Norway girls come to Spain, November 2011

Leaving the UK in search of sunshine I arrived in Malaga and found it around+22 NICE! The girls from Norway even happier than me as they have had such a poor summer, very wet I believe. So they were ready, willing and able to get going with the school.

Our first day I split the group in two so I could give them each enough time and to video the group too, I feel this is so important. My clinic was all about the importance of a good set up, ball position, aim and of course contact. So this was the first thing that went down in their new note books (so important for them to write things down in their words!) We worked on the low point of the swing... get the low point right, hit it better! A quick bite of lunch and we were off on to the B course here at Novo Santra Petri to put it into practice, with great success I feel.

Day 2 I put the A group out on to 9 of the A course to play 9 holes while I put the B group through their paces with more long game followed by some bunkers and short pitching. What a great session, I just love it when we have “light switch moments” when they just GET IT!! Understanding what a difference good contact can really do for you and how the ball reacts on to the green with good shots, after their lunch they were off onto the course to put all their new ideas into practice. Group A then were with me for their 3 hour session were I talked to them about the importance of staying centred to help create a better contact. I like the idea of them staying 55/45 % of their weight on the front leg at the start with their hands forward of the ball at address and stay there, too much moving around in the swing can course a lot of miss hits, so I say “less is more” and easier to control, so working on good contact and hitting the ground AFTER the ball is what we want. We then did bunkers and pitching with again super results, I did test 2 or 3 of them to do something different....and it worked, great drills were learned... I really had a great day of coaching, very fulfilling with lots of lights going on. They then went off to play the other 9 holes (I work them hard hay... they love it!!)

Day 3 group B headed out to the course to play 9 holes and group A came to me for putting. I talked to them about how important it is about staying still with the body as well as the eyes, I gave them some drills to help this and check points such as their eyes in the right place. I also talked about aimpoint putting.  So what I got them to do is to find where the straight line or putt would be by walking around the hole around 7 foot away saying up up up up until it changes to the down slope, it was a bit of fun, but a great way to be aware of the slops on the green. We then headed to the range where we worked on fairway woods and driving, I also talked about the importance of having a good routine and sticking to it. After their lunch they went off to play 18 holes in the fab sunshine, we were so lucky as the week just got hotter! The B group then came over to me for their session on putting, the greens here are so good its great being able to put some good practice in and work on different drills and games to improve their putting, after all we all want to hole more putts, so good routines and movements are important. We then went to the range and worked on woods. I told them it was important to get the right height of the ball when you tee it up, so many people either put the ball too high or too low, so a good session was had and then they went off to play their other 9 holes.

The next day was our day of rest, some played golf and just about everyone had a massage and took time to chill by the pool in the hot sunshine, me, well I had a great relaxing day which started with a 40 minute run.

Day 5 I had both groups together on the range I talked about some good warm up drills and how to get the best out of their practice plus different length of pitching. A great mornings work in warm wind, a bite of lunch and we were off onto the A course for course management skills. As the wind got up a little I made them more aware of just where they should be aiming and of course what club they should be using “CLUB UP” There are lots of trees on the course, so if you were off the fairway you had to use the right club to get back on, as many people would just grab their pitching wedge, but here you would hit the trees in front of you, so I talked about a low punch shot with a 6 or 7 iron.....ball back in the stance and hands forward. Another great day then came to an end.

Day 6 was our last day I am sad to say, we had a tee time of 8.30 to start our competition and to put all what we have been working on in to practice. After 9 we had a break were I set up some drills and skills tests with the short game and more time to work on distance control with pitching. We then hit the back 9 around 1pm to finish our competition. It was great to see them all doing well. I am pleased to say there was some great golf played. The secret pairs was won by Bente and Margertha and the best putter was Ingvidel with 31 putts! Four of the girls had 35 points over the windy course, very good indeed.

I have to say a big thank you to all the girls for a fab fun week one of the best of the year I think, and I now look forward to 2012 and a new venue for our school.

The girls made friends with some older ladies in the hotel 4 of them aged between 81 and 92 who were on holiday and who our girls got up to dance with. A little nice story, I was waiting to go and one of the older ladies who had been for an early morning swim came up to talk to me, she said, “so it looks like you are leaving? I said yes the girls back to Oslo and me back to London, she carried on... I have really enjoyed watching the girls have so much fun, they were always smiling and laughing they have had a good time then? I said yes, she then said, I will miss you all, you have made my holiday better... they really are a good looking bunch of girls... safe trip back” So my girls made some older ladies smile and enjoyed the dance!