Category: Video Tip

No doubt in my mind, the average amateur has too much excessive movement throughout their swings. This can manifest by ‘herky-jerky’ motions – swaying – lifting – and, especially having the arms get OUT OF SYNC with the lower body.

One of the most – if not THE most – popular drills I give my students, is what we call ‘The Pull Back Drill’; which really helps coordinate the movements into one solid working unit. This drill is actually done in three parts.

Part 1) Where you swing completely flat-footed and ‘try not’ to shift your weight at all. I tell people to imagine that I give their lower bodies a shot of novocaine to keep it perfectly still – and to imagine that they’re standing in dried concrete and can’t move. Then I have them swing their back and down and through the shot – BUT KEEP THE RIGHT FOOT PLANTED AT ALL TIMES! And here’s the critical part; After the completion of the follow-through IMMEDIATELY SWING THE ARMS BACK to the ADDRESS POSITION. After hitting 5 solid shots (and you’ll be amazed at how easy this will be), move on to PART 2.

Part 2) Now, after you’ve hit 5 solid shots, do PART 1 of the Drill On the Backswing – where you take the same backswing ) ie., just lifting your arms back), only now shift your weight down and through the shot finishing with 100% of your weight on your front foot – with your right foot up.

Part 3) After you’ve hit 5 more solid shots doing Part 2, now go ahead and hit more shots RETAINING THE FEELING OF BEING BRACED WITH YOUR LOWER BODY ON THE BACKSWING. (You can go ahead and allow your left shoulder to come under your chin on your backswing now).

This drill is a miracle worker and I assure you, if your swing gets off track, you can bring it back to Center with this Pull Back Drill.

Everybody always asks “What starts the Downswing?” And WITHOUT QUESTION, everybody answers “The Lower Body”…Period! Some great players feel the Left Hip Shifting and Turning, others feel like their pushing off of their right foot, ad infinitum.

One thing for sure that our force pressure plates prove that there’s a slight ‘Spike’ of pressure going down into the ground underneath the right foot. These ground forces are evident in nearly all great players – regardless of what they F-E-E-L is happening. I personally have always felt my Left Hip ‘Pulling’ my arms down, and I’ve never really related to ‘Pushing Off’ of my right foot. However, over the last few years, I’ve come across a different image and perspective, where I actually feel like I’m applying Pressure onto my right foot FIRST before the upper body begins to unwind.

This image of PRESSING DOWN onto the right foot works better for me than the PUSHING OFF image. Imagine, that there was a pitching rubber on the mound that was underneath your right foot, and your first move was to ‘Slightly’ sink down on the rubber ever so slightly. Doing this motion will automatically propel the rest of your body into the shot and achieve a proper Kinematic Sequence – THAT MUST HAPPEN!

Notice the white object just even with the baseball batter’s head in the split screen above. As the batter begins to stride into the ball, he pushes down somewhat into the right foot, and you can see that after doing so, his head drops slightly below the white object. There is nothing wrong with this as long as the Center of Gravity stays in control.

I think a lot of golfers put too much emphasis on trying to manipulate the golf club instead of relying on the Rhythm of the Shoulders to have the golf club actually be an EXTENSION of their bodies. Obviously, there’ll be times when you need to hit a certain type of shot, where you’ll need to do some form of manipulation in order to alter the clubface.

I think this concept is especially true for putting – where I see so many high handicappers try to ‘Open and Fan it’, ‘Square to Square’ – manipulate their wrists, etc.

One of the great sayings that I first heard from Hall of Fame teacher Jim Flick, whom I got to know for many years at Omni La Costa Resort was, “The Golf Swing is a ‘REACTION’ to the intended shot your mind created.” If you focus your mind on the shot, and TRUST your body to Obey the Mind, you should be able to have the club be in HARMONY with the shot; and thusly, pull off a great shot. Again, this is even more true in Putting, where the margin of error is much less than when making a full swing.

In today’s video, I’ll show you a simple ‘No Brainer’ Putting Drill that will help you put the feel back into your shoulders – and not your hands.

Without question, there is nothing more important in the golf swing than BALANCE – RHYTHM – and (especially) TIMING! As I mention in today’s video, you can have the greatest Swing Mechanics in the world, but if your Timing is off, it won’t do you much good. And, the reverse is true: i.e., you can have poor Swing Mechanics, but if your timing is good, you’ll be able to get away with them.

The two most common places for Bad Timing to occur is in the immediate Takeaway, and ‘especially’ starting down from the top too soon, and/or too quickly. Starting down too soon, is usually a symptom of anxiety, having poor swing mechanics on the backswing where the body has too ‘catch up’, and even more importantly TIGHT MUSC LES AND A LACK OF FLEXIBILITY. Imagine a rubber band that you’re trying to shoot across the room. If the rubber band is nice and ‘flexible’ and has plenty of elasticity, you can pull it back as far as it’ll go, and it’ll react accordingly by shooting across the room. However, if that rubber band is Brittle and Tight, it won’t ‘Want’ to expand fully and fight you to achieve a full windup. Same thing in the golf swing.

Whenever my golf game gets a little off and I feel like I’m rushing it, I’ll take a few ‘STOP AT THE TOP’ Practice swings and let my body Feel it. Then, when I get up to hit it, I’ll be more relaxed and patient and not in a hurry to start down too fast.

On a side note, there were some great players who actually did Stop at the Top that had excellent careers. Cary Middlecoff, Bob Murphy, and even today’s Hideki Matsuyama comes close.

Very seldom do I see a high handicapper who’s in a good Impact Position, and very seldom do I ever see a good player who’s in a bad Impact Position…..Hmmm?

The majority of golf instruction seems to be focused on getting into a good backswing position – so that the golfer will automatically be able to get into the good Impact position. That makes sense, but without question, the overwhelming majority of amateurs tend to get stuck on the rear foot and then be forced to flip the club in order to catch up with the lack of weight going forward. I’ve learned that where you focus, your energy will flow there. Often times, spending too much time thinking about your back swing, will sometimes freeze you up and not allow you to swing freely to – and through the ball.

A simple drill to free up your swing is to take a golf club and swing it with your trail arm only (so if you’re right handed, swing with just the right arm, and vice versa if you’re left handed). By doing this simple drill, you’ll be able to move freely and automatically shift your weight onto your front foot and rotate accordingly. If you were watching golf back in the early 90’s when Nick Price was dominating the tour, when he was coming down the home stretch, he’d do this drill before his actual shot, and nearly always hit it good.