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!

Kaylin Skovron and Michael Breed's Driving Tips

Golf Digest posted a couple of articles with simple driving tips that you might find useful.

The first is from an article by instructor Kaylin Skovron called 5-Minute Clinic: How to Make Swing Adjustments for Different Shots. It has a number of different tips but the driving tip is simple.



She recommends a change to your driving setup to get more distance. As she puts it:

To get the best launch and spin with a driver, play the ball forward in your stance and hit up on it. But if you have it aligned with your front heel (above, left), and you're still hitting it too low (and often crooked), play it even farther forward so the ball is lined up off the toes of the front foot (above, right). Address it with your feet together, and then step away from the target with your trail foot. Now you're set up to launch it higher—and hopefully straighter.

It won't work for everybody; it depends on your swing mechanics. Still, it's worth trying out.

Once you get set up for more distance, you need to get a bigger swing. Michael Breed has a short article called One Driver Swing Thought for Longer and Straighter Drives... and it's a simple one. Just keep your trail arm straight for as long as possible in your backswing.

I'd better explain this one a bit.



This photo looks like a pretty stiff-armed takeaway, doesn't it? It's misleading. It just LOOKS that way because Michael hasn't bent his trailing elbow. If you try it with a club, you'll find that you can stay pretty relaxed for quite a long time as you make your backswing, even though your elbow isn't bending.

"Keeping your trailing elbow straight for a long time" is one way to keep the club farther away from your head at the top of your backswing. Players like Annika say this is a primary swing thought with them.

Bear in mind that your elbow WILL bend at the top of your backswing. Michael probably can't get much farther than the photo shows without bending his elbow. But at the top, instead of a 90° angle, it'll be more like 75° or so. IT'S STILL BENT, just not as much. It bends a bit more as you start down, which helps you keep your wrist cock later into your downswing, and that gives you more distance.

Don't overdo the bend on the way down. It always feels as if your trail arm is straighter than it actually is, so if you try to feel a right angle bend you'll probably smack your shoulders with the club shaft! If you stay relaxed and just feel as if your trail arm is staying at about the same angle, you'll probably get the result you want.

And between these two tips, you may be able to pick up some extra distance without too much effort.

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.

Jim Flick on the TWO Pendulums in Your Swing (Videos)

The late Jim Flick was well respected in the golf community. He was one of those teachers who seemed able to help almost anybody because he used such simple images to teach the basics.

In his book Jim Flick on Golf he gave a very simple explanation of how to use your hands and arms in a golf swing to create speed. I bet you've heard this explanation before but I'd also bet you didn't really understand it. Let's see if we can change that today. Here's how Jim put it in his book:

There are actually two pendulums at work. The first is formed by the hands and wrists cocking, uncocking, and recocking. The second is created by the forearms and upper arms swinging from the shoulder sockets.

My former colleague from Golf Digest school days Peter Kostis called them the first swing and the second swing. I think of them as two pendulums.

What permits the two pendulums to work together is the combination of the weight in club head, centrifugal force, the good old law of gravity -- and the golfer. These pendulums supply about 80 percent of the distance in your golf shot -- provided the swinging elements of your body drive the turning elements and not vice versa.

If your grip pressure is too tight, the weight at the end of the club is restricted from doing its job.

If you try consciously to turn your shoulders and shift your weight, you destroy the natural harmony of those two pendulums.

If you try to accelerate at impact and follow through, well, you know what happens there. [NOTE: This is a reference to an earlier section in the book. If you TRY to accelerate, you interfere with the natural motion and actually lose clubhead speed.]

But if your posture is good, and your grip pressure -- fingers secure, arms relaxed -- is correct, you give those two pendulums a chance to work in harmony. (p58-59)

Alright, the two pendulums are the one stretching from the clubhead to your hands, and the one from your wrists to your shoulder joints. Your wrist joins the two of them together, and act as the pivot point. When your wrists are fully cocked, the clubhead-to-hands-to-shoulder-joints stretch looks like an L shape.

No doubt you've heard of an 'L-to-L' swing. It's a common way to learn pitching technique. You swing your hands back to waist high (an L with the club shaft pointing straight up), then they straighten out as the clubhead hits the ball, and finally they form another L in the followthrough (again, with the shaft pointing straight up). Here's Mike Malaska, who worked closely with Jim, demonstrating how this works.



