Student Figures Wrong on His Swing Problem

I had a lesson with JG and in the pre-lesson interview he told me that he was in his mid-40s, has been a 0 to 3 handicap for over 30 years, and had been working on a big turn rotational swing for the last five years. He‚  had to have back surgery to correct a problem. It was very successful and he's about to play golf well again.

He knew that he could not make that big rotational swing any more and in searching for an answer he found the Peak Performance Golf Swing. He'd been reading many or our blogs and got the swing manual and some of the videos and was really improving his golf swing.

Well, I met Jim and he is hitting the ball quite well but he has two basic problems. The minor one is he's tending to leave ball hanging out to the right and sometimes a little bit of a cut. The big issue is that he's hitting some really big pulls and hooks to the left. It's a problem losing it both ways, but the pulls and hooks are really a big issue.

He felt that, without a doubt, his personal evaluation was that he was making too big a backswing turn and getting way behind his toe line and into the Sacred Burial Ground. He felt his finish was O.K.

So, I got him hitting golf balls and did my diagnosis and assessment on my form. Overall his setup was pretty good. Overall his swing was pretty good. But he started hitting those soft bleeds to the right a few times, then, bam, a big pull to the left. That really aggravated him and he said, “I've got to fix that. That's a killer!”

And absolutely it is when you're hitting it as far left as he was. They were going 30 or more yards to the left. His alignment was pretty good, maybe just a little right but not a big enough issue to hit those really bad pulls.

I watched a few of his swings. He hit that big pull again and then hit a pretty god shot. I asked him, “What did you feel different about both of those swings?”

He said, “Well, I felt the big pull was too much of a backswing turn and the second one I hit pretty good wasn't.”

I said, “O.K. What about just before impact to the finish, did it feel any difference?”

He said, “No, I felt they were both about the same, and they were pretty goof finishes.”

I said, “Well, Jim, for a really good player you've really got your feelings mixed up here. I don't know if you've got yourself honed in on one particular that you think is the problem and therefore not feeling what's going on with the rest of it, but your problem as you see it and feel it is backwards. You're, in fact, making really good backswings.”

What he was doing was still finishing a mile to the left. Before I even told him that, I had him make another swing and hold his finish. He had a nice recoil and relax, but I said look where your club is. This club is pointing 40 to 50 yards to the left. That's where his balls. That's where his palls were going when he pulled them. Consequently, because he was still finishing to the left, after he hit some pulls, he would hold on a little bit longer going through impact and that's where the right one came.

Here we have a really good player, and for whatever reason, he has these mental and physical feelings about the golf club and what it's doing in the swing are completely wrong. He could never in any way, shape or form, really help himself out because he was looking in the wrong place, in the backswing, when all the problems were in the finish.

So, we started working on the T-Finish. He had the T-Finish. He actually had the T-Finish. He was swinging up and over his shoulder and recoiling and relaxing as he should, but he didn't recognize the fact that his club wasn't pointing where it was supposed to be pointing — at the target. It didn't register with him.

So, we just have to get him more target awareness and finish at the target when he recoiled and realized, pointing at the target. It was mostly just a situation of remembering here his target was and making sure he finished square to his target.

It didn't talk long, he was finishing pretty good, but he was still turning his hips too hard to the left. We reduced it by 80 to 90%. Now it's just soft pull that might even have a chance of catching the green.

The key is, sometimes, maybe you need to reevaluate what you're working on if your trying to help yourself. A little video might help. I think that if he saw himself in a video it would have been obvious.

If things aren't working, take another look at your golf swing and see if you can figure out if “A” isn't working, you might find “B” is more correct and work on that. Or, in the end, go get a lesson.

Tomorrow, what we'll do with regard to Jim's issues with his target, I'll talk about getting more target awareness and how to check that you can finish square to your target.

(Note for Golf School. Look for details soon on our California PPGS schools at Talega Golf Club in beautiful San Clemente, May 17 – 19 and 20 – 22. It's going to be one heck of an experience. Call: 1-888-84SWING(79464) or 1-864-525-7336.)

The Surge!

Important Deadline!: The offer to get the Peak Performance Putting Videos on my 30 day risk free trial basis will end at midnight tonight.

As it sits, you can still get the entire video series (13 videos in all) for 1/2 off by going here:
http://putting.peakperformancegolfswing.com/specialoffer/risk-free-trial