If you never gave a lesson, but thought of once trying. Here's my experiene:
You may or may not want to try this at home.
As I and my buddy walked to the 12th tee we concluded that I'd won todays match 8/7. It wasn't really a match. For one thing I played my best round of golf this season and lowered my HCP. Secondly my buddy basically experienced a complete swing meltdown leading to fat shots, hooks, even completely missing the ball and what have you. He is not a great golfer, but still a 12-marker so his game was way below his standards.
As we headed back he said he badly neeeded to drive by the driving range to see if he could do something. The words "we'll get you fixed" slipped my mouth. After contemplating my statement I clarified: "I know a few things about the golf swing - so I will be able to identify some of your swing flaws. But I am not a trained instructor so it is not certain that I'll be able to prioritize what you need to work on. But let's at least give it a try.
As we got there the first person we met was his (professional) instructor. Did not know he'd been taking lessons. I asked what the instructor had him working on.
- We spent 3 lessons where he tried to get me to hit down steeper on the ball
Considering that my buddy hit a bunch of fat shots that might be a pretty logic statement - at least by a layman - but it did not sound a bit TGM-ish.
I thought: - Hit down steeper? What on earth is that??
While having a coffee and a cookie (the up front charge for my lesson - LOL) I thought about what I had seen but not commented much on during our game. I was sure about one thing: Throwaway. I explained some of the fundamentals. Especially the role of PP#3 (clubhead control and sweetspot) and what throwaway actually is - leading me to the importance of the Bent Right Wrist.
Coffee done, got a bucket of 150 ball and jumped on the launching pad.
I strapped his left wrist with a Tac-Tic, explained what it did. Asked him to make a practice swing. There was a click, but it was pretty late - i.e. negotiable. I then put down a ball and said: - Now hit the ball. I am pretty sure the click will come a lot earlier
(Held my breath)
It did. The click came much earlier - as expected. I talked some about the hit reflex, the wrist break-down and such. He got it. I said to get rid of that you should start by chipping, then pitching and only when you are not clicking while pitching we'll go to full swing. But there we were with a bucket of 150 balls. So: Ok. Full swing it is.
I asked him to hit a few balls. Walked around him more or less randomly checking details:
- Single-shift more or less on plane - CHECK
- Clearing the hip - CHECK
- Extensor action - CHECK
(All while he continued alter duck-hook his 7-iron with fat shots)
- Stationary head - CHECK
- Shoulder turn on plane - CHECK with A-grade!
- Clubface v/s plane o top - CHE..... Wait. That's NOT good.
Bottom edge of clubface indicated a severly closed clubface.
Only then I noticed that his grip was as strong as I've seen any grip.
I had him hold his club parallell to the ground and repeated that the left wrist has a very imporant assignment: Clubface control. He could see that his clubface was closed some 30 degrees in relation to the top of his wrist.
- This will make everything feel horrible and awkward, but lets try to fit you with a neutral grip.
The power of left wrist clubface control argumentation made him quickly accept it as a good idea.
After some tweaking he got it right.
The very first ball be hit was the best I'd see him hit all day. Wow.
He was struggling pretty much with getting the grip right and felt very uncomfortable at first, but the result of the first swing was enough motivation to keep going in that direction. Only with occasional mis-hits and some re-neutralizing of his grip he kept hitting the best shots he hit all day. It was very encouraging. The hook was all gone, but some shots resulted in a draw that was a tad too much.
I noticed he sometimes sneked in a re-strengthening of his grip and made sure to communicate impact and address hands location + waggle to avoid early fall-backs to a strongish attitide.
And then I watched the clubface on top again. Still hooded, but a lot less so. And there it was: The broken down left wrist on top.
We already went through the idea of eliminating any movement that does not contribute to either precision alignments, power or precision so it was easy to communicate that the left wrist breakdown on top was something we should probably get rid of.
And we did. Flat left wrist on top.
He was striping them.
He got his driver out. The club that created significant problems all day.
And striped it. And striped it again. And hit it bad. And striped it.
The bucket was getting empty. He was happy. I was happy.
He said I had done a Great Job and that the "TGM lesson" was a ton more productive and conclusive than any lesson he'd taken from the pro.
I did not expect to be able to do much spending 150 balls (especially involving a grip change) and never having given a swing lesson before. This was a very encouraging experience with results exceeding even my highest expectations. I had a BLAST!
In short thanks to Homer, this forum, to Yoda, Yodasluke, golfingrandy, Chuck and all the folks in Destin for making my day!
Tomorrow it's back to the office and the desk again. At least I had one day in the sun. Now over to another delicate business: HCP adjustment.
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