Hey guys,
Well I am just a medical mess, one thing after another. First I went through a bunch of surgeries, I’ve always had some crazy bone tumor above my ankle (making it impossible to wear any other golf shoes than Footjoy eComforts because they are the only ones that don’t have a high back), I’ve had surgery on my left wrist to remove a cyst, and now I have a lot of pain in my right wrist which I think is another cyst. The one in my left wrist was very big, and these ones in my right wrist aren’t even visible, so hopefully surgery won’t be required. Chuck and I had to cancel our lesson today because I couldn’t swing through the golf ball without taking my right hand off the club.
Other than that I am doing great, my golf swing (when I am capable of making one) feels 100 times better than it ever has. I am finally comfortable with my takeaway. It took so long to get the right feeling for me and it was so simple. All I am feeling is that my hands go back a little inside while the club works up. I occasionally err on taking it back too outside, but I will take that right now. It feels a lot more natural now. Chuck and I decided to take things a little slower with my swing, as we are both very impatient people and were trying to move way to fast. I am probably even more impatient than he is, so it has been a struggle for me to only work on small pieces at a time. Right now we are working on getting more load into my right side going back. I didn’t feel much load into my leg and foot at all before, so it’s an odd feeling, but one that is necessary both for control and power. Chuck’s technical name for what we are working on is “finding my ass”, because that’s where I should feel a lot of support for the load. So far it’s been going well I think, my swing feels a little more in rhythm and a little more powerful, yet it still needs a good deal of work. Hopefully I can make progress a little faster.
With my wrist being hurt, I’ve been practicing my putting and little bump-and-runs a lot. My putting is still the best part of my game, and it’s been getting even better over the past few days. My bump-and-runs are also pretty dang good considering all I am doing is employing my putting stroke with a more lofted club. Bump-and-runs are all about just choosing the right club and the right spot to hit. My stroke it pretty good so all I try to do is feel how hard to hit the ball.
Hopefully my wrist will heal up fairly soon and I can get back to making progress, I am extremely frustrated not being able to swing a club, I get very antsy and bored not being able to play.
Interesting thoughts on your swing. I have found great success with pupils when I explain to the that the main cause for an inside takeaway is an early miss timed shoulder rotation. One of the root causes of course is that in my early days of a player and later as a coach we were all told to make a one piece takeaway.
Guess what that one piece takeaway going too far I find is the main cause for the inside takeaway. So the early wrist set really helps get into that position everyone desires.