Full Swing

Hitting A Draw Part 5: The Follow-Through

You’ve done it! You’re down to the final piece of the puzzle of hitting a draw.

You’ve gotten through the backswing by tracing the grid, you turned your hips and got those knees to change flex, you kept a nice flat left wrist at the top, you slid your hips far enough towards the target to keep the path in to out, and you struck the golf ball. But what do we do now? Is that all? Is it over?

NO!

The last piece of the puzzle is very important and seldom discussed. It’s called “extension” and it’s the one that helps us generate power and create height on those draws your about to hit.

Extension is a very simple motion that most people can do with very little effort. If you were to stand up nice and tall, and from that position push your hips forward and up, you would be extending. If I were a lumberjack and and wanted to chop a piece of wood on the ground, I would raise the axe over my head and “extend” and get into a similar position. This motion actually allows the golfer to keep their arms long and straight at and after impact creating a more consistent strike, as Steve is doing in Photo 1.

Most cliché golf instruction will tell you to “keep your head down” or maybe your buddies said you are always “picking your head up.” Well, believe it or not, if you were to actually keep your head down, you wouldn’t be unable to extend to hit those big, high draws we are looking for. So it is of the utmost importance to make sure that when you are hitting golf balls that you extend properly by pushing your hips for-ward and up while also not “keeping your head down.” Feel free to turn your head and rotate it — it’s always nice to see where your ball is going!

Again, the proper look at follow-through is Photo 2. Photo 3 shows what often happens when you work too hard on keeping your head down: No extension and a weak, broken-down follow-through. You can guess what happens to the ball in that scenario — no power, no direction and certainly no draw.

THE UPPERCUT DRILL

A very simple drill to help you understand extension is to get into your address position with no golf club. I want you to make believe you have a boxing glove on your right hand and directly to your left is your opponent.

Your task is to hit your opponent with an uppercut with as much force as you can. To accomplish this you will propel your hips up and forward. This is the same move we use in golf to generate a high towering ball flight. I demonstrate this move in Photos 4-8.

After practicing your upper cut for a few minutes, place a club back in your hands and make a few swings and simulate the same motion you did while throwing punches at your imaginary opponent.

You’ve done it. If you followed all these pieces properly you should be hitting big, high beautiful draws that your playing partners will be jealous of.

So just remember: follow and understand the grid, use your legs properly, a flat or bowed wrist hinge, a hip slide, and extension will create that draw. Take each piece one at a time and step by step and you will be a master in no time.

Scott Yurgalevicz is a teaching professional at Chester Valley Golf Club in Malvern, Pennsylvania. Steve Sieracki is Director of Instruction at Indian Spring Golf Club in Marlton, New Jersey

How To Hit A Draw Part 1

How To Hit A Draw Part 2

How To Hit A Draw Part 3

How To Hit A Draw Part 4

How To Hit A Draw Part 4: Downswing

Now that the backswing is tidied up we begin our downswing, but what important things need to happen so we can trace our grid and also make a solid strike to hit a draw?

We hear a lot about “clearing our hips” in the downswing,” when in fact most golfers who struggle to hit a draw have too much turn in the beginning stages of the swing. The best golfers in the world don’t get to the top of their backswing and then immediately start turning the upper body as rapidly as possible, as in Photo 1; they actually move their hips laterally towards the target (Photo 2).

When a golfer allows the hips to move laterally in the direction of the target, he is actually making sure the low point of their swing is not behind the ball but rather in front of the ball to ensure a ball-first strike. He also ensures that the path of the club is in-to-out to strike the ball and create a draw, whereas rotating will rapidly shift their path across the ball creating a slice (Photo 3).

The best part of this motion is that you aren’t eliminating your turn, you are merely slowing it down. The golfer who has the most amount of hip slide forward will tend to have the most in-to-out swing path and the most draw; conversely the golfer with the most turn and least amount of forward slide will have the most out-to-in swing.

DRILL: LONG ARM PUNCH SHOT

This drill is a great way to get golfers to feel how much slide is necessary to keep the path of the club moving in to out to generate a draw.

Start by grabbing a short to mid iron and setting up a golf ball in the standard address position (Photo 4).
Then proceed to make a backswing where you keep BOTH arms nice and straight to about waist height.
From here you will push or slide your hips laterally so they feel like they are moving well in front of the golf ball.
Take a moment and repeat this hip slide motion to get a feel for how much slide you need and how little turn you feel.

After feeling this motion repeat this drill but strike your golf ball. Notice how the strike will be ball first on the small swings and the ball should have some small amount of right to left draw on them.

