Steve Wozeniak

February 15

The First Tee - The good and bad
I love how the first tee gets kids involved with the game for little or no money.  They give them books and great ideas on how to act on and off the golf course throughout their entire life.  They have each child complete different levels and are constantly supervised by the coaches and volunteers. 

As far as the golf swing this is the result of excellent coaching.



Look at this little guys finish!  All his weight on the left side, facing the target, level and balanced, a thing of beauty. 

But just like any junior camp, school or private instruction you can run into some horrible information.  The First Tee has a PGA Member run each section but usually these guys and gals get so busy they must count on volunteers and young adults to help them with the instruction.  This is what could happen with bad instruction that is not corrected.



This is the result of a instructor making a little athlete hold his or her head still and keep it down even after impact.  One of the WORST things you can tell any child.  This guy  has his arms in a great position but my god look at his lower back and his eyes looking at where the ball was after hitting it.  If this guy keeps doing this back surgery is not far off. 




Same thing here, a beautiful little girl getting crap information and going down the wrong path just trying to do what her coach asks of her.  I know it's hard for most parents because they have no idea what happens in the golf swing.  But just look at where the best players in the world are and try to copy those positions.  And DO NOT listen to what they say their doing, watch what is actually happening.  Here is a good example of that, Johnny Miller, one of the best players ever says you can not play golf unless your left arm is RAM ROD straight, let's see where he really was.




I just threw in Jack Nicklaus as well, he wasn't bad either......Look how SOFT both left arms are here while at the top of their games.






Tiger here in the exact same position, soft tension free arms.  So get involved with your little golfers and make sure the instruction they are getting is solid, sound information.






2:26 PM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

November 09

Are you unwinding correctly?

There is so much confusion about how a golfer unwinds in the down swing it just makes me shake my head.  This is one of the most simple and natural moves known to man.  Ben Hogan simply showed you by throwing a ball.  Here is another drill that Hogan among others would use to get the correct feeling of how simple this move is.

 First set up like so with a club on your hip and your left arm in this position.  I am using a junior club here but you can use any club in your bag. 

 Next get your right hip and club driving TOGETHER to and through the ball towards the target.  ALL GREAT PLAYERS unwind this way.  Most will get a FEEL of the hip and the club head working and driving together IMMEDIATELY from back swing into the down swing.  In the year 2000 Tiger felt like his right arm was getting straight as soon as possible in the change of direction.  SAME THING!!!!

 Here is where players get when there getting stuck usually from working on shear crap.  This is EXACTLY where Hogan was in his pictures in the book Power Golf.  This is from people working on sliding, or trying to get the right leg or knee  to work towards the left in the down swing.  Another train wreck of a thought would be to think of the left knee going to the target in starting the change of direction.  These are some of the worst thoughts ever, and I hear instructors preaching this all the time. 

Your right foot, knee, hip and entire side MUST work to and through the ball towards the target to ever have a chance of unwinding correctly every time, keep pressure in the shaft, and come at the back of the ball not the side.  Many players I work with actually FEEL the right hip hitting the ball, this is how fast the club and body are moving TOGETHER with the great swings. 

 Think this guy figured it out?  This is perfect, look how the upper left arm is GLUED to his Pec and Lat and simply hinging at the elbow, and how his ENTIRE right side is HITTING the ball, his hands have not rotated a lick.  He is pulling with his left side as hard as he is pushing with the right.  If you stopped him here moved his body back to address he would be right where he started.  EVERY player worth a damn is here, NO EXCEPTION, and it is so easy if you know what to work on!!

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August 23

How Ricky Barnes can become one of the greats

 

Here is Ricky Barnes next to Ben Hogan in the exact same horrible position.  This is Ben Hogan right out of Power Golf before he learned the correct information about the golf swing.  And this is Ricky Barnes in this years United States Open which he damn near won with this swing, which is a testament to his amazing talent and short game.  He has also missed the cut in darn near half of the tournaments he has played in this year.  Notice the left arm has wiped across the chest which makes them have to flip the hands to have any chance of squaring the club to the back of the ball.   And Hogan was a great player with a bad swing even from here.  The problem was this position is NOT fundamentally sound and he never won a major swinging like this.

