Monthly Archives: July 2018

Lesson of the Week: Richard Kress- Shallowing the Shaft in Transition

By Wayne | Videos: Lesson of the Week

I’ve known and worked with Richard for over 30 years, and the one thing we have never been able to conquer is his tendency to steepen the shaft in transition. In this video I go over the important elements of the swing that I believe lead to better shaft movement during the swing. Transition is the most complex part of the golf swing, and in order for Richard to get the club to flatten he is going to have to improve his pivot movement (stop getting more vertical in the downswing by adding pelvic tilt), achieve more width at the top (stop folding the right arm and focus more on extensor action), and work on actively moving the right upper arm and elbow inward while the left arm is being pulled by the body. I would expect Richard’s swing to get a bit shorter as the right arm bends less and the hands stay away from the head. He is now in his early 70’s and while he can still move athletically it is not really possible to maintain a full- length backswing without making multiple errors.

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Online Lesson: Trent Tessler 3- Still Working on Sequence

By Wayne | Videos: Online Students

We have identified Trent’s #1 problem, his leaning toward the target with his upper body at the same time the legs are shifting, but, as is evident by the swings he sent me, he hasn’t figured out why he does it and how to stop doing it. That’s where I come in, of course. After studying his swings and trying to imitate them in the mirror I found that when I held my left leg to the left and tightened my left hip flexor I had a hard time loading onto my right side and feeling like I could start the downswing by counter rotating the right-side hip muscles against the right foot’s brace into the ground. My suggestion to Trent is simple enough: pinch the left leg inward at address so that the foot feels a bit to the inside, the knee feels knocked toward the right, and the inside of the leg feels activated. When the upper body triggers the backswing, the hips will respond by swiveling more freely as the left leg will be rotating instead of trying to hold its position. This will allow the right hip to deepen as it rotates, and the right side will feel loaded enough into the ground to be able to initiate the forward swing with both lateral and rotational pelvic movement while the head stays relatively still. Producing secondary axis tilt while retaining or gaining posture is essential if the upper right arm is going to be able to drive inward instead of tipping over, and when the sequence is better the lag will increase as well. The lower body must pull the upper body into the forward swing. When the sequence is good the hands can get much more in front of the ball at impact.

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