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This is the email I got from Thomas’ dad Eddie in answer to my request for some background information. In my first look at the swings I saw a nice, strong motion with a good instinct for hip movement and shaft plane approach. As you will read below Eddie picked up on the lack of lateral movement and his description of Thomas as “laid off” is something I would attribute to the “pinched” left arm In the backswing, which causes him to roll his right arm up to get around the restriction on the left shoulder. This further leads to Thomas’ hands dropping straight down in transition and his upper left arm getting trapped behind him. It may be that the lack of lateral is a way for Thomas to get this pattern to the ball. One thing is for sure, there aren’t any great players who stay in the box laterally at impact, so this is the first priority.
“Thomas is going to a golf academy school in South Carolina. He has been there for 3 months and he was home for Spring break. I noticed he was hitting it fat and he was little out of sync.
He has hit balls since he was 6, but really just decided to give it a more commitment in the last two yrs.
His lowest competitive round was a 78. Shot 3 under for 9 holes with Esteban Toledo in a Jr. Pro-am.
He is going to the Jim McLean School in Dallas next year. It’s closer to us and I believe a better program. He has the bug pretty good. And I have learned a ton from your videos a few years back when I played more.
I studied his swing this week and noticed a couple things.
1. He spins his hips and has little lower body driving towards the target.
2. He is a tad laid off.
3. He doesn’t fully release the club.
I really wanted to hear what you have to say while he was here so we could work on it. But today I asked him to mimic Freddy Couples or Phil Mickelson on the top of the back swing (they are the opposite of laid off) and his swing looked so much better. Although he didn’t cross the plane line like they do, he was in a much better position at top and it seemed to help him sync his lower body better. ..But this was just in our garage hitting area, couldn’t get to the course as he had a plane to catch back to school today.
I’m really curious to see what the next 8 weeks brings at his academy.
If you can make sense of the swing, great. Or should we now wait for the summer when we can work on your suggestions? He gets out in May and starts his new school in August.
Thanks
Eddie
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