Lessons

[muskegman]

Well, with all the stink I've made to others about getting lessons I've finally done it for myself. All I can say is "Ouch." I discovered a couple of new muscles in the process and they are speaking to me now. I've decided that I'm starting over and I don't care if my game goes to pot in the process. I want to do this the right way.

A few things that we went over:
Do a better job about preventing wrist hinge
Better posture - I was bending at the knees too much
Right hand strait (cover my watch) on finish
Post my left leg on follow through
Maintain spine angle all the way through

There was a lot to deal with, but I'm signed up for a total of 5 lessons and he feels that we can work out my "other issues."

It feels like I'm starting over again, but I'm excited about getting it right this time.

[iacas]

Yikes. The most you can really work on at once is two things. That's quite a laundry list!

[muskegman]

I took my second lesson a couple of days back and here's the gist of it:

Big Swing
-Thumbs under club and above the right shoulder at the top.
-Use mirror to to groove proper spot.

2nd Gear (Half way in backswing)
-Build thumbs up position with short irons

Finish
-Build complete 3rd base finish (full turn on followthrough)

Anyone who hasn't had a lesson really needs to bite the bullet and take at least a couple. I am really enjoying them and have a renewed zeal for the game as a result. I truly believe that in the long term I am going to be a better golfer because of it.

[realed]

I agree about the lessons and I find them fun because it's one step closer to a better swing.

The things my instructor has me working on are:

1. Backswing: I overswing without knowing it and lose a lot of power. Now I try to do half swings (in my head) which actually gets my club just short of parallel at top. It has already put 20 more yards in my swing.

2. Weight Transfer: Still not getting all of my weight on my right leg during the back swing which also leads to my sometimes unbalanced finish on the follow through.

I started playing golf a year ago and didn't take lessons until about 3 months ago. I was shooting upper 90s at the end of last year with my self-taught swing and after 2 lessons this year have broken into the 80s more than 10 times. Lessons are definitely worth it.