Lesson 4 - Practice and a Round of Golf

WOW!  That's all I have to say.  The things that Tim has taught me and the practice I've been putting into the new changes (and killing the bad habits) are really starting to come together!  It's almost frightening.

Lesson 4 was all about my backswing - drawing the club straight, keeping my left arm parallel with my shoulders, and keeping a firm left hand.  This lesson really changed my game.  Not that the other lessons weren't as powerful.  But, without the backswing, the stability in my lower body and keeping my shoulders level wasn't a big of an impact... of course, it's also vice versa.  Without a stable lower body and level shoulder turn, the backswing wouldn't be as strong.  That being said, I saw huge improvement with all of it coming together.

After a crazy 4th of July weekend with lots of alcohol, swimming pools, and just getting beat down from throwing people in the pool (and getting tossed in several times), my body and mind were in pain.  Fortunately, I made a conscious decision to take it easy on Saturday, only beer and chilling in the pool, because I knew I would be golfing on Sunday.  Plus... I was still in pain!  One thing I've learned the hard way, partying the night before golf really affects my golf game.  No more of that.  I'm not going through this whole golf diet and training only to mess it up with a night of heavy drinking.

Ok... so back to my game.  I went to bed early last night so I could hit the range early this morning.  I was at the Revere at Anthem golf course today at 9am practicing.  Although this was really the first day hitting balls since last Wednesday, I have been practicing my backswing at home all the time everyday.  As expected, it was a rough start.  I was hitting balls fat to start with then slightly thin.  After about 20mins, I was starting to relax and was hitting some decent shots.  I kept practicing until we tee'd off on the Lexington course at 10:32am.

On the first hole, I pulled out my driver and topped it.  I took a first hole mulligan and tee'd up another ball.  I relaxed myself and hit the ball.  Correction, I crushed the ball straight down the left side of the fairway.  That felt good.  The rest of the day was same.  Every shot I hit, regardless of what iron or wood, was solid.  I was completely focused on my swing on every shot.  I was hitting balls in the fairway or just off the fairway, hitting greens in regulation or on the fringe of the green, and every shot was solid.  Solid contact and solid consistency.  I had smiles all day after every shot. 

For first time, I only screwed up a couple times and they were pretty much back to back on one hole.  I'm going to say that the first one wasn't really my fault. :)  My tee shot had rolled down the fairway and ended up in the rough - the deep rough.  I tried to get underneath the ball but ended up hitting it fat, short but straight and in the fairway.  The second shot was totally my fault.  I pulled my 60 degree wedge out and was trying to hit it 80 yards into the wind.  Once again, I hit it fat and I ended up having to hit my 60 degree again.  This time only needing about 55 yards into the wind.  Easy...

I ended the day with a 93 on a par 72.  This score isn't very good... I know that.  But, this was the first time in the past couple months that I have hit into the 90's.  Plus, I had a few penalty shots because the wind on the back 9 was BRUTAL!  I would hit these shots great but either overcompensated or undercompensated for side wind carry.  In fact, on the 18 handicap (easiest hole), par 3, 17th hole, I lost 2 balls because of the wind - ridiculous.  Also, I putted horribly today!

I took my new Scotty Cameron Studio Select Newport 2 out for the first time.  I literally peeled the plastic from the grip right before we tee'd off.  For whatever reason, I missed putts... just barely, but still a miss.  The 3-8 feet putts kicked my butt.  I couldn't believe it.  One the green for birdie, and 3-putting the hole.  Multiply this by several holes and there are the extra strokes.  In fact, I count that there were at least 10 putts from 3 feet that should have dropped but didn't.  Assuming that I dropped these putts, I would have shot an 83.  That's with my penalties!  I'm going to keep practicing with that putter... if I don't get used to it... it's either going bye-bye or I'm going to send it to Scotty Cameron to get the weights in the head increased to 20 grams instead of the 15 grams that I currently have right now.  It just doesn't seem as head heavy as my Odyssey Black Series.  It may be the swing weight... i don't know.

