Jeff is from Louisiana but has been living in China for the past 15 years or so, and stopped in for a lesson last week while visiting friends in the area. To the eye Jeff’s fast, aggressive swing has good lines and seems all in order. Jeff knows from experience, however, that his ball striking is not as solid and predictable as it should be, and also knows that he had a long term issue with sequence. Here we see the power of the video camera, because in a 21/8.5 swing (fairly fast backswing but a forward swing that doesn’t match up to the desired 3/1 ratio) the unaided eye can pick up even less than it does when the swing is slower. Anyone would be hard pressed to see the subtle sequence problem Jeff has as his lower body fails to initiate the downswing properly and the upper body moves prematurely forward, affecting just about everything that comes after. It won’t be easy to change a swing of that pace, but it would be rash to try to slow it down more than just a hair at the beginning of the takeaway. We did some metronome work in the lesson and he will set it to 24/8 rhythm. He will also be doing mirror work, which is always slow, trying to get the hands to stop pushing out and instead move slightly inward with the upper trunk turning sooner to start the swing, and stop and go’s that isolate transition. Jeff should constantly be conscious of not rushing his drills or trying to hit them too far, and as he tries to move to a relatively slower backswing tempo his attention to tempo in the drills should be extra helpful. I think you will be surprised at the difference in Jeff’s transition characteristics when he does the stop and go from left arm parallel as opposed to his first full swing. If he can incorporate that into his full swing there is almost a guarantee that he will eventually hit the ball much better.