“All In Good Time!”
If you read my last blog post you know I wrote about a visit to Dick’s Sporting Goods to look at new equipment. As luck would have it, I also got to spend time with Dick’s resident pro Mark, which was very interesting and instruction-wise very helpful!
After having wandered around looking at new golf clubs and talking to a few customers, I decided to fly without a net and engage with Mark!
Being very shy and not very outgoing, I find meeting new people unrealistically difficult! I am woefully fearful of calling people on the phone or introducing myself to them in public. Thus it took awhile to summon up the courage to speak with Mark.
It was busy at Dick’s and a lot of people were milling around and actually I almost decided to leave and put into practice one of my more obvious habits: procrastination! But! I swallowed hard and waited for the moment Mark seemed to be available and I dove in!
After a quick hello and some introductory chatter to settle the nerves, I found Mark to be very affable and extremely helpful!
I inquired about inexpensive golf clubs for seniors (I am 61 years old) with slow swing speeds (25 mph is about what mine is) and he showed me a set of Maxfli Revolution Green Senior Flex golf Clubs! Trying out new golf clubs is like trying out a new car, kind of: the excitement looms large!
The clubs hefted really nice and the grips felt great! The grips on my old set are so bald that the canvas, I mean steel, is starting to come through. I forgot these are grips, not tires. That probably gives you an indication on the condition of my car tires (just kidding).
Anyhoot! I was glad to notice that this set included several hybrid clubs in the place of longer irons. These I really need! I can’t hit an iron longer then a seven iron. God, how will I ever improve?!
The price of the set was $299! Gulp! Well? Really not bad as I am somewhat in the money what with my overtime work at the factory, so I plan to purchase a set of these all in good time!
Next I asked the big question: “May I try out a couple of clubs?”
“Sure!” Mark answered, and he gave me the driver and a four hybrid to try out.
The demonstration area was typical: a hall-like backroom with a driving mat and rubber tee on one end and a net at the other end. There was a laptop on a table, which, I guess, might have tracked my swing action, though unfortunately I never asked about it.
“Go ahead and hit some,” Mark casually said.
Well, one is hardly more vulnerable then when hitting a golf ball in front of anyone, especially a golf pro!
Too many swing thoughts swirled around in my head: swing slow, don’t lift your head, eye on the ball, rotate body, and etc, etc, etc!!!! I swung the hybrid with almost no bodily activity for control and the resultant rigor mortis raged in and I magnificently topped the ball three or four yards dead left and far short of the net! Wow, off to a big start! The chagrin was manifest!
Mark, ever the educator, overlooked my discouragement, and got down to process instead of offering sympathy. “You’re swinging only with your hands and there is no body movement whatsoever,” he observed. He told me to set up and proceed again. He repositioned the grip in my left hand so my hand pad was on top of the grip and the thumb was in a stronger postion toward the right side of the grip. Wow, that felt awful! Change is awful even for the better! It felt like my left hand was almost entirely on the top of the grip and only the fingers underneath! Ugh!
I don’t remember every word of instruction he gave me but here is the gist of it: “grip the club with the left hand pad on top of grip and the club in the fingers of both hands with the right hand closed over the top of the left hand.”
You can find this information in almost any golf instruction manual and I knew this somewhat but until I got the skinny in person with a pro I couldn’t communicate the execution process properly. The fact is I really need lessons!
Next, which really shocked me, Mark had me turn and swing slowly with hands on mine. He then gently pulled my arms back and caused me to extend them further then I ever had done. I then was caused to rotate to my right side. I felt like I was sitting on my right leg! Years of golfing and I never ever felt these movements ever. Ever!!!!
“Now try swinging,” he exhorted! I was terrifically nervous, though exhilarated, when I swung! Focusing on his recommendations, I swung and hit a fairly solid, though somewhat topped, straight shot that hit the net!
I repeated this process for several minutes and the results seemed to be fairly decent.
Mark gave me his card and marked on it some of the things we worked on. They were: Grip-pad on top, chin up, no glasses (my bifocals threw me off), shake hands going back (right hand), hinge right hand, and sit on right knee. These movements felt new and uncomfortable but they helped me produce better results!
We finished up and shook hands and I said I would be back to buy the clubs and book some lessons!
I excitedly left Dick’s with a new lease on my golf life concerning golf instruction and, if my overtime work can end, maybe I have time to put some of these things to practice. Hey, wait a minute! I need the overtime to buy the Maxfli’s and pay for the lessons. What to do? What to do!!!!
Well, as Hannibal Lecter says: “All in good time, Clarice. All in good time.”
