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Lesson Comments: What Students Have To Say
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Tom's Featured Tip: Align Your Body and Your Brain
For simplicity, all advice on actual swings or drills is provided from a right handed perspective.
I had a lesson last week with a good golfer that had recently been experiencing a lack of accuracy consistency. I'm including my lesson comments to him as the basis for this week's newsletter because his problem is so common.
I'd be willing to bet that this problem affects a gigantic percentage of the golfers reading this article at one time or another.
The first two things that I look at when a good player tells me that they are having a ball flight or ball direction problem are ball position and alignment.
This players problem was bad alignment. Read these lesson comments and decide if you should pay more attention to how you align your body at setup. Enjoy.
06/06/19 Lesson Comments
Great job yesterday (name withheld). You have something that can't be taught - talent, so keep working on your game. Positive results will follow.
90% of your problems resulted from incorrect alignment at address, which was not having your body aligned parallel left to your target line. You have been setting up with a closed stance, with the clubface pointed at the target.
This caused your swing path to be either down the line or slightly outside to inside, which is what your brain figured it had to do to get the ball started towards the target from that setup.
We addressed your alignment problem by explaining what that meant, then showing you how to correct it as follows: picking out an intermediate target around 12" ahead of your ball, then aligning your body parallel left to the imaginary line between your ball and the intermediate target.
With that corrected setup, and with a swing along your body lines, you had some absolutely pure strikes.
Some of your shots, however, started left and stayed straight (a pull), or started left and curved left (a pull hook).
The reason for those pulls and pull hooks was that your body had been trained to execute a down the line or slightly outside to inside downswing path because of how you used to align your body in your setup. Your swing was not conforming to your body lines, because if it did you'd be missing right because you were aimed there. Your brain was trying to help you hit the ball towards the target with the down the line or over the top swing path.
You have to re-train yourself to swing properly along your body lines, with an inside to inside swing path.
You essentially have to re-align your body to being parallel left at your setup, then re-align your brain to swing along your body lines.
The Inverted Praying Hands Drill Practice this drill frequently, do the reps for two continuous minutes of turning back and through with the wrist angles held intact. On the forward swing part of the motion, make the path inside to outside to capture that swingpath direction feeling, and add a little lateral hip bump to initiate your forward swinging motion. You will be overtraining the path direction when you do it as directed, that's what you need to do for awhile until your inside to inside path is grooved for your full swing.
Inverted Praying Hands Drill maintaining wrist angles
with weight forward, long arms, a good turn,
and attacking from the inside on the downswing.
For now you will have to feel that your downswing is travelling outward (to the right) for a longer period of time to build an inside attack swingpath into the ball.
I also want you to understand that your left arm governs your swing path, and that your right hand governs your clubhead positions through impact. I want you to think about and visualize keeping the clubhead square to your path through impact, not. consciously trying to release the clubhead. That will happen naturally with "oily" wrists. I want you to fight against rolling the face through impact and causing friction between a face that's closing rapidly to your path, then causing too much draw or hook. Don't "fan the club open" on your takeaway, take the club back with your body turn initially.
I also want you to stay "down and through" at impact. Read the article below and watch the video in the head against the wall drill:
POSTURE AND TILT Last but not least, restrict your practice to what we worked on above only. Nail these things down, and get away from constant tinkering. Give things a chance to work and take hold and you'll see more consistency.
Keep practicing!
Comments: ttucker@rochester.rr.com
Love your practice, own your swing, own your health,
Tom
Golf Lessons
I conduct lessons at The Plum Creek Driving Range & Practice Facility
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Lessons are available for all ages and skill levels, please contact
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All the best,
Tom Tucker
Teaching Pro, Plum Creek Driving Range & Practice Facility
WGTF ' "Top 100 Golf Teacher"
USGTF Class "A" Teaching Professional
IGPA Certified Golf Psychology Coach
Cell: (716) 474-3005
Email: TomTuckerGolf@gmail.com
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"There are no substitutes in the quest for perfection!"
~ Ben Hogan