Martin Chuck on "Hand-Controlled Pivots" (Video)

I'll have to come back to this video at a later date, but I've been looking for something like this. Revolution Golf instructor Martin Chuck explains how to let your hands control your pivot to create clubhead speed.



Chuck says this will help older golfers, but note also that he references how Bobby Jones used this technique, so it's not just for older folks!

Most modern players are taught to use their pivot to control their hands (because they tend to overuse their hands), but this is the exact opposite of that technique (although most pros do use a combination of both). I've written about using the momentum of your hands and arms to help pull you through to your finish; Chuck uses the word inertia, which is the same thing.

It's basic physics: An object in motion tends to remain in motion. By using your hands to get the club moving, the club can help you keep moving all the way through your swing. You start the motion by bending your trailing elbow on the backswing, then you straighten it on the downswing just after you strike the ball. This straightening is what creates the momentum to pull you through to your finish.

As I said earlier, I'll come back to this video in a few days. But for now, be aware that this is the same sort of thing you learn when you use the L-to-L drill that I mention every so often. (Here's a link to one of the posts that includes video showing how it's done.) Combine the info from Chuck's video with the L-to-L drill, and you should find it pretty easy to make a hand-controlled pivot.

I know I say this a lot, but the golf swing isn't all that hard. It's just that we spend too much time focusing on trying to do things that would happen on their own if we just focused on the important things. This is one of those important things that will help simplify the game for you.

A Golf Lesson Among Friends (Video)

In case you missed it, here's Jack Nicklaus helping Gary Player get some height on his shots before they tee off at the Insperity Invitational Greats of Golf competition. The video is nearly 15 minutes long but you only need to see the first 1:30.



This is a great discussion between two legends who understand their swings. Listen to Jack talk about how, if you swing to the inside with your takeaway like Bobby Jones did, you have to swing back out -- that is, your downswing path is above your backswing path. That's a loop. And if you don't, you'll tend to get stuck and lose speed and height. Gary is swinging inside but not back out -- he says as much.

Listen to Gary talk about the difference in the width of their backswings. Jack had an upright swing with a one-piece takeaway -- which is very wide -- but Gary couldn't do that because, with his flatter swing, he tended to lay the club off at the top. (That means he points the club too much behind him, rather than toward the target.)

Jack talks about how his swing plane was so upright because he had such a huge shoulder turn. And he helps Gary widen his takeaway without making a more upright swing, which would cause that "lay off" move at the top for him.

That 1:30 is worth listening to several times, simply because you can learn so much about how the various parts of the golf swing work together to create the trajectory of a shot. Great stuff from the legends!

Martin Hall on Getting More Distance (Video)

Hall did this video last week to help older players get more distance, but not understanding how to use your hands and arms keeps a lot of players from hitting it out there. This video is a very simple explanation of how it works.



Okay, there are two parts to this, and if you're too fixated on swinging around your body you'll never get the hang of it.

• First, you cock your trailing elbow up and down.
• Second, you cock your lead wrist up and down.

That's it, folks. It really doesn't get any more complicated than that. It does assume that you will get a decent shoulder turn on your backswing and in your finish, but a "decent" amount of turn doesn't have to be huge. These moves create a more upright swing plane, and that means you can get by with a little less shoulder turn than you can with a flatter swing plane.

And yes, I have more videos to help you. I've posted them in past posts, so here are the links.

The first post teaches you how that upward cocking motion creates your "top of backswing" position. It's called Using Your Hands in the Takeaway and it features K.J. Choi's instructor Steven Bann. As I said, it will help you understand how that upward cocking action creates the so-called "textbook" position at the top.

And the other post is called Jim Flick on the TWO Pendulums in Your Swing, which I also referenced in the Nick Faldo post from yesterday. That "L-to-L" drill is a great way to learn that lead wrist upcock motion that Martin Hall is talking about.

Yes, I know I recommend a lot of drills over and over, but that's because they are proven drills that teach a number of skills and they work for almost everybody. Work with them and you'll find out for yourself.

And in this case, you'll pick up some extra distance, even if you aren't particularly old. Yet.

Martin Hall's Sponge Drill (Video)

This is a super-short Home School video from Martin on how to use a sponge -- no club -- to keep your hands, arms and shoulders in sync during your swing.



The drill is self-explanatory, but here's why it works: The flat side of the sponge should stay parallel to your chest throughout the drill. You're using a half-swing, about shoulder height. If the sponge starts to tilt so one edge or the other is angled, then your arms and chest aren't swinging together.

This drill will show you whether you're "getting stuck" (your trailing elbow collapses before you hit the ball) or "scooping" (your lead elbow collapses as you hit the ball). It's a nice visual way to get feedback, even without a club.

Brandel Chamblee on "the Magic Move" (Video)

I know many of you don't care for Brandel Chamblee, and you know I don't agree with him on everything either. But this short video he did on what he calls "the Magic Move" is a good explanation of what many successful pros have done to get distance.



I want to focus on that "straight right leg" he mentions. (And add that Arnold Palmer may have been the best example of it.) Bear in mind that you aren't necessarily "locking" that knee; it may have a slight flex in it. But it's a very slight flex -- slight enough that it almost feels locked, but without the stress you feel in a locked knee joint. It's straight enough that it doesn't bend easily.

