Menu
The first thing I want to do here is to share with you Camille’s email that came with his swings. After reading it I was intrigued by the possibilities of what I would see, especially since he took an online lesson from a Plane Truth (Hardy) guy. Thus, it is quite interesting that the exact issue that I have with Hardy and his teaching, the action of the trailing arm, is at the forefront of this lesson. In fact, almost everything about Camille’s swing is first-rate other than (in my opinion) his left arm movement in transition and through impact. The Hardy guys would be happy to leave it as it is and just tie it closer to the body. I would have him squeeze it toward his left arm and into his chest so that it gets in front of his ribcage instead of behind, the way Hogan did it. Anyway, here is Camille’s email, and then you can watch the video and decide for yourself who has the better approach.
MESSAGE: Hi Wayne, I hope my text is not too long. I am an advanced golfer and I feel I should give you all the details I can to help you with your analysis, and also because I don’t want you to tell me things I already heard a 100 times. I have been a scratch golfer for 3-4 years (handicap of 2 now), and my best round ever is 8 under par, but in my opinion, this is based on a lot of practice and natural talent. In fact, I never had a clue where the ball was going, and I am tired of that. I am shooting 77-78 all the time and I am not a bad putter. I think my golf swing “looks” good, but I have been pulling the golf ball all my life or hooking the heck out of it. I have a good knowledge of the golf swing, but I am out of options right now. I tried everything I could possibly think of.
My swing is controlled by my left shoulder and left arm. That’s what I like to feel when I hit the ball. I like to feel that I just turn around my spine. I would want you to focus on my downswing, unless you prove me why the problem would be elsewhere. One thing I learned in recent years is that all that matters is impact, and my impacts are awful. I also hate to be talked about tempo. Honestly, this has nothing to do with my poor ball striking. I’ll be glad to work on tempo when my game gets better. One day I feel I should release my left shoulder as fast as I can, and then I start to hit to the right. Then I try to stay behind hit and swing it towards left field, and then I block it. Nothing works. My contacts are really poor. I also often feel that I am too steep into the ball and I spin it. My contacts are even poor on simple chip shots or bump and runs…where you have no reason not to make good and repetitive contacts. Once I am at the top of my swing, I have simply
no idea what to do in my downswing.
What I am looking for is a “feeling” or a framework; something to build on and move forward. I tried a lot of things…I have already taken previous lessons, but I am from Quebec, Canada, and teachers from here have no answer for me; they all say I have a good golf swing. I also took an online lesson with a member of Plane Truth Golf, but all he kept saying is tying my arms in on the downswing, keeping my right arm close to me and rotating the left forearm over the right forearm. This makes me pull the heck out of it you have no idea. I feel that my clubface is closing and also that my hands are never going to reach the ball….so then my body turns but my hands don’t reach the ball and I arrive at impact completely close. He also told me to release low and to the right, around me, which I agree, because it feels on plane. But when I try to do that, I start pulling the ball or simply hitting poor shots.
Could you explain me what this is all about this drill? I like Hunter Mahan’s swing, and he always does that in his practice swings. I guess I don’t understand at all what the purpose of that is. This guy from the Plane truth also told me I was not pulling the ball, but hooking it. Well…believe me…when I hit it to the right, it starts right, curves to the right, and finishes right. And I am often short on pull shots. They spin a lot and it feels like the ball is not compressed. That’s another problem I have; on a good swing, my 7-iron can travel 200 yards, but I can also spin it 160.
So, in other words, I have no clue where the ball is going, and how far I am going to hit. That makes golf really hard. I hope you can help me with my swing. I don’t know how you work with your online students, but if you want further information, feel free to email me.
Thanks a lot.
Join the forum discussion on this post