Ted taught me to HIT again!!!
 

After going down the One Plane Swing Path, I became completely confused and began losing all of the power in my right arm that Yoda taught me a few years ago. They say curiosity killed the cat, but interest in the OPS got the best of me. Soooo, I booked a few lessons with Ted Fort and he discovered my plane line was bent so far to the left that it wasn't even funny. I am talking super duper left. So bad in fact that Ted had me setting up in a normal stance then turning my torso 180 degrees so I was almost facing backwards and had me hit pitch shots 90* opposite my target. The motion I had fallen into the habit of making before coming to see Ted had become so un-golflike that it wasn't even funny!

My computer was completely screwed up. Before seeing Ted again, the thought of RFP had completely dissappeared. I still don't get the lawnmower analogy everyone talks about with respect to RFP because I start my lawnmower like the right elbow move Jim Hardy talks about in his One Plane Swing teaching. To me, I feel like the bending of my right elbow controls the forearm to the top, and then BOOM, my right arm just explodes into the ball!

I have only taken 2 of my 5 lessons with Ted and needed time to incubate what he was saying because I needed to match the feel with the correct mental imagery. This involved a lot of work going back to the basics. I practiced setting up the Flying Wedges using only my dowels paying specific attention to gripping the club correctly (this can't be overlooked) and getting into the proper setup like Yoda taught me a few years ago. I worked diligently at the dowel drills just trying to get the club back on plane. In addition, I have been doing a lot of impact bag work in the basement and this has paid HUGE dividends.

Since my office isn't too far from the Swamp, I have also been going to the range a few days a week during lunch and hitting 75 ball buckets of nothing more than pitch shots to drill in my impact conditions. I cheated a bit with respect to the basic curriculum by hitting full pitch shots going to a full finish rather than keeping the club head below my hands at followthrough. But the results are unmistakable!

I played the other day and my right forearm has become deadly once again. That beautiful sound at impact is back with that lovely hissing sound from the ball. My ballflight is dead straight with an occasional baby fade thrown in for good measure. My distance is even a little greater than it used to be and I feel like I can hit the ball absolutely as hard as I want to. In fact, I have that confident feel again of the harder I hit the ball, the straighter it goes!

I played with a kid who plays high school golf in Alpharetta and he is blessed with the flexibility of youth. He packs a mean wallop and can carry the ball huge distances with his long swing (big time X factor). With what feels like a half swing and about a 3/4 pivot, I was outdriving him by miles all day long. On one hole, I hit my 16* Adams Idea Pro Hybrid 275 yards off the tee which for me is absolutely incredible...plus I hit it on a straight line exactly where I wanted to.

I saw Ted at the range earlier this week and I told him I think I finally have my right arm back under control and had a huge smile on my face! I can finally hit full shots with my right arm only like Ted does and feel like HITTING can be super powerful and deadly accurate once you understand the simple fundamentals. Thank you for allowing me to spill my guts! :golf:

E.

curious
 

just curious......since you took lessons from lynn ...what made you go to ted this time

i am sure he is a great teacher.....but i am curious about the switch

h

No particular reason. Ted is the king of hitting and I figured Lynn may be busy with his Tour Pros even though he has always been accessible when I scheduled lessons with him in the past. Plus, Ted is a little cheaper!! Put it this way, you can't go wrong with lessons from either. Lynn originally gave me the power in my right arm. I gave that power away by jumping on the flavor of the month bandwagon and Ted simply restored it!!

E.

learning
 

i do understand Duke

and as i read i learn.....so if i may ask to learn a bit more.....?

this may seem trite......but inquiring mind wants to know

if lynn taught you the power of the right arm......and part of teaching

is for the student to "self-correct"...........how did you give it away??

and im gald Ted helped you

but i would think you would have been taught.....to to "get it back"

if lost

just asking to learn
hj

The problem is that I went down the one plane swing path and practiced ad nauseum all winter in my basement without the benefit of ballflight or divots. I practiced what "felt" right based on my previous on course experience with the OPS and ended up with a plane line bent about 45 degrees to the left. Of course, I taught myself the OPS so I don't want to denigrate its potential merits since I am not necessarily any kinda expert. To be honest, I am not necessarily a TGM expert either because I have no desire to learn all of the terminology.

