Golf School week
One week’s Golf School to hone my skills, a resume of what I learned throughout the week. Thinking I’m doing it right and then seeing the video of how I’m not and how bloody hard it is to do the easiest of things. I have videos and pictures to show my progress and for me to continually review and more importantly to show my Golf Pro. I will post these elsewhere on this golf blog.
The Backswing
My Backswing is too high being above my head which causes me to bod up and down and thus don’t turn properly and get hips out the way so can’t hit through the ball with arms straight and keeping the triangle consequently the follow through is all chicken wing. Problem here is that I’m still turning in to the back swing with my arms and not with the rotation of my shoulders and hips. I’ve been trying to do this for the last three weeks but still not getting it.
Here is what I need to do, turn in to the backswing and when the arms get to the 9 o’clock position they should remain fixed then I continue to move round with the hip and shoulder turn. In the full backswing position the butt of the club should be in line with the back of my right foot. My backswing as shown on the video at the golf school have the butt of the club in line or just outside my toes. The hands should also be in line with the top of the head but no higher, the latter is currently where my hands are, consequently going this high makes me lift, and then I have to bod down to get to hit the ball.
The right armpit should remain against the side of the chest, mine flails about to much. A good way to feel this is to put a head cover or woolly hat under the armpit and ensure when making the full back swing this stays in place and doesn’t fall to the floor.
The Downswing
The downswing starts with a weight shift on to the left foot as the hips turn and move laterally to the left. At the same time the arms shouldn’t be moving on their own but should just becoming down as the body turns and retaining the angle they had at the top of the back swing. This move is amazingly difficult; trying to resist moving the arms down in the downswing just feels so weird. Even practicing this is slow motion isn’t easy.
During the turn and whilst the arms maintain there angle they should solely becoming down and round through with the hip rotation only and they should create a 45 degree angle intersecting with the right shoulder. At this point as the arms continue to come down with the body turn the wrist hinge is then straightened as you whip through the ball.
At the point of impact the shoulders should be square with the ball; the arms should have recreated the triangle you had when addressing the ball, the hips turned round to the left, weight predominantly on the left foot.
The Follow Through
Continuing into the follow through the arms should remain straight retaining the triangle and not pulling in and going all chicken wing and inevitably hitting the ball with a server hook. This should be easy; however I find it incredibly difficult to actually do this. The reason is that I’m not turning the hips and getting them out of the way in the downswing so I become all hunched up and can’t extend the arms fully in to the follow through.
At the start of the golf school, he showed me two still images of me apparently in the setup position and asked are these both setup positions or hitting the ball. I knew it was a trick question and obviously there was one image of both, but both looked exactly the same, which just shows I’m using the arms to swing down and through the ball and have no hip turn at all.
In Summary
The following are the things I learned from golf school that I now need to fully concentrate on.
- Stand 3 inches closer to the ball, as I’m standing way to far away and consequently stretching to hit the ball.
- Keep armpit against chest in the back swing
- At the end of the backswing arms should finish at head height, not above my head.
- At the end of the backswing butt of club should be in line with the right heal
- Downswing, elbow comes in and retains angle created at end of backswing
- Turn with hips to bring club down continuing to retain angle of the club
- Arms straight in the follow through emulating the take away position in the backswing
- Follow through fully, right foot needs to have turned a full 45 degrees and all of the sole of the foot should be visible.
As you can see I have a hell of a lot to grove here, as I have since my golf challenge started but. At the golf school they said my basics where looking good all I now need to do is make these small adjustments. This may sound like my whole swing is wrong, but really we are now taking about 4 or 5 cm’s in my movements that need attention. However; even millimetres being off can cause massive amounts of inconsistency.
The use of video at the golf school I cannot underestimate, using this daily and often is a great tool to see where you’re going wrong. I’m now going to start videoing my swing often at the golf range. Being at the golf school has been and eye opener, in fact every time I see myself on video always is, but another aspect of the golf school was them taking me through a pro’s swing and pointing out all the key areas of the swing. I feel I now have a much fuller understanding of the swing than I previously had and with that information I can now analyse my own swing as I know what I need to be looking for.
I would fully recommend anyone who is serious about improving there golf to attend this golf school; it’s been an eye opener. Yes I have a tonne of work to do but gaining the knowledge of the full golf swing has been invaluable. I’m sure I will learn much more about the golf swing, as I’m not now saying I fully understand it, but I feel I understand it 100% better than I previously did. With this fuller understanding, when watching a recent golf tournament it was amazing at how much more I was able to see the pro’s doing in the golf swing.