consistent, knowing that I'm going to hit my driver around 230, instead of somewhere between 180 and 240.

[cbrian]

Don't take this the wrong way because I could be totally off base here, but it sounds like you don't know how to practice efficiently.

[Bullitt5339]

Originally Posted by cbrian

Don't take this the wrong way because I could be totally off base here, but it sounds like you don't know how to practice efficiently.

I think you may be correct based on my past, but I'm trying to change that.  I used to just go to the range and tinker with multiple clubs to figure out what will work for me "right now", which hasn't been successful at all.  This week was the first time in a long time that I've actually spent significant time on the range with a single purpose.

The past 3 days at the range, my only focus has been ball-striking.  I've been concentrating on making contact with the center of the club face on every shot and having a repeatable ball-flight and a consistent distance.  For 3 days straight, 45 minute practice sessions, I've worked with a single iron, my PW.  There are 2 flags spread out on the range about 50 yards apart from each other at 125 yards.  I've been concentrating on my alignment and ball striking and rotating back and forth between the two pins, trying to picture hitting 125 yard approach shots into a green.  My shot shape seems to be a baby fade, and I'm confident that I can hit the green from 100-125 yards out most of the time after this week's practice.

It seems to have improved my contact with all my clubs from my quick range session this morning, but this afternoon will be the real test when I go out and play a round.  I won't be worried about my score so much, my main concern will be whether I'm making consistent contact with the ball.  If I see an improvement, I won't worry about having the Pro with me at the range, since I've been doing this on my own, but just schedule lessons a couple weeks apart and work on changes in between.

[cbrian]

Thats a very good routine when just trying to maintain or dial in what you have now. However, I was referencing when you are actually trying to make swing changes (which again, might be wrong).

But while we are at it, what do you struggle with? What would you want to work on if you were to take the lessons and why?

[Bullitt5339]

I mainly struggle with cutting across the ball really badly, which leads to a ton of toe hits, especially with fairway woods. I also dig huge divots, although typically in front of the ball, which leads to inconsistent distances depending on how big of a trench I cut with each shot.  This is what I've been working on this week with the PW.

I also tend to combine these problems with my fairway woods, taking a divot and hitting it way off the toe.  So badly that sometimes I will just pop the ball straight up in the air and 45* right with a fairway wood.  Once I am making more consistent contact with my irons, this is the next problem I want to tackle.

I am living with my drives right now, because they are playable, but my typical drive has been a pull fade lately, which I don't care for, but it's consistent and I can keep it in the fairway or close to it at least.

[Bullitt5339]

I forgot to mention that my main problem has been identified as my shoulder turn being too flat.  2 weeks ago on video, I saw that my shoulders were turning nearly horizontal in relation to the ground.  So this week, my main focus has been turning my shoulders on a tilted plane.  This seems to have made a huge difference in me cutting across the ball so badly and has nearly eliminated the constant toe shot.

I will report back on whether I can take the range to the course this evening.  I am headed out to meet up with my 1PM walking group.

[cooke119]

I take 30 minute lessons, but only once a week. I am overhauling my swing, getting rid of a lot of bad habils I picked up along the way. Anyway, I find 30 minutes to be enough, I wouldn't want the lesson to go longer than that. We have broken my swing down and we work on one component at a time, e.g., I was rolling my left foot on my backswing instead of keeping it flat on the ground. That became the one item I would work on at the range, until I got it right. Next week we worked on not bumping my right hip (to the right) during the backswing, again, that is what I will work on at the range. So I find that going for 30 minutes to isolate one item a good way for me to proceed, I'm not biting off more than I can chew at one time. I've taken four lessons so far and have seen a nice change to my swing. I'm only going to take another lesson and then see how it goes this season, maybe go back for a tune up if I think I need it.

[Bullitt5339]

Well, I just got off the course and the results are promising....

I was hitting my irons very well and making solid contact.  Aside from a few shots where I didn't execute what I've been working on, my divots were manageable as well.  So it seems that the range work payed off.  The only problem I had with my irons is that because of the swing change, I am hitting them a lot higher (which is what I was trying to do), so my distances were off.  I need to relearn them over time again.  While I didn't see a great score improvement, I left the course with a sense of optimism for the first time in months.