If you let your trailing knee straighten during your backswing, it may sound as if it will limit your ability to launch into your downswing. What it actually does is stop you from "spinning out" at the top as you start down:

• That straightness makes a fuller hip turn feel more natural, and it almost doesn't require any extra thought on your part. (Automatic moves -- when they're correct -- almost always improve your ballstriking.)
• It makes it easier to stay relatively still over the ball (no sway during your backswing) without putting extra stress on your back.
• Since you have to turn your hips to start the downswing rather than pushing hard with your thigh, it smooths out the start of your downswing.
• You don't have to "drive" forward to get a weight shift to your lead foot -- a straight trailing leg forces you to "fall onto" your lead foot. Instant weight shift!
• And once your upper body begins to turn with your hips during your downswing, your trailing knee will start to bend automatically. That puts you in position to start using the ground to push up at impact, but it keeps the "push up" under control so you don't overdo it and mis-hit the ball.

This straight trailing leg thing isn't for everybody. But once you get over the unusual feel of it -- and let's face it, this is a move that's rarely taught these days -- it's amazing how easy it is to repeat with each swing. It's also a move that can work with a large number of modern swing methods, without having to make major changes to what you already know.

And as Brandel points out, it's really hard to argue with the success of the players who have used it. It's one of those techniques that I put in the "it's worth a try" category, because if it won't work with your swing, you'll know pretty quick and won't have to waste a lot of time trying it.

But if it works for you... well, Arnie had a pretty good record.

Dustin Johnson on Practicing Wedges (Video)

This video is four years old. That's when DJ went an entire calendar year without a PGA Tour title (2014) and started working on his wedge game in earnest. It's interesting to hear what he was focusing on during his practice sessions.



Incredibly simple, don't you think? Although we know he started working with a Trackman in order to learn how far he hit his wedges, the actual mechanics he worked on were just getting his takeaway on line and making sure he didn't stop his upper body from moving after he hit the ball.

I hope all of you are beginning to notice how many pros are starting to emphasize what we often call the "belly button to target" move. If they do it, they don't flip their wrists at impact. For the pros, that means they don't hit duck hooks or double crosses.

For most of you reading this, it will help you hit the ball more solidly and consistently. That will improve both your distance and your accuracy. That's reason enough to take this tip seriously.

Peter Kostis on Jonas Blixt's Golf Swing (Video)

This is a clip from CBS coverage of the 2014 Greenbriar Classic but anytime Peter Kostis compares your swing to Sam Snead's, it's worth a look. Jonas Blixt has been playing well down in Australia so this is as good a time as any.



I'd like to add a couple of observations to what Kostis says.

• Snead's swing looks more flexible than Blixt's in part because of his equipment. Snead began his career with hickory shafts, which means he learned to create clubhead speed through rhythm rather than power. He focused more on motion than leverage, which is why his swing had a greater range of motion than Blixt's.
• Facts are, Snead was far more flexible than most modern players, even into his later years. Snead himself said he used yoga stretches as part of his training, and the stories about him are legendary. I've heard more than one of his contemporaries say he could kick the top of a doorjamb from a standing position underneath. (Just for the record, Snead was the first player to use weight training, not Gary Player. The difference is that Snead kept it quiet; he liked to keep his training methods to himself.)

Snead used his flexibility to his advantage. In his teaching (he was originally the Greenbriar's teaching pro, you know) he stressed the need to remain relaxed during your golf swing. That also contributes to the extreme "lag" at the top of his backswing; being so flexible, he could start his downswing while the club was still going back. And by staying so relaxed, he didn't put the stress on his back that so many modern players do.

But there certainly are a number of similarities between Blixt and Snead. While Snead's hips turn more in his backswing and open more in his finish, the movement is rotary not lateral. This is more clearly seen in face-on videos, of which there are many on YouTube. Both men are rotating rather than sliding during their swings, which allows them to return the clubface to the ball more consistently. They don't move back and forth over the ball, so the ball position doesn't change between backswing and downswing.

Blixt is struggling a bit this week at the Australian PGA, perhaps because of all the rain they've had down there. (He was -3 at one point but fell back to even on the back nine while I was watching.) But his swing is fundamentally solid and it surprises me how streaky he is. I suspect he tends to think too much about his mechanics so he's never as relaxed as Snead was. When you have as good a swing as Blixt does, sometimes the best thing you can do is just trust it... and focus on where you want the ball to go.

As he proved with his runner-up finish last week, he's more than capable of getting the job done.

A Quick Look at Byron Nelson's Swing (Video)

Since the AT&T Byron Nelson starts today, I thought I'd give you a quick lesson on how he hit the ball so straight. This is his swing in 1945, when he set all those records.



This video starts with a regular-speed swing, then runs it in extremely slow motion. There are other videos that use this footage, but this one made it easier to see both of the things I want to point out.

First thing: Everybody talks about Hogan's waggle, but there are other ways to start your swing. This video clearly shows how Nelson bent his trailing knee toward the ball to start his backswing. He's not the only player to have done this -- Gary Player comes to mind -- but he may have been the first.

Second thing: And this is the key to his accuracy. You know how every teacher tells you to start your hips before you start your shoulders, so you can increase the angle between your shoulders and hips on the way down to increase power? Nelson doesn't do it! Instead, you can clearly see that the angle between his shoulders and hips doesn't change. In fact, his upper body moves forward, toward his target.

Personally, I'd rather you didn't move your upper body so far forward as you start your downswing. That causes you to lose some clubhead speed. But Nelson starts with so much weight on his lead leg that it can't really be helped -- he has to move away from the target during his backswing or he'll reverse pivot during his downswing. You'll want to keep your weight more centered when you address the ball so you don't have to move your upper body so much.

However, keeping that shoulder-hip angle fairly constant as you start your downswing is a key to increasing your accuracy. When you increase that angle, you do increase power -- but you also alter your spine angle, and that changes your downswing plane, sometimes dramatically. (This dramatic change is a cornerstone of Hogan's downswing, btw. Virtually every good ballstriker's downswing plane is a bit flatter than the backswing plane, but a big change costs you accuracy.)

