By Tim Graves, PGA

From: D A JENSON <jenson*****>
Date: Mon, Dec 8, 2025 at 8:40 AM
Subject: Follow-up
To: Tim Graves <timg@gravesgolf.com>

Hey Tim, 

This is Dean Jenson again.  I just got the email with your video about my email.  I was chuckling when you described what I was likely doing in my swing.   You nailed everything, of course. 

Just to fill in some blanks, I had the body damage mentioned from my sports activities earlier in my life.  Boys will be boys.

I spent one winter looking at different golf swings and settled on the single plane because of the reduced strain on the back and lead knee.    

My ACL damage was significant.  If I slipped a little shoveling snow, I would be down on the ground instantly.  I had to be very conscious of foot placement. I got the ACL replacement when pro athletes started returning to their sport after having the procedure done.  The problem for golf was 15 years of conscious and subconscious knee protection.  Correct lead knee movement and trail hip motion took years to override the self-protection mechanisms. 

I am not going to get into my shoulder and arm issues.  However, after talking with other students at your schools that I have been to, I feel relatively unscathed.  I suspect overcoming self-protection mechanisms might be slowing down other students’ learning processes as well.  I first had to slowly hit each position and hold it and tell myself that it was a safe position for me to be in. I had to repeat those slow movements a lot before I could speed up my swing.  Your comments about the 25, 50, 75 then full swing are great practice methods for the swing.   But they were also very helpful for tip toing in to find out my body parts could perform the movements safely. 

I decided last Thanksgiving that bike riding indoors and outdoors would be my main source of exercise for life.  Watching pro bike races got me interested in training.  Training harder got me into the pro rider’s health habits.  That got me and my wife into better nutrition, which was already good thanks to my wife.   I started getting into joint mobility and stretching after seeing and listening to you and Chris.  My wife made stretching a little competitive as she would ask me if I could do some of her Yoga poses.  I couldn’t, and my hips would actually cramp up just from sitting on the floor and spreading my legs out.   That was freaky.   I have been working on hip flexibility regularly for the last year and will continue whole body mobility as long as I breathe.   I am conscious of and work towards keeping full shoulder range of motion.  The golf swing itself helps with that.  The golf exercises from Chris, of course, are tremendous.  I may not get stronger, but flexibility will help maintain my golf swing’s range of motion.  It appears to me that range of motion is most important for the proper swing positions to take place and create the effortless power you talk about regularly.    

In the last month I have begun to feel effortless power.   I actually feel I need to slow the swing down.  I was always trying to swing hard to make up for a less than perfect swing.   Maybe it is not slowing things down but just using less tight muscled-up force.  I have reached a connectedness in the swing where I can feel I am hitting the ball hard; it sounds different as well.   The ease of the swing now makes me feel I could easily do 36 holes a day if I wanted to.   It is just mind boggling seeing the changes in the last 2 months.  

This is getting a little long again, sorry.  Apparently, I don’t do short emails.    

Thanks Again,

Dean Jenson