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DeWayne is an avid player who makes a nice living caddying and working at the Old Marsh Club in Florida in the winter, and at Hudson National Golf Club in New York in the summer. He would like to get back into playing competitively, but up to now has not been satisfied with the way he is striking the ball. He has watched the website quite a bit and is friendly with recent student and mini-tour player Nick Antonelli, so he decided to make a visit.
A couple of things that struck me right away as I watched him hit a few were the overall slow tempo of the backswing and the lack of “catch” in transition. Instead of the lower body initiating the forward movement from the ground it appeared that the upper and lower started together, which led to the upper leaning forward in front of the ball. The video bore this observation out, so my lesson plan was to pick up the overall pace of the backswing and then interrupt it with a correspondingly quicker start down with the legs. My hope was that this change in rhythm and timing, along with a discussion of the sidearm throwing concept, would shallow the shaft in transition by making the swing more dynamic. DeWayne still had a tendency to move forward with the upper body too much, so we did some work with the stretch cord on the 45 degree push of the lower body and more specifically on the attempt to keep the left arm and shoulder passive and responding to the movement from the ground. We then tried to apply this to some punch shots, and as some talented players are able to do, he immediately produced a vastly improved strike. The swings we took at the end of the lesson were noticeably different and to my eye and DeWayne’s feel, much better.
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