I simply want to be able to hit the ball with an athletic move using the power in my right arm. Hitting gives me that. Lynn originally taught me this, but I went astray. Plus, I don't believe that I have the expertise to self diagnose all that ails my golf swing when things go astray. Even Tiger has a swing coach that drills the same fundamentals with El Tigre when things are slightly off. I may not be a tour pro, but luckily I live in close proximity to the swamp and have access to Tour Level Instruction!!

E.

point taken
 

good point duke.....

i can understand that you were doing what felt right

and luckily live close enough for top instruction

thanks for sharing with me...i am sure both ted and lynn

are top quality people as well as instuctors

hj

Duke,
Welcome back from the darkside! You are the reason I looked in TGM in the first place, when you mentioned your initial lessons with Lynn on GEA. You really peaked my interest and then when the 'old crumudgeon' :) Keller got involved I figured there might be something to it. So I went to Ted and I've never looked back. The one thing about TGM that intrigues me so much is ...it never changes. It is real, it is true and I either execute or not. At the end of the day, I know pretty much what I've done wrong or I can go to an AI and find out....but I'm not changing my approach from week to week or month to month.

I'm not going to denigrate another teacher but there have been so many 'pop' theories out there and generally the endorsement is one or two pro players that even I couldn't have messed up. When the masses try the same stuff....FORE! (either left or right or both). As I said, welcome back and thank you for posting, both here and that time on GEA.

I found the old TGM site and ordered the book as an assistant golf pro. Literally two days after I got it and began reading it, Ted Fort walked into my shop to play a PGA Match Play match. I recognized the logo on his hat and asked him about TGM. He invited me up to Marietta. We talked I hit some balls and he said I was 'switting'. After about a twenty minute discussion about things I like to feel, we decided to go the hitting route. He teaches a lot of hitters, but he told me that most of the golf pro's he worked with used swinging because it was closer to what they had been taught in the past. In my case, I had about a 50/50 mix of components.

I worked with him off and one for about 2 years and went from being a mid 70's guy to breaking par.

Much like Duke, I couldn't leave well enough alone. After leaving the golf business for law school, I started monkeying around with some other methods and my ball striking deteriorated. My handicap crept up to 8. I went to see Ted and got back on track. In three months, my index dropped back down to 4.

Recently, I haven't been able to play that much and I almost ordered the Stack and Tilt DVD's, but then I had the sense to remember how easy this hitting thing is and how well it has worked for me.

I played for the first time in about 5 weeks last weekend. Hit a bucket of balls before, going through basic and acquired motions focusing on RFP and bent right wrist. Shot 77 on a course I had never seen. Should have been lower. I had 2 three putts. On a 335 yard uphill par 4, I was about 20 yards from the front of the green and made bogey. On a 305 yard par 4, I was pin high on the fringe and made par.

Needless to say. I have wised up. It's TGM for me.

I feel like now that I can practice again, my short game and putting should shape up and I will be back down to scratch.

Batter Up!
 

Ted Fort teaches every day in Marietta, Georgia. He can be reached at 770-401-1086.

But not next week . . .

Because he will be teaching off the 18th green at The Barclays, a $7 million PGA TOUR event and the first in the FedEx Cup Series. In that duty for Lynn Blake Golf, LLC, he will give approximately 120 lessons in four days.

I'd wait a week . . .

And then call him for your own turn at bat.

:salut:

If they got a buffet there . . . bet the purse ain't that big next year . . . BUFFETS FEARS TED FORT ALMOST AS BAD AS GOATS FEAR MIKE O.