Continue doing the drill until you feel confident to make the swing larger. As the swing gets larger you will notice the “turn” or “clearing of the hips” in the downswing is still happening but it’s occurring much later than before!

How To Hit A Draw Part 1

How To Hit A Draw Part 2

How To Hit A Draw Part 3

How To Hit A Draw Part 5

The Big Golf Balance Act

Golf is a rotational athletic endeavor, requiring you and your body to balance an accelerated rotational force to transfer the energy you generate with the golf club to the ball at the absolute right time. At least that is what physics tells us — centrifugal force releasing inertial energy in a straight line to your target. Too complicated? Let’s make it a bit simpler for you and focus solely on two words, golf balance.

First, imagine a merry-go-round or a wheel. Your golf swing is a carbon copy of that movement, with a central hub that creates the turn, while the “horses” or the “tire” are moving faster than the center. The difference between these two examples and you is your ability to stay balanced — your equilibrium.

The equilibrium is a very small sack of liquid positioned directly behind the bridge of your nose, keeping you in balance during all your daily experiences, preventing you from falling over at any given moment. Your equilibrium uses your eyes to do most of its work, acquiring a visual horizon to reference its balance. Your visual horizon consists of the different slopes and elevations, tree tops, bushes, roof tops, and other items you see in the distance.

However, when taking your golf posture, you do not see those items, you see the ball and the grass beneath. When addressing a golf ball, you place your equilibrium in a position of disadvantage to its core mission. It now must rely on your feet and your core and what those body parts feel in relation to the rest of your body to ensure you don’t fall over during a golf swing. Any out-of-balance movement detected by your equilibrium as you swing triggers an “auto pilot” response to slow your movement down. And the death blow to any golf swing is deceleration, creating shorter and more errant shots.

Bottom Line: You must to learn to balance your turn throughout the golf swing to ensure the club is accelerating at the moment of impact and improve the chances that the face is centered to the ball and target at that moment.

The Good News: You don’t have to go to the golf course to work on balancing and accelerated turn of your core. You have all the materials at home to do this. It only takes five minutes a day to effectively create a positive change in how fast you can keep your body balanced using your core as the “engine” to your swing. Here are five very simple and efficient drills you can do to teach your body to balance your turn.

BUCKET BRIGADE DRILL

Stand with feet under your shoulders, arms extended in front of you, holding a small bucket of water (do not fill the bucket completely).

Take your golf posture to an imaginary target in your home or backyard (edge of a picture frame, tree trunk, etc.) insuring feet, knees, hips, and shoulders are parallel to each other and you are “Parallel Left” of your intended target (Parallel Right for the Left-handed golfer). Although you are not at the golf course, you always need to reference a target when doing any drill or exercise so your brain and body can correspond that reference to the golf course.

Using only your feet, legs, and core, turn toward your target, as if you were going to hand the bucket of water to someone, without spilling the water.

Hold this position for a count of “5” so your brain and body can not only remember the position, but remember how it got to the position from your set-up position.

Repeat this movement several times in each direction, not just the direction in which you finish your swing. Doing so will properly balance how your body works, and uses sets of muscles equally for each side of your body, something that is important for not only great golf, but a healthy lifestyle too.

TOSS THE BAG DRILL

Take a similar set-up stance to the one you used for the Bucket Brigade Drill, this time holding an impact bag or a small (4-8 lbs.) medicine ball. As you hold the bag or ball, be sure not to “clutch” the object as you hold it. With flat hands, gently secure the bag between both hands.

Using nothing but your feet, legs, and core, make a backswing motion and then make a “turn” to your target, similar to how you would swing a golf club.

If you properly accelerated, while maintaining your balance,

The bag should sling shot out of your hands towards your target
While your arms remain extended towards your target
And your back toe is not in a “pirouette” position
If you used your hands and arms to throw the bag/ball
Most likely both feet will have remained on the ground
Your arms are probably bent
And the bag/ball had a lot of spin as it flew
The objective of this drill is to have the bag/ball fly out of your hands due to the balanced centrifugal force you create and reach your target without excessive spin. Be sure to do an equal amount of repetitions to each side.

BALL AROUND YOUR LEG DRILL

Similar to the first two drills, this drill focuses on how your feet, legs, and core, the “engine” of your golf swing creates a rotational force. Wrapping the ball around your leg isolates the feet and legs and how your back leg creates “Down Force” to leverage the ground below you.

Find a tennis ball or other ball the same size (can be heavier if you want) and drill a hole through the ball so you can tie a small rope or large string through the hole.

