Craig Now that the weather has improved I need to do some more work on my swing.
Hi Craig
Now that the weather has improved I need to do some more work on my swing. My route to trail side started with the Axiom power program, then moving on to the early goat code videos (Refine the Backswing etc). This really helped with shallowing the club and worked particularly well with my 5W last season, but the driver eluded me. Then since late September I've been getting used to the stronger right-hand grip, and using that on all clubs. Of course once once you adopt that you have to start building in the other changes to become trail-side, and somehow manage to play golf during the transition. I can now feel there are two definite swing movements (lead side and trail side) that I can make, and I feel that my trail side game is as good, or maybe slightly better than my lead-side game was - in just a few months in less than ideal conditions.
A massive benefit of trail side is in chipping and pitching - with the trail arm fully externally rotated, club face stays square, no matter the length or tempo of the swing. I feel confident that I can get my short game into control with the goat drills (but need to put in the work). With lead-side pattern I couldn't reliably chip or pitch because club face would open on the backswing and didn't have time to be closed down again on the way down. It would have meant mastering different movements for these shorter shots.
In the last three weeks or so, my driver has at last become reasonably reliable, after months of going quite left (due to not keeping wrist supinated towards impact). So fairly confident with the driver now which is a big plus. But 5W has gone off and irons are a bit hit and miss - biggest fault is topping the ball. I think that's down to ball position, which now has to be further back in my stance after years of playing it further forward (lead-side), and moving the ball back affects the feeling at set-up. But there's plenty of clubhead speed on the ball, just need to focus on the strike. But so far so good! I have a game that is at least as good as this time last year, with some added bonuses, and the putting, chipping and pitching drills will massively improve my short game. I feel I've made the switch to trail side, it feels 'normal' and now I just need to work at it. I'll do some videos and I have a golf trip to Spain next week, (excellent conditions) which will give me a better indication of where I'm up to.
Big thank you to Chuck and the RST team!
Diane
