Getting the `feel' of the swing plane

It's back to Stepaside Driving Range for Carol Kirwan and her third lesson with Irish region PGA professional Dominic Reilly, who is based at the Leopardstown Golf Shop. Once again, Dominic begins by refreshing the last day's lesson before concentrating on improving Carol's posture at address.

The primary concern is she stands up straight, chin up, and bends forward gently from the hips. An initial problem is the lack of requisite width on the backswing. Dominic invites Carol to recall previous lessons when the emphasis was on turning, hinging and cocking the wrists.

A common fault is failing to complete the turn and only half cocking the wrists. Dominic guides the club back, holding the hosel, to try and get Carol to "feel" the desired swing plane. "The missing ingredient from what is a good backswing is width," he explains. The lesson is spent on guaranteeing Carol both understands and can replicate the correct posture at address.

A week later and the fourth half-hour lesson begins. Carol meekly concedes she has not been able to practise as much as she would like but by the end of the lesson, there is very little evidence of that. She has developed a posture, stance and grip that belie her lack of experience and her ball striking - not something Dominic is concerned with yet - is nevertheless improving appreciably. She is more confident in implementing what is being asked of her. "Carol has an excellent position at the top of the backswing, in terms of shoulder turn and wrist cock," he says. "The problems begin for golfers when they try and steer or manipulate the downswing, which takes the swing plane off line. People tend to swing forward rather than down, forgetting that at some stage you have got to come back to where the swing started for a split second before going forward."

Dominic's instruction centres on getting the pupil to recognise the feeling or sensation of the movements (components of the swing). Once Carol is regularly achieving the desired width on the backswing and returning the club to the ball properly, Dominic introduces an exercise to instill the correct follow through after impact.

At no stage has he spoken about weight transfer; for now all he asks of Carol, having demonstrated first, is that with no backswing and while addressing the ball, she turn her shoulders, thereby rolling the ball forward a couple of yards. He is trying to promote the correct finishing position which is to face the target, right foot up and right knee also facing the target area.

The lesson concludes with Carol repeating this exercise a dozen times, which would appear a little strange to a passer by, but when allowed to make a full swing seems to be having the desired effect.