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James is 15 and plays off a handicap of 5 started this year he started off the season in excellent fashion coming 3rd in the club championships (then a handicap of 7). Since about August though he has struggle a little with a lot of advice from all different directions. I then spoke with his father and told him that Wayne is the only direction. Again a really hard worker and with the winter coming up he is ready to hit lots of balls.
At age 15 James has developed a beautiful natural rhythm that will certainly be an asset as he makes some mechanical adjustments to help his ball striking become more consistent. My main suggestions here have to do with James’ backswing, most notably his takeaway, where he raises his hands and flattens his left wrist immediately after starting the club back. This gets his swing very flat and un-cocked at left arm parallel, which then leads to his being laid off at the top, which then contributes to his getting the clubhead stuck behind his hands approaching impact. And we know, of course, that when the club approaches under the plane the hands have to make more of an effort to roll the face closed, and with the club exiting more to the right the tendency would be to block (with a square to open face) or hook (with the face closing more). Part of the reason for the takeaway issues could be that he is a bit too much on the balls of his feet and thus feels like he needs to pull up and away from the ball with the upper body to start the swing. That movement feeds into the left arm rolling too soon and the left wrist bowing down. I offer the image of Adam Scott’s backswing as a comparison, and I believe that if James can make his backswing more conventionally on plane and cocked it will be a great start to improving his game.
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