        

Here are a couple more pictures from a different angle, as you can see his left arm is in a position where I see most 25 handicappers that come in wondering why they hit it all over the place.  So Ricky could be fixed in a weekend if he ran into a golf professional that understands simple fundamentals.  It really is stunning to me in this day and age of video and people that claim they understand how the body works that his coach does not even say gee, this looks like something we may want to address.  I guess it's just further proof that quite a few coaches don't teach these guys anything they hang onto them, and try to be there best buddy.  Ricky could easily be one of the top players in the world if he just gets his left arm working correctly, and yes it's that simple he does everything else......

9:56 PM GMT  |  Read comments(0)

May 24

Are you getting what you pay for in lessons?

The old adage of you get what you pay for goes completely out the window when it comes to golf lessons.  Simply by analyzing what some of these "coaches" are saying is stunning and flat out wrong. 

Here is a great kid Sean O'Hair getting completely wrong and horrible information from his new instructor.  Excuse me but you learn when your 10 years old about swing plane, and anyone that comprehends this knows that what his coach says is his old "bad" back swing is perfectly on plane. Where he wants Sean to get in his new "good" swing is flat, traps his right side and is on plane to hit a baseball NOT a golf ball.  If this kid ever gets this in his swing he will disappear and never be heard from again.  You CAN NOT play consistent golf with the club behind you.  What's scary is this seems to be the new flavor of the month, instructors trying to get players flat. 

Here is Sean winning at Quail Hollow not long ago and GEE it sure looks like he is on perfect plane to me.  His coach was quoted as saying "I feel like Michelangelo with the perfect piece of marble."  So he is trying to take credit and Sean is not even close to doing what this guy wants in the back swing, YET.  The only thing this kid does wrong is he just get's a little long armed from time to time. 

Now here is Candace Schepperle working on PURE fundamentals over and over again from the age of 2 she is 20 now.  This great information is from none other than her father and coach David.  She has made it to first in the college rankings from working on the correct swing plane.  Notice the picture on the left, this position is the DEATH of many players and sends you down the wrong path creating angles and causing numerous problems you must compensate for at 100 miles per hour.  Good luck.  The picture on the right is perfect, keeps the club in front of her and is where every great player gets throughout the history of the game past, present and into the future.  Her father is a former PGA member and is a part time caddy.  It sure sucks that he is a former PGA member because believe me we need every teacher that has a grasp of the correct information we can get, they are far and few between. 

Now here is Tiger doing the EXACT same thing Candace is.  Notice the inset picture on the right, this is where players get when there in an awful position, and Sean's coach is actually trying to get him to do this!  And this guy probably has a busy lesson book, wow!!  It sure is frustrating seeing guys work on the wrong things and they have no idea there coach really should not be teaching the game at all if they don't even understand simple swing plane.  Good luck Sean.

 

 

 

9:18 PM GMT  |  Read comments(4)

February 10

Finally where he belongs

If you have been following golf for the first few tournaments of the year than you have certainly noticed a new face on the PGA Tour by the name of Scott Piercy.  I have worked for many hours over the years with Scott and I will tell you what, they don't come any better or with more talent than this young man.  Here he is winning a nationwide tour event in Ohio of last year.  I talked to him in Oregon at one of his last events of the year on the nationwide, and congratulated him on getting his card for the 2009 PGA Tour season.  One thing he said was he did NOT want to be back on the nationwide, I said just take care of business (work on the right stuff) and you will never be back.  And he won't!!!  He has too much talent and even better has the correct information about the golf swing.  The hardest part for Scott now is to stay away from, and not listen to the crap that people around him will say about the golf swing if he has a bad tournament or two.  Just listening to the analysis of his swing from the guys on television is proof enough!!!  My Gosh, they have absolutely no idea what he does, it's simply stunning listening to them.  You know what we worked on every time he came in? Set up and left arm positions, set up and left arm positions, set up and left arm positions!!  When he came in not hitting it great what do you think was out of position?  Very Good!!!  Do you work on more than these things with players? absolutely, until they know where you want them you must.  But once they understand where all of the greats are and why, then the golf swing becomes simple and you just need to work on a couple things to fix many.  Keep it up Scott and see you in the winners circle!!

 

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