The Power of Online Instruction

I am very proud to be able to show the wonderful improvement Connor has made in his swing in the 15 months since he took his first online lesson. He won the Oregon Amateur last year and was medalist and semi-finalist this year, and his swing is simply gorgeous. He was having some major difficulties before he started with the website, and it stands to reason that if he experiences any momentary drop off in performance it could be very worrisome. We have spoken on the phone and I have encouraged Connor to embrace the fact that he has a great swing and that he needs to exude confidence when he shows up to play in big events, but as we all know that is easier said than done. In this video I make a couple of suggestions, one quite simple and the other an ongoing issue that has shown improvement but could still get better. The first is Connor’s setup, which in this batch of swings has gotten a bit squatty, especially when he triggers his takeaway by flexing his knees towards the ball and sitting back. I am thinking that at times he may get a hair laid off due to having his weight too much on his heels which would flatten his upper trunk turn. Connor has done an excellent job of learning to open the clubface during the swing (which has made all the difference in the world) and when he leans back it appears that might lay the shaft off just a bit at the top. When the shaft is already flat and then flattens more like Connor does so nicely the body can react by over-steepening the club in the forward swing. There is one iron shot here in particular where this happens and the club approaches the ball from outside the plane. If the face is square to the path the ball would have to go left, so the tendency would be to hold it open and produce a fade, which could turn into a block if the fade was not the shot visualized in the first place. The other issue is the lateness of his release with the driver, and here I suggest trying to calm down the lower right leg by putting a ball in between the knees for a few shots and also by getting on a launch monitor to see what the angle of attack is with the driver. My guess is that it is too downward, by hitting a few and seeing the numbers he may be able to alter the release just by trying to bottom out the club sooner in order to hit up on the ball a bit more.
 

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