Category Archives for "Videos: Online Students"

Online Lesson: John Lamendola 18- Extension past Impact and Full Use of the Pivot

By Wayne | Videos: Online Students

John’s swing has improved considerably over the time we’ve been working (mostly online) and he is committed to continuing to improve. We are to the point now where most of the major issues have been addressed, but as we all know there are always things to work on. In this video I suggest something that John had been thinking about for some time, the driving and straightening of the right leg up into the left in the impact area. When we started back in 2015, John’s pattern was to overturn with his right arm and shoulder, drop his hands down in transition, and early extend with the right side of his pelvis. A lot of that has been fixed (he will always be working on the “hands out” move), but as the hips stayed deeper and the lower body cleared better the right glute has tended to remain somewhat passive during the strike, not surprising when we worked so hard to keep it from pushing out to the right early in the downswing. I would like him to really fire that right glute up into the left as he also pushes up off the left leg, which in turn I am hoping will get him to extend more through the ball, using his pivot more fully and freeing up his arms as they move into the follow through. I think the combination of more vertical force and more extension will lead to more clubhead speed. One thing to note is that John mentioned that he has purposefully been trying to keep his left arm connected to his chest into the follow through (I thought that swinging indoors had engendered a cutoff finish), a thought I would like him to get rid of.

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Online Lesson: Austin Kendziorski: Controlling Forearm Rotation in the Downswing

By Wayne | Videos: Online Students

I’ve been working with Austin since the middle of 2015. Austin has a tremendous amount of power but has historically struggled with getting the clubhead trapped behind his hands at P6. He had a breakthrough in 2017 when he won his first college event at Erin Hills (where the U.S. Open was held) but began to struggle in the spring of 2018. We spent 3 days together in January of 2018, so I guess I must take some blame for that, but as I look back on his swings they look pretty good to me. Austin got frustrated by the summer of 2018 and decided to go full Dustin Johnson with the bowed wrist and closed face, but his results did not improve much even though it was amazing how close he came to copying DJ’s move. I compare Austin here with Kevin Tway, recent Tour winner who is built similarly to Austin, and who sports a short, wide swing that unleashes great power with the driver (Tway had the most drives over 320 yards on the PGA Tour in 2018). Though I don’t show it here Austin’s swing in the fall of 2017 was much shorter and wider, and as strong as he is (he has gained 35 pounds of muscle since I first met him, which may be another factor in his struggles) I like the Tway/Finau model where the extra speed generated by a longer swing is simply not necessary. If you are as strong as these guys are why not take advantage and learn a controlled swing that provides accuracy with the irons and plenty of length with the driver. I would also like to see Austin stay taller in the backswing and continue to work on trying to control the overly active adduction, supination and external rotation of his right arm in transition while trying to supinate the left arm earlier in the forward swing. I refer him to Tway’s rehearsal, in which he brings his arms down from P4 to P6 with little or no lower body movement and no effort to pitch the right elbow inward. While I wouldn’t want to see the hands heading to impact as wide as Tway rehearses, any problem Austin has had with his hands not getting forward enough has had to do with him overdriving his right elbow.

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Online Lesson: Chip Zabatta- Lower Body Instability Leads to Faulty Backswing

By Wayne | Videos: Online Students

Chip is a good player (we played a round together with Tony Romo at his other club, Wykagyl) who is a member at and regularly plays one of the hardest courses in world, Winged Foot, which puts extra demands on his ball striking. Chip’s main tendencies are to lose his right leg brace in the backswing and turn his shoulders too flat, get his right arm and shoulder behind him at the top while he loses depth in his right hip and lets both knees flex toward the ball, then approach impact with his right arm in a push or punch position and his legs out from under him, all of which leads to a weaker impact than he would like. To correct some of these issues I want him to concentrate on his backswing first by widening his stance a bit and making sure to brace his right foot to the inside and to load his pelvis more to the center instead of letting his right knee rotate outward and his hips slide to the right. At the same time, I want him to try to widen his backswing (which would probably shorten it) by using right arm extensor action to keep his left arm straighter and to keep his right arm more in front of him at the top while increasing the pitch angle of his shoulder turn. At the same time, (I know this seems like a lot, but he can pick and choose what to concentrate on) he needs to make sure he does not let his knees drift toward the ball as he gets from P3 to P4. Using the shaft between his feet will help remind him to stay deep with his hips and to finish in the box. The idea behind these technique changes is to put his right arm in a better position at the top and at the same time help create space in downswing so he can take advantage and eventually have his upper right arm more in front of his chest and his hands more forward approaching impact.

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Online Lesson Antti Kauhanen: Early Loading Leads to Lifting at the Top

By Wayne | Videos: Online Students

Hi Wayne, thanks for the previous lesson, it has really helped me with my game. My misses with the driver are not as bad, but driving is still holding back my scoring. I have not been able to get rid of the lifting at the end of the backswing and it seems to me that the lifting is the key problem in my swing. The feeling I get at the end of the backswing is that my left shoulder is moving too much to my right and it causes me to lose sight of the ball and makes the transition much more difficult. If I manage to keep the left shoulder more to my left, I usually hit it much more solid. However, I really don’t know what the best way would be to try to fix this problem. I am sure you can help me sort this out.

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