Anyway, I dragging on and on now... Overall, I had a great day of golf.  Great ball contact and consistency was exactly what I was looking for and Tim Sam with GolfTEC has helped me to achieve it.  I'm looking forward to learning more (i.e. downswing and follow through). 

Here have been my lessons so far:

Evaluation:  Stance and Grip
Lesson 1:  Lower body stability
Lesson 2:  Shoulders level
Lesson 3:  Shoulders level reinforcement (consistency)
Lesson 4:  Backswing

PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE!

Lesson 4 - Lessons Learned

NOTE: The information below is specific to my golf swing and is not intended to be a lesson plan for you. If you are working on your swing, I highly recommend signing up for private lessons with a golf pro. Yes, I would highly recommend GolfTEC.

How exciting! I got my shoulder turn level in the past couple weeks and I'm pretty consistent now. Tim was very impressed at how quickly I was able to progress with that. What he doesn't know is that I worked really hard to making that happen. Lots of practice.

Because I had made so much progress, Tim decided it was time to move onto my backswing. I was very ready for this. This has been on my mind for some time now. Look at this video of my swing before we worked on it. Notice at the top of my swing my clubhead is pointed to the right. In fact, my entire backswing up to the top of the swing is pretty sloppy:

Tim had me start with the takeaway. As you can see from this picture, my takeaway was way off from the get-go.




And at the peak of my swing, I was all over the place:



What Tim had me focus on was keeping my left arm and club shaft parallel to my toeline (checkpoint 1).



The next step was the peak of my swing. I tend to turn my shoulders a little too much and really wind up before the downswing. To work on this, Tim recommended that I keep the butt of the club pointed at the target line (checkpoint 2). My left arm should be parallel with my shoulders and my hands should be in front of the right shoulder (checkpoint 3). Finally, I need to work on keeping my wrist flat and not cocking it (checkpoint 4). All this may sound easy, but it really does require me watching myself on video to make sure I'm doing it correctly.



At the end of all these changes my backswing looked great! Check it out.

Lesson 3 - Lessons Learned

NOTE: The information below is specific to my golf swing and is not intended to be a lesson plan for you.

Yesterday, I had my 3rd lesson with Tim at GolfTEC. The focus from the previous week was to focus on my shoulder turn and keeping them level. According to Tim, he was amazed at the progress I had made. He felt that this particular change was going to be my "Mt. Everest" and that it would take a few months to really nail it. He told me that I accomplished this within 1 week. This definitely put a smile on my face.

For my 3rd lesson, we decided not to change anything this time around. Since the shoulder turn is so important, Tim wanted me to continue working on it to develop consistency. This is completely fine by me as consistency was exactly what I was looking to gain. My swing is looking a lot better and the bad habits are going away. I'm now feeling more confident about my swing. I'm looking forward to developing consistency this week.

Here is a picture of my backswing when I first started at GolfTEC alongside my swing from yesterday. Drastically different:


Also, here is a video of my swing in motion:

18 + 9 = 27

Today was the first day since my last lesson playing on a golf course. I played with fellow Zapponians Charles and Rob at the Reflection Bay Golf Club at Lake Las Vegas. This is my favorite golf club in Las Vegas - it's challenging and the scenary is awesome!

On Friday, I went to a practice session at GolfTEC to work on my swing while utilizing the video to make sure that I was keeping my shoulders level in my backswing. But, since my last lesson, I haven't seen my ball flight. Needless to say, it was a rough start this morning. I showed up a little more than an hour before tee time to warm-up and work on my shoulder turn at the range and I wasn't hitting very well. I was really concerned that I was going to have a miserable golf day. However, once we got on the course, things slowly started turning around for the better.

Once again I chose to look at today as practice and focused on working on the new changes in my swing. I'll tell you, I had some bad shots and I had some GREAT shots. When I set-up properly, kept my hands and arms loose, and kept my shoulders level in my backswing, I made great contact and really hit the ball long and accurately. When I didn't, well.... "not so much"

We played 18 holes, came in, and went right back out for another 18 holes. Unfortunately, the course started to get backed up and we decided to call it quits after 9. Not bad, 27 holes in 115 degree temperature.

