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I heard through the grape vine that Tiger Woods is searching for a technique he can use to allow him to play golf without any further damage and compete again. Here’s an idea: focus on a task that gets the results needed, and let the body tell you how to perform the task!

If Tiger were to go to a lumberjack camp and learn how to chop trees down the old fashioned way with a nice, sharp, 6-pound axe, he would walk out of there like Paul Bunyan after a month with a complete skill acquired and no injuries. Use the task in this video to acquire the skill needed to send a ball to a target!

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Shawn Clement is the new Director of Development at the Royal Quebec Golf Academy in Quebec City, Canada and a class A PGA teaching professional. Shawn was a 2011 and 2015 Ontario PGA Teacher of the Year nominee while Directing at the Richmond Hill Golf Learning Centre. He was also voted in the top 10 (tied with Martin Hall at No. 9) as most sought after teacher on the internet in 2016 with 83 000 subscribers on YouTube and 36 millions natural views. Shawn has been writing for numerous publications since 2001 including Golf Tips Magazine and Score Golf Magazine. He also appeared of the Golf Channel’s Academy Live in July 2001 with Jerry Foltz and Mike Ritz. Shawn Clement has the distinction of being one of the only professionals fit by Ping’s Tour fitting centre where he was fitted with left and right handed clubs including 2 drivers with 115 plus miles per hour and 300 plus yard drives from both sides.

16 Comments

16 Comments

  1. Sean Reardon

    Oct 24, 2017 at 1:02 am

    No one actually brought carrots to the driving range did they? This is so stupid. It took vegetables to say the lead arm is dominant for direction and trail arm is passive and power. As to the bottle of water on the mat. Save the water go to a real driving range. Mats are nonsense. Fat shots skip into the ball making it look like you’re not a lumber jack and are terrible for your clubs and wrists.

  2. TC

    Oct 18, 2017 at 3:32 pm

    So… hit a wrist shot (hockey) in golf. Got it. lol

  3. Squire

    Oct 1, 2017 at 1:44 am

    He just used his right hand, and sliced AWAY from his body, left to right, horizontally, to slice that carrot. Yet he is hitting the ball right handed, right to left, in a downward motion, and with right palm facing down wrapped around the grip, and not slicing the turf away with his left hand or arm pulling horizontally across the top of the ground with the clubhead.
    Don’t do this move folks. Clearly it doesn’t work, even philosophically speaking. How embarrassing.

  4. Robert Parsons

    Sep 30, 2017 at 6:02 pm

    I’d like to hire Shawn as a prep cook at one of my restaurants. I hope he can use this technique with potatos too! Who knows what he can cook up with a driver?!?

  5. ButchT

    Sep 29, 2017 at 3:21 pm

    More effective imagery for those who struggle than “hit down on the ball to compress it.” Tom Watson made a good living peeling carrots.

  6. AD

    Sep 29, 2017 at 3:10 am

    So completely wrong, it’s mind boggling he’s even allowed to teach.
    The objective of the golf club is to compress the ball off the turf onto the lofted face of the club to get it airborne with momentum and speed. It’s the downward-hitting, compressing, de-lofting motion of the forward leaning shaft angle that facilitates this downward hit that rebounds the ball onto the face of the club off the ground that propels the ball. Without the hitting, drive-down power motion bottoming out under where the ball was into the turf, the ball will not launch properly and you will consistently hit thing shots and will be cursing your finger joints and thumbs for believing that you weren’t holding onto the club properly. If you were going to peeling away with just the lead hand and arm pulling, why use the other hand at all then? This ain’t tennis’s one-handed back-hand like Federer. Good luck trying that with just your lead arm. You’ll get nowhere

    • OB

      Sep 29, 2017 at 10:38 am

      Shawn has made the video for golfers who learn through imagery, not imitation or confusing scientific verbal mumbo jumbo.
      Of course Shawn understands the scientific aspects of the golfswing but neither he nor you would tell that to the adult golfing duffer with the frightened brain of a 12 y.o. and a bagful of ill-fitting golf clubs.
      Would you explain the golfswing to a student in all it’s gory scientific details, or would you communicate in a manner that is similar to that of Shawn?

    • BCM

      Sep 29, 2017 at 12:16 pm

      Shawn’s methods don’t work for everybody. But neither do yours. I have found that my most successful striking occurs when my trail arm (my right, which also is my dominant arm in every other activity) is very passive. I do agree with your description of contact/compression, etc. But you can find it with a swing dominated by pulling, as I have with my connected, body turn dominated swing. I do maintain more “ball is target” focus than Shawn exhibits here, but successful striking can happen by pulling/swinging as well as by pushing/hitting.

      • AD

        Sep 29, 2017 at 1:18 pm

        You don’t slice like that in golf – you do that in baseball batting. Why do you think batters have a hard time converting to golf? If this above method of slicing worked, then all batter would be the greatest ball strikers – and they are not. But ice hockey players are. They understand that the club is at the deck and know how to hammer it off there. Some of the more successful converters out there are former ice hockey players, and not baseball batters. But the slicers are welcome to keep slicing the ball far and away out of bounds if they want :-p

    • Bugs

      Sep 29, 2017 at 1:07 pm

      Errrrrr wot’s up, Doc? I tried dis here method, but I just decided to eat the carrots instead

  7. Da Judge

    Sep 28, 2017 at 10:37 pm

    Great golfing images for those who can’t think for themselves. Carrots, boards, water….. what’s next? Twirling a baton and hammering nails?

