I unfortunately had to take another few days off from practice this past week to go back to Virginia and meet with a surgeon to fix some health issues. I came back and was very rusty, shooting a 4 over par 9 hole score for my school tournament last wednesday.
My lesson with Chuck on Thursday was nothing short of awesome. We started to work on the plane of my swing. We had worked on this for a while a few months back, but I could just never get it down. Finally it clicked in our Thursday lesson. I was letting my arms get disconnected on the backswing which was causing the club to drag inside and get way behind me. It caused all sorts of problems. Keeping my arms going more straight back during the takeaway made it so much easier to swing up on plane and immediately my ballstriking improved. What was special about it though was that I could bring it out to the course. On Thursday I shot 38 for our 9-hole practice with a double bogey.
Today (Friday) was just a continuation of Thursday’s lesson. Chuck brought a new training aid he bought (a little yellow plastic gadget to help you set your wrists) and we worked with that for a while. It’s extremely awkward for me to set my wrists so early, so it was tough. We only got to play a few holes because the course was so busy, but I struck the ball well and the confidence I had in the ball striking carried over to my chipping and putting. It was such a great feeling and makes playing golf so exciting. After today’s lesson I went out to a golf course called Erroll Estate Country Club, and had a very up and down round. I had 3 pars, 2 bogeys, one double bogey, and 3 birdies for a total of 37. I was proud of myself though because the double bogey came on the first hole and I recovered well. It will take some time to get used to the swing plane and get comfortable without having to think about it, but I am very excited about the progress I have made.
Chuck – can you expand a bit more on the purpose of the Swingyde training aid. I understood that this aid was useful for swing plane but how are you using it to set wrists earlier – is this done by ensuring that the aid makes contact with the forearm earlier in the backswing (and if so when) ? Are you also using it to stop an early wrist release on the downswing?
Nigel, the aid helps ensure the club comes up on plane early instead of being swept inside because we use it to set the club as early as possible during the swing. His goal is to get it set on the wrist as early as possible in the swing because his tendency is to be really shallow during the takeaway.