I love my instructor, Tim Sam, at GolfTEC. Through his instruction, I can really feel my swing come together and when I do things right, I really launch the ball. My average yardage on my 6-iron was about 165 yards before. Today, i was hitting it about 175 yards! The best part, i wasn't even swinging that hard. This newly found power is definitely from the changes Tim made in my hip turn. The good contact and accuracy comes from a level shoulder turn. I'm excited to see how my game is going to further improve. After all, we haven't even worked on my downswing and follow through yet.

Lesson 2 - Lessons Learned

So yesterday I had my 2nd lesson with Tim at GolfTEC. Previously, Tim had me focus on my grip, my stance at address, and stabilizing my lower body. I think I've come a long way in those areas, but I know I still have a long way to go. It's starting to get complicated with all the things I have to think about... and I'm only on my 2nd lesson.

I played 2 rounds of golf between Lesson 1 and Lesson 2. I averaged double bogey on every hole. :( My score is getting worse. However, I knew this was going to happen before I signed up with GolfTEC. I'm still very inconsistent. I hit some great shots and I hit some very ugly shots. I'm still working on stabilizing my lower body. As I continue to fix my swing, my game is going to get a lot worse before it gets better, but I'm prepared for it. I'm sticking to my guns to make the changes Tim tells me to make. I'm sacrificing each round of golf now as practice.

On to Lesson 2. Yesterday, we focused on my upper body. YES! (and YIKES!). Somehow over the past few years of golf, I developed this really bad habit of overturning my shoulders and dipping my upper body during my backswing. This is a big no-no. If you watch the pro's, their head is always stable from start to finish. To accomplish this, Tim wanted me to focus on my shoulders. He wanted to turn my shoulders "straight" versus "down". When I did this, the camera showed my head completely stationary. This seems like it would be a simple thing to fix. However, the problem is I don't feel the difference between turning my shoulders straight vs down. :( I do know that I have to keep working on it in front of the video cameras so I can see it when it happens. I think that after a few hours in front of the camera, I'll start to develop a feel for it. One of the tricks that I'm doing is to swing extremely slow and try not to swing hard. Also, I do feel my weight shift to my heels when I turn my shoulders straight. This is definitely a start, but I need more. Here is a great picture showing the before and after:


In the BEFORE picture (left side) you can see my head dips quite a bit. The green line shows where I was at address. On the right side, my AFTER picture, you can see that my head stayed straight. Hence, I have stabilized my upper body. The other great thing is my club is straight at the peak of my swing. YES! Now I need MORE PRACTICE!

Lesson 1 - Lessons Learned

NOTE: The information below is specific to my golf swing and is not intended to be a lesson plan for you.

Today I had my first official lesson with Tim at GolfTEC. The lesson started out with Tim asking me about and looking at the grip and stance changes we made from the Initial Evaluation. Overall, Tim said that I made great progress. He made a couple little, but important, tweaks to my grip again as I was still holding the club with a slightly strong grip.

The primary focus of today's lesson was my lower body. The areas of focus was my right leg and my hip turn. According to Tim, one of the reasons I have so much upper body movement in my swing is due to an unstable lower body. To start off with, the sensors showed that I had very little hip turn in my backswing. I was swinging with my arms and not my body. Next was to work on keeping my right leg bent and stable. I was straighening my right leg, causing my upper body to go up.

This was a major change for me. It was quite uncomfortable and tough to do. Not because it was all that difficult, but more due to body memory with my old swing. Fortunately, Tim was very helpful with this. He taught me about the Dynamic Weight Shift - which is the shifting of my weight from address to my backswing. To take it a step futher, he grabbed my right knee with one hand and used his other hand to apply the pressure shifts in my feet during my backswing. At address, the pressure should be on the balls of my feet. During the backswing, as my hips turn, my right knee should stay bent and stable, while the weight on my right foot shifts from toe to heel. I'm really oversimplifying what we worked on, but it's the best/easiest way for me to put it into words.

Here is one of the many pics from my lesson. As you can see my hip turn is much better, my right leg is bent and stable. But, my shoulder turn is still too much.