Wrap the other end of the rope/string around your back leg’s thigh, allowing the ball to drop about half way down your lower leg.

Taking your golf posture, with your hands behind your back, make a forward swing only from this position, attempting to wrap the ball around your forward leg. Do not make a back swing to achieve the desired result.

Repeat this drill several times, focusing on how the foot, ankle, and knee are being used in a synchronized way with your core to make the rotation forward.

Repeat this drill in the opposite direction to insure you are keeping each side of the body in proper golf balance.

CROSS CONNECTION KNEELING STRETCH

When you are born, your body is pre-programmed to “Cross Connect” to keep the body balanced while in motion. The best example of this is how your arms work as you walk. When your left leg is steps forward, your right arm moves forward.

The ability of your body to “cross connect” during the swing is essential to good golf balance while swinging. You can isolate each side of your body’s ability to maintain its flexibility and cross connection capabilities with this one simple exercise. There are others you can add to a great workout routine, but this the simplest, the easiest, and the most effective way to utilize five minutes each day.

Find a pole, door knob, small tree, or other fixed object around your house you can hold with your hands that will not move or give if you pull on it.

Beside your fixed object, kneel on the knee furthest from the object, with the other leg bent directly in front of you, in line with the rest of that side of your body.

Reach towards the fixed object with both hands, placing your hands on the object in the same position as if it were a golf club. Try to keep your hips in their original starting position.

Now turn away from the object, using only your hips and core. Hold that position for a count of 5, working your way to a count of 10 or more as you become better at the stretch.

It is important that you not pull with your arms and hands, and the angle made with your shoulders stays behind the angle formed by your hips. This presents the “Cross” and the position you want to achieve at the moment of impact within your swing.

CASTER CHAIR DRILL

Most amateur golfers do some sitting in the office throughout the day and do not actively engage their core regularly while sitting. Now you, too, can and effectively maintain your golf swing.

Sit centered the chair, with your glutes at the end of the chair, allowing your feet to be flat on the ground. Be sure your hips and shoulders are in line with your feet and not at an angle. Bend slightly from the hips as if to replicate the posture you take in your golf swing.

Have someone hold your shoulders and turn your hips, using your feet on the ground as leverage. The chair will rotate toward the side you are turning to. Maintaining the position of your shoulders provides separation of your upper and lower body and replicates the cross connection you need for proper balance.

When you become good at separating the upper and lower parts of your body, try doing the exercise without someone holding your shoulders.

And when you progress to achieving the exercise without assistance, attempt to rotate the chair with your lower body in one direction, and your shoulders in the opposite direction

Being able to maintain a solid core and leverage your feet in a swing will enable you to better balance the “Turn” you make in your golf swing. And all it takes is a few minutes a day within your normal routine, to maintain and improve your ability to create a more balanced turn.

John Hughes is a PGA Master Professional based at Falcon’s Fire in Orlando, Florida, and 2013 PGA of American Horton Smith Award recipient. Visit him at www.johnhughesgolf.com

Five Ways To Golf Power And Accuracy

Editor’s Note: It’s getting more and more evident that amateur golfers should put the bulk of their practice time into the short game, from the pitching wedge in. That’s where well over half of the strokes in a round take place. But that doesn’t mean you should ignore the longer clubs. Of course not — every successful hole begins with a good tee shot, a solid approach and, sometimes, a well-thought-out lay-up on a par 5 or long par-4. The following handful of tips from our friends at the beautiful Salish Cliffs Golf Club in Shelton, Washington, just a half hour or so north of the capital city of Olympia, offer their tried-and- true methods for achieving more golf power and accuracy from those clubs you pull when you’re farther from the target.

IRON FORCE 1

Ball ‘Normal’ vs. Ball Forward

Chris: When you are trying to squeeze a few more yards out of your irons give yourself a little more room to transfer your weight by moving the ball toward the target in your stance. In addition to the allowing a more aggressive weight shift, your new ball position will help raise your trajectory and get those extra carry yards needed.

IRON FORCE 2

Find Power At The Top

Chris: It’s not always the big muscles and joints that help produce power in the golf swing. The small ones are crucial, too — none more so than the wrist.

Can you spot the difference in Photos 1 and 2? It’s subtle, but the one below has more hinge. Which is good. You don’t need to lift the club higher or try to turn more to pick up those few yards with your irons. Don’t do anything drastic, just add more hinge to really set the top of your backswing. Assuming your ball position is good for squeezing out extra distance, you’re in fine shape to send those approach shots soaring.