  8. Doobie

    Sep 28, 2017 at 12:38 pm

    Bought a bunch of carrots and all I got with Shawn’s shaving drill is strips of julienned carrot… hitting too fat and shredding the carrot tops.
    Wotta waste of carrots. Wotta mess on my clubs. Wotta mess at the driving range!

    • AZ

      Sep 30, 2017 at 7:41 pm

      Try a zucchini or cucumber…. combines slicing and water.

  9. 8thehardway

    Sep 28, 2017 at 10:18 am

    Wonderful analogy and addresses my problematic focus on the ball and thinking my swing is over once I make contact. Great tip on watering the mat too. Does ‘peel the carrot’ work for drivers, which is my biggest problem, or is there something better suited to an abbreviated driver swing?

    • Doobie

      Sep 28, 2017 at 12:39 pm

      Go get lessons from Shawn and all your driver problems will be cured.

    • WillyWankel

      Sep 28, 2017 at 3:13 pm

      For drivers you “mash” the potato….. and for irons “peel” the carrot.
      And for the putter you just pop the ball.

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Instruction

Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!

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Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?

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How a towel can fix your golf swing

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This is a classic drill that has been used for decades. However, the world of marketed training aids has grown so much during that time that this simple practice has been virtually forgotten. Because why teach people how to play golf using everyday items when you can create and sell a product that reinforces the same thing? Nevertheless, I am here to give you helpful advice without running to the nearest Edwin Watts or adding something to your Amazon cart.

For the “scoring clubs,” having a solid connection between the arms and body during the swing, especially through impact, is paramount to creating long-lasting consistency. And keeping that connection throughout the swing helps rotate the shoulders more to generate more power to help you hit it farther. So, how does this drill work, and what will your game benefit from it? Well, let’s get into it.

Setup

You can use this for basic chip shots up to complete swings. I use this with every club in my bag, up to a 9 or 8-iron. It’s natural to create incrementally more separation between the arms and body as you progress up the set. So doing this with a high iron or a wood is not recommended.

While you set up to hit a ball, simply tuck the towel underneath both armpits. The length of the towel will determine how tight it will be across your chest but don’t make it so loose that it gets in the way of your vision. After both sides are tucked, make some focused swings, keeping both arms firmly connected to the body during the backswing and follow through. (Note: It’s normal to lose connection on your lead arm during your finishing pose.) When you’re ready, put a ball in the way of those swings and get to work.

Get a Better Shoulder Turn

Many of us struggle to have proper shoulder rotation in our golf swing, especially during long layoffs. Making a swing that is all arms and no shoulders is a surefire way to have less control with wedges and less distance with full swings. Notice how I can get in a similar-looking position in both 60° wedge photos. However, one is weak and uncontrollable, while the other is strong and connected. One allows me to use my larger muscles to create my swing, and one doesn’t. The follow-through is another critical point where having a good connection, as well as solid shoulder rotation, is a must. This drill is great for those who tend to have a “chicken wing” form in their lead arm, which happens when it becomes separated from the body through impact.

In full swings, getting your shoulders to rotate in your golf swing is a great way to reinforce proper weight distribution. If your swing is all arms, it’s much harder to get your weight to naturally shift to the inside part of your trail foot in the backswing. Sure, you could make the mistake of “sliding” to get weight on your back foot, but that doesn’t fix the issue. You must turn into your trial leg to generate power. Additionally, look at the difference in separation between my hands and my head in the 8-iron examples. The green picture has more separation and has my hands lower. This will help me lessen my angle of attack and make it easier to hit the inside part of the golf ball, rather than the over-the-top move that the other picture produces.

Stay Better Connected in the Backswing

When you don’t keep everything in your upper body working as one, getting to a good spot at the top of your swing is very hard to do. It would take impeccable timing along with great hand-eye coordination to hit quality shots with any sort of regularity if the arms are working separately from the body.

Notice in the red pictures of both my 60-degree wedge and 8-iron how high my hands are and the fact you can clearly see my shoulder through the gap in my arms. That has happened because the right arm, just above my elbow, has become totally disconnected from my body. That separation causes me to lift my hands as well as lose some of the extension in my left arm. This has been corrected in the green pictures by using this drill to reinforce that connection. It will also make you focus on keeping the lead arm close to your body as well. Because the moment either one loses that relationship, the towel falls.

Conclusion

I have been diligent this year in finding a few drills that target some of the issues that plague my golf game; either by simply forgetting fundamental things or by coming to terms with the faults that have bitten me my whole career. I have found that having a few drills to fall back on to reinforce certain feelings helps me find my game a little easier, and the “towel drill” is most definitely one of them.

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Clement: Why your practice swing never sucks

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You hear that one all the time; I wish I could put my practice swing on the ball! We explain the huge importance of what to focus on to allow the ball to be perfectly in the way of your practice swing. Enjoy!

 

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