We also worked on some exercises that I could do to train my body the new things I learned today. Some of these exercises are the same ones you see the pros do on TV after they hit a bad shot. NOW... it makes sense to me of what they are trying to do! Tim recommended that I do these exercises without going to the range to get the "feel". He also reiterated for me to stop trying to work on other parts of my swing (see my previous posts) since I'm not working on the actual cause and could end up developing more bad habits. :P

Overall, I'm still extremely pleased with selecting GolfTEC to work on my golf swing/game. The experiences, thus far, have been excellent and Tim is awesome. I particularly like the way Tim explains things in detail and asks if I understood what he said. I also like the way he gives me tips on how to make the changes he recommends vs just telling me what I need to change. This is key.

Boston Golf Charity Event

I just got back today from Boston from playing in a charity golf event put on by The Clark's Companies Foundation. We played at the private, members only Charter Oak Country Club in Hudson, MA. It was a beautiful course with a lot of history. It was great to play a "tree" course after always playing on "desert" courses here in Vegas. Here are a couple pictures I took:


As I mentioned in a previous post, I made a conscious decision to stick to my guns and maintain the changes that Tim made to my swing. I'm happy to report that I succeeded. However, I didn't help my team out too much. I had a few good shots, mostly on the par 3 holes, but my driver and I just didn't jive together. Oh well, it was still fun and I was playing with my good Zappos friends.

It's great to be back in Vegas. The weather was similar to Vegas (90+ degrees) but with severe humidity. I really felt like I was drowning out on the course yesterday. My allergies were also going nuts with all the pollen. In fact, there was so much pollen, there was a pretty thick layer on the black golf shoes of my teammates. I wish I got a pic of that.

Tomorrow, I have my first official lesson at GolfTEC. Last week was the Initial Evaluation where I learned about all the things I needed to work on and tomorrow, I believe Tim is going to focus on specific areas. I'm looking forward to it.

On a side note, I'm proud to say that I was the winner of 3 out of the 5 silent auctions at the event. It was for a good cause... why wouldn't I?

Initial Evaluation - Day 2 Practice

Today was Day 2 of practice after my Initial Evaluation with Tim at GolfTEC. I headed over to the Revere Golf Club to meet up with some friends who were going out as a 3-some to see if I would be able to join them for a few holes since I didn't have time to play 18. No luck on being able to play a few holes (without having to pay for the entire 18), but I did get a little time on the range.

Today was significantly better than yesterday. I think the new stance that I'm working on is starting to settle in with my body. Although I was still a little sore in the lower back, it was a lot more comfortable than yesterday. The new grip is feeling pretty good too. I hit a few balls fairly well and decided to work on one other thing that has been bothering me when I watch myself on video - the direction of the club at the peak of my swing. Essentially, what I did was forced myself not to wind all the way up in my swing. From what I can tell, the reason my club ends up turning to the right at the top of my swing is because I exaggerate the turn of my shoulders just before I get to the peak. Anyway, by forcing myself not to wind up as much, the club is much straighter at the peak and it doesn't appear that I'm losing any distance. In fact, I may have even gained distance since the club stays on a straight plane coming down through impact.

Here is a video clip from my practice session today. Personally, I think it looks a lot better than yesterday. I'm just glad that it's starting to feel more comfortable. I can tell that, with more practice, I'll get this down soon.



Unfortunately I won't get any golf in this weekend. I'm flying to LA later this afternoon for a wedding tomorrow and then on Sunday morning, I'm traveling to Boston to play in The Clark's Companies Foundation Charity Golf Tournament. I went last year and it was a lot of fun. I hope that I'll be able to leverage my new stance and grip to hit some great shots. If not, I'm still going to stick to my guns and use this event as further practice for the new things Tim wants me to fix.

P.S. As I said in my last post, I love my Flip Video for capturing footage of my golf swing. Here is a picture of my set-up (collapsed). Leaned up against it is my 56 degree wedge. As you can see, it's compact and lightweight. You can get yours at Zappos.

