Eben Dennis

On Friday, May 21st I spent a half day with my coach Eben Dennis at The Links at Hiawatha Landing.

We started out at the driving range working wedges down to the driver.  During that part of the session we reviewed some of the principles of Power Feel Golf on which my game is currently based.  The main concepts we went over were how control and vision create dynamic balance.

Control is partly achieved by how you hold the club.  We found that I was actually holding the club with the face a bit closed to compensate for shots left out to the right.  Holding the club with the face square to the target felt a little bit strange but I understood that it was the right move to make, as I have been working on simplifying my swing and eliminating compensations.

Since the session I have been getting more and more comfortable holding the club with the club face square.  In fact I’ve learned that my fear of hitting it right is really unfounded.  With the club in this new position my ball flight has straightened out considerably.  My pitching has also improved tremendously.  I can easily launch it high and soft, something I had difficulty doing before.

The other part that we needed to work on was my hand strength.  By this I don’t mean how the Vs in my grip are pointing, I actually mean how lightly or strongly I’m holding on to the club.  It turns out that you can hold on to the club firmly while allowing the rest of your body and your arms to remain supple and loose. I was holding a lot of tension from my shoulders down, but as I learned to feel this new way of holding onto the club I felt more connected to it and more fluid.  This part of it is one of the aspects that has taken the longest to adjust to, but it is really making a big difference.

The other thing we spent a lot of time talking about was the vision.  The vision is not just about how you see the shots, but it is also about how your body moves.  When the body moves slow, the hands can move quick.  But when the body moves fast the hands move slow.  This is one of the best things that has happened to the way I understand the movements in the golf swing, and the vision has a lot to do with it.  It’s hard to explain so its something you need to learn about and feel.

The other thing I learned about the way my vision was moving, was that it moved initially backwards.  This was a result of being ball bound.  This also resulted in hitting down at the ball, instead of through it and out to the target.  Over the past few days I have learned how to maintain more of my focus out toward the target.  This keeps the vision from falling back and also helps to keep things in sync.  If all of this is making your head spin a bit, I would suggest you go to Power Feel Golf and read the book.  You can also buy the book, DVD and training grip from this website on the products page.

You can see we covered a lot of issues during that driving range session.  After that we headed to the chipping and putting area and worked a bit on short game.  All of the issues I was having in my full swing showed up there too.  But that’s good because I can work on them and as I iron these out, they will help my full swing too.

Implementing Eben’s ideas in chipping and pitching made a big difference.  It helped to improve my feel and distance control, as well as allowing me to control trajectory easily.  We hit a lot of pitches and I slowly started to get it.  My short game has improved but it’s not the strongest part of my game, however I now have a game plan to make it one of the best parts of it.

After the short game area we headed out to the golf course for 9 holes.  We started on the back nine of Hiawatha.  It was my first time playing a true links layout.  The only trees are around the perimeter of the property.  But there is plenty of high grass, undulating fairways, and undulating rough to make it a challenge.  The course is in fantastic shape, with fast firm greens.  This means that you need to be accurate and have excellent distance control.  Sometimes it took a number of tries to implement what Eben was teaching me correctly.  The reason is that I had a lot of chatter and conflicting swing thoughts.  These little conflicts would result in either indecision, or one style trying to overpower the other.  I had some bad habits that I was having a tough time letting go of.

I hit a few stellar shots that really excited me.  I also knew that the more I used what Eben was teaching me, and the less I let my old habits interfere, the better off that I would be.  We did not keep score for the 9 holes, but it wasn’t pretty although there were some highlights.

BTW if you have not taken a playing lesson, I highly recommend it.  It is helpful for transferring what you learn on the range to the golf course.  With your coach there, they can see what you are actually doing and make corrections there, or just say the right thing to get you back on track.

The Links at Hiawatha Landing has an amazing practice area and I wish that the courses near me where I play had something like this.  In addition to a generously large practice chipping and putting green,the practice area includes 3 full length holes.  Two of them are Par 3s of about 125 yards, and the other is a par 4 of about 330 yards.

This half-day spent with Eben was a highlight of my life as a golfer.  It is pretty amazing to spend some time with a teacher of Eben’s caliber.  He really knows the game, and knows how to simplify it.  I recently played some of the best golf I have all year.  I shot 77 at a very tough course up in the Albany, NY area, Orchard Creek in Altamont, NY.  It’s one of my favorite courses there, and it was my first time bre4aking 80.  The work I’ve done with Eben has given me a lot of confidence.  Take a look at Power Feel Golf, it can really simply the swing for you.



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