Please note that Mike isn't trying to drive his lower body when he does this. The club's motion pulls his upper body around, and then his upper body pulls his lower body around. As you gradually get out to a full swing you'll start to use your legs more, but it'll be a very natural leg drive -- you won't be thrashing at the ball. (Mike refers to this added drive late in the video when he mentions "using the ground.")

Let me anticipate a question here: When you do this drill at waist high, your wrists will cock as your hands slow down at waist high. When you make this move in a full swing, your wrists will cock as your hands slow down near the end of your swing. It's the change of direction that creates the wrist cock. Got it?

Okay, here's a bonus video with Malaska teaching you how to use the L-to-L drill to learn shot shaping. I bet A LOT of you will be working with this one!



Using the L-to-L drill will help your swing in so many ways, including improved balance, better footwork and weight shift, and eventually longer distance for less effort. This is a post you'll want to bookmark in your browser and come back to again and again.

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

Several Instructors on the Takeaway and Top of Backswing (Video)

I found this brand-new article at the Golf Digest website. Hank Haney is quoted in it, and he says that "wrist roll" is ruining many players' tee shots. He describes how to learn what a proper top of backswing position feels like. It's a short article so it won't take long to read.

Here's the drill Haney recommends:

Take your grip and set up. Pick up the club towards your torso, just using your wrists. If you kept going you'd hit yourself on the forehead with the club, but here stop when the shaft is parallel to the ground. Now, do a full body turn, and look at your position at the top. You’re back on plane -- and your wrists are in strong angles instead of that floppy, rolled over nonsense.

Please note that when Haney says the shaft is parallel to the ground, he means the head of the club is hanging behind you, so you're raising your arms up to their position at the top of your backswing.

And be aware that this isn't just for your tee shots. This move will help you square up the clubface on every shot you make.

In case Haney's verbal description seems a bit hard to follow, I did a post back in 2011 that included a video from K.J. Choi's instructor Steven Bann demonstrating this very drill. There are three videos in that post, but here's the one from Bann:



As you can see, this is an old drill that more players should learn. For those of you who wonder how you can just "cock your wrists upward" and still get a tilted swing plane, remember that your trailing elbow has to bend as you reach the top. That bend is what creates the tilt in your swing plane.

And in case you wonder how you make a normal swing that gets to this top of backswing position, here's my post from all the way back in 2010 on how to make a one-piece takeaway. It will teach you how to get the shaft in the proper position when the club is around waist high.

Using these various resources, you can learn how to get to the top of your backswing with your club on plane and without excessive wrist rotation. It really is a simple move to learn, and it doesn't require your to rebuild your swing. That's always good news!

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.

Andrew Johnston on How to Stay Unstuck (Video)

Any opportunity to see Beef is probably a good idea!

Andrew Johnston was on The Golf Fix recently. He told Michael Breed how he keeps from "getting stuck" on his downswing. This is extremely simple, but it's usually the simple things that mess up our swings.



Beef talks about two things.

• The first is spine angle. You want to keep your spine as straight as is reasonably possible from setup to finish. I stress the words "reasonably possible" since your hips are going to move backward and forward some during your swing... but you want to avoid exaggerated moves. Just think about standing tall during your swing and that should help a lot.
• The second is "covering the ball with your chest," sometimes referred to as "keeping your hands in front of you." Basically it just means that you create a triangle with your arms and shoulders at setup -- which you already do -- and then you maintain it as long as reasonably possible during your backswing and downswing. This sounds tricky but it's actually a pretty normal move. If you were holding a tray of drinks in front of you with both hands, most of you would have no problems keeping the tray centered in front of your chest as you turned to either side while serving guests at a party. That's all this is. And that's all a one-piece takeaway is -- just another way of thinking about making the same move.

Beef has a very natural-looking swing, don't you think? That's because he doesn't overthink things, and he doesn't try to make technically perfect moves when he can just swing the club and hit the ball. I'm not advising you to be sloppy with your swing. I'm just saying that the less you try to manipulate your swing, the less you try to be too perfect, the better you'll probably hit the ball.

Erika Larkin on the One-Piece Takeaway

I realize some of you get tired of hearing me harp on the one-piece takeaway (OPT) but I'd be willing to bet that 95% of you who struggle with your swings don't do it.