While you may lose a bit of clubhead speed with this move, you'll also hit the ball more solidly. Given the design of modern equipment, that will add some distance on its own.

And just for the record, the Nelson approach is easier on your lower back as well. More accuracy means more consistent ball contact, and less back pain means... well, less back pain. It's a win-win situation.

I Bet You've Never Heard This "Secret" Before!

Everybody's always looking for a secret, a silver bullet that will give them THE KEY to a great golf swing. Today I've got one that I doubt you have ever heard before.

It comes from a 2004 book by John W. Barrett called Such a Little Secret. It centers around an old BBC broadcast of the Open Championship, with commentary by Peter Alliss and Henry Longhurst, where they discussed "The Secret" as it was being demonstrated by some player who Barrett couldn't remember.

Anyway, according to the Dynamic Duo, "The Secret" is illustrated by this diagram from the book:



To restate "The Secret" so both lefties and righties can use it, "Swing around a still trailing ear." To quote Barrett:

In any focus of concentration, the smaller the focal point the greater is one's sensitivity to it. To continue to use the word ear would do, and in a television broadcast it was probably a more genteel choice than use of the vernacular. Distilling the focal point down to the quarter inch diameter of the aural canal, however, will give a golfer a far sharper image in the mind than the more vague outline of the whole of the right ear. [p57]

Look, am I saying that this is "The Secret" to fixing your golf swing? Absolutely not. I don't believe there's one technique that will make you the next Jason Day or Rory McIlroy. If there's a secret, it lies in relaxation, balance and rhythm.

Still, some of you might find some use in this idea of swinging around your trailing ear. You won't reverse pivot or sway during your backswing if you use it, but your head will still have some freedom of movement. You won't drive too hard toward the target on your downswing because, if you do, your head will get pushed away from the target and you're going to fall over backward. And you'll finish in a balanced position -- you need only to look at the drawings above to see that.

So while I don't believe this is "The Secret" to good golf, I do think it's an image that might help some of you who are struggling to stay steady over the ball during your swing. Take it for what it's worth.

Step on the Gas to Stop a Sway

This is a simple tip that I use with my own swing. It helps stabilize your lower body without creating a lot of tension in the legs and hips.

Here's a photo of Jack Nicklaus from an old Golf Digest article about the takeaway. What I want you to notice is how his trailing foot is angled slightly away from his target. You can actually turn your foot a bit farther back than Jack; Arnie did, and he was a power hitter as well. This older post has a video of Arnie's swing; you can see this position at the :22 second mark.



You've probably seen this address position recommended if you aren't as flexible but need a bigger hip turn. But the position is useful for far more than that.

It can be very difficult to "dig in" with the inside of your trailing foot to keep your hips from sliding away from the target and causing a sway. But if you angle your trailing foot back like this, you can stabilize your lower body by merely "stepping on the gas" -- that is, pressing down with your trailing foot as if you were pressing the gas pedal in your car.

Instead of digging in with the side of your foot, this position allows you to press almost straight down with the ball of your foot. It uses your trailing calf muscles more than your hip muscles, which reduces the strain on your hip.

With this position, it's much easier for your trailing hip to move backward, away from the golf ball, instead of sliding sideways away from the target. That creates a better turn away from the ball while keeping your upper body positioned over the ball during the swing.

It's an extremely simple move, but it's also extremely effective. And as I said, it doesn't place nearly as much stress on your trailing hip as the more common "square" trailing foot setup does. I've found it much easier to do consistently. Try it -- you might like it.

Belen Mozo on Hitting Longer Drives

Golf Digest's article on how Belen Mozo carries the ball so far is very interesting. I just want to mention a few points from the article that I think many players will miss, simply because they're looking for something "new" instead of just something that works.



Belen talks about using a wide stance at address, but if you look at the photo in that section of the article (or even the photo above) you'll see that her "wider than shoulder width" stance isn't as wide as many of you might assume. As she says, if you get too tense, you'll cut down on your ability to turn.

When she talks about making a big arc on her backswing, she's talking about keeping "her hands in front of her." If you pay attention to what you read, you'll see that she's simply keeping her upper arms lightly against the sides of her chest on the way back and as she swings down. That's basic Hogan technique and, while I think some players overdo it and get too tense, that's what most good players do on the backswing until their hands are just below their shoulders. That's how you get a big shoulder coil, and that's what she wants you to do here.

Finally, this is the most unusual thing she says:

When I swing down, my left leg is locked and pushing hard into the ground for leverage to create more power. Also, my upper body is almost completely behind the ball's position through impact. I've shifted my weight into the left leg (that's why it's straight), but I'm putting as much body weight into the hit as I can. I'm not really swinging my fastest until the ball is struck. My swing speed is building until then.

Her left (lead) leg is locked during her downswing. Do you understand that? Essentially, as soon as her lead heel is planted flat on the ground when she starts her downswing, she straightens her lead knee so she's pushing down with that foot.  If you do that, you CAN'T slide your hips very far forward on the downswing! The fact that she says her upper body is still behind the ball at impact emphasizes this fact. This keeps you steady over the ball and should help your accuracy as well as your distance.

Belen carries the ball 240 yards off the tee vs 219 for the average guy on the weekend. If you're looking for some extra distance, this might be worth a try. It's definitely not a difficult technique to learn.

The Wall Slap Drill

I was going to do a post about some of the suggested changes to The Rules of Golf, but that can wait till another day.

