20/5/12 Sunday. Jumped the gun on the usual early 5.30 am start to a Sunday. Just a few extra jobs to get done first so my mind is clear for today's handicap championship matchplay Quarter Final. After the week of discomfort and gradual recovery since the treatment on Friday physically all is good.
"Keeping the practise on the go over the past week has been hard work with the injury restrictions. With a little adjustment the form has been maintained. Did experiment with a comparison between the old driver and the new for a refresher. It is a slight quandary of distance over accuracy.
The new 400cc Toskii driver is more consistent for fairway hits. The MDD Tour 380cc driver is much more sensitive to working the ball and this unfortunately is beyond my capability to control. The trade off is that the smaller driver gets an extra 10 to 20m off the tee that is sacrificed with my using the larger club head at the minute. This week the cooler wetter weather has been constant and the loss of distance has became an obvious affect on my game. Forewarned is forearmed and I can make a decision on this over coming weeks.
Following yesterdays treatment I have got flexibility and freedom of movement back. Played the last 12 holes on the course this morning for a tune up in preparation for tomorrows matchplay. All was good from the tee to the hole and will get in some chipping and putting practise later in the afternoon. Followed with some long iron work on the practise fairway.
Have to give my opponent one stroke so the game is going to be virtually head to head matchplay."
Mentally yesterday I just could not get satisfied with the driver performance and the loss of distance off the tee. Added to that was the need to tune up with my irons to remove the occasional pull to the left that was affecting accuracy. Even after this the driver matter was still a distraction, not withstanding that I had no problem with playing Sundays round accommodating the distance loss. Finally at the end of the afternoon managed to get back on the course with both drivers to have a few swings and hits.
Hit balls with each and the smaller driver still had the longer reach but much worse accuracy. Something was niggling away in the back of my mind that there was something not quite right with the fella swinging the club. This is where the coaching video taken of the last session proved its worth again. 1) Rotate hips and follow through. Yes doing that. 2) Bend knees, squat down in stance. Yes doing that 3) Roll wrists. Yes doing that. 4) Oh crap there was one more, the subtle one that is so easy to omit. Lifting the front foot in the back swing.
Off went the flashing lights and ringing bells. Plant the front foot with a little extra weight on it, the swing then has a stable base. Importantly is the fact that it is not a solid pivot point again, no longer being moved to accommodate the injury constraints of the week. The swing is back with the body behind the forward motion and 220m off the tee and dead straight. Walked four holes hitting five balls off each tee as the sun sank and the distance was there and importantly the balls were all in a 20m circle on the respective fairways.
Something that is a reality with my golf and life also is that I make subconscious adjustments for the various injury flareups. Life is easy deal with. Golf that takes a bigger effort and is more important, that is why the video of the coaching session was so important to do. The four points that the coach identified are all subtle errors the alone have a minor effect on my golf swing. As a group they are the four corners of erratic, unpredictable golf.
Thankyou for your time and attention, "Hit 'em straight all"
Geoff
