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Wayne,
I really appreciated the assessments you made of the videos I sent in. I
wanted to take a little time to absorb the information you discussed and to
work on a few things before I reached out to you to set up a time to chat.
Please let me know a day and time that works best for you. I realize the
pga show is this week upcoming. I will not be attending but if you are and
your schedule is restricted we can certainly wait until after the show.
With that said, there are a few thoughts/ideas I had regarding my swing and
your analysis. Having viewed a great number of your videos and posts over
the past couple of years I obviously have been intrigued with your thoughts
on pivot compression and staying in the box. My efforts to achieve this, to
this point, have not gone as well as I had hoped. I have a chiropractor and
a trainer (Cory Puyear, he’s a TPI guy–he currently works with Mark Wilson
and he worked with Luke Donald in the past. He’s the best golf specific
trainer in the Chicagoland area). I thought it was kind of funny (as did
they) when you made the comment that a looked really fit and should be able
to do this stuff. I’m 41 and much more flexible now than I was a few years
ago. I used to lift weights a lot in my youth and compounded that issue
with no stretching so I was pretty tight. Although things are much better
now, whatever movement patterns I’ve ingrained over the years don’t seem to
want to go away. I recall you commenting in a video analysis you did of
yourself and one on Trevino where you discussed opening your stance a bit.
I tried that the other day and things actually looked a bit better on video
and when I went to see Cory he put me on the kvest and my numbers actually
looked better with the open stance. I haven’t had nearly the back history
that you have but I do have a herniated disc in my low back. It’s not
painful to swing but I mention it because perhaps there is something
unconsciously happening to protect my back, etc. I don’t know–I’m just
trying to come up with any excuse as to why I can’t do this.
I actually drive the ball pretty straight but I’m also pretty short off the
tee. That’s my biggest issue. My ball speed gets to about 145mph–on a
good day. I still play a lot of tournament golf, I’m a PGA Professional in
the Illinois Section, and I’ve even won a couple section events in the last
2 years but I feel that in order for me to be competitive every time I play
not just on certain courses I need to be able to drive the ball better.
I have really tried for the last 2 years to stay in the box better but when
I feel like I stay on that line thru impact I feel like I’m going to fall
over. Either that or my head comes way off the line to maintain any kind of
posture. I’m sure you saw in the iron swings I sent in that those certainly
look better than with the driver. Hopefully you think that anyway!
Regarding the tempo, I agree 100%. That’s something I’ll work on from time
to time. I have John Novosel’s Tour Tempo book and have used the sounds on
his cd on my ipod when hitting balls. It’s kind of funny you mentioned that
in your analysis, I had a kid I was working with the other day and I have
the tour tempo app on my phone. You think I’m slow–his tempo was 59/9 with
a driver!
The only items I wasn’t sure about was your take on how straight my arms
were at address and the lack of depth of my right elbow in my backswing.
Those were definitely not on my radar as being issues but I’d like to hear
more about that when we talk.
I just wanted to give you a little more info and feedback before we spoke.
Also, I’m a big fan of the website and I especially like it when you call
out knuckleheads like Chamblee. As a fellow teaching professional, I feel
he does much more harm than good for the audience.
I look forward to hearing from you. Speak to you soon!
Mike Haase
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