A few days back, Jean Luc left a comment on an older post called Inbee Park's Pause. The material in that post had helped him -- he had been having trouble with pushed shots -- but he was looking for some help to eliminate some of the wrist rolling the new movement caused for him. He had seen a new book by Jim Hardy called The Release: Golf's Moment of Truth and was fascinated by one of Hardy's approaches to the release. He wondered if I had any ideas on whether it would work.

I don't usually use my comment responses as the basis of new blog posts but, given Jean Luc's positive response to this one, I felt it might help some of you. Jean Luc says the drill I included in this comment felt a lot like the drill in yesterday's Tommy Fleetwood post, but this one is specifically designed to minimize wrist rotation. The comment also explains why I haven't included many tips from Jim Hardy in my blog, although he's clearly been able to help a lot of golfers.

And at the end, I'll add some thoughts so you can use this drill to learn a draw or a fade.

Here, I'll just let the comment itself explain everything:

------------------------------------------------
Jean Luc, I haven't read Hardy's book. And when I found info on the web about the two releases he talks about in the book (at http://www.tworeleases.com/), it seemed a bit contradictory to me -- for example, I'd say the LOP motion is a swinging motion, not a leverage motion, while the RIT motion can be either, depending on your hand and arm action. With no more explanation than I found there, it's hard for me to make hard and fast statements about what Hardy's doing.

That said, let's see if I can give you some help with what you want to do.

Hardy is somewhat controversial among swing geeks because, although much of his material is very helpful, he makes statements that clearly contradict fact. For example, in this GC video:

http://www.golfchannel.com/media/golf-fix-jim-hardy-talks-one-plane-swing/

he says that Hogan's swing is a one-plane swing. But in Five Lessons Hogan himself says:

On the downswing plane, a golfer swings on a slightly different plane than the backswing. THE PLANE FOR THE DOWNSWING IS LESS STEEPLY INCLINED AND IS ORIENTED WITH THE BALL QUITE DIFFERENTLY FROM THE BACKSWING PLANE. The golfer gets on this second plane -- without thinking he is changing planes -- when he turns his hips back to the left at the start of the downswing. (p87)

Hogan says his swing is a two-plane swing in three consecutive sentences, yet Hardy says it's a one-plane swing. So I'm hesitant to get too involved with his theories in this answer.

But I can tell you that what you picked up from my stuff is a two-plane swing. That's why you can finally create a bit of a looping motion. It's a more natural, more relaxed way to unwind rapidly on your downswing.

But you don't have to use a roll release (or a throw release, for that matter) to use the loop move and still square the clubface at impact. Let me suggest a feel drill for you:

1. Take your address position without a club. Set the palm of your trail hand square to your target line. An easy way to do this is to set up next to a corner wall in your house, so you can lay your palm flat against the wall. Your trail wrist should be cocked backward just a bit, as if you had just slapped the wall. That should feel pretty normal to you.
2. Now take your lead hand and grasp your trail wrist, as if it was the grip of the club. Your trail wrist is still slightly cocked.
3. Now "swing" back to the top of your backswing. Don't try to rotate your wrists. With your shoulders turned 90 degrees, your palm will be aimed maybe another 45 degrees farther. Again, this should feel pretty natural.
4. Now just "swing" down and, keeping your grip on your trail wrist, slap the wall with your trail hand. (Okay, it won't be much of a slap, but that's the motion.) You won't feel any rotation in your wrists, but you'll have to turn your body all the way through. Jimmy Ballard would call this "releasing your body." And again, it's the natural way to swing. It has the added bonus of creating a natural weight shift when you do it.

Experiment with that for a while, then start trying to make a similar move in your backyard with a club. That'll feel a little awkward at first because of the weight of the club. Just do it slowly until it starts feeling comfortable, then speed it up.

And let me know how it goes. I'm betting that you'll start to get the motion you're looking for. Just remember: You don't have to "throw" the club to get that release. The speed you'll learn to develop with the clubhead will create that motion all on its own.
------------------------------------------------

That "slapping motion" I mentioned in the comment comes when the palm of your hand hits flat against the wall on your downswing. But this helps you learn to square your palm at impact, and therefore to square your clubface at impact. And as I said, you won't have to rotate your forearms to reach the top of swing position or on the way down.

Now, if you want to learn to hit a fade or slice with this move, it's simply a matter of changing your foot position.

• For a fade, OPEN your stance slightly when you set up next to the wall. Now you'll get a slight out-to-in move, but your palm will still aim straight ahead when it hits the wall, giving you a slightly open clubface at impact.
• Likewise, for a draw, CLOSE your stance slightly when you set up next to the wall. Now you'll get a slight in-to-out move, but your palm will still aim straight ahead when it hits the wall, giving you a slightly closed clubface at impact.

Just alter your foot line and then follow the drill instructions as I described them earlier, and you should develop a pretty consistent draw or fade.

Hopefully this will give all of you yet another option for learning how to shape shots the way you want... and you can thank Jean Luc for it. ;-)

Tommy Fleetwood's Wide Shallow Swing

Golf Digest has a new article about how to make a wider, shallower swing like Tommy Fleetwood. Tommy held off Dustin Johnson this past weekend to win at Abu Dhabi.

I want to focus on how you get the feel described by instructor Shaun Webb.



Here's how Webb describes the move:

"To get a better feel for this shot in your own game, take out a fairway wood and make swings feeling that your hands don't get closer to your body in transition and into the downswing," says Webb. "This will help widen your route to the ball and shallow the approach of the club. You'll start hitting them high and pure."

It doesn't take much thought to realize that it can't actually happen this way -- that is, your hands HAVE TO get closer to your body during your change of direction and downswing. So how do you FEEL that your hands are doing something that can't actually happen?

