swing changes

Yesterday I got some quality practice time in at a local golf academy. I spent time chipping, Pitching and putting on a real green as well as the obligatory range balls.

I struck the ball really well during practice, but the caveat is that it was all off Matts. You can never really tell if you’re getting a true clean contact or if the matt is masking a slightly chunky contact.

One thing that I did make progress on was my back swing. Choosing a bay in front of a mirror I was able to check my wrist position and leg flex at the top of my backswing. This enabled me to really concentrate on retaining flex in my right (back) leg.

Towards half way through my range session I think I finally cracked it, I got the feeling of almost squatting into my back leg. When I do that it keeps the hips much more stable, I feel slightly coiled up and it’s easy to push off the back leg and get through the ball in the down swing. It feels a much more powerful yet controllable swing.

It was kind of like one of those eureka moments on the range and after that I nailed everything I swung at, driver in particular was noticeably much more powerful than normal.

After leaving the academy I found myself at the golf club around an hour later and I popped out for a swift 5 holes to see the new swing in action.

Firstly I was a bit tired and had stiffened up driving for an hour, but the first iron was crisp and long if a little off target. On the next I hit my driver and was very pleased with the result, long and with a fine flight if a bit off target again. The second driver shot was a similar strike but straight down the middle. Then some inconsistency started in my irons. I remember a thin, a fat and an immense three iron off the tee, a complete duff and a very long 8 iron that flew the green, a real mixed bag. I decided that it was counterproductive to play when I was tired and freezing cold so I called it a day at that point.

Over all I’m very happy, keeping the leg flex was one of the main things my last lesson was about and when I get it right it does make such a difference. I’m going to put a lot more practice into this over the next month. I could just do with finding some grassed area to practice on so I can tell where my divots start rather than clunking away on matts.