Post by Richie3Jack on Mar 2, 2015 15:01:45 GMT -5
There were about 6 people there, including instructors Tom O'Brien and Denny Lucas. The others came mostly from areas in Florida.
I had never been to the PGA Village even though it's only about 90 minutes from my home. But, I came away very impressed. It's an enormous range, almost the size of the Orange County National range. But, I was more impressed with this range as it had far better bunkers and putting greens to hit from. It had spaces reserved for range members and the public, but you could also reserve your own space if you were holding a clinic like Kelvin was. It's actually a facility now that I would like to get some practice in at before tournaments because it is in impeccable condition and I can practice putting there. I know Billy Ore works there and is a certified AimPoint instructor that also is certified in AimPoint Express. He has been generous to offer me his time down there. I just haven't taken him up on the offer.
Everybody there was more than kind and helpful at the clinic and we saw player after player make large improvements. Denny in particular was hitting some real picturesque golf shots.
I haven't taped my swing in a few weeks. When I practice it is usually at night time under the lights and the hi-speed camera doesn't work at night. I also just wanted to keep focusing on what I've been practicing instead of watching video and too quickly ditching what I've been working on for something else. I've also been doing a lot more slow motion swing practice.
The end result is that there was some nice improvements to my swing. I was getting more rotation and not getting above plane on the downswing. But, I still had issues with hip slide. The good news is that I have been able to feel the hip slide for the past few weeks. And feeling that you are doing it wrong is usually half the battle. The other half is part knowing how to fix it and then diligently practicing it to change the mechanics.
The other bad news is I was getting right pelvic tilt which inhibits rotation and causes a flip.
You can tell that Kelvin has logged in tons of hours teaching what he teaches. As I've said a million times (and something I stole from old football coach Bum Phillips)....teaching isn't about how much you know, it's about how much you can get the player to DO.
So while I have an admiration for Kelvin's knowledge and way of thinking, at the end of all of this he is just a good ole fashioned teacher....he gets his players to 'do' a lot of great things. He ran thru a few things in order to get me out of using right pelvic tilt and sliding and after 15 minutes we started to see things really click.
It just shows how he has taught for so long that he understands when a player is getting it and when they are not getting it and how to run thru his own mental catalog of ways to get the player to eventually 'get it.'
Another perceptive thing I found about Kelvin is that his lessons will have the player hit a lot of drivers and do drills with the driver. Given what my statistical research over the years has shown, you need to hit the driver better if you really want to substantially lower your handicap and too many instructors barely even bother with the driver or don't have the student use the driver at all in a lesson.
Eventually, we took some full-speed, full swings and it was easy to see the noticeable improvement in the mechanics, so I wasn't just hitting positions with half swings or going half speed or just reaching positions.
From there, we went to some short game work. Mostly on a 50-yard pitch shot to a short game green (again, the short game green was reserved just for us).
I consider myself pretty good from 30-60 yards. I've never really taken a lesson and do most of it thru feel. However, I've never been able to duplicate the shot I often see on Tour...the low spinning pitch shot.
Typically, I would hit a 50-yard pitch shot by getting a lot of slide and then trying to straighten out the right wrist on purpose. I can hit some really good shots that way, but it makes for a large divot which means less spin. I would also tend to pull the shot.
If I wanted to hit a floaty spinner, I basically just rotate my body without trying straighten out the right wrist. This generates more spin, but still not a ton because of the divot I'm taking.
Kelvin's way is very different and he saw Charlie Wi using this technique and Wi is one of the best short game players on Tour. The stance is very different and if done correctly, you're merely 'bruising' the ground and you'll get some tremendous spin on the ball. I did one pretty well and the amount of spin it got was ridiculous.
But, I struggled to quite get it. The hardest part was taking a larger swing because the ball doesn't go as far as my 'shut the face and punch it' swing. But, the guys I saw doing it correctly were hitting great shots.
From there we went to Sam Snead's Grille and Tavern. They used to have one of these in Myrtle Beach when I was going to school at Coastal Carolina and it was some of the finest food I ever had. In fact, it had some of the best clam chowder ever. The food was good here, but it wasn't quite up to the Myrtle Beach restaurant standards. Unfortunately, that one closed in Myrtle Beach years ago (which angered many people).
We talked about a myriad of different things from equipment to performance to fitness, etc. Heard a lot of great stories of great improvement from the guys at the clinic and we had a great time before I had to leave to go back home. Overall I'm extremely excited to get to work on what we went over and had an incredible time. I would highly recommend people checking out Kelvin's work. He does do lessons over Skype, just e-mail him at speedchain@gmail.com
3JACK