I spent a few hours with Ben a month ago.
The tyre drills/tests were good. He had one light tyre - as on the above clip - and one heavier tyre filled with some metal garbage to make it heavier. As well as a number of impact bags containing a few towels and such. At night he had me bring the impact bag to the hotel room. Each drill had a purpose.
He had me do the sandtrap workout that Yoda is probably announcing. No ball. No grass. Just a club and sand.
I liked them so much I've found myself several times rejecting ball practice & going straight to the sand trap to repeat the drills. So look out. I beleive it is difficult to do some them by yourself. You should consider bringing a mirror or a camcorder to evaluate what you do..
I also liked the drills since they eliminate any concern about impact and ball flight even thought the sand will tell a lot about you how you did. I believe Hogan said: "The secret is in the dirt".
My estimate is that we spent 1.5 hours in the sandtrap without balls before he'd let me hit even a single ball. I guess that would be frustrating to some students, but luckily I was prepared.
After some 6-7 hours of various instruction and drills I whacked a driver swing in the sand that felt "special". He was pleased. Rushed over to the video deck. That was the only time he let me out of the bunker without the bunker exit test, so I guess he'd seen something he liked.
He single-stepped the video. Drawing lines with a whyteboard marker on the screen. And said:
- Good. I can see 24 components now. Now lets see how we can improve them..
One interesting thing about Ben is he never lets you get away doing anything with the ball or club that might promote a bad habit.
Always the address procedure
Always the waggle
Always the forward press
Always shoot, hooooold and rest - rest.
Always a flat left wrist
Always a bent right wrist
Never jerky motions
He even corrected me when i knocked a ball 3 feet to get to where I should hit it from to get a good camera angle. That little knock was a "jerky" little flip-knock.
I can still hear the man. -
"Noo. Never do it. Never. Always a bent right wrist. Always a flat left wrist. No leakage. Isn't that right?"
Or look at this photo. Guess he would never grab a club without him setting his flying wedges.
When I left he gave me a set of casettes. All sessions on tape and complete. Very good. Reviewing them I see things I did not notice when I was there. Sometimes I was too focused on
applying & did not manage to listen up. Instead, I can do that now by looking at the tapes.
Another example is that he stood behind me to the side & told me to hit a punch shot. As I executed it he executed it himself. Standing behind my back and to the side. He never mentioned he did while there, but it is very interesting to be able to compare his motion through the ball to mine once I am back home. Sort of what split screen video analysis does, but different and more "live". He did a lot of things that in retrospect sort of ensured he'd provide "bonus information" that could make the experience richer as I got home.
The time spent with him was indeed well spent and to that day I had never met an instructor as intense as Ben. Some of his drills and instruction practice is pretty unique and I think some of them should be more common practice. The other instructors on the range at Quail Lodge were only doing the camera, video and ball hitting work. Never saw them or their students with and impact bag, in the sand or hitting chip shots.
My estimate would be that all-in-all over the ten hours of lessons I took he probably used 15-20 different practice gadgets and had many more in spare. Of those I'd say close to half of them where home-made things such as different tyres, 2x4's, seat canes, plane boards, beer crates, towels, floor mops etc etc. The commercial ones he used were Tac-Tics, Medicus, several different weighted clubs, clubs with crooked shafts, impact bags, his own mat and a few more.
Regarding some of the commercial ones he said they were good but not marketed correctly.