SECOND TIME AROUND
Our second V1 session came several months later, in mid-summer, after I’d had a while to work on those initial drills, with varying success — again, old habits die hard. This time I brought along my brand-new Cobra F8+ driver with its custom-fitted TPT shaft, as well as a new 22-degree Bridgestone JPG hybrid, recording several swings with each from the same angles.
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The consummate pro and a very busy one at that — he was teaching and playing up and down the Eastern Seaboard all summer — Patri was right on the case. Within a few hours I had his next set of comments, diagrams and pre-recorded drills that, again, nailed the cause and cure of each swing fault.
“I fully believe that almost every ill, every cancer, can be traced back to the set-up,” Patri began as he viewed the face-on view of my hybrid swing. The ball was too far back in my stance at address, which “put us behind the 8-ball,” he said. And though I was getting behind the ball more completely, I was still lifting.
“The eyes influence how the body reacts,” Patri continued as he pushed my swing through impact. Because of my ball position at address I was “hanging back,” with my head well behind the ball, instead of getting on top of it at impact for that crucial downward strike. I had no choice but to flip at the ball, yet another weak recovery move with which I’m all too familiar.
The drills? Using a mirror to make sure that each club in the wedge-to-drive progression is positioned properly — below the sternum for the wedge to the left heel for the big dog. A 5-iron, for instance, should be right in between, in line with the forward breast. On the range there are no mirrors, so he recommends the “hang” drill — letting the club dangle from its correct point along that line.
For the hanging back problem, Patri pointed to the great Annika Sorenstam, and how her head swivels with the swing, again keeping “on top” of the ball and allowing a full release to a balanced finish. It’s all about syncing body, head and arms. The actual drill is simple: Making a few swings and making sure the head moves with the hands and arms.
Finally, the driver: Again, a familiar theme: Pulling the club well inside at takeaway by hinging the right wrist instead of cocking both wrists upward together. The lifted arms, the laid-off shaft, the shut clubface — no wonder I’m constantly fighting hooks and pulls. Somehow I manage to keep more of my drives straight by pushing my tail-end toward the ball and my legs “around” instead of driving toward the target. My right foot moves toward the ball, heel-to-toe, rather than toward the target, flat-to-instep, a hallmark of all good players. And that means the occasional brutal block. “Two wrongs don’t make a right,” Patri said. “You have to put a leg or body block on it, in response to that initial movement. If we can get your hands and arms to swing away a little differently, put that shaft and clubface in a different place, we’ll take those blocks and hooks off the table.”
Patri then inserted the wrist cocking drill from the first session, followed by his “pivot-post up” drill — eliminating the backswing altogether and just moving straight into the follow-through, which helps you end up with all weight on the forward foot and shoulders level with the target.
All of Patri’s video analyses begin with an introduction, and an invitation to pass his word and pictures onto friends who could benefit from his V1 services. They end with a mini-resume of his experience and accomplishments.
V1 is a godsend for guys like me who just can’t work a regular date with a local pro into their schedules, but still crave a solid tune-up now and then. The system is inviting and well-produced without being slick or sly. Just meat-and-potatoes old-style instruction wrapped in a 21st century package that fits in your pocket — while expanding your chances at true improvement, just as you’ve always envisioned, far beyond the aspiration.
Check out www.v1sports.com for more on the app, and get to know Tom Patri at www.tpgolf.com.
