December, 2018 | Wayne DeFrancesco

Will Wilcox and Andrew Loupe: World Class Players, Totally Different Set-ups, Similar Impact Alignments

When you look at the first side by side of Willy and Andrew you will probably be struck by the fact that it appears they are playing a different game. I worked with them back to back last week and it certainly occurred to me that you could hardly get two people to set up more differently. The differences in the two address positions leads to some significant differences during the swings, but it becomes obvious that it is the eventual similarities that demonstrate why both are extremely high-level ball strikers.

Lesson of the Week: Max Rosenberg

By Wayne | Videos: Lesson of the Week

Max is taking a year off from his job to see how good he can get, and we will follow his progress at least a couple times a month. The first goal when I start with a student is to assess their already formed patterns, keep what works, and change what I see as detrimental to learning to be a superior ball striker. We are also focusing on short game and putting (of course), but some lessons (2 hours once a week) get going on the swing and stay there as we have now identified the most stubborn items and need to spend more initial time focusing on those. The good news is that Max, despite being around a 10 handicap, has things going on in his swing that you would expect to find in much better players. It didn’t take much for Max to get his hands forward at P6 and sustain impact past P7, which for a teacher means that he was able to accomplish one of the most difficult things for lesser players to achieve. I see Max’s major issue as the steepness of his downswing approach and the resulting problems with a release action that wants to drive straight down the line with the face staying square. It doesn’t help that Max is 6’7” and has played with a vertical motion all his life. In general we would like to take advantage of his size and strength and make his swing more efficient, which means keeping his right arm more in front of him in the backswing and shortening his swing length. After that we will keep working on getting him to fell the shallowing of the shaft in the downswing and a release that moves more around on an arc.

Playing for Money: Derrick Sherard- Less use of Right Side in the Backswing and More Use of the Ground Through Impact

By Wayne | Videos: Playing For Money

Derrick is a professional living in West Palm Beach who works a couple of golf courses and would like to improve his game enough to compete in some mini-tour events and have a chance to earn some money. I usually see him a few times when I come down for the winter, but that hasn’t been enough to get his ball striking to where it needs to be. The swing Derrick brought to this lesson shows the patterns that we have seen for some time, and hopefully if I have improved my teaching, we can find ways to improve his stubborn tendencies. Derrick has always been an in to out swinger, and when he gets the clubhead behind him early in the swing it usually follows that he overturns his right side and gets his right upper arm and shoulder too far behind him. From there he can’t get the club back in front of him in the forward swing and approaches impact with the clubhead well behind his hands, causing a flippy, in to out impact. I start here trying to get Derrick’s backswing on plane and his right hip twisting less behind him, adding a bit of external rotation to the upper right arm to keep it more in front of his chest at the top. The stop and go swings definitely look better, but through impact his lower body still tends to collapse as he stays down in his forward bend too long. To help this issue we do an impact drill where he situates his lower body in a deep, left and rotated position with the shaft at P6, then with a pumping action builds to a delivery in which he uses the ground more effectively by pushing up with the left leg and driving the right side of the pelvis up into the left. This standing up to the left action extends the upper thoracic and helps the upper right side to drive into the follow through so the right wrist bend can be sustained past impact.

Lesson of the Week: Stacy Kress- Trying to Lessen Right Hip Spinning

By Wayne | Videos: Lesson of the Week

Stacy, the daughter of my good friend Richard Kress, has been a student of mine for over 20 years. Richard is one of the world’s most avid golfers (he’s taken at least one lesson from every teacher you can possibly name) and kept bringing Stacy for lessons even when it seemed that she had no affinity for the game. She was unfazed by her failures and kept at it, and eventually she won the women’s club championship at Woodholme when she was 17, upsetting a 5-time Maryland State Women’s Amateur champion in the process. She went on to play D1 golf for Penn University, and was chosen Freshman of the Year. She now resides in West Palm Beach and is a member at Bear Lakes, where she won the club championship last year as well as the Tri-County Women’s Amateur. Stacy has always had an idiosyncratic right shoulder and scapular movement in transition, and she has always tended to lift as she gets to the top of her swing. When she lifts, she is extending her right hip flexor, which in turn leads to spinning the right side of her pelvis and leaving her arms and hands trailing behind. To improve the synchronization of her upper and lower I try an old trick used by Butch Harmon to keep the right heel down longer and encourage the foot to roll inward instead of shooting straight up. You will see here that by restricting the upward motion of the heel and foot her pelvic rotation slows down and her arms move further down without the hips spinning open.

Swing Analysis: Peter Uihlein. Phil Mickelson and the Fadeaway Swing

By Wayne | Videos: Swing Analysis

You might be wondering about the title of this video (fadeaway swing? What the heck is that?), but after watching it will become obvious what I am talking about. Both players address the ball in what I would call an athletic, “ready” posture with their balance out over the ball toward the balls of the feet. My preference would always be to stay out over the ball and either maintain or increase hip depth and pelvic tilt, but both Uihlein and Mickelson back away from their starting position in a significant fashion. Uihlein increases his hip depth with no hint of early extension, while Mickelson famously kicks his left leg hard out from under him and uses a hard roll of the forearms to square the face. Both are excellent players and I always find it interesting to view techniques that work that I would never teach outright and would discourage when I see it. In my own swing I can never seem to get deep enough into my left heel at impact and watching Uihlein (I always considered Mickelson an anomaly) it makes me wonder how it would work to start even more forward toward the toes at address then consistently move back toward the heels during the swing.

Wayne D: Playing some Blues and Swing Harmonica

By Wayne | blog

I’ve been asked a few times for this and I had some time alone in the house so I figured I’d play behind a couple of jam tracks. I have had a great time learning to play the instrument and it has made me a bunch of new friends totally oblivious to anything golf, which is a nice break at times. I’ve been playing for about 10 years, and the thing that has helped me most are the lessons I’ve taken from some of the best players in the U.S., including Jerry Portnoy, Dennis Gruenling, Steve Guyger and my good buddy Bret Littlehales (AKA Big Boy Little).