Progress check

I've uploaded the video from another lesson with Jeff today. I must say, and I don't take this lightly, that I am truly hitting it better than I ever have in my life. Today we added the movement of the right elbow moving "deeper" behind my ribcage on the backswing, which adds more flattening elements and consequently more steepening influences, and it made all the difference in the world. Over the past week I've hit some pretty darn good shots, but it's like night and day to where I'm at now. The changes in ball trajectory are significant, extremely penetrating off the face and rising to the apex, dropping softly.

True story, today after the lesson I'm hitting some balls before I headed home, the collection of balls on the range was such that there was a not exactly large area of grass where balls had not collected, making a reasonably good target. I hit somewhere in the range of 6 out of 10 six irons inside that area, all on the same line, same trajectory, same divots, same sound. The 4 or so of the approximately 10 balls were still hit well, just pulled slightly left. Part 2 of the true story is the follow up practice session this afternoon (which I typically do on instruction days). This course near my house has very nice turf, so I enjoy practicing there on the weekends. The left corner of one of the target greens was devoid of any balls so I started hitting 8 iron to that part of it. After 12 or so shots I became aware of the fact that I had again striped every one of them, same trajectory, line, divot, sound, etc. and landed all of them on this left corner of the green. Of course ball 13 got yanked ("you're brain was getting in the way" - Romeo), but the consistency of these shots is bordering on ridiculous.

So that last statement was one that perplexed me as well. Ridiculous? So exactly what in the hell have we been going through for the last 6 months and why if we're going to call it ridiculous? Certainly the wrong word. I believe what I'm looking for is "exceeded expectations". Jeff commented to me that the next few sessions will be 100% focused on short game as the full swing is right where it needs to be. So out of all the times I've come to him with "I'm hitting it great" and he has me change something else, we're finally nearing the point where this is all coming together. Very exciting times.

In the past 2 weeks, I've had a golf instructor use me as a model for his student when giving a lesson, had a group of 3 husbands and wives (snowbirds) watch me hit balls for 10 minutes and ask themselves out loud "I wonder who he is and what tour he plays on?" (haha, if they only knew!), and the father of a college student getting lessons interrupt my practicing to tell me how good my swing looked. None of that means a damn thing at the end of the day, but 6 months ago, noboday cared 2 licks about who I was, I just blended in. Now I can feel people stare at me when I practice, that's pretty damn cool.

This upcoming week should be a lot better in terms of practice time. Now that it's light later in the day, I've been trying to get into a routine of 2 a days, where I practice at lunch and then again on the way home from work. This past week I was scheduled for meetings or lunch appointments every single day. My wife is also out of town, so a couple of days I was unable to practice after work as well. I'd like to get settled in to a full scale twice a day routine, but I'm also toying around with the idea of working out a flex schedule to take a 1/2 day on Wednesday or so to go play. We can't just beat balls, I'm not trying to be Vijay here.