Online Lesson: John Lamendola- Looking for More Distance with the Driver

By Wayne | Videos: Online Students

Wayne D! We have been working together for 3 years now. I went back an looked at the video you sent me 10/23/15 and it’s amazing how much we have accomplished over the last 3 years. As you know our main goal was to fix the hand path. In that video this is what you say “if you are working with me I am going to do everything I can to keep your hands from going backwards”. Our first in person meeting was a 3 hour lesson on 10/27/15. I remember driving home thinking to myself that I have a lot of work ahead of me! We then met again in January in Florida and again I left thinking the same thoughts but I knew it was a process. I trusted and 100% believed in everything you said and made it my goal to get to as close to what you wanted as possible. I knew I couldn’t do it alone so would work on it for 2-3 weeks at a time and then try to send you an online lesson for your comments and then got back to work. Looking back on it now I know you had a plan – and I am sure you do for us going forward. What I compliment you most on is sticking to your guns and never getting away from that plan. Yes each lesson you added a few additional layers for me to work on but you always stuck with the plan. The thing that I find to be amazing is that in high speed video it’s pretty much impossible to see what is going on with a swing. And when you compare my swing from 2015 to 2018 with the naked eye you might not see much BUT when you slow it down the changes are REMARKABLE. I want to thank you for being patient with me because at times you know I was getting a little crazy. The action that we created held up under what I would consider to be the ultimate pressure at the Winged Foot Club Championships this past weekend. My misses have become basically insignificant and when I am really feeling it I can pick a target and literally hit it. It’s an amazing feeling. Thanks again and I look forward to seeing you this winter in Florida. And I look forward to what’s next.

 
I have done more online lessons with John than I have with any other student. If you watch them in order (you can skip a few) you will see that my teaching philosophy is to analyze the swings I am looking at and give my best advice according to what I believe will be most helpful. John is great at giving me feedback on what he feels is working and what is not, and while some of the lessons seem repetitive it shows that I am pretty stubborn when it comes to my ideas about his swing. We have made great progress over time (John just won the Winged Foot Club Championship), but John knows that he has the ability to gain more speed and distance with the driver, which is what I concentrate on in this lesson. I have always felt that John could utilize his pivot better to load up in the backswing by right loading more than center loading his hips, and by gaining more width at the top by rotating his upper trunk more efficiently.