Initial Evaluation - Day 1 Practice

As mentioned in my previous post, I committed myself to really working on the things that Tim told me I needed to fix. Today is the first day after my Initial Evaluation and I went to the range at Legacy Golf Club during lunch to hit a small bag of balls. It was a horrible day for me. Everything was uncomfortable, I struggled to make good ball contact, but I was determined to stick to the things I needed to work on. At the end, I figured I only hit 2 balls that went well, but my new grip was feeling much more comfortable. I'm optimistic that tomorrow my stance will feel more comfortable. I can tell from the video I took, that i'm still overturning my shoulders (club head at the top of my swing is turning to the right). Oh well, that's for a future lesson. I'm just going to focus on my stance and my grip. From what I can tell, it looks like my stance is looking better.

Here is the video that I took today on my Flip Video. Mental note to self - I need to wear a shirt that is a little more fitted so I can see my form better.



Among other things, Flip Video is such a sweet device and is perfect for golf! You can get yours at Zappos.com.

Initial Evaluation - Lessons Learned

NOTE: The information below is specific to my golf swing and is not intended to be a lesson plan for you.

From my Initial Evaluation session with Tim at GolfTEC, I learned that I was screwed from the beginning (of my swing, that is). I wasn't addressing the ball properly (closed stance in my feet, open stance in my upper body) and was gripping my club incorrectly. Both of these things really suprised me. I always felt I addressed the ball square and I had learned my grip from my previous coach - although, I probably made my own "adjustments" from what he told me over a year ago. Also, I slouched over the ball and didn't stablize my lower body for the swing. This led to a lot of upper body and head movement during my swing which, of course, led to inconsistent ball striking. Plus, it looks U-G-L-Y. After this session, Tim told me that I needed to spend time focusing on the following things:

1. Address the ball square with my feet
2. Adjust my grip
3. Push my hips out and keep my back and head straight

When I did these things, it felt uncomfortable for me. But, when Tim snapshotted my stance and compared it to Tiger Woods, it pretty much matched up. So... i'm going to work on that.

Here is one of the pics from my session:



Here is my corrected stance compared to Tiger:


GolfTEC technology is really cool. These pics are from my online account that comes with my 3-month package.

GolfTEC Initial Evaluation Impressions

Ok. So yesterday, I went back to GolfTEC and did my Initial Evaluation session with Tim. Once again, I put on the harnesses and hit several balls. Like on the golf course, I hit some a little fat, some thin, and some right in the sweet spot - straight up inconsistent! It was perfect for the evaluation.

Once again, Tim showed me the video of the various areas that needed work. I think most people would be pretty depressed after hearing that everything they were doing needed work and was causing the inconsistencies. However, I was actually thrilled to hear it. For me, that meant I had a chance to actually become a scratch golfer one day. Once again I was impressed with the video technology they use and more impressed with Tim. He really took the time to explain my trouble areas and made sure to ask me if I understood what he was telling me and if I had any questions.

After my session, I determined that I was going to give it a shot and signed up for a 3 month package. Besides, if technology is used to help anything businesses, doctors, bloggers... why not the golf swing? And GolfTEC had the most advanced technology I've seen thus far.

In addition to signing up with GolfTEC, I committed myself to make the most out of my lessons. My plan is to try and go to the range everyday for about 30mins and hit a small bucket of balls to train my body to adjust to the new things I'm learning. Additionally, I decided I was going to take my Flip Video (yet another use for my Flipper), put it on an old camera tripod, and record all my practice sessions so I can review them later so I can see if I'm still making mistakes. To take it one step further, I decided to blog about each of my learning sessions and practice sessions. Pretty cool.

What is up with my golf game?!

So, I've been golfing on and off since I was a kid. When I picked my game back up a few years ago and made the conscious decision to stick with it, I knew it would be an uphill battle trying to get back to how I used to play. After all, I took about 10 years off from the game of golf. One of the first things I did was to buy a new set of clubs. I tried a few different types before I decided that Mizuno irons were the way to go for me. Previously, I was using Ping, then Taylor Made irons, and Mizuno's had the best feel I've ever experienced with with any irons - hands down.

