Lesson 2 - Eureka?

31 December 2022|Golfing with gratitude

Date of lesson: 25/11/22

The lesson started with a chat about my progress since the last lesson. I've been lucky enough to get a few rounds in over that time with 2 x 73's at Ladybank, 78's on the New, Jubilee and Old and a 75 on the Eden. My miss has continued to be two-way with all clubs.

Irons: we spent the whole lesson using 6i today. We hit a few balls, collected the data and sat down for a chat. I thought I was swinging ok and the shots were pretty much what I had been experiencing on the course. It highlighted good repeatability and tempo but also highlighted the two-way miss. It was when we were chatting though that Sandy noticed the wear pattern on my glove. This indicated an issue with my grip that he hadn't picked up in lesson 1. My grip has been too weak, with the grip of the club sitting in my palm rather than stronger and in the fingers. I don't remember any instructor ever really paying much attention to my grip before! He also measured my hand and suggested I might have more success with thinner grips relative to the ones I currently have (which I think may have two wraps of tape). Again, I've been fitted for clubs many times and no one has ever tried different grip thicknesses with me - just asked what I like!

The second part of the lesson involved me using a stronger grip. It was quite difficult at first and made the club look more closed. The idea is that in order to correct the closed perception I have to move my body faster through the swing in order to deliver the club head square at impact and not cause a hook. There were a few wild shots in the second half of the lesson but when I got it right the difference in strike quality and speed was considerable. What was most notable though was the improvement in club speed consistency with all the second-round swings being within 1mph of each other. The first round of shots was more like +/- 5mph. The swing path was also now more consistent and apart from a few wild ones, the face was more consistently square at impact too. The dominant miss was left (and sometimes very left), but it was more predictable compared to the two-way miss I came in with.

Practice: until the next lesson I need to keep working on gripping the club correctly. I'm trying to build a new routine to ensure I place my left hand in a stronger position. With the first game since the lesson I found my wedge play was considerably better with improved strike and spin. My shorter irons were also good but I was fighting a hook tendency as I went up the bag. I needed to be quite deliberate with my swing in order to make good contact with longer clubs. That made my swing feel slower, but I was definitely getting more out of the shots when it worked.