You should. And therefore, although I already have a post with a drill on how to do a OPT, I like to put up as many different approaches to teaching it as I can find.

This one is a video from Golf Channel Academy Lead Coach Erika Larkin -- she's GC's Teacher of the Week this week -- and it's yet another coach's way of teaching the move and the feel.



Erika is focusing on the shoulder turn involved in a one-piece takeaway. By putting the butt end of your driver against your belly and turning without bending your elbows, you learn to feel a good shoulder turn without stiffening your arms. Relaxation is very important in the OPT!

I would suggest using this drill to get the feel for the shoulder turn, then try doing my drill to feel the actual position you'll be in when you swing with a OPT. This will help reinforce the correct movement when you're actually hitting balls.

Christina Kim and Rickie Fowler's Swing Thought

Given that defending champion Christina Kim is just one stroke off the lead down at Lorena's tournament...

and given that Christina gave Rickie Fowler and Butch Harmon some credit for the swing thought that's helping her play better this week...

and given that everybody's looking for "a secret" of some sort...

I'm going to pass along the swing thought Christina lifted from Rickie's head. There are a couple of links below this photo; check them both out.



The first is Golf Digest's story about Christina lifting that swing thought and the tweet that tipped her off. And the second is the original Golf Digest article that the tweet referenced, where Rickie told what he and Butch had been working on. The paragraph from that original article that Christina mentioned said:

In my old takeaway, the clubface pointed at the ball for too long. There was this initial tension as my shoulders turned early while the club slowly dragged back, putting the clubface in a shut position. To fix this, my slow-motion rehearsal thought was, The toe of the club makes the first move.

Christina's been having a problem keeping her clubface square during her swing, and this takeaway thought helps her -- and Rickie -- swing the club more naturally.

I may have linked to the original article before -- I remember linking to something where Rickie talked about what he and Butch were working on -- but good instruction is always worth hearing again.

One More Thought on Rickie's Umbrella Drill

Friday was a busy day and I didn't get much time to write, but I wanted to add something to yesterday's tip from Rickie Fowler.

While I mentioned how the umbrella drill helped Rickie stay connected at the top of his backswing so he wouldn't overswing, I forgot to mention how it helps his takeaway and downswing plane. Rickie has had a tendency to open the club face on the takeaway and then lay the club off on the downswing -- that is, he would drop the club shaft so it was more parallel to the ground as he started down. It caused him to be too shallow on the downswing and too much in-to-out. As a result, he often pushed the ball at impact and flipped his hands trying to save it. (Most amateurs would just hit a push.)

By using the umbrella image, Rickie doesn't twist his forearms so much on the way back, which keeps the club more vertical. (It's still tilted on plane, it's just not exaggerated.) Since the club is more vertical, the natural move is to keep the club more on plane as he comes down. In other words, he doesn't "wave" the club back and forth during his swing.

Using a one-piece takeaway (the basic drill is in this post) puts you in good position to use Rickie's umbrella drill naturally. And the two together will improve your swing plane tremendously.

Butch on the 30-Yard Pitch Shot

This short video is a brand new one from Butch Harmon that I found Tuesday on golfdigest.com. I'm posting it because it illustrates a specific way to use the bounce of your wedge, just like in yesterday's Azinger video.

Butch calls this shot "the clip." This is how Steve Stricker plays this kind of shot... and you know how much I like Stricker's technique.


The primary technique in this shot is the relatively wristless wide takeaway and stroke through the shot. Note that the ball is in the middle of Butch's stance so the club shaft will be vertical when he actually hits the ball. That's how you make sure you use the bounce on the club.

One last thought: Obviously this shot wouldn't work from thick rough. To get clean contact with such a wide shallow arc, you need to be playing from the short grass. From the rough you want to use your wrists more, the way Zinger does in yesterday's video.

Playing the Anti-Flop

Okay, Lou Guzzi doesn't call this the anti-flop... but the technique certainly doesn't sound like any flop shot I've seen before. However, this golf.com video from Guzzi is an interesting take on the standard flop shot. You just might find some use for it!



