Keep your head level

One of the worst habits I developed over the years is dropping my left shoulder and tilting my body on the take-away.  In order to really hit it hard I just instinctively would tense my right bicep on the takeaway and pull the club back into position causing me to be way out of balance through my swing Joe and I have been working on this for a long time.  He's tried getting me to be more stable with my right knee, to work on holding the angle through the swing, and many other keys.
But those other important swing tips weren't having a large effect because of this dipping motion.  Finally yesterday, Joe went back to me keeping my head level (not stationary) throughout the swing. I kept working on it, and FINALLY it started to come together. 
By keeping my head level all kinds of good things start happening.  First, the arc that is created on the backswing is much longer, creating a pendulum motion of much greater force.  Second, by keeping level it allows me to feel the sensation of generating force with my lower body rather than my upper body.
This had an incredible impact on my my distance off the tee.  I went from hitting my driver, 200 - 220 yards to hitting it 240 - 260 yards.
For me now, my swing thought is to keep my head level by keeping my left shoulder my left shoulder high.  That's probably not written in any golf tip guide, but for me keeping my left shoulder high throughout the swing has improved my swing significantly!

Extend back

Lately I've bee hitting the ball short off the tee so today we worked on two things, 1) extending my arms back and 2) pushing my right knee into my left leg.  We worked on allowing the right elbow to move away from the body on the downswing rather than keeping it so tight to the body.  Bringing that right elbow into the body is causing me to collapse my weight onto the right side and I loose a lot of power with that type of move.
It took a lot of work to put it all together but it worked great on the practice range. I'll see if I can take it to the course.

All about the turn

It's all about the turn.  But there are so many things that can cause the turn to go bad.  Today we worked on taking the club back by tucking the left arm in close to the body and turning the left shoulder as opposed to picking the club up with the hands.  Turn the shoulder back, keep the head on a steady plane, and turn the hips.
I love watching Joe swing.  I'm trying to get it in my head that it should look like how he does it.  But today it's take it back with the left shoulder and oh yeah - don't flip the wrists at the bottom.

Working on it in Cold February

Today we worked on keeping the knees straight and not turning the lower body at the start of the back-swing. The shoulders will cause the hips to move, but the lower body should stay stable.  It was working great with the short irons, but as I moved to the 7&6 irons I started to loose it.
I have a bad habit (one of many) of dipping my head down as I take the club back.  It's caused by moving my lower body and not taking the club back with my left shoulder.  I worked on keeping my chin level.  That helps me make good contact with the ball. 
Joe explained the angle of the club at impact and how my wrists should be in relation to the ball at impact.  The wrists will naturally roll through the swing but the key is to not have them roll too soon.  It's like hitting a baseball in the strike zone. If you have already flipped your wrists when you make contact with the ball - it ain't going out of the infield. That's not good in golf.

Golf Lessons - overview

I've created this blog to record all the great tips and instruction that Joe Bernat has taught me.  We are now working together to improve his web marketing so that others can benefit from his knowledge of the game and the golf swing. 
My hope is that I can get it all down into an understandable message and that other people can view this and learn from it.