Josh’s Tips & Tricks: I had a Golf Lesson!

Intro

Hello golfers. I hope you are all staying well hydrated and cool enough in this lovely warm weather. I personally love the warm weather and wish I could wear shorts for most of the year. Playing golf when it’s like this is a lot more enjoyable for me personally so I hope you have been enjoying it too.

This week I had a golf lesson. Roy and I spent some time together and we worked on a few things to help me improve my game. I would like to share my experience with you.

I haven’t had a golf lesson in about 5 years as I usually teach myself. My dad has always been my coach from a young age but due to time and work commitments the only golf we now play together is socially. I never practice on a driving range at home because I hit balls at Windmill so we are never on the driving range at the same time. No one is every too good to have a lesson in any sports, skill, or activity so I really enjoyed a new pair of eyes on my swing. Here’s how it went.

My Lesson Experience

Firstly take a look at the following video and then I will talk you through what I learned.

Warm Up

The first thing to do in any lesson is warm up. When we did this lesson it was about 34* in the custom fit studio so I was already quite warm however my body wasn’t golf ready. You should always make sure you warm up before your golf lessons to save time in it. If you only have a 30 minute lesson, it’s going to take 10-15 minutes to get the introduction and warm up done. That only leaves 15 minutes to work on the issues and conclude the lesson. That’s not a very long time.

Discuss Issues

While I was warming up I was discussing my issues withing my golf swing and what I wanted to work on. I am not great at controlling the distance of my wedges and short irons so wanted to feel something new to create a better launch angle and better compression. Even when I strike my pitching wedge or gap wedge nicely I can have a variation of up to 10 yards which isn’t great considering it’s a scoring club. The reason for this is because I present too much loft at impact. This also adds more spin and loses distance. I know wedges aren’t designed for distance but being able to control the distance is crucial to making lots of birdies.

Create New Feelings

We mainly worked on set up. I changed my grip slightly and basically changed the way my hand approached the club. My right hand has always wanted to creep a bit strong (under the grip) causing a slightly closed clubface and the tendency to flip the hands through impact. I therefore felt my right hand coming on after the club was set to feel like my right palm was more to the floor to help take loft on the way through. This leads on nicely to the other change. I practiced getting my hands further forward at impact feeling like I was creating more of a straight line through the left arm and shaft. Pushing some weight slightly forward through the left side with some spinal tilt also helped.

Exaggerate New Feelings

To make a change to your swing you have to really over exaggerate the feeling just to get some minor changes. I felt like I was really far to the left of the ball with my chest and hands but Roy showed my a photo and it looked good. It didn’t look uncomfortable or wrong, it looked more like I want it to look like. I then swung my normal tempo swing for a wedge and saw some good results. The ball come out lower. The strike felt more powerful. The ball traveled a more consistent distance. I never like hitting my wedges as hard as I can so would never expect them to fly full distance but the ball was travelling further than when I usually try to hit it hard. This was due to less loft being presented at impact.

Summary

You are never too good for a lesson. Myself and Roy help people with their golf every single day but when it comes to your own golf swing, another pair of eyes always helps. I encourage people to do what I do every day but sometimes get too stubborn to do it myself. I hold my hands up to being stubborn sometimes and I know a lot of you are scared to make changes. That’s natural. Making changes to your swing can seem daunting.

If you have been watching YouTube for tips or been listening to your mates and it hasn’t helped, maybe a set of eyes from a PGA coach is what you need. We are both very passionate about helping people enjoy their golf more and want to make your experience as enjoyable as possible. I thoroughly enjoyed my time spent with Roy and will be asking him for a bit more help in the future. I’m now looking forward to getting on the course and trying it out so thanks Roy!

If you would like any help with your game from either of us then CLICK HERE TO BOOK A LESSON NOW

Catch you all soon.

Cheers,

Josh