Guzzi has taken almost all of the wrist hinge out of this shot and substituted body rotation to get the bounce of the club under the ball. Here are the basics I see in the video:

• This shot uses your 60-degree wedge. This is pretty standard for a flop but if you aren't going to cock your wrists very much, that extra loft is critical.
• You also want to open the face of your wedge. Again, pretty standard for a flop.
• You really widen your stance. Looks more like he plans to hit a fairway wood than a wedge!
• The ball is positioned just inside the lead heel. Guzzi doesn't mention this, but it's clear from the video. Looks really close to where you'd play a fairway wood or even a driver.
• Hands swing back higher than normal but without really cocking your wrists. This is more like the one-piece takeaway you want to use in a full swing. Because you're turning your shoulders more, your hands (and the club) stay more "in front of you" -- or, if you prefer, you are more connected -- and the higher arm swing gives you a more upright stroke. Guzzi is using this upright plane to create some of the steepness you normally create with your wrists in a flop shot.
• The wider stance and more connected move causes a greater weight shift back and through. This gives the club head -- and, consequently, the bounce on the club -- more time to get under the ball.

Now, when you watch Guzzi hit this shot on the video it may not look as if it takes off as high as a typical flop shot. (At least it doesn't to me.) But I can see how this method could both create more spin and make it easier to get good results, since eliminating the "wrist flip" at impact should make it easier to hit the ball more consistently.

To put it another way, solid contact = more spin = more height on the shot.

At any rate, it looks like an easy way to hit a higher, softer pitch shot without a tricky-to-time wrist flip. Seems worth a little time on the practice range to me.

Ryan Moore's Sweet Little Fade

With Ryan Moore having picked up his fourth PGA Tour win this past week, perhaps this is a good time to look at how he manages to be so competitive -- even on a big hitter's course -- despite not being a big hitter himself.



The November Golf Digest has an article Moore did about his technique for hitting a fade. I like the way he starts the article:

I've been a professional golfer since 2005. I've got more than 220 PGA Tour starts, 45 top-10 finishes and three wins [correction: now it's four]. Want to know how many swing changes I've made during that time? Zero. I turned pro playing a fade, and I'm still playing one now.

He's right -- if what you've got works, why change? Just learn how to capitalize on it!

Ryan says it's more natural to hit a fade. (Since most of you struggle with a slice, you probably agree with him.) The article has his three tips for hitting a 'pro-style fade,' plus two other tips if you need them.

His keys?

1. Align left at setup (of course, Ryan's a rightie),
2. make a good turn with your shoulders (one-piece takeaway, anyone?), and
3. keep your body turning ahead of the club head for as long as possible. (He expands on that in one of those two extra tips, recommending that you make sure your body keeps rotating all the way through to the finish -- enough that your body faces even farther left if possible.)

He also includes an explanation of why you should have the club face slightly closed at address in order to keep the curve to a minimum.

Of course, for those of you who really want to hit a draw, an understanding of how Ryan hits his fade could help you draw the ball by doing the opposite. (For example, Ryan says that -- in reference to the third key above -- swinging your arms past your body during your downswing encourages a draw.)

If you follow Ryan's tips, they might help you get control of that slice you already hit and turn it into a nice controllable little fade. And anytime you can use your natural tendencies to get good results, why not?

Up and Down and Around, Part 3

In the second post in this series I looked at how a connected modern swing built on a knowledge of how your body works eliminates the need to twist your forearms in the modern golf swing. (As a quick summary, the rotation of your lead shoulder while connected takes care of all the motion necessary to get your club face on plane, and does it pretty much automatically.) But it creates an even simpler motion in a classic-style swing, and that's what we're looking at today.

I say a 'classic-style swing' instead of just a classic swing because there are a number of swing variations being taught these days, both classic-style and modern-style. Some of these variations are starting to blur the differences between the two and, in my opinion, are better than either of the originals. Many of the old swing thoughts that clearly belonged to one original swing type or the other are not so clear anymore.

Let's look at the originals and then how they've evolved.

The original classic swing developed during the age of hickory, back when shafts couldn't take much stress before they flexed out of control. I think that's why two-plane swings originally developed -- the looping action at the top minimized the stress during the change of direction. Too much leg action created even more stress, so the focus was on the arm action -- the legs were often described as just "moving beneath" the player, as supports rather than power sources. Because of this, players often turned their hips a lot on the backswing.

