Lesson of the Week | Wayne DeFrancesco

Lesson of the Week: Peter Slaven- Trying to Change an Overly In to Out Path

Peter is an excellent player (scratch handicap) I see 3 or 4 times a year when either I visit Chicago, or he comes down to Florida to stay with his Dad and get out of the Chicago winter. Pete tends to hit the ball high with a draw, and his problem shot is one that over hooks to the left. We have worked on improving his sequence and using ground forces more effectively, and in these swings his transition move is leaving his head too far back to the right and slowing down his lower body clearing. The first thought…

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

Lesson of the Week: Shaun Powers, PGA- Working on Right Arm Action

By Wayne | Videos: Lesson of the Week

Shaun is competitive club professional from Connecticut who would like to improve his swing and his ball striking. He is just about to turn 50, which gives him opportunities in tournament play that he hasn’t had in the past. He is already competitive against the younger guys so if he can improve a bit, he could be in contention for the National Senior Club Pro and possibly earn a spot in some senior majors. Shaun is a classic case of right arm and shoulder overuse, and in his case, it causes his upper arm to get trapped behind him in…

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

Lesson of the Week: Arthur Slaven – Changing Stubborn Patterns

By J | Videos: Pro Tip of the Week

Most golfers have no idea how difficult it is to make overall improvements in a swing with multiple flaws, especially if the results that the flawed swing produces are considered good enough not to cause embarrassment. Arthur came to me with a swing that made it difficult for me to figure out what to start working on first. There was a catalog of errors: loose grip, closed upper body set up, shut face in the backswing, pelvis loading left, arms disconnecting, downswing sequence started with the upper body, throw release. Fixing these one at a time was not going to…

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

Lesson of the Week: Jamie Kilmer, PGA Part 4 – More Right- Arm and Shoulder Work

By Wayne | Videos: Lesson of the Week

This video should help anyone who struggles with an inability to get the hands more forward at impact with an iron. The culprit is right arm and shoulder pull back (right shoulder retraction), which in transition causes all sorts of issues. Jamie’s overuse of his right shoulder to increase his turn causes his upper body to lean toward the target before the lower has a chance to initiate the forward motion, leaving the arm stuck up and behind him while his head struggles to stay behind the ball. The feeling needs to be that the right arm and shoulder do…

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

Lesson of the Week: Max Rosenberg Making Great Progress – Shallowing the Shaft in Transition

By Wayne | Videos: Lesson of the Week

It took us a while, but Max finally got the hang of shallowing the shaft in transition, which is a big deal as it encourages his pivot to stay deep and rotate in order to get the shaft on plane at P6. As he has been steep in the forward swing his whole life this presents a different set of circumstances for just about everything he does. One thing to remember is that a player’s swing prior to changes has a feel and a memory as the hands learn to put the club on the ball, and these tendencies do…

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

Lesson of the Week: Romano Bootha- Change in Posture Makes Huge Difference

By Wayne | Videos: Lesson of the Week

Romano is a young aspiring PGA Professional working toward his PGA of America Class A certification. Part of the requirements for even getting started is passing the Player Ability Test (PAT). It’s 36 holes in one day and it takes a total of around 156 to pass. The PGA doesn’t like to discourage apprentices like Romano and now if they miss qualifying he or she can still use the best 18 hole score and add it to a score shot in the next attempt. This may sound like an easy task, but the game is so hard that just wanting…

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

Lesson of the Week: Stacy Kress- Trying to Lessen Right Hip Spinning

By Wayne | Videos: Lesson of the Week

Stacy, the daughter of my good friend Richard Kress, has been a student of mine for over 20 years. Richard is one of the world’s most avid golfers (he’s taken at least one lesson from every teacher you can possibly name) and kept bringing Stacy for lessons even when it seemed that she had no affinity for the game. She was unfazed by her failures and kept at it, and eventually she won the women’s club championship at Woodholme when she was 17, upsetting a 5-time Maryland State Women’s Amateur champion in the process. She went on to play D1 golf for Penn University, and was chosen Freshman of the Year. She now resides in West Palm Beach and is a member at Bear Lakes, where she won the club championship last year as well as the Tri-County Women’s Amateur. Stacy has always had an idiosyncratic right shoulder and scapular movement in transition, and she has always tended to lift as she gets to the top of her swing. When she lifts, she is extending her right hip flexor, which in turn leads to spinning the right side of her pelvis and leaving her arms and hands trailing behind. To improve the synchronization of her upper and lower I try an old trick used by Butch Harmon to keep the right heel down longer and encourage the foot to roll inward instead of shooting straight up. You will see here that by restricting the upward motion of the heel and foot her pelvic rotation slows down and her arms move further down without the hips spinning open.

Lesson of the Week: Scott Kremer- Posture Induced Hip Depth Issues Leading to Path Problems

By Wayne | Videos: Lesson of the Week

After watching Scott hit his first few shots, I knew that we could make some serious progress right away given that he was setting up well back into his heels. His shot pattern was a pull draw that turned into a major pull hook, and it was obvious that after setting up in his heels he was moving toward the ball immediately in the takeaway with his hands and arms as well as his hips. This is a common issue that gives the player a backswing that has a large progression from P1 to P3, an upright appearance at the top, and no room for the right arm to get in front of the body without pushing the hands well away from where they started at address. Once I got Scott to set up more out over the ball and concentrate on trying to deepen his right hip in the backswing, we could then talk about the feeling of the left arm staying more against the chest and the club approaching the ball from more behind him. We then added the idea of keeping the hips deep in the forward swing and aiming the lateral movement more to the left instead of straight out to the target, which reduced his lateral slide and gave him the feeling of sidearm throwing. The shorter swings we filmed at the end of the lesson with the help of the Spine Board looked particularly improved, and Scott left feeling like he was definitely on the right track.

Lesson of the Week: Phil Cargile- Big Improvement in 2 Hours

By Wayne | Videos: Lesson of the Week

This video is a bit long but if you hang in there and watch the whole thing, I think you will find it quite instructive. Phil is 55, around a 10 handicap, and has a swing that looks much better than it works. His issues are classic; takeaway slightly inward and behind him, overuse of the right arm at the top, hands dropping behind him starting down, right leg firing under him in early extension, and a “stuck” clubhead at P6 leading to an overly in to out path through impact and a pronounced flip release. Phil has come to me in person once in 2016, once in 2017, and now twice in 2018, and you will see that while he definitely improved his right arm pullback the rest of his pattern is stubborn to say the least. By the end of the lesson you will see with the help of explanations, drills, and swing aids (the Sheftic Spine Board) Phil gets a different look and feel and makes some swings that show great progress.

Lesson of the Week: Frank Goldman 2- Deeper Hips, More Width

By Wayne | Videos: Lesson of the Week

Frank has come a long way in a few months of lessons (around 15 hours), especially since he almost never has a chance to practice. He does play a few times a week, however, usually with business clients at great golf courses such as Deepdale and Maidstone on Long Island. In this video I contrast Frank’s first swings with his latest, and while his signature issues remain the same he has made some headway in creating a more controlled backswing, which has made his ball striking more consistent.

« Previous 1 … 3 4 5 6 7 … 22 Next »

Tag Archives for " Lesson of the Week "