I am the guy in the pictures.
All I can say is that, as Ted said, and as you can clearly see from the pictures, my trip to the swamp was "priceless".
Sorry for the length of this post. So that you can get what you want from it, I will give you the short story first, then some history for perspective.
The short story is: THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR SEEING A COMPETENT A.I. I believe Ted and Yoda are the best, although I have never had a golf lesson in my life before 1/12/06 (that date will be etched into my brain forever!)
When I saw my BEFORE swing on video, I could not believe how much my head and knees were moving, nor could I believe how far inside my clubhead was on the backswing.
I did not FEEL like I was doing that, but the camera does not lie! There is a reason Homer says, "Look, Look, Look". What I realized is that there is a reason Homer made the The Body Lane Zone #1. It is the foundation. I had begun to try to educate my hands, but no matter how educated my hands were, they could not do what they should because they were working on a foundation of quicksand.
What was amazing to me was how quickly Ted was able to take the mess that you see BEFORE and isolate exactly what components were most important to change to fix my swing. We worked on basic and aquired motions to quiet my lower body and develop on on plane right forarm PICK UP. The new swing FEELS very awkward to me. During the lesson, when I began to think about delayed release or follow through swivel, my knees would start flapping around again. It is going to be a slow process to try to unlearn 20 years of wrong body motion, but Ted said that the "computer" is pretty smart. When it sees the good results from the new swing, it will be reprogrammed pretty quickly. So, I have a long way to go, but thanks to Ted Fort, I have a good foundation to work from and I know what I need to work on next.
Some history:
I started playing golf when I was in college (1981). I played an average of 2 9 hole rounds/month at first, averaging between 50-60. I began to play less, tapering to almost no golf by the time I was a senior. I did not play for a few years after graduation. In 1995, I won a free round of golf in a drawing and the bug bit me. I bought new clubs and began to play about 5-6 18 hole rounds/year. I have seven children, so I have limited funds and time for golfing, but I want to play every minute. I began to play more frequently about three years ago, about one round/month. I also began practicing in the back yard with my kids. I expected my scores to improve. They did not and have not. I still average between 100-110.
I am an engineer, I understand that physics governs all actions and reactions in the universe, and the golf swing is no different. I began a quest to figure out how to play this game well. Because of limited funds, I hesitated to purchase books or videos that I did not have confidence in, so my seach was concentrated on the internet and free subscriptions to some golfing magazines that will remain unnamed. After trying "tip of the month" for over a year with no progress, I realized that this was not working. I wanted to take a lesson, but I had read enough to know that I did not want to waste my precious limited funds on a "tip of the month" lesson. After looking in many places and still having no confidence that someone had "the answer", I saw a post by Yoda on the Single Axis forum. I discovered the TGM and Chuck Evans forums in October of 2004, and later, Brian Manzella's forum. I have spent my lunch hour devouring the scientific information on these forums almost every day. I received The Golfing Machine book for Christmas 2004. I have read through the book. I began to understand SOME components and principals governing G.O.L.F., but my scores did not improve. I knew I needed to see an AI, but did not have the money.
>>By the way, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! to Lynn Blake for providing this forum without a fee. It is obvious that you care more about spreading the message of The Golfing Machine than about making as much money as you can. I cannot thank you enough for that!<<
I ASKED my family to not give me anything but money for Christmas, so that I could get a lesson from Ted. I think I have to say that, other than the original Gift that started the whole idea, this is the best Christmas present I have ever received! You see the results! Thank you, Yoda, and all who generously contribute to this forum, BUT
>I CANNOT emphasize this enough:
THANK YOU, TED FOR BRINGING ALL THE JUMBLED INFORMATION IN MY BRAIN TOGETHER, FOR IMMEDIATELY KNOWING WHAT TO CHANGE AND EMPHASIZE, FOR YOUR POSITIVE AND ENCOURAGING SPIRIT, FOR HELPING ME TO NOT JUST HAVE A BETTER SWING, BUT TO UNDERSTAND WHY AND WHAT I NEED TO DO NEXT, FOR GIVING ME A RENEWED HOPE THAT MY SCORES WILL IMPROVE. I CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH!!!!
(in case you haven't noticed, I'm smiling)
Hybrid Mode