The club was swung back and up, then looped down and around to create a path from the inside. (Typical swing thought: Pull down and ring the bell.) In order to make room for this inside path, the hips needed to move toward the target. (Typical swing thought: Slide your hips forward.) To facilitate a free-swinging arm action, the arms remained unconnected and players often didn't think much about proper leg action -- which often resulted in an over-the-top swing.

The classic swing evolved a bit when steel shafts took over, eliminating much of the looping at the top. Colin Montgomerie is a good example of that classic swing. There's not a lot of worry about bracing his trailing knee, and all of his hip action and arm swing look very loose and relaxed compared to the modern swing. The classic swing is typically an upright swing, with the hands carried very high.



In contrast, the original modern swing -- also a two-plane swing -- developed after steel shafts took over. Hogan's new connection technique was the real revolution here and, since the legs became the main power source and the arms were clearly the weakest link in the chain (hence connection, to help brace them), it lent itself to making a flatter swing.

At the top of the backswing, the legs drove hard toward the target and loaded the shaft. This motion dropped the hands to a lower inside plane but, since now the legs had to start the turn as well as get the hips out of the way of the inside path, the swing required a more complex lower body movement. (Typical swing thought: Bump and turn.) The trailing leg had to be braced in order to start the downswing with a forceful move, and the hands went around rather than up and down. Ben Hogan is the original, of course.



For a long time instructors said you couldn't combine techniques from these two swings. But once people believe that something can't be done, it generally doesn't take long before someone figures out how to do it. Various versions of what we now call the one-plane swing were born.

And connection was the key. You see, with the upper arms connected to the chest during the downswing, the hips no longer got in the way. Now the hips only needed to move enough to create a good weight shift. And because of that, instructors found lots of new ways to blend the two swing methods. For just a couple of examples:

• Teachers like Jimmy Ballard continued to focus on the leg action but added enough arm power to keep the back straighter. This not only created a more natural throwing motion (remember my own swing thoughts about throwing Frisbees™ and hitting tennis backhands) but relieved some of the back stress caused by all that hip sliding and twisting. Like the original modern swing, this one is flatter and much more around.
• Likewise, teachers like Pete Cowen continued to focus on the arm action but added more leg drive to create more club head speed. Like the original classic swing, this one is much more upright and therefore more up and down. This is the one I want to focus on.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if many of you are using some combination of the two already without being aware of it. If you're having a lot of trouble with your swing, that could be the reason -- a bad combination of classic and modern swing techniques. The fact is, most instructors don't tell you which method they're using -- some of them may not even know themselves, they just know their swing method works. Unless you've taken lessons from a single teacher, you could have patched together some bits and pieces that weren't meant to be patched. (The method I use in Stop Coming Over-the-Top and in any of my posts that don't say differently is similar to what Jimmy Ballard does -- primarily leg driven, but with a straighter back. I think I've mentioned that before.)

As a side note, it seems to me that the classic style is more common among the European and Asian players while the modern style is more common among American and Australian players. There are certainly exceptions -- for example, Stacy Lewis appears to have more of a classic swing while Graeme McDowell is more modern -- but overall that seems to be the case.

Anyway, for the rest of this post we're going to focus on the connected classic swing. All swings have an 'up and down' component and an 'around' component. For the time being we're going to ignore the 'around' part of the connected classic swing and focus on the 'up and down' part.

In yesterday's post I included a video of Steven Bann demonstrating that you don't have to twist your forearms to get your hands 'on plane' at the top of your backswing. I summed up the connected move this way:

From your address position, with your hands basically in front of your belly button, your straight lead arm rotates at your shoulder and rolls up the side of your chest where your lead tricep touches it. At the same time, your trailing elbow bends and guides your lead arm so your lead hand finishes just outside and above your trailing shoulder.

So on the way up your hands travel at an angle from in front of your belly button to above and outside your trailing shoulder. (Of course, in an actual swing you'd be turning your shoulders around at the same time. Your hands would reach the top of your backswing when you finished coiling your shoulders.) Your trailing arm disconnects briefly at the top so you can get more height.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could just pull our hands straight back down to our address position in order to hit the ball? In this new connected classic swing, WE CAN!

Why couldn't we do it in the modern swing? It's because all the leg drive forces us to focus on the 'around' part of the swing. The swing is flatter so the hands don't move downward as much... and even then they're pulled down by the leg action.