IRON FORCE 3

Hip To Be ‘Fired’

Chris: When golfers try to make a more aggressive swing and weight transfer, they need to make sure the sequence starts with the lower body while maintaining wrist hinge. As weight moves toward the target golfers need to make sure to rotate the lower body and get the right hip firing through impact, as I’m demonstrating in Photos 3 and 4.

If you can do these three things, you should be able to squeeze those extra yards you need out of your irons.

BOMB THE DRIVER

Tee It High And ‘Ground Your Leverage’

Brad: I always tell my students to make sure they have a few set-up and swing bases covered when they’re looking to get the ball further down the fairway. I like the right leg to remain flexed a bit in the backswing, which promotes more hip turn. That doesn’t mean letting the club go too far past the target line, however — on the contrary, as I demonstrate in Photo 5, I’m a little “laid off,” meaning the club points to the left — which promotes an inside-out path/draw.

Photo 6 shows that when you want to bomb the driver, widening your stance and dropping your back foot allows you to load into your glutes more and use the ground to create more power (Photos 7 and 8). Similar to taking a jump shot in basketball, if you are going to shoot from a farther distance, you need squat down farther in order to generate more power from the ground up.

MASTER THE 3-WOOD

How To Keep It In Play

Chris: The 3-wood (or 3-metal) should be one of the most versatile and reliable clubs in your bag, but too many golfers try to hit it like a driver by going at it too hard. The key for this stick, especially from the fairway or light rough, is to stay relaxed at address, swing to the finish and stay fluid (Photos 9-11). Don’t steer the shot or swing from the top; let the loft do the work and let the clubhead release naturally via its own weight. If you are choosing the 3-wood to stay in the fair-way, then avoid swinging for the fences or else you might just send your ball over a fence!

Chris Koch and Brad Elzie are PGA teaching professionals at Salish Cliffs Golf Club in Shelton, Washington. Check out the course and Little Creek Resort at www.little-creek.com

How To Hit a Draw, Part 3: Wrist Action

Now that we know the basics of how to hit a draw and the process to achieve it from article 1 and article 2, let’s dive in a bit deeper and talk about wrist action in the swing and how they have a dramatic effect on whether the ball will draw.

The wrists are an integral part of the process of hitting good golf shots, but many amateur golfers don’t fully understand how to use them properly, so we will talk about how they work and affect your ability to hit a draw.

During the golf swing the golfer will start their backswing, follow the grid and at some point begin to actively hinge the wrists (Photo 1). This upward hinging creates a lever designed to generate speed and power during the swing, much like a carpenter would hinge his hammer to generate power to strike a nail. Photo 2 shows how this position should look about halfway into the backswing.

Now when the golfer creates this hinge or L position like we see above, it’s important to discuss the right and wrong way to hinge. The two options for hinging the club are simple. Golfers have the option of hinging the club while keeping their left wrist (for a right-handed golfer) flat/bowed or they can hinge the club with a cupped/bent left wrist. These are the two ends of the spectrum.

These differing wrist angles at the top of the swing will result in two totally different shots for the golfer. The golfer who hinges the club and develops the cupped position at the top has now effectively opened the club face (Photo 3). As you can see, it points more down toward the ground at the top of the backswing. By opening the face during the backswing, this golfer will need to make numerous compensations in his swing to attempt to shut the face before impact, resulting in erratic shots and general inconsistency. Also, you can see as the left wrist continues to cup the arms and elbows begin to separate, which makes it harder to trace the grid on the downswing.

Conversely, if we look at the golfer who hinges the club and creates a flat or bowed wrist angle at the top of the backswing, we see a clubface in a dramatically different position, pointing closer to the sky than the ground (Photo 4). We also notice that the arms of this golfer are straighter, closer together and more around the body which helps him trace the grid properly. Since one of the key components of hitting a draw is having the face of the club closed to the path, having a flat to bowed left wrist will increase the odds of accomplishing this.

THE BOWED WRIST DRILL

A great way to generate a flat left wrist at the top of your backswing is to grab a book or tablet and place it in your hands as if you were holding a golf club. Take a pretend backswing and practice keeping the book against your lead/left forearm during the backswing and all the way up to the top (Photo 5). This will generate the flat left wrist we need to hit that draw. If the book/tablet is hitting your right forearm you have a cupped lead wrist and will be hitting a fade or slice!