• The key here is that you want to feel as if both arms remain completely straight throughout the swing. I'm sure you've heard instructors tell you that, at the top of your backswing, you want to use your trailing arm to push the club as far away from your head as you can. Annika is one player who says that's what she tries to feel during her swing. This is the feel you're after. If you try swinging the club straight up in front of you without turning your shoulders, you'll learn the basic feeling very quickly.
• Unless you're very flexible, you'll need to shorten your swing to do this drill. That's because you need a full 90° shoulder coil to get anywhere close to this position, and even then you won't be able to do it once your hands start to move above your shoulders.
• To keep both arms straight without tensing up and getting stiff, you need to feel as if both hands are doing an equal part of the work. If you were swinging a heavy weight at the end of the shaft, the way the weight would pull your arms outward is the feel you're looking for.
• Now, you try to swing the club up so your hands are shoulder height. If it was me, I'd say to stop when your hands are only about chest high because it's easier that way. You have to coordinate the shoulder coil and the swing up so both arms stay straight. If you do it correctly, it's very easy.
• To get the club above your shoulders -- and that won't be by much -- let your trailing elbow bend just a little. Got that? JUST A LITTLE. You only want it to bend enough that your hands can move slightly above your shoulders. That little bend will let your wrists cock.
• Then, when you start down, that trailing elbow starts the downswing by straightening out.

After that, it's just a matter of swinging the club through impact and up to the finish.

If you do this correctly, your posture will be good throughout the swing and you'll feel less pressure in your lower back. And your weight shift from your trail leg to your lead leg should happen automatically.

You can try hitting balls this way also. It actually pretty easy, although you won't hit them as far as normal. (This drill is a shorter swing.)

Remember: The point of this drill is to help you learn how to keep your trail elbow from collapsing at the top of your backswing. It can really help improve your fairway wood play once you get that feel of width at the top.

Peter Kostis on Ryan Moore's Swing (Video)

I thought it might be interesting to take a quick look at Ryan Moore's swing today, given that he made two eagles at Kapalua on Thursday. Here's what Peter Kostis said about Ryan's swing a few months back at the John Deere:



Since I wrote about driving distance yesterday, here's a couple of interesting facts about Ryan. He's 5'9" and averaged just over 283 yards off the tee last year. He's averaging over 306 this week (that's after 8 drives, if you care to know) but that just goes to show how much difference course conditions can make.

While Ryan's move at the top is a bit unusual, there are a number of players who have similar moves. (Though some of the others are more pronounced; Sergio is one such player.) Ryan brings the club up more vertically in his backswing, then really 'lays the club off' as he starts down.

When Peter Kostis says "If you gotta have a major loop in your golf swing, you want it in that direction," he means that Ryan's loop puts his club UNDER his backswing plane on the way down. That makes Ryan tend to draw the ball.

If you make a loop that comes OVER your backswing plane on the way down, you're probably coming over-the-top.

That looping action is more of an old style move from back when players tried to create a 'two-plane swing' -- think about Sam Snead, for example. Many modern players tend to try for a 'one-plane swing' where the downswing plane is almost identical to the backswing plane.

But then again, Ryan Moore has always taken more of a classic approach to golf. And as we've seen over the last year, that old style swing of his is very effective.

In Case the Hands Drill Confused You...

After posting yesterday's post with the hands drill late on Friday night, I was laying in bed and suddenly realized that some of you might be confused by something in the one-piece takeaway drill that the hands drill was piggybacked on. Hopefully, today's post will eliminate that misunderstanding and you'll get the full value from both the OPT drill AND the hands drill.

When I design a drill with a specific purpose, sometimes I forget that the players using them may not recognize the why behind it. And while players learning an OPT may have understood the why (I mentioned it briefly in the original post), those of you who just focused the hand drill may not. So here's the explanation.

The OPT drill was designed to teach weekend players the correct feel for this position, as illustrated by the photo of Paula Creamer in the OPT drill post:



Many players have trouble getting into this position because they slide their hips away from the target. Many instructors call that a sway, and it's a bad thing. It  happens when players don't brace against their trailing leg properly. Among other things, it prevents you from creating a good shoulder coil, which hurts your distance.

In addition, some players move their shoulders away from the target also, which makes them lean backwards and contributes to problems like slicing.

And both of these problems cause a faulty weight shift, which magnifies the other problems.

In order to teach a proper OPT, I needed to teach players how to maintain correct posture as they turned away from the ball. The way I did that was to have players straighten up during the OPT drill. The reason is that we turn and coil and shift weight properly every day, because we're used to doing it when standing erect.

So I had players straighten up to make their turns and then bend over again so they were in the correct takeaway position at the point Paula is demonstrating in the photo. Then, after they were used to the correct feel, they could just make a normal takeaway.

You may be wondering why I used that drill to set up the hands drill, since most of you using the hands drill weren't worried about making a correct OPT. That's a good question!

And here's your good answer:

If you make an incorrect weight shift during your takeaway, the hands drill becomes unbelievably difficult. If you want to see what I mean, forget the turn for a minute and just try to lift the club up from your address position -- as in the Bann video in the last post -- but try to lift it while bending even lower as you do. You'll have to really exaggerate the lift just to get the clubhead off the ground!

Swaying with your hips or moving your shoulders too far sideways during your takeaway creates the same sort of problem. Doing the OPT drill will prevent that.

You've been told to make a wide takeaway to keep the clubhead low to the ground and to create width in your swing. But most of you will do that by making a faulty weight shift, then you'll lose your width at the top of your swing. Width at the top of your swing is much more important than width at the start of your swing, simply because you don't hit the ball with your backswing. If you have width at the top of your backswing, you'll create width during your downswing. Stretching your arms during your takeaway doesn't create width; coiling your shoulders properly does.

