WATCH: Shoulder Mobility and Shallowing Out the Golf Swing
In this video, I use one of my students as an example of how trail shoulders mobility can affect the golf swing. It is important to note that many structural factors can affect the golf swing. For the golfer in this video, the trail shoulder is just one example of how we can address physical limitations to improve the swing.
The drill I give this student utilizes the weight of the club to not only stretch the shoulder but to also start to retrain the motor patterns to get the club in a better position to start the downswing.
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Instruction
Clement: Laid-off or perfect fade? Across-the-line or perfect draw?
Some call the image on the left laid off, but if you are hitting a fade, this could be a perfect backswing for it! Same for across the line for a draw! Stop racking your brain with perceived mistakes and simply match backswing to shot shape!
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Instruction
The Wedge Guy: The easiest-to-learn golf basic
My golf learning began with this simple fact – if you don’t have a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, it is practically impossible for your body to execute a fundamentally sound golf swing. I’m still a big believer that the golf swing is much easier to execute if you begin with the proper hold on the club.
As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.
The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.
Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply. Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:
Mis-aligned hands
By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.
The position of the grip in the upper/left hand
I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean. Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.
To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.
Too much lower (right) hand on the club
It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.
Gripping too tightly
Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.
So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.
More from the Wedge Guy
- The Wedge Guy: Golf mastery begins with your wedge game
- The Wedge Guy: Why golf is 20 times harder than brain surgery
- The Wedge Guy: Musings on the golf ball rollback
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Instruction
Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!
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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geohogan
Sep 11, 2018 at 9:58 pm
If a golfer can turn the palm of his trail hand toward the sky at the top of the BS
then he can shallow the club. Simply keep the palm facing the sky.
Gravity drop and the hands shallow the club.
Greg
Sep 11, 2018 at 9:04 am
Is there a role for the “Feel the stretch” device? The most important stretch in golf. feelthestretch.com
tom stickney
Sep 10, 2018 at 5:41 pm
Great points here…most teachers fail to understand the role of the shoulder girdle and how it can influence your transition.
ogo
Sep 10, 2018 at 6:27 pm
It’s imperative that the shoulder and chest structure be evaluated to determine the range of motion of the arms. Most instructors ignore this physical aspect of the golfer.
geohogan
Sep 12, 2018 at 12:41 pm
The deltoid has three distinct functions that correspond to the three bands of muscle fibers. Contraction of the anterior fibers flexes and medially rotates the arm by pulling the humerus towards the clavicle
If trail deltoid contracts OTT will result. (humerus toward the clavicle)
Palm of trail hand facing the sky disengages the deltoid.
If a golfer can hold the proverbial ‘waiters tray’at top of BS, there is no need of physio.
Alex
Sep 10, 2018 at 5:07 pm
Don’t understand the logic here. Joe can rotate the right shoulder properly with only the right hand on the club, but has trouble when the left hand is applied. Then you conclude that his right shoulder is limited, when it seems that the problem is using both arms together. What am I missing?
Geoff
Sep 11, 2018 at 9:19 pm
Joe does not rotate properly with right hand only drill …. and it’s a drill to start lightly stretching and to benchmark his progress. Pause vid at 2:41 …. he gets maybe 2-3 more degrees of ER (guessing) …. but he has to “cheat” it with abduction and horizontal abduction. Also keep his elbow extended which mechanically lengthens biceps to further pull into ER. The “cheat” is the point … it stretches the internal rotators (cuff, pecs, biceps). Again at 2:41 … no way he gets his left hand on the grip.
Dan’s take home point in a 4 min video is “don’t prescribe motion and positions before checking for anatomical roadblocks”
Dan is TPI Certified and routinely refers out to PT, AT, nutritionists, and Medical TPI professionals. They work out kinks and Dan goes to work with radar based LM’s, 3D motion analysis, and an approach that matches the learning style of every client …. even my son who is one of the toughest nuts to crack.
mike
Sep 10, 2018 at 10:22 am
Range of motion is too often taken for granted . Bravo on reminding us that everyone has individual muscular – skeleton issues .
Very frustrating trying to do something your body isn’t capable of .
Good instruction will take these into consideration and find a way to fix or work around
ogo
Sep 10, 2018 at 6:25 pm
If the pecs are too bulky the chest will interfere with arm positions in the back and downswing. That’s what it looks like.
Kevin
Sep 10, 2018 at 3:10 am
Would have been helpful to see an example of good external rotation (maybe yours) to compare with Joe’s. We have no idea watching the video how short of optimal is Joe.
ogo
Sep 9, 2018 at 2:17 pm
Excellent, excellent biomechanical analysis and remedy for internal and external shoulder rotation. This is the kind of instruction that is so beneficial for this forum.