Golf - Lesson 3

Today was the third lesson with Aaron at the Lone Spruce driving range. I decided to pick the first slot on Sunday because we planned to visit ArtWalk right after. Getting up early on the weekend is tough, but when you taste it, you "feel" like you can never return until just the following weekend. But seriously, waking up at the same time daily is something I yearn to do and need to get deliberate about.

I got up around 0730 with my regular weekend alarm and snoozed it at the mercy of two more alarms spaced 5 mins away. Manali made her awesomely refreshing tea. Sometimes I secretly wait for the weekend to enjoy the tea. More on that later. Lone Spruce driving range is precisely opposite to where we live. I am on the southmost tip of the city, and the range is on the northmost tip. It takes 35 mins on a good day using the west leg of the Henday ring road. It is summer, and the construction season is in full swing. The 35-min trip quickly turns into 45-mins. So I planned to leave around 0815 to try and reach the range by 0900. I was 5 mins late to start as the boy circus decided to trouble Papa before I got ready. I push myself to be at least 5 to 10 mins to my appointments early. If you are on time, you are late. The drive on Henday felt like there were a lot of people who slept in on a Sunday morning. For those who slept in late, I feel that we are on this big ship of "I deserve it". It was refreshing to feel like I was beating the rush and had an easy long drive to the range.

The range opens at 0900, and I wanted to get my third lesson taken care of first thing in the morning so that I have the rest of the day open for other plans. I saw a couple of cars idling in the parking lot and wondered if there were some dedicated folks to get their golf game on par. It made me smile. I pulled into a spot, wondering which one was Aaron's (my golf instructor) car. I pegged Aaron to be a punctual person. I was right. He just pulled in after me. I have 6 mins early.

I got a medium basket of balls for the session, and Aaron walked in after me to talk to the lady at the till. She might own the range and the land. Sometimes I wonder if I should own and operate a range. I fist bumped Aaron after our morning greetings as both of our hands were busy carrying the gear.

We went to our regular stall. For some reason, it is always the westmost corner. It does give me a feeling of seclusion and allows me to save face when I get a bad shot. Yes, the mind game has to be stronger than that, and I want to use meditation to get stronger. We talked about how the second session didn't go as well as the first one, and I was having some good luck when I went to the range. I hope Aaron will feel happy knowing I am enjoying my trips to the range more than before I started the instructions. When you have a series of lessons planned with an instructor, the instructor starts becoming your coach, and a coach is someone with whom you have a deeper relationship than just an instructor. I intend to keep working with Aaron, and I want to develop that coach/mentor relationship with him. I want him to see my golf game grow. That puts abnormal pressure on me trying to up my game, but that level of accountability is important for me to grow my game of golf.

Aaron magically has four golf balls that he wants to warm up with. He gets his lag shot club from his bag and starts swinging. The warmup is an important part of any sports routine. Then he gets his 7 iron out and starts hitting those meager amount of balls. Hitting all of them square and straight. I saw one of them go to 200 yards. Impressive. It filled me with hope for the session. I whip out my 7 iron and start taking practice swings on the mat.

One of the things I wanted to review this session was my grip. I have a pretty good grip. I am used to the interlocking grip but have recently changed that to an overlapping grip. Hitting a big bucket at the range leads to exhaustion, and the first victim is the grip. It is interesting how I can't even remember my natural grip. Slowing down at the range helps, but I might have to carry a snack to keep my energy levels up. In the third lesson, I checked my grip with Aaron and was happy that my muscle memory had served me well. I try to hold the club in my fingers and wrap my left hand over the club handle with the thumb in the 2 o'clock position. It feels natural to me. The grip pressure is another critical part that I am guilty of not executing correctly. It would help if you held the club very gently. Think of holding a toothpaste tube without a cap and upside down. If you squeeze out the paste, you are holding it too tight. It has to do with the fingers exerting enough friction force to hold the club in place and counter the centrifugal force.

Aaron asks me to queue up the first balls and go ahead and hit it. To my surprise, I hit it square and straight as an arrow. My mind is going "wowza". This is going to be a fantastic session. I queue up the second one, and thin is miserable. There goes my confidence. My mind is in overdrive right now. My instructor is looking forward to this session, and I hit a fantastic shot and ended up thinning the next five shots. Aaron is patient.

Aaron realizes what I am doing wrong, and it is the backswing. I am breaking my wrist and going way beyond my shoulders, making it harder to come under the ball and hit it pure. My mind is still in overdrive with emotions. I am talking to myself to calm down. Aaron realizes that I am not thinking straight. He pushes me to slow down and demonstrates a few swings. These intermittent breaks help me catch my breath and control my wandering mind. Next, he wants me to focus on the wrist and sets up his club to allow me to take a good backswing. While doing that, he realizes that I am bending my left knee, which raises my head slightly. Raising the head and going on a wrong swing plane multiplies my issue of hitting the ball pure and straight. Aaron goes back to the slap drill and shows how the natural head movement is not raising it but swaying back and forth on the same line it was initially on. It is tough to grasp and implement, but I want to feel it, and I am glad Aaron picked up that clue because I was bending my left knee no matter what. After a bit more practice, we agreed on how it should feel inside my right leg (not outside). The drill was simple, and I was supposed to shake Aaron's rightly placed hands behind me while I was still watching the ball on the ground. The feeling just clicked in my head. I still need more practice with it. The two knees should sway from left to right on the same line they were initially on when you take the stance. A dozen shots after my backswing is back to Aaron's standard. I still need to hit pure. I am mostly thinning as I raise my head after the backswing, which Aaron patiently says is ok.

On to the contact and the follow-through, the downside of the backswing is that the club doesn't turn and follow through in a stiff fashion for me because I need to get my backswing right. The next part of the swing is not more of a contact but swaying your hips at the right moment and getting your right hand into the play. I have been hitting powerless shots with my rigid backswing, which is ok to get the backswing right, but Aaron wants me to start hitting the balls pure. After over half a dozen thins, Aaron walks in front of me to demonstrate how my club should face his belt buckle after the downswing. It feels right after a couple of slow swings, and the next swing I take, I hit the purest straightest shot with a familiar whoosh sound. Aaron mentions that it is the first time he has heard that on my downswing. I feel proud about that. We talk more about how the right-hand plays a vital role on the downswing and how you should use it to downswing and rush to turn the club for a photo finish. I tried a few more shots and hit them nice and straight with some thin shots as I was trying to get the head sway right, which mostly felt to me to raise my head at the wrong moment. More work needs to be done on that.

I mentally note myself to spend more time at the range and space my shots. It is about listening to your body and understanding what went wrong. I might carry a notebook with me to take notes after each shot so that it helps me slow down my pace and actually right the wrongs. I would like to set up my phone to record myself. I might not do that yet for feedback as I want to learn to listen to my body more, get used to it, and make corrections after each shot. I must work on my core strength to last longer on a hot day at the range. I am glad how the game of golf is pushing me to get fit and eat healthy and how I can translate all the off-game activities to the game of golf. It is going to be a long journey...