Let me repeat that: If you have width at the top of your backswing, you'll create width during your downswing. Stretching your arms during your takeaway doesn't create width; coiling your shoulders properly does.

Use the OPT drill to learn the waist-high position of a correct takeaway -- which will create a proper weight shift to your trailing side -- as demonstrated by Paula in the photo. Then practice doing the hands drill from your address position to Paula's position. That will give you the most success with the least effort.

I hope that clears up any potential confusion I may have created with yesterday's post. Golf is really pretty simple; it's when you try to explain it that it gets complicated. ;-)

Using Your Hands in the Takeaway, Part 2

In yesterday's post we looked at the theory behind adding some hand power during your takeaway. Today I'll give you a drill that will help you apply that theory.

I hope you spent some time using your hands to position the club over your trailing shoulder WITHOUT turning your shoulders, as Manuel de la Torre explained in the book quote and Steven Bann demonstrated in the video. We'll start with that, then we'll add the rotation.

If you take your address position and just raise the club until your hands are roughly waist high and the shaft is parallel to the floor, that's a very simple move to do. If you avoid excess tension in your hands and forearms, you'll probably find that your upper arms stay pretty close to your chest and your forearms move upward and outward a little.

While de la Torre says that your wrists don't move when doing this, that's not entirely true. The reason is that your wrists actually flex downward a little at address, because of the weight of the clubhead. When you lift the club, your wrists return to more of a neutral position -- which means that, if you straightened out your fingers, you'd see them move upward so they form a straight line with your forearms. That's the natural position for your wrists when your arms and hands are relaxed.

Now, if you click on the Some Useful Post Series button up under the blog header, you'll find that one of the listings is Dexter's Coming Over-the-Top and the third post in that series is labeled as the one-piece takeaway post. (I'm just going to abbreviate one-piece takeaway as OPT from here on out.) While that post has a picture of Paula Creamer after an OPT, there is no diagram showing the drill itself.

Here are copies of the drill diagrams from my Stop Coming Over-the-Top Quick Guide, one for righties and one for lefties. This drill is intended to help you learn what the correct position feels like. But you'll notice that the first thing you do is lift the club, the way you just did when you copied Steven Bann.





You should also notice that the toe of the club still points up at the waist high position in this drill. That's intentional. Believe it or not, this position has actually rotated the clubface open just a little. You don't want much clubface rotation during your swing because the natural bending of your elbows creates more rotation than you realize.

This position matches the "lifted" position you created when you imitated Bann's video. If you use the instructions from the Dexter's Coming Over-the-Top #3 post to get used to this halfway back position, AND THEN you start swinging the club back while imitating Bann's "lift" as you turn, you'll start creating a lot of motion with your hands.

Here's an important thing to note: When you add the rotation during the drill, it should still feel as if you're lifting the club straight up, toward your head. It will probably feel weird at first, but this is how your hands SHOULD feel if you're turning and lifting correctly. (Remember, your trailing elbow bends to create the necessary rotation during a full swing. It will feel as if your forearms aren't twisting at all.) Many players rotate their forearms during the takeaway, which messes up your swing plane. The technical term is that the club gets "laid off."

You may wonder how you'll know that you're doing it correctly. It's very simple, actually. When you lifted the club without turning, the club probably started to feel heavy as the shaft became more parallel to the ground. BUT when you do this OPT drill with the hand lift, if you try to stop at the position shown in the diagrams, YOU'LL PROBABLY HAVE A LITTLE TROUBLE DOING SO. Your hands will stop but the shaft may swing on up to a 10:30 or even an 11 o'clock position. That's from the extra momentum your hands are creating.

Why is this important? There are several reasons I could give, but this one should suffice for now. Many of you have trouble keeping your club on plane during your backswing. That's because your takeaway is too slow... but the trick is that you don't increase the speed by turning faster. You create the extra speed with your hands. Practicing this drill will help you learn to do that.

It will also make the club feel lighter as you reach the top of your swing, which makes it easier to change direction at the top, which helps increase your downswing speed, which can increase your distance. But that's a whole 'nother topic, which the old-time players called "feeling the clubhead."

So there you go, Dana. That's the way you learn to use your hands properly in your takeaway. If you have more questions, just leave a comment and I'll try to give you a usable answer. ;-)

Using Your Hands in the Takeaway (Video)

A couple days back Dana left a comment on an old blog post from 2010 called Manuel de la Torre on Arm Swing. In the comments I had mentioned how the old hickory players used their hands to start their backswings and that I could post a drill if the commenter was interested. As it turns out, the commenter from 2010 wasn't... but Dana is. So let's take a look at it.

This post will actually spread over a couple of posts, since I have a lot more material on my blog to refer to now, material that may make the drill I mentioned easier to understand. You need to understand the basic principle at work here (today's post) before I can teach you to use the drill properly (the next post). Okay?

The original post started with the late Manuel de la Torre, who taught a swing based in some of Ernest Jones's teachings (his book was published in 1935), who in turn adapted his method to steel shafts from the old hickory shaft techniques. So let's start with what de la Torre said about the hands in his book, Understanding the Golf Swing. Let me pull something from the old post's comments that I copied from that book, simply because you need to know what he means by "hands" and "arms" to understand what he's saying.

Earlier in the text (on page 51) he specifically defines the arm as "...that portion of the extremity from the shoulder to the elbow, the rest of it to the wrist is the forearm."

Are you clear on that? de la Torre separates your arm into arm, forearm, wrist and hand in his teaching. So when you see ARM in this quote from his book, he's talking about your arm above the elbow. And when you see HAND he means your hand separate from your wrist. Got it?

