student coaching profile

student - Harry K

Handicap 15

Age - 77

Harry’s coaching / game improvement plan

Harry is having a set of four one-hour lessons with a definite plan set in place.

• To improve overall posture in day to day life as well as in the golf swing  
• Make the swing a more comfortable and repeatable motion          
• To understand and apply directional control

Harry’s lessons are being stored on CoachCam – the worlds first video analysis website.

Harry can study and review his lessons at any time he is on his computer

At the time of writing Harry has had 3 of his 4 lessons

Issues to be addressed

• Overall tightness in swing & muscle inflexibility
• Physical assessment indicating excessive tightness & inflexibility.
• The inflexibility was in quads, hip flexors and poor posture.
• Student Swing concepts causing a number of problems
• Very inconsistent pitching action

Student Self Assessment Before Coaching

• Poor timing
• Inconsistency
• Poor balance during swing
• Problems with “hooking” the ball especially with driver

Student Self Assessment After Coaching (after week THREE)

• Dramatic drop in tension levels
• Improved balance
• More distance (20 meters plus with some clubs)
• Removal of an old problem in the forward swing of “spinning out”
• Growth in confidence
• Has found viewing video footage on www.coachcam.com.au very useful

Harry’s Swing Adjustments

Full Swing - SETUP  (see pictures below)

• Harry had no upper body tilt (left picture below)

• The spine ideally points to the inside of left foot (picture below RIGHT side)

• There was a lot of arm, hand & shoulder tension.

• The combination of the above made producing a consistent golf shot difficult.

OLD setup (left picture)   NEW Setup (right picture)

Full Swing - MOTION

• Harry was trying to keep his LEFT arm “locked” and stop his hips turning on the backswing.

• This made the backswing so tight and awkward that he would turn his body too early in the downswing.

• The action feels effortless and is producing more power with much improved balance and rhythm.

• In the picture below Harry has turned his hips LESS prior to impact and has not “thrown” the clubhead away.

OLD Pre-impact (left)  NEW Pre-impact (right)

Pitching - SETUP  (see pictures below)

• Harry had too much weight on his right foot for a consistent pitching action.

• The weight was 50 / 50 left to right foot. It should have been 60 / 40 left to right foot.

• To put extra weight on the left foot we moved the left hip across closer to the target. 

• This tilted the spine slightly forward which is very beneficial.

• The stance was also narrowed and opened up (aimed more left)

 OLD Pitch setup (left)   NEW Pitch Setup (right)

Pitching – MOTION

• As with the full swing backswing Harry was locking his lower body which adversely affected his rhythm.

• We allowed the hips to make a small turn on the backswing.

• Combining this with “softer” arms and more weight on the left foot produced a far better action

OLD Pitch (left)         NEW Pitch (right)

NEXT STEPS

Continued refinement of action to provide a clear understanding of LEFT, STRAIGHT and RIGHT shots. Also to provide a clear understanding of the cause and effects of different types of shots.

Ideally some remedial work to improve the muscle tightness and flexibility issues outlined above.

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