Custom fit clubs do lead to more learning

I had a student yesterday who was having difficulty hitting the club face of his new irons. Since he is 6'4," we extended his irons to closely match his posture and promote a better posture through impact. Because his old irons (standard length) forced him to get shorter through impact to find the face (think "Keegan Bradley set up" and then lunging forward about 5 inches at impact), he hit "heel-side" portion of the face with the new irons, sometimes even missing the ball. I actually saw a shot go backwards between his legs. Impressive!

If you find yourself in a similar situation where you just can not find the face, slow down and find a couple of fundamentals:

(1) With him, he had to learn what it felt like to stay "Tall" through the swing. This meant lots of rehearsal swings at 10% speed. He had to find impact and learn (a) where is the balance (b) where is the face (c) where is the bottom of the swing...where I would strike the ground.

(2) We started to put these swings into motion, but at a 10% tempo and no more than a half swing.

(3) Rather than jumping for a new ball when he hit one poorly, he had to take at least 10-15 seconds to understand what went wrong. NOTE: This is probably the difference between regular players and great players. The idea of slowing down between shots to figure things out. Flip the notion that (a) a mistake is bad into (b) a mistake that reveals opportunities for development...but only if one PAYS ATTENTION TO MISTAKES.

(4) When he felt that he could put the swing together, his full swing thought is now "50% Tempo." I like speed, but I only want my students to swing fast until they (a) lose stability of their body, (b) control of the bottom of the swing or (c) awareness in general about what they are doing.

After simply extending the length of the irons, my student has a new perpective about how to practice.

Leave a comment if you like what you have read! Thanks for reading!

Regards,

Steven