High Approach | Wayne DeFrancesco

Lesson of the Week: Elliot Smith

Elliott is a 90’s shooter (although it looks better than that) who has come to Woodmont for his first lesson with me, and as we have seen before first lessons are always interesting as I have to assess the student in a short period of time by asking a few pertinent questions and then videoing the swing. I usually take a bit of time watching a swing for the first time as I have to formulate a game plan going forward without overwhelming the student with too much too soon, always a juggling match (what is too much or too…

Become a Premium member [click here to join] today! If you are already a member please login.

Lesson of the Week: Jeff Anderson

By Wayne | Videos: Lesson of the Week

Jeff is from Louisiana but has been living in China for the past 15 years or so, and stopped in for a lesson last week while visiting friends in the area. To the eye Jeff’s fast, aggressive swing has good lines and seems all in order. Jeff knows from experience, however, that his ball striking is not as solid and predictable as it should be, and also knows that he had a long term issue with sequence. Here we see the power of the video camera, because in a 21/8.5 swing (fairly fast backswing but a forward swing that doesn’t…

Become a Premium member [click here to join] today! If you are already a member please login.

Lesson of the Week: Scott Walker

By Wayne | Videos: Lesson of the Week

Scott is from California but had a wedding to attend in the DC area so he decided to stop in and spend some time with me at Woodmont. We had 3 hours to work on Monday, then 3 more on Tuesday morning, and I feel like we got a lot accomplished, as I think you will see. The first thing that occurred to me is that Scott has a nice, aggressive looking action that to the eye seems under control and manageable. I was surprised when he told me that he sometimes gets to the point where he has…

Become a Premium member [click here to join] today! If you are already a member please login.

Lesson of the Week: Jon Zampedro

By Wayne | Videos: Lesson of the Week

I thought this would be an interesting lesson to look at because of Jon’s physical stature. One thing I find to be generally ridiculous in golf instruction is the idea that the swing should be tailored to body type, and that different body types should be taught differently. I believe this to be nonsense. The basic elements of a good swing are the same for thick and skinny, tall and short, male and female, weak and strong, young and old. The difference is not in what you teach, but in how you focus your priorities based on limitations (or in…

Become a Premium member [click here to join] today! If you are already a member please login.

Online Students: Tom Richards Part 5

By Wayne | Videos: Online Students

Tom’s continued progress is a testament to the efficacy of online lessons. This is his 5th go round, and the difference between his swing now and a year and a half ago is startling. He has really done a nice job changing the way he controls the shaft and sequences his lower body to produce a more sidearm delivery, but we see here that he has some work to do with his pivot movement, as it tends to drive overly sideways and not quite enough around. My suggestion is to aim the hip drive more sharply to the left, which…

Become a Premium member [click here to join] today! If you are already a member please login.

Online Students: Brandon Nagler Part 4

By Wayne | Videos: Online Students

Here we have another great example of player showing marked improvement in all aspects of the swing while retaining the same annoying patterns that weaken his impact. Most of the students I teach are able to improve their technique over time, but that improvement is incremental. In other words, the problem areas are still the same and the specific movements that we are trying to change still need changing, but all the problems are less than they were before. Another thing that is common is to come upon one particular movement that seems particularly incorrigible, defying all attempts to get…

Become a Premium member [click here to join] today! If you are already a member please login.

Online Students: Francisco Gomez Paz

By Wayne | Videos: Online Students

Here we see a familiar pattern where a lifting pivot in the backswing causes the club to lay off significantly at the top, which in turn causes the shaft to steepen immediately in transition. This flat to steep progression is a good thing if it happens where the flattening is caused by the initiation of the forward swing movement, and as the club leans back on the right index finger and tries to get stuck behind the player the arms and hands move outward in front of the chest and the pivot drives 45 degrees left, creating space for the…

Become a Premium member [click here to join] today! If you are already a member please login.

Online Students: Justin Baker

By Wayne | Videos: Online Students

Justin has made nice progress since starting with the website, and even made a trip down to see me in July, where we got some nice work in. He is still struggling with the transition move, and I noticed right away that he had left out the line on top of his head, which, in Justin’s case, happens to be one of the most important lines to be aware of. As you can see, Justin lowers nicely in the backswing with the loading action taking his head downward a bit, then, instead of lowering again to get the lower body…

Become a Premium member [click here to join] today! If you are already a member please login.

Online Students: Brandon Nagler Part 3

By Wayne | Videos: Online Students

Brandon has made some significant changes in his swing so far, and now is in position to make a major breakthrough in his technique. There wasn’t much he could about getting his right arm to move the right way and his hands more forward at impact until he got rid of some of his movement off the ball into a tilted back position as he approached the top of his swing. Now that he has stayed relatively more centered over the ball he should be able to use the sidearm throwing analogy and begin to lean the shaft more forward…

Become a Premium member [click here to join] today! If you are already a member please login.

Online Students: Dean Dunn-Rankin

By Wayne | Videos: Online Students

Dean has taken a couple of online lessons and has (according to Dean) improved quite a bit. Here we see that we are getting down to the major issue in his swing, which is that his swing pattern is arms away in the backswing, hands dropping back and down in transition while the legs work underneath him and out toward the ball. This would be a big change to accomplish without hands on work, but it is certainly worth a try. My suggestions include a deeper backswing so that an “out” move with the hands wouldn’t feel so “over the…

Become a Premium member [click here to join] today! If you are already a member please login.

1 2 3 Next »

Tag Archives for " High Approach "