[Richie3Jack]

I've actually been playing pretty well for the past month after my latest lesson with Ted, but for me getting out of the slump is usually a mechanical issue and then getting the feel for when you are in the proper mechanics.

After my latest lesson with Ted I had to take a week off for a medical procedure to be done. Ted and I worked on right forearm takeaway and right forearm tracing with the plan to improve my backswing alignments so I won't come over the plane on the downswing. Probably the thing I struggle with most which usually leads to steering. When I got back to play, I couldn't hit anything worth a squat for about 3 days on the range. Kept coming over the top, kept trying to swing out to the right, and couldn't stop coming over the top.

On the 3rd day on the range I was really itching to go out and play, but I wanted to start hitting some shots. Eventually I said to myself 'if you keep coming over the plane, lets try to get wayyy under the plane.' Then I thought 'let's try to hit a roundhouse hook with a 9-iron.' So I would have a square stance and clubface to the target, but take the club wayyyy inside and then try to make a very prononced in-to-out path. And I started hitting shots crisply and straight, with a small fade to them.

That's where I really started to learn 'feel from mechanics.' Because later on I would try to take my normal takeaway and backswing, but with the roundhouse hook downswing it would not work. Eventually I said to myself 'what are the differences in FEEL between when I take my roundhouse hook backswing and my normal backswing.' I then felt differences in my right elbow and found out that I wasn't performing the right forearm takeaway properly. Furthermore, I realized that I get in trouble when my right elbow gets away from my body too much. My old backswing was actually quite fine, but for me the elbow gets too far away from the body.

Since then I've played quite well and I'm down to a +0.3 index. However, just the other day I 'struggled' and shot 76-74 at a course and was doing it with smoke and mirrors and hitting a lot of big cuts which was driving me insane and I was coming over the top again. Eventually I went onto the range after the rounds of golf and found that once again, my right elbow was getting too far away from my body...this time at address...and it was causing me to get that elbow in poor positions and come over the top. When I figured that out I started hitting shot after shot about as good as I possibly can at this moment.

There's plenty of drills from TGM that can help cure your ills, but once I learned what feel truly is and how to learn feel from mechanics, my game shot off like a rocket because now I can use those feels in order to execute the proper mechanics on a consistent basis. And if I get in trouble, I know now where to look at in regards to what the culprits of my ills are.




3JACK