practicing yesterday

I was excited to go to the course yesterday to practice my short game but had disastrous results in my first 15 minutes attempting short ones off the mats. I was unable to find the new found ability to use my small pivot to give these short shots the energy needed to fly the distance. Instead I was scooping and using my hands which caused me to come up and out of my posture and resulted in my body stopping at the ball. Even though I was aware of my mistake I could not right the ship and actually got worse and worse.

I left the mats and went to the small green with grass and tried to recover my relaxed motion from Sunday. It took 30 minutes but finally I was back. Here are a few things I learned in the process.

1. the slide forward rather than pivot around causes all sorts of issues and I almost need to feel like I have a reverse weight shift on the front swing to NOT move too much laterally.

2. I must practice to learn not to sway back and move the handle of the club too far and too quickly.

3. the tom watson grip helps me match-up and not use my hands to "hit" the ball.