Okay. Here's the quote from his book. Bear in mind that he's writing for right-handed players, so you lefties will need to substitute "left shoulder" for "right shoulder" in the first paragraph:

To produce the backswing, the player must swing the clubhead back with the hands (both hands) toward the right shoulder so that when the backswing is completed, the club is over the shoulder. The hands must be used because a coil has to be created in order to be able to generate the desired speed. The hands must be used exclusively to swing the clubhead from the ball to the end of the backswing, where the arms take over and swing the entire club to the end of the swing.

When your hands swing the clubhead in the backswing, be sure that as soon as the clubhead starts to move, everything moves with it. Clubhead and shoulders start together, stay together, and reach the end of the backswing together. The rest of the body will respond automatically if it is relaxed.

Notice that when referring to hands and arms, the plural is used. Both hands are used in the backswing and both arms are used in the forward swing.

If a player would take the address position and lift the club vertically to place it on the shoulder, the hands would be used to make this movement. No other part of the body would be considered.

You should make no effort to cock your wrists in the backswing. When a player attempts to cock the wrists, they must be cocked in the plane that corresponds to the club being swung. This would be just another "moving part" making the golf swing difficult to produce.

The wrists are cocked by the club being swung over the shoulder. It is a natural reaction to that motion. It just happens. (p50-51)

There's more, but it gets into the downswing and such, which is more than we need for this discussion.

He's got some interesting stuff in here. Let's take it piece by piece.

• According to him, your hands make the backswing and your upper arms make the downswing. This isn't a distinction that most instructors would make, and it's probably just how he understands the motion -- you know, the way he feels it when he does it.
• He says the hands must be used in order to create a coil -- that is, a shoulder coil. He says the shoulders turn because the hands move the club. That might be a bit confusing, so it deserves a closer look.

Imagine for a moment that you took your address position but, instead of holding a club, you just put your hands together. If someone took hold of your hands and just pulled, they could pull your shoulders around into the coiled position you had at the top of your backswing. And since your arms would be pretty relaxed -- after all, the "puller" is doing all the work -- both of your elbows would stay pretty straight as they did it. This is the idea that de la Torre is describing; that's why he emphasizes that both hands and both arms have to work together.

Many instructors actually teach a version of this, although you probably didn't realize it. Have you heard teachers talk about trying to keep your trailing hand as far from your shoulder as you can at the top of your backswing? That's the same idea, except they're talking about pushing your hands away from you with your arms while de la Torre has your hands pulling your arms and shoulders around.

Likewise, when he says that everything moves together, this is what most instructors call "keeping the club in front of you" during your swing. But again, they're trying to push the club back while de la Torre has your hands pulling you around.

And that's where most of you will get tripped up as you try to wrap your mind around this. How can your hands pull your shoulders around? You can understand if another person grabs your hands and pulls them, but how can your hands pull you around when they're only attached to your arms? Hands don't just move on their own!

Here's the trick: During your swing, your hands are holding your club. Your club has weight and, if you start it swinging, the club's momentum can pull you around. And that's what he's describing in the last three paragraphs I quoted.

Here's a video I've posted more than once. Steven Bann is K.J. Choi's coach, and in the first minute or so of this video he demonstrates almost exactly what de la Torre is describing. Take a look, then I'll explain a bit more below the video:



Now this may just be the way I feel this movement, but I'd say the lifting motion Bann is making (and de la Torre is describing) is actually caused by bending the elbows ever so slightly. Some of you may feel it mostly at your shoulder joints, some may feel it at the wrists and some may even feel that the fingers are causing the lift. Technically, it's probably started by the fingers since the clubhead has to move first and your fingers are the closest part of your body to the clubhead.

At any rate, it's a very slight movement that starts the club moving upward, and then the club's momentum starts helping your arms move upward, so you feel as if you're just trying to move along with the club. That's what happens until the club shaft points straight up in the air.

de la Torre says you don't consciously cock the wrists. The wrists don't cock until you get to the top and the club starts to move from that vertical position and literally falls toward your shoulder. Gravity makes your wrists cock as your arms slow down. (They HAVE to slow down or you'd smack your shoulder with the shaft. That can be painful!)

You make the same sort of movement when you pick up a glass of water or just about anything, really. (Hopefully you aren't swinging it up over your shoulder and throwing water everywhere, but the motion is the same.)

Now, when Bann separates your backswing into an upward move and a rotational move, that's the key to letting your hands start your backswing. Tomorrow I'll teach you how to combine the two into a smooth backswing. Today, just get used to that upward move that Bann shows you, and then coil your shoulders so you can feel the position at the top of your backswing.

Yeah, you heard me. Practice taking your address position and lifting your club up over your trailing shoulder, then turn to the side. You've probably practiced stranger things before!

UPDATE: The next post in this series is here: Using Your Hands in the Takeaway, Part 2

Jason Sedan on Blasting It Like Sadlowski (Video)

I saw this on Morning Drive yesterday and knew right then that I wanted to post this today. Their Coach of the Week, Jason Sedan, has the computer motion studies of Jamie Sadlowski's swing and it shows that restricting your lower body is NOT the way to create clubhead speed. Instead, you have to let your hips turn freely.


Look, I'm not even going to try and explain what he's talking about here. But I do want you to go back to this video I posted of Arnold Palmer's swing during his heyday. Pay particular attention to his hip turn. Look familiar?

Clearing Your Hips -- An Update

As most of you realize, I keep the comments open on all my old posts in case somebody reads one and has a question. The blog emails me anytime somebody makes a comment, and then I can zip over and see if I can help. And it's a good thing I leave them open, since a lot of you do go back and re-read the old posts.