Scott Yurgalevicz is a teaching professional at Chester Valley Golf Club in Malvern, Pennsylvania. Steve Sieracki is Director of Instruction at Indian Spring Golf Club in Marlton, New Jersey

How To Hit A Draw Part 1

How To Hit A Draw Part 2

How To Hit A Draw Part 4

How To Hit A Draw Part 5

How To Hit A Draw Part 2

In our first article on how to hit a draw, we looked at the basic schematic of how the face and path of the club should move in conjunction with the hand and arm path. To help facilitate the motions of the grid we need to understand how the body work and more specifically the HIPS.

The hips are a very complex and large chunk of your body and mass. We all hear the hackneyed expression, “It’s all in the hips,” but there is a lot of validity that goes into that statement when it comes to golf. Let’s dive in further and see how the hips allow you to follow The Grid more efficiently.

A lot of old school golf instruction tells you to “keep the flex in your back leg during the backswing,” but the truth of the matter is we need to do the exact opposite. At address most if not all golfers start with some amount of knee flex. During the backswing, to properly follow the grid the lead leg will begin to gain an amount of flex and the trail leg will begin to lose flex, forcing the hips to tilt (Photos 1 & 2). Doing this allows the golfer to adequately turn the hips, allowing the shoulders to turn as well — and also creates a more inward hand path, which follows the grid.

If a golfer were to keep as much flex in their legs as possible and attempt to make a backswing, he would turn the hips and shoulders significantly less, resulting in a lack of speed and power (Photos 3 & 4). It would also force the hands to stop going in, but rather move more out and away from the body, making the golfer less inclined to have an in to out swing path. Not allowing the hips to turn also forces the golfer to sway or excessively shift laterally, which will result in fat and/or thin contact.

Mow The Lawn

A drill that I love to do with my students is the “Lawn Mower Drill” to help them understand the basic motor patterns.

First, stand in your address position with no golf club in your hands. Make sure you have some, if not extra flex in your legs to help exaggerate the drill.

From there I want you to take your right hand (for a right-handed golfer) and pretend that you have the string/cord from a lawnmower in it. Begin to pull that imaginary string as if you were starting the lawn mower, as demonstrated in Photos 5-7. Do this a few times and get a feel for the motion.

Notice how you were naturally inclined to let the legs change flex and you let the hips turn freely? Do more of this and you will master the action of the hips on the backswing.

Scott Yurgalevicz is a teaching professional at Chester Valley Golf Club in Malvern, Pennsylvania. Steve Sieracki is Director of Instruction at Indian Spring Golf Club in Marlton, New Jersey

How To Hit A Draw Part 1

How T o Hit A Draw Part 3

How To Hit A Draw Part 4

How To Hit A Draw Part 5

Hit A Draw In 3 Basic Steps

Nearly every golfer develops a natural shot pattern such as a fade, draw, slice or hook. The hardest shot is to consistently hit the ball straight. The benefit of playing a natural shot pattern is you generally know what the ball will do and where it will go. However, the overwhelming percentage of players routinely slice the golf ball and don’t understand why. They can’t figure out how to hit a draw.

Remember when Bubba Watson hit a miraculous 90-degree hook from the trees on the green that set up his first Masters victory? Understanding the fundamental reasons why the ball draws or hooks was imperative for him to pull that shot off. The following tips will help a player understand how they can begin to hit a draw.

How to Hit a Draw

Great ball strikers approach the ball from inside (see illustration at right). Additionally, they swing the club on an equal swing plane during the backswing to downswing or create a slightly steeper backswing and flatter downswing. Low handicap players rarely create a flat backswing and steep downswing.

Hitting a draw requires the club face slightly closed in relation to the club path. Therefore, the club should be traveling slightly in-to-out across the target line with the club face slightly closed. For example, if the club face is traveling two degrees in-to-out, the club face should be two to four degrees closed relative to the path so the ball starts to the right and curves back to the target. If the club is closed more than four degrees you will start to generate a severe left-to-right ball flight known as a hook.

Learn to approach the golf ball from inside the target line if you want to produce a draw. The sequence for the downswing should include the hips, upper body and arms. Players that start the downswing with the upper body create the unwanted “Over the Top” move that results in the outside-to-inside move. Divots point left of the intended target. Learn to sequence the downswing with the legs and hips rather than the upper body. In addition, this creates a more efficient weight shift so most weight is on the front leg at impact. Players that come over the Top often leave most of their weight on the back leg at impact.

Alter the Set-Up

The ideal neutral set-up positions the feet, knees, hips and shoulders parallel to the target line while the club face points directly at the target. The set-up plays an important role in the direction the ball will travel.

Players can manipulate the set up and promote a draw. Keep the club face pointed toward the target, however, line your feet up slightly to the right of the target. This encourages an in-to-out club path, flatter approach and closed club face at impact. When done correctly, altering your set-up is a simple way to alter ball flight so the ball starts to the right of the target line and curves back to the middle.