In contrast, a classic swing is focused on the 'up and down' motion in the swing. Therefore, we can do more than just let our hands drop. Instead, we can actively straighten our arms to get them back down to the address position! As our connected lead arm rolls back down the side of our chest on the downswing, we just pull our trailing arm down so it reconnects... and then we straighten the elbow of our now-connected trailing arm. As our shoulders return to our address position, our hands also return to their address position almost automatically.

And to get to our finish, we just let our lead elbow bend as our shoulders continue to turn toward the target. Our trailing arm, now straight, mirrors what our lead arm did on the backswing. Our hands finish above and just outside our lead shoulder.

In other words, our arms and hands -- when viewed without our shoulders turning -- basically move in a giant V shape in front of our torso. A very simple motion indeed, as shown in the following diagram. (For you lefties out there, the sequence is A-C-A-B where C becomes the top of the backswing and B becomes the top of the finish. Except for the labels, things didn't change enough to warrant two diagrams.)



Yeah, I know -- this is a very different way of thinking about arm motion during your swing. And you have to understand that this description is specific to a connected classic swing -- it doesn't necessarily describe how the motion feels during a modern swing, for example, because of the dropping action that starts a modern swing's downswing.

I discovered this while changing my own modern swing to a more classic one, and it takes a little effort to get your mind around it. But it didn't take me long -- we're talking a matter of weeks here. And now my swing thought as I start down is simply to straighten my arms and hit the ball. You can really feel the lead arm rolling down into position!

When I first started experimenting with a classic swing, my biggest problem was finding the bottom of my swing because my trailing hand was uncocking too soon. (The classic swing is more upright, so the swing is longer.) This V-shape swing concept helped me get it straightened out.

If you want to experiment with it, I'd advise starting with slow half swings and move to slow full swings. Once you get there, the timing is extremely easy to get because the swing rhythm isn't complex -- just up and back, down and around.

But no matter whether you use a classic swing or a modern one -- an arm-powered one or a leg-powered swing -- you've got to stop twisting your forearms if you want to become more consistent in your game. Staying connected -- and letting that connection control the rotation at your lead shoulder -- is the path to more fairways and greens.

Up and Down and Around, Part 2

In yesterday's post I focused on how the design of your shoulder joint and the connection between the upper part of your lead arm and your chest create all the club rotation you need -- that is, you don't need to twist your forearms during your swing. Today we'll look at how it works in the modern golf swing.

First we need to clear up some common misconceptions about the differences between the modern golf swing and the classic golf swing. A couple of definitions are in order:

• A modern golf swing is a swing where the legs are the primary power source for creating club head speed.
• A classic golf swing is a swing where the arms are the primary power source for creating club head speed.

Misconception #1 is that the modern swing is all legs and the classic swing is all arms. Both swings are whole body swings; the arms provide some of the modern swing's power and the legs provide some of the classic swing's power.

Misconception #2 is that the legs start the downswing in the modern swing and the arms start the downswing in the classic swing. WRONG! The legs ALWAYS start your downswing, no matter whether you have a modern or classic swing. (And just to clarify another misconception, you start your downswing with your legs even in an over-the-top swing; the problem there is that your legs push in the wrong direction.) Here's how it actually works in each type of swing (some instructors call this "sequencing"):

• In the modern swing, the legs push hard to begin the swing. The arms don't do anything but hold the club at first; they are pulled down to around armpit height by the leg's movement, then they add their effort to the swing.
• In the classic swing, the legs push more easily to start the swing. The arms begin pulling the club down just after the legs start pushing. Then, when the arms get down around armpit height, the legs start pushing harder.

As a result, the modern swing has more lateral movement (toward the target) while the classic swing is more rotary (hip turn). The classic swing isn't quite as hard on the back because the spine stays more vertical than in a modern swing.

Finally, I've used the following video from K.J. Choi's teacher Steven Bann several times before because he gives such a good demonstration of how vertical your arm movement during your backswing really is. Take another look at it to be sure you understand what he's saying -- that you don't have to twist your forearms as you take the club back -- and then we'll get into today's post.



