Three months ago I walked into the North Scottsdale Golfsmith and signed up for a lesson plan with GolfTEC. The package I bought included ten 30 minute lessons and 3 months worth of practice time. Each week I summarized the lesson and some of my progress:

• Swing Evaluation
• Lesson 1
• Lesson 2
• Lesson 3
• Lesson 4
• Lesson 5
• Lesson 6
• Lesson 7
• Lesson 8
• Lesson 9
• Lesson 10

Over the years I’ve taken golf lesson a couple of times. Nothing has improved my game like GolfTEC. It three months of work my 18 hole scoring average is two and a half strokes better than it was last year at this time. The results speak for themselves.

There are a few of things that make all of the difference for GolfTEC. Most important is their use of video combined with motion measurement. Feeling a golf swing can tell you a lot, but seeing an instant video playback and getting real numbers about your hip and shoulder positions at the 4 key points in the swing is invaluable.

The second thing that’s great about GolfTEC is they focus on the fundamentals of a good golf swing. This comes back to the motion measurements. By measuring turn, tilt, and bend of the hips and shoulders at address, top, impact, and finish you can easily see how you compare to the averages of some of the top players in the world. Many other lessons will give you band-aids for your swing, which isn’t a good long-term solution to improving your game. Good fundamentals will create a repeatable and consistent golf swing.

One of the final pieces of the puzzle is that you get an account on the golftec.com where all of your lessons are uploaded and your instructor can share drills. You can review videos of your swing and even a lot of the commentary from the actual lesson. But that’s not all, you can download all of this content to your computer so that you have the media forever.

Now that I’m heading home to Michigan, I’m done with GolfTEC lessons for a while and it’s up to me to keep working on the changes. Overall my swing feels better than ever. I have better fundamentals, which makes for a more consistent swing. My misses are a lot better than they ever have been, allowing me to recover from a bad shot. I still need a lot of practice though. My short game has the most room for improvement and I’m confident I’ll be able to drop a couple more shots when I put in the practice.

GolfTEC may not be right for you, but I highly recommend them. If you’re going to take any lessons, make sure you can put in a significant amount of practice time in order to make changes. If you don’t have the time to work on your game, don’t waste your money on lessons, because you can’t change your golf swing in an hour a week.

If you decide to take golf lessons somewhere other than with GolfTEC, never take lessons that don’t include some type of video. A golf instructor can tell you all day long what your problems are, but until you see them for yourself, you probably won’t believe the instructor 100%. Complete belief in a the changes you’re trying to make is crucial, because we all know doubt is not good in the game of golf.

Good luck with your game! Leave a comment if you have any questions.

If this info was helpful to you and you end up working with GolfTEC, give them my name and I’ll receive a free lesson.

My game feels better and better each week. Since lesson 9 I’ve been to the course for a few practice sessions working on my short game. Chipping and pitching still need a lot of work and I’ll need to put in some solid time to get more comfortable with the putting changes. Baby steps.

A lot of the changes to my swing have become natural. I no longer need to think about limiting my hip and shoulder turn on the back swing, which is something I’ve always struggled with. I could limit my shoulder turn even more, but it’s not too much of a turn to be a big concern when I have other pieces to work on.

Yesterday I had my 10th and final lesson inside GolfTEC. Below is my first swing during the lesson.

Here’s my swing at the end of the lesson.

My coach went over a couple of review points and some final keys to work on.

• Imagine a box starting at the ankles and going straight up. At address the lower body should be relatively centered and the upper body tilted to the right. My lower body was leaning to the right with the upper body.
• I started to sway to the right with my knees on the back swing again. Keep a stable lower body.
• In order to keep from missing iron shots off the toe, get the hands ahead of the club more at impact. Make sure to rotate the wrists here to square the club face otherwise the ball can only go to the right. Short game work on keeping the hands ahead should help this.
• Watch out for the cupped left wrist at the top of the back swing. This can lead to the slices with the driver.

In addition to yesterday’s lesson I went out and played 9 holes with my coach this morning. It was a casual round and not an official playing lesson or anything, but I was able to get some tips out on the course. It was the first time he was able to see my ball flight, so it was a great opportunity to learn even more. I had to wake up for a 6:45 tee time but it was well worth it.

• With the driver I have a tendency to have my shoulders open at address. I can also have my feet aligned more to the right of where I think I’m aiming. These two things can lead to a slice or a double cross.
• Make sure not to get flippy on chip and pitch shots.
• Square the club face with shorter full shots like the wedges. I had short shot usually means the club face was open at impact.
• When the ball is below the feet tendency is to have an open club face at impact. Closed club face when ball is above the feet. This is more the cause for hitting left or right than a slice/hook in those lies.

I really wish there was a GolfTEC in the Saginaw area so I could continue working with them this summer. It’s been great taking the lessons and now it’s up to me to put in the practice time when I get home.

Read my full review of GolfTEC lessons.

If this info was helpful to you and you end up working with GolfTEC, give them my name and I’ll receive a free lesson.