Back in 2010 I did a post called Clearing Your Hips. And a couple days back Paul left me a question that I tried to answer but the blog wouldn't accept it. Apparently my answer was too long! So I left Paul a note that I would do a new post today for him. (I've done that for a number of you, so this is nothing new.)

In the original post I was trying to get you folks to stop moving toward the target so much when you start your downswing, so your hips would unwind more naturally. Paul's question was simple enough, and it's a logical one:

If you're opening up your hips the right shoulder must come out thus the over the top, isn't there a lateral component to start first ? This I can get away with with my woods and hybrids but not irons !!

So first let me re-post a photo of J.B. Holmes that was in that post, since I referred to it in my answer, and then my answer will follow.



I understand why you're confused, Paul. I've made this mistake too, just like everybody else. And I've been trying to figure out a way to explain this more clearly so my answer will make more sense to you. Hopefully this will help you see what you're missing.

And I do mean see. You've forgotten about your spine angle. We have a tendency to think of our swing the way we see it in the Holmes swing sequence above -- from face-on. But there are also some important things we would only see from a down-the-line swing photo. So, in the interest of clarity, let's start with what we normally see, as in the photo above.

I want you to imagine that J.B.'s hips and spine -- and your hips and spine as well -- are connected like an upside-down T. There's a "crossbar" connecting your hips, and your spine sticks up halfway between them, like the tall line of the T, with your head at the top.

NOTE: If this were really your spine, the tall line would tilt slightly away from your target. That's because your trail hand (in your case, your right hand) is lower on the club than your lead hand, so your shoulders have to tilt a bit. But thinking of your hips and spine at 90° angles is easier.

So your head is roughly centered between your hips at address. Are you with me so far?

What you're forgetting is that your spine (the tall line) ALSO tilts toward the golf ball. You're bent over just a little.

Now, when you turn your shoulders away from the target during your backswing -- we'll say you make a standard 90° turn -- your trail shoulder (the right one) is now well behind your back -- behind your spine -- away from the ball. If you were to draw a swing plane, like the glass plane drawn in Hogan's book, your right shoulder would be well below that plane.

At the top of your backswing, your lead heel has come off the ground and your lead knee and hip have moved away from the target. But your head is still roughly halfway between your hips. Look at the first picture of Holmes in the post above; you can see that clearly.

When you start your downswing, the first thing you do is put your lead foot down flat on the ground and your lead knee moves over almost straight above it. That's your lateral move, but it isn't a big move forward. Rather, you pushed your lead foot DOWN and your hips turned back toward the ball. Your body moved DOWNWARD just a little.

And when your body moved down, so did your trail shoulder. Not out over the ball, but DOWN toward the ground. You're correct that your right shoulder is moving forward, but it was already below your swing plane and now your downward motion lowered it even more. In fact, it may still be a little behind your spine at this point.

From this point on, that trail shoulder will come at the ball from UNDER the plane, not over it, no matter how much you turn in your downswing. That's because your spine is still straight and your head is still basically halfway between your hips.

So why are you coming over-the-top? It's because of your trail knee (your right knee). I wrote about this in my book Stop Coming Over-the-Top because it happens so much. (And yes, I struggled with it for a long time before I figured it out. Like I said, it's a common problem.)

What SHOULD happen when you start down from the top is that your trail knee -- your right knee -- should stay slightly BENT. Your trail foot is flat on the ground at the top of your swing, then it rolls to the inside as you start down. That lets your hips move naturally and shift your weight to your lead foot.

But what most of us do is we try to hit the ball hard. And to do that, we STRAIGHTEN our trail knee. That pushes our trail hip UP, and that pushes our head TOWARD THE TARGET. Instead of your spine staying vertical, it leans toward the target and your head moves too far over your lead foot. That moves your right shoulder UP instead of down, so it comes over the swing plane instead of under it. Make sense?

If you want to practice the correct move, check out the "Body Movin'" drill in this post. You don't need a club and you can practice it anywhere. It's the best drill I know to teach you how the correct move feels.

So let me give you a new answer to your question above. You think, like so many instructors teach, that you start your downswing by moving laterally and then turning. THAT'S WRONG. You want to start your downswing by moving DOWN and then turning. Because of the way your hips naturally work, the downward movement creates all the lateral movement you need.

And the more you can use your body's natural movements, the easier and more consistent your golf swing will be.

Brian Jacobs on Fixing Your Plane (Video)

I don't post a lot of in-depth instruction about swing plane. It's not that plane isn't important -- I just think we're too obsessed with it, and most of the drills are too nitpicky. But I don't mind putting up something that's both simple and useful.

GCA Coach Brian Jacobs did a really short video that gives you a simple drill to improve your swing plane. I especially like it because it doesn't require training aids, which means you can use it on the course during a round if necessary. Here, take a look:


All you do is take your finish position -- that is, your "pose" after the ball is long gone -- and then, without changing your arms or shoulders, turn 180° so you mirror that position at the top of your backswing.

I know it sounds ridiculously simple, but don't underestimate this simple drill. If your "top of backswing" position mirrors your finish position, and if you make sure they match when you make your swing from backswing to finish, you're on plane. It just doesn't get any simpler than that.

And you can use this drill anywhere you can swing a club, which means you can do it in a few spare minutes every day in your backyard. Just do the drill a few times -- pose your finish, mirror it to the backswing, then swing back to the finish -- then see if you can swing to that top of backswing position from your address position. Once you can do that slowly, gradually speed it up to your normal speed.

If your swing plane is off, this drill will help you. Just add it to your practice routine and see.