Bann doesn't use a connected position to get up to the top here, but it's easy to imagine what it looks like, isn't it? From your address position, with your hands basically in front of your belly button, your straight lead arm rotates at your shoulder and rolls up the side of your chest where your lead tricep touches it. At the same time, your trailing elbow bends and guides your lead arm so your lead hand finishes just outside and above your trailing shoulder.

If you try this and keep both upper arms connected -- a drill Hogan used in Five Lessons, although he said you'd never actually keep both arms connected all the way through your swing -- if you try it, you'll find that your lead arm has rotated so much that the back of your lead hand is pointing up to the sky. That's how much your shoulder and arm can rotate... but you didn't have to twist your forearms to do it. I want to make sure you understand that.

From this position, you can return your hands to your address position -- and yes, they'll be just as square as they were when you originally set up -- just by letting your arms straighten and drop back down. That's because your connected lead arm rotates at your shoulder and AUTOMATICALLY returns to your address position as it rolls back down the side of your chest. That's what we want; that's what will increase our accuracy without any extra effort on our part.

Now, how does this work in the modern swing?

Once we get to the top of our backswing -- we use a one-piece takeaway because that's how you make a connected backswing -- we start down by driving our legs and letting them pull our arms down. In fact, it feels as if we're just letting our arms drop by themselves... and they drop straight down. That gets our hands (and the club) down to around armpit height. Just look at the first two positions in this partial sequence of Sam Snead I included in a post I did about 3 weeks ago. See how the arms have just dropped down as his legs pushed forward?



From that point I have often described the rest of the downswing motion as "throwing a Frisbee™" or "hitting a tennis backhand." As you can see in the second position of the sequence, the back of Sam's lead hand seems to be in the same position as in those two motions. It's an easy way to help you simplify the move back to the ball.

But actually, his hands are still moving straight down because that connected lead arm is rolling down the edge of his chest while his wrists uncock. Try it yourself. Grab a club and make a small practice swing back to waist high and then through to a waist high finish. Do it twice:

• The first time, try to feel as if you're hitting a backhand while your wrists uncock.
• The second time, try to feel as if you're simply straightening out your lead arm as you turn your body through to the finish.

I bet those two swings feel pretty much the same. How we think about the motions determines a lot about how they feel to us. That's really all swing keys are, just different ways of thinking about the same motions. We're just searching for some new way to think about the movements so it will be easier for us to repeat them every time.

Some of you will find the "straighten your arms" swing thought to be a better swing key than the "backhand" swing thought. But either one will give you much more consistent results than the "twist your forearms" swing thought because that one doesn't use connection or your natural movements.

Tomorrow I'll look at how a classic swing can benefit from using connection instead of twisting your forearms. You're going to be shocked at just how easy a golf swing can be...

Up and Down and Around, Part 1

A few days back I did a post called Is Your Golf Swing Causing Back Problems? where I referenced Henrik Stenson and his teacher Pete Cowen. In the comments Peter Cheng left a link to a video of Cowen's "Ax Drill" and asked what I thought. Here's the video:



You see, the Ax Drill teaches you to twist your forearms -- a move that I am dead set against. In fact, my number one Basic Principle of the Game (and that link gives just one place where I've said it), whether it's a drive or a putting stroke, is:

The clubface should remain square to the stroke path; the forearms should NOT rotate during the execution of the stroke.

I guess my teaching is unusual just because of that one thing. But please note that Cowen actually says in this video that the swing would be so much simpler if we didn't need to twist our forearms!

It's been a while since I've done an instructional series, but that seems the best way to answer Peter's question. We DON'T have to twist our forearms, and this post series will explain why. It's basically all-new material and I'm guessing it will take 3 posts.

• The first post will deal with the physical reason that we don't need to twist our forearms.
• The second post will explain how this physical reason works in the modern golf swing, where the arms don't do a lot of work until the hands reach the impact zone.
• And the third post will explain how it works in a classic swing, which is basically what Cowen teaches (very well, I might add) and in which the arms play a much bigger role in the swing.

So let's start with the physical reason we don't need to twist our forearms during the swing.

I'm not surprised if you're skeptical about the idea. Our swing plane is very clearly tilted at an angle during a golf swing. But don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm not saying there is no rotation during a golf swing, just that our forearms aren't what create that rotation.

And that, my friends, is a very different thing.

