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Mike is a high school student who came to me last year after having struggled to make the playing squad for his team. As you can see from the video of the swing he first showed up with, whatever natural athletic ability he possessed, and he is a good athlete in other sports, did not transfer over to golf, as evidenced by the numerous technique issues present. This was going to be a project, and I relayed my feeling to Mike and his father right off the bat. When I showed them the video and went over in detail why it was so hard for Mike to play decent golf they understood immediately and have been coming consistently ever since.
Mike is a strong kid with big shoulders and a large chest , and a lot of what his swing had evolved into was what I call a series of “gives”, or things such as standing up, lifting the left arm, bending the arms, moving toward the toes in the backswing, that make it easier to make a bigger swing. This is the “full turn” disease, caused in most part by the constant urging of instructors and commentators for players of all shapes and sizes to shoot for a “full turn” where the club ends up parallel to the ground at the top of the backswing. Mike may at some point be able to swing that far back without totally compromising his mechanics, but at this point it is quite difficult for him to make a proper turn with good arm positions and take it past ¾ in length. The physical difficulty makes the swing feel tight and forced, and in these cases it always takes longer to get to the necessary exaggerated feel and keep it long enough to take it out on the course. The stop and go swing you see here with the two obstacle shafts is a hugely positive achievement for Mike. I think he can reproduce that feel if he grinds on it in practice, and when he can get to it on his own he will be a far better ball striker. In addition, feeling the proper impact alignments will have a positive effect on all his short game shots as well.
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