Wrist Flexion

Understanding how the left wrist works during the downswing influences whether you hit a draw or fade at impact. Good ball strikers swing the club from the inside with the club face closed in relation to the path. In addition, the left wrist is in a bowed position (see photo at left).

Players that hit a draw generally create a flat wrist at the top of the backswing, and change the angle of the left wrist into a flexed, or bent position during the downswing.

This positions the club slightly behind the hands during the downswing and encourages the correct path and club face angle at impact needed for a draw. When the left wrist is in flexed position it should help drop the club head down the shaft plane and approach from the inside. The photos below shows this proper swing sequence.

Read more of Tyler Heal’s blogs at www.adeptgolf.com

Release The Club For Great Golf

In the immortal words of the great cabaret singer Engelbert Humperdinck, “Please Release Me Let Me Go. Every day I go to the lesson tee and, with rare exception, I encounter a student if not students who for a variety of reasons do not release the club. The release, as it is commonly called, is simply the ability to square the club face at the moment of truth — that is, impact.

There are two releases in the golf motion. One is the release of the body. Some call that “turning,” but I refer to it as the pivot — the winding of the pelvic region or the lower body (more to come below). The second release, which seems to be taboo to talk about in today’s modern instruction world (but not in mine) is the release of the hands.

The pivoting of the lower body is at the mercy of a player’s ability to use his/her feet and legs in an athletic manner to create both a rotational force as well as a weight transfer from right side to left side. Learning how to use force against the ground is vital. Have you ever seen a great athlete in any sport with bad footwork? Gretzky in hockey, Jordan in basketball, Jeter at short-stop, an Olympic gymnast, or any world class golfer? That footwork, which progressively leads to great leg work and ultimately an ability to rotate their hips, lends to force being created with which to strike the ball.

The release of the hands is probably a bit more controversial in today’s teaching and coaching arena. Not many like to discuss the hands and arms as primary sources of speed or direction. That said, what do you shave with, eat with, steer a car with, brush your teeth with, write with, type with, etc.? Your hands! They are well-trained, get lots of reps in daily life and are pretty damn well-educated. Have you ever heard of hand-eye coordination? Next point: the vast majority of right-handed golfers are in fact-right handed (I happen to be a right-handed golfer who is left-handed). It’s always been said through time that you wanted to get your trail hand (right hand for right-handed player, left hand for left-handed) out of the golf shot. I couldn’t disagree more. The trail hand in the case of a right-handed/right hand golfer is what I refer to as The “smart hand,” the left hand is in this case the “dumb hand” (lack of reps, un-educated). That’s why I believe the dumb hand is generally taught to be placed on the club in a somewhat stronger setting while the smart hand is placed on the club in a more neutral setting. The dumb hand needs help. i.e., a head start in the release process; the smart hand does not.

All you right-handed/right-hand golfers, try the following: Take some face-on video swinging a short iron with your left hand only, then take film swinging the same club right hand only. Watch each video in slow motion. Tell me with which hand the club face releases more actively and/or sooner? I strongly recommend that if you can’t seem to release the club and spend your days in the right rough, to go to your local practice facility, tee up the ball at the same height you would on a par 3, take out an 8-iron or other short iron and spend the entire session hitting balls right hand only. It may be difficult at first. Stick with it and email me about three to five months from now and tell me how much you like hitting those beautiful high draws!

In the photos above and right, I’m using a tennis racket to show face release and “letting go” to promote a lack of tension in the arm swing. Notice the racket face is fully released. Imagine hitting a forehand top spin shot.

Master your footwork, learn how to pivot your lower body, and understand and promote the use of your smart hand and you’ll be off to the races. Gain yards, hit more fairways and greens. Let me know how this works out.

For all our Golf Tips loyalists, feel free to send me a swing video doing this drill to my V1 TP GOLF On Line Academy. The first analysis is on me! If you aren’t familiar with how to use V1, details are available on my V1 page on my website at www.tompatri.com

The True Golf Swing Revealed

I believe that the true golf swing is much easier to learn than most people make it. Most golfers confuse and complicate the golf swing by getting stuck with what I call “do-this-do-that” information. They are always trying to “make” a move like “pulling the elbow into the right side” or “holding the angle then release late.” There are a thousand of these “secret” moves that people keep trying in the hope they will finally find their swing. The reality, however, is that everybody knows how to swing, they just haven’t applied it to their golf swings!

