danattherock, on 13 October 2016 - 10:32 PM, said:
Thank you. My folks have a home in Southport, and my boat is kept at marina there. We go there one or two weekends a month. I had no idea there was a Ballard trained guy at St James. Will look him up now. I had two great days with Jim Grant in May 2012, great guy. But Atlanta is five hours away. St James is 15 minute from our weekend home. Jimmy Ballard met with me on the range back in 2012 for an hour or two, after reading this thread. What a classy guy, wanted to give me a free lesson, so I met him near mountains of NC while he was on vacation.
Dan
bluedot, on 13 October 2016 - 04:08 PM, said:
I hope your comeback goes well. I truly believe that the Ballard stuff is THE best way to play golf without injuring yourself.
I have been playing this way for 20+ years; I'm 64 now and play 3 or 4 times a week. I work hard in the gym and at stretching, but I believe that an equally big reason that I have stayed injury-free over all that time (insert sound of knocking on wood here...) is using a swing that is has a wide base and emphasizes a weight shift and coil rather than a turn.
Jim Grant in Atlanta has been mentioned; another Ballard-trained guy is Barry Walters at St. James Plantation in Southport, NC. I worked with him at the end of July at the recommendation of the Ballard office, and it was GREAT! I've never hit the ball better in my life than I've hit it since then, and it's just simple.
Anyway, thanks for bumping this thread, and good luck!
Wow; cool! I highly recommend Barry Walters at St. James.
I'll tell you a cool thing about the lesson. Barry watched me hit balls from different angles for about 10 minutes before we did anything; all he wanted to know was what I was aiming at. At the end of that, he started the lesson by telling me three of four things that I was NOT to change or tinker with; I'd never had a lesson start that way, and it was GREAT.
We went on then and worked on width of stance, the first couple of feet of the takeaway, and the proper feel of releasing the club. Simple, and ZERO talk about turning, positions, or any of that. Thoroughly enjoyable, even in 100 degree weather! And the best part was that I didn't have to get worse to get better; this was the second day of a week-long golf trip, and by the end of the week with very little practice, I was hitting the ball far better than when I got there.
(Note: I had my Ballard book with me on the trip, and reread it for like the 50th time to help me mesh what the lesson contained. I'm obsessive about this stuff; I took my 15 practice swings with a weighted club at 7 am this morning when I went out to get the paper, and had a measuring stick between my heels to make sure they were EXACTLY 17" apart. My neighbors think I'm nuts, I'm sure, and my wife gave up on my sanity years ago!)