Next it was onto a woods, wedges, and a putter. I won't bore you with the details, but I bought and sold several drivers, 3-woods, wedges, and putters and here's what I finally ended up with in my bag:

Mizuno MX-23 Irons - S300 DG Steel, Standard Lie, Standard Loft
Ping G5 Driver - Aldila NV-65 stiff shaft
Ping G2 3-wood - Aldila NV-65 stiff shaft
Cleveland CG10 wedges - 52, 56, 60
Odyssey Black Series putter - Orange Gripmaster Tour Laced grip

What a great set! Over the past few years, my game has improved significantly. I dropped my handicap from 30+ to 14.6. This set gave me confidence.

Last year, I decided to take some lessons from Gary Knapp out at Lake Las Vegas, I took a couple lessons from him, then my work schedule got really crazy, and the rest of my lessons expired. :( But, from these couple lessons, I learned how to fix a couple of bad habits I had developed.

Anyway, in the past few months, my game has turned south. I've been really inconsistent. My best 9-holes was +1 at Mountain Falls Golf Club in Pahrump and my worst was +18 (ouch!) at Reflection Bay Golf Club at Lake Las Vegas. Unfortunatly, in the past few weeks, my score has been going up and not down. Some days my ball contact was great, other days... not so much. But, on all days, I haven't been scoring well. After this past weekend, I decided that I needed help, and I needed it bad. After all, I'm the self-proclaimed Chief Golf Officer at Zappos and I had better play like one, otherwise I'm going to have to strip the title from myself.

First things first... I needed to find a coach. I thought about going to my old coach Gary, but with all the problems that Lake Las Vegas has been experiencing, I wasn't sure how stable they would be if I bought a lesson package. Then I decided I would talk to Greg Stafford at Siena Golf Club. I've seen his results with a fellow Zapponian and it was impressive.

Second thing... I wanted to make sure that the equipment that I thought was so great for me was really right for me. I've been doing a lot of research online about custom fitting and everyone recommends getting custom fitted regardless of their skill level. I've always kinda been against this as I felt that one should change their swing to hit a standard set-up of clubs (more on this in a future post). But, I gave in and decided that I would head over to Golf Galaxy here in town to get my clubs looked at. You know... when things aren't going well, I begin to question everything and my clubs were no exception. Was I using the right shaft? Should I be swinging a regular shaft vs a stiff shaft? Is my grip too small for my hands? Should I use a shaft that has more/less torque? Are my clubs too long/short?

On my way to Golf Galaxy, I passed by a GolfTEC. I had heard of these guys before while reading various forums online, but didn't really know much about them. I decided to stop in.

It turns out that GolfTEC is actually a learning facility with a variety of services (including golf club sales). I was greeted by Tim Sam who is their Director of Instruction. After a few minutes of chatting, I decided to take him up on his offer for club fitting.

GolfTEC is pretty cool. During my club fitting, Tim had me put on these harnesses around my shoulders and around my waist. These harnesses had sensors that could monitor and report back various settings - i.e. shoulder turn, hip turn, shoulder angle, etc... These harnesses plus the 2 video angles are recorded so you can see your swing immediately. Additionally, they show your swing compared to a variety of PGA pros, which is really cool. After an hour, Tim tells me my results. From my swing speed, I'm actually between a regular shaft and a stiff shaft. The length of my clubs were right for me, but I did need to get my lie bent 2 degrees upright because the toe of my club was hitting the ground first prior to ball contact. Tim recommended that I get my clubs bent and that I stick with the stiff shaft and work on my swing (which needed help) to increase my swing speed.

Overall, GolfTEC club fitting was a very cool experience and I would recommend it to any golfer who hasn't been fitted yet. Tim, from GolfTEC, is really cool and seems to genuinely want to help me with my game. He gave me some information about getting instruction from GolfTEC and their rates. At first glance, I went "Ouch!" inside. It was not cheap at all. I decided to head home and think about it. However, I did decide to schedule an initial evaluation session to get a better feel of GolfTEC.