What usually happens when we pursue the “do-this-do-that” model is that we try to copy the look of a good swing, but we usually get farther away from actually swinging.

It doesn’t have to be that way. The biggest problem golfers face is misconception. Most hold on to notions like, “the left arm needs to be straight,” or “I’ve got to hold the angle.” While these are things that appear to be true when watching a professional golf swing, they are far from the experience of truly swinging. In fact, the true phenomenon that I’ve experienced and witnessed hundreds of times is that once the student understands swinging, sees what a swing is, and can feel what a swing is, then “good” golf form begins to take shape…without thinking about a bunch of different moves or positions. What I’m trying to say is that learning the function of swinging comes before the form or image of swinging. Most golfers (and teachers) assume that if the form looks right, then the swing will function properly.

If you find yourself inconsistent or not progressing, I’m willing to bet that you continually try to copy form or force your individual muscles to “do” (shift weight to start downswing, keep left arm straight, make sure hips are turning first, etc.) — a specific move hoping that a great swing will magically appear. That is not how you learned to do anything you do well. I’ll give you a simple understanding of the physics of swinging an object and how to truly learn how develop it without all the mental noise. The only thing you will need to have success is 1) a willingness to do instead of think you are doing, 2) drop your pre-conceived notions of what you think a swing should be, and 3) be able to notice the differences between what does and doesn’t work.

WHAT MAKES A SWING WORK

I haven’t met anyone yet that hasn’t been in a playground swing. I’m going to sug-gest you go find one to deepen the most important principle of learning how to swing. To effectively swing, I need to pro-vide two things – tension and movement. In a playground swing, if I don’t have tension, I can’t swing, as I demonstrate in Photos 1 and 2). If I don’t create move-ment that maintains tension, my swing gets distorted. Now, here is where you need to make a critical connection. Your lead arm func-tions like a playground swing and your golf club also functions like a playground swing; see Photo 3 for an illustration of what I mean. You have to supply a force that creates tension (a pulling sensation – not muscular con-traction) along your lead arm, and a force that creates tension along the length of the club. Anything else is not a swing!

THE SUM OF TWO SWINGS

Swing 1 — Arm swing around the torso (chest), and Swing 2 — Club swing around the wrist joint. When these two are linked together, they create a lot of club head speed. Also, the rhythm and timing of a swing is easy to sense and becomes easy to predict, to the level that you can strike a ball with incredible precision if you are willing to practice enough. Now that we have a clear visual, here lies one of the big challenges you will need to use your natural learning system to overcome. Your musculoskeletal design makes it very easy to interfere with the tension forces required to swing. Each
of your muscles is attached beyond the joint by a tendon. This allows a human to move specific body parts independently of other body parts — very useful for many skills, but not for learning a swing. The two areas in the body that you must learn how to keep in a non-contracted state for the forward swing are the shoulders, elbows and particularly the wrist joints. Any excess contraction of the muscles between those joints in the forward swing interferes with swinging. The good news is, if you pay attention to what you are experiencing when you swing, you can feel unnecessary contraction and learn by exploration (and some cool drills I’ll give you) to allow swinging to happen. Here are three of my favorite exercises to help players distinguish between swinging and not swinging

Drill 1: Kettlebell/Med Ball/Cone Toss Exercise

This exercise is simple. You just need something reasonably heavy, but not too heavy (between two and four pounds). In Photo 4 I have a safety cone (my favorite), hand weight and a medicine ball. Any of these will work for this exercise, which two of my young students demonstrate in Photos 5-8. This exercise represents the first swing you need to feel in your body — arm swing. Set up in your golf posture and allow the weight to pull your arms straight down. Swing the weighted object back and toss it forward. If you notice your shoulders are tightening up and your hands are squeezing tight, you are interfering with the swing (bad cone toss Photo 7) and the cone tends to go up. If you feel like your core muscles are working and your arms are being pulled consistently through the forward swing, then you’ve got it. Once you can feel the tension force of the swing working, you simply let the cone go. It will tend to come out lower with much more velocity. Practice this until it becomes an effort-less and synchronized movement. You know you are getting better when you toss the object a fair distance without strain in the upper back and shoulders.

As we move into experiencing the second swing — the golf club swinging around our wrist — we need to identify something that is critical to distinguish. Most golfers try to move the club using wrist torque against the shaft when ideally you should simply use the shaft to create velocity. In this drill, we are going to use my patented swing trainer, the PRO (www.swingthepro.com) to reveal a meaningful experience of what it feels like to interfere with the swing of the club vs. allow the club to swing. If you use your wrist muscles to rotate the club, you will put a force on the club that distorts swinging. This is not swinging. Even a little of this tendency will distort the swing, leading to a lack of accuracy and power. As you can see in Photo 9, when I do this exercise with the PRO – you can see a bend between the grip and the rope. This is just like pushing on the chains of a swing set! Here is an exercise you can do with your club to learn how to feel the natural pull of the swing.

