I have been teaching Andy for two years. Before two years ago he had no interest in golf. He is 55+ years old and just showed up one day with a set of clubs and we got started. The first year was easy as he just didn’t want to embarrass himself on the course so we spent 6 months preparing before he would play. We played 9+ holes every other Friday from March to September and he scored close to 50 a few times.
This last year was much more difficult as he became engulfed into this great game and, of course, he started watching tournaments and The Golf Channel. Every week was a struggle as he would hit hundreds of practice balls and say: Why is your swing so different? All the pros say do this or do that. We went through this season with him breaking a hundred for the first time but overall not really making much progress. He could not understand why my swing was so different from those he sees on the tube.
My playing stops at daylight savings time so for the next 5 months I only teach at the range so his lessons are at the range.
I started the lesson by telling him he really hadn’t made much progress this year and that the lessons, from now on, are going to deal with learning the swing. He can hit all the golf balls he wants on his own but our lesson will only deal with the components of the swing so we started.
I started him by having him break his wrists into the “Impact Position” as discussed earlier. He spent an hour and a half just swinging an 8 iron to the 75 yard marker. He started out well but after 30 balls he started topping and shanking the balls. Here comes the good part.
As I’m talking to him and trying to have him bring his legs closer together he does something that I hadn’t seen in 30 years. He suddenly puts both legs and feet together and swings and before I knew it he was done then I remembered the lesson my Grandfather gave me when I was first starting. This was back in the mid 1970’s.
The problem is rotation and the answer is easy but most difficult to manage.
He would have me put both my legs and feet together, hug both thighs as tightly together as I could, turn my right hip back and swing.
So Andy starts doing this and the ball is flying straighter than he has even seen. He found this “METRIC” in his own mind and he just kept working on it. First the feet are together and you swing. Next the feet are two inches apart, still holding the left thigh into the right knee and you swing, then the feet are 4 inches apart and 6 inches apart. My heels are about 9 inches apart for all swings.
Once the ball starts to wander off then go back to putting the feet and legs together, knees bent, hip turned to the back of the right heel and start all over.
It’s a great Metric, one that isn’t in the book or video. Try it and enjoy.
Dan
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