You see, most people don't have a clear understanding of how their bodies work. But that's very important knowledge if we want to build a repeating golf swing because our natural simple moves are easier to repeat. And in this case, your lead shoulder joint plays a vitally important role in how your swing works.

Just take a look at this drawing:



Because the "arm bone" is slightly offset in the joint -- and actually angled forward a little, as you can see in the following two images from shoulderdoc.co.uk -- the arm doesn't move quite the way we might expect.




Because of this unusual construction, our shoulders have a range of motion that boggles the mind. But that offset can also have some unexpected side effects -- like unexpected rotation.

A few paragraphs down I've added a crude drawing that shows a couple of positions we typically take when we move our arms. In both of the positions in this diagram, the lead thumb is pointing upward. In the first position (A) the man is just standing straight and holding his lead arm out in front of his lead shoulder, parallel to the floor. In the second (B), he's taken a typical golf address position, again with his lead arm out in front of his lead shoulder to hold a club. In both cases, he keeps his lead hand and forearm relaxed while he moves his lead hand until it's opposite his trailing shoulder (no shoulder turn, just moving his arm).

Try each position for yourself. Here's a quick tip: Your lead thumb probably WON'T point straight up in the air when your wrist and forearm are relaxed. That's because most people's hands naturally turn inward slightly when they're relaxed. That's also why most people play better with a slightly stronger grip -- it's the most natural position.

Keep your lead hand and forearm relaxed while you move your hand from its starting position in front of your lead shoulder to its finishing position in front of your trailing shoulder.



Here's what will happen. In the A position, unless you have a large chest, your hand will stay at roughly the same angle it was when you started. But in the B position, your hand will rotate noticeably toward your trailing side. That's because the offset design of your shoulder joint causes your tricep (the big muscle on the back of your upper arm) to roll across your chest as your arm moves. That's because your tricep and chest stay connected during the move. (How many times have we talked about the importance of connection in your golf swing?)

That's also why the big-chested person gets some rotation from the A position. When a thin person tries position A, their tricep and chest get disconnected -- there is no rolling action. The person with the thicker chest (and likely thicker arms as well) still gets some degree of connections

The rotation that happens during your golf swing should happen at your lead shoulder, not in your forearms. If you maintain that lead arm-chest connection throughout your swing, you will get a controlled rotation that is consistent on both the way back and the way down. You won't even have to think about it.

In contrast, when you create the rotation with your forearms, you have to consciously try to match the amount of rotation on the backswing with the amount on the downswing. And that rotation is added to the natural rotation at your shoulder! Furthermore, if you don't maintain that connection throughout your entire swing -- a very real possibility when you're twisting your forearms (think about all those pros sticking gloves between their lead arm and chest during practice!) -- if you don't maintain that connection, the shoulder rotation becomes inconsistent as well and makes the guessing game even trickier.

It's definitely much simpler to let the natural design of your shoulder, along with proper connection, create a consistent rotation at your lead shoulder rather than by twisting your forearms.

But believe it or not, the nature of the golf swing itself makes this shoulder roll a better move. And we'll discuss that tomorrow when we look at the modern swing.

Jason Day's 4 Keys to Power

Golf Digest has a great article on Jason Day's swing keys. Jason says he tries to keep things simple. Check out this quote from the article:

"Swinging harder is not the best way to drive it farther. Instead, focus on the fundamentals, such as grip, setup and making solid contact, and you'll be in a much better position to crank the ball."

This is a really good article from September last year that Golf Digest is featuring since Jason won just last week.

BTW, here are a few interesting facts from the article. Bear in mind that Jason is 6' tall and that these facts are about 6 months old. Still, they're pretty impressive!

• Day keeps his tee shots in the air longer than any other tour player—a whopping 6.7 seconds.
• Day's clubhead is moving more than 120 miles per hour when he blasts a tee shot.
• No one on tour hits it higher than Day. The average apex of his tee shots is nearly 132 feet.
• Day's average drive goes 295 yards—on the fly! He ranks 11th in driving distance on tour.

Given how much attention guys like Bubba and DJ get for their hang time, swing speed, etc., I think those are interesting facts.

And one other thing: Please note that the photo in the Getting Things Going section of the article very clearly shows Jason making a one-piece takeaway and that's what he describes. If you don't start your swing well, you're going to be making corrections the rest of the way through. So why not do it right from the very start? ;-)