Drill 2 – Using The PRO

Swing The PRO with your regular golf swing. If the rope bends at the grip joint, you are distorting your swing. If you can keep it dead straight throughout the entire forward swing and follow through (Photos 10-14), you are swinging.

Drill 3 – Feel the Swing in the Club

Take a club and hold it level to the ground (Photo 15). Next, turn back and bend the club so it is 90 degrees or less with your left arm. Relax your wrist muscles and your grip pressure as much as you can (Photo 16). Rotate your chest back towards the target without increasing grip pressure (Photos 17-19). If you are successful you will feel the club head speed up and actually rotate your wrists for you! If you experience a tendency to try to help or increase grip pressure, that is a good thing. You need to be AWARE of what it feels like to not swing and when you tend to do it. This is critical because the only way you can get better is to begin to catch yourself making a mistake.

You can then grip the club and the PRO at the same time to check how skilled you are getting, as I’m doing in Photos 20 and 21. I’ve seen these simple exercises have such a profound effect on so many types of players, beginning to professional. The reality is that we need to see how a swing works and be able to feel how it works.

Once this becomes evident, playing good golf becomes about letting the swing hit the ball instead of trying to push or force the club into the ball. And you don’t need to worry so much about your form because the skill of learning to swing reveals form – imitating forms doesn’t necessarily reveal your best swing. Good luck!

Dan Martin, PGA, is Director of Instruction at Rustic Canyon Golf Course in Moorpark, California, U.S. Kids Golf Los Angeles Local Tour Director and USA Junior National Team Coach

MORE GREAT LESSONS FROM DAN MARTIN

How To Hit A Draw, Part 1

Golfers of all skill levels and experience regard the shot described by three familiar words — hit a draw — as the holy grail to master. The image of the ball leaving the face slightly to the right, getting up to its apex and making a small left hand turn as it moves closer and closer to the intended target is the stuff that high handicappers dream of. Then reality hits them. Each week amateurs go out to the range or the course and have nightmares over their banana slices and push cuts.

So why is the draw so seemingly difficult to produce? The answer is simple — it’s a lack of precise instruction on how to systematically approach the task.

In this five-part series will take you on a journey from chronic slicer to a drawing machine. We will begin with what we simply call The Grid.

In essence “The Grid” is your roadmap to hitting the golf ball with a draw. If you follow it and don’t make any wrong turns, you will get to your intended destination. Before we dive into The Grid let’s clearly define what our destination is.

To hit a draw, physics tells us that two things need to happen:

The Path of the club must be moving some degree IN to OUT as it approaches the golf ball.
The club face must be closed/shut to the path of the club.

Now let’s see how The Grid plays an important role in getting to our intended destination.

In the photo above you will notice we have a few lines and arrows placed directly on the practice tee using tape or ribbon and golf tees. A basic understanding of what these lines mean will greatly improve your prospects of hitting that elusive draw, so let’s talk about them.

Since golf is an “offline” sport, meaning we stand adjacent to the ball while making a swing and not directly in line with the ball, so we cannot technically swing “straight back and straight through.” So what you see here are two very important lines that make an arc. The arc furthest away from the golfer — represent-ed by the green ribbon whre the ball rests, and the yellow ribbon after the “strike zone” — is the club path. The arc closest to the golfer is the hand path. To make the club path move in and around, the hands need to also move in and around.

The next thing you will notice is the ball placement. There is a straight line running vertical to the very point the path of the club moves from in-to-out, to out-to-in. From there the ball is placed a few inches to the right, or back, of that point. As the ball placement moves further back it pre-sets the path more in-to-out. If the ball is placed in front of or to the left of the vertical white line, you are pre-setting a fade bias into your swing.

The final piece to this is the club face. It is important that we make sure the clubface is closed to the path, or basically some-where between the path and the target line (represented by the red ribbon). This will get the ball started in an initial direction slightly right of the target and the path of the club will allow the ball to curve back to the left for a right-handed golfer.

A good way to practice a basic understanding of the grid would to physically lay some alignment rods or golf clubs on the ground, and set up as if there is a golf ball there. Hover your club well above the sticks and start to trace small, hip-height swings over the grid. Visualizing how the grid works and seeing it in action is very important to correcting your slice.