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Tiger and Jack never did it, should you?

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Northbound Golf provides a comprehensive way to learn and play the game. Martin Ayers and Michael Powers have uncovered what great players do that makes them great. It’s an approach that you can adopt, irrespective of your current level of play. Martin Ayers is a former Australasia Tour player who has coached Major Champions Steve Elkington and Mike Weir, as well as 3 time PGA Tour winner Cameron Beckman. Michael Powers is a PGA Member from Boston, Massachusetts with over 25 years of coaching experience. At Northboundgolf.com you’ll find over six hours of instructional video content, question and answer podcasts, plus personal online coaching.

34 Comments

34 Comments

  1. TZ

    Dec 26, 2018 at 11:44 pm

    Even the players who took a practice takeaway waggled the club before the swing. Very stupid to show a video of a player taking a practice takeaway then hitting a bad shot when we could show hundreds of great shots that follow, especially a tour pro.

  2. smz

    Dec 25, 2018 at 6:14 pm

    The “practice takeaway” is not helpful to the swing takeaway because your muscle memory vanishes completely when you then start your swing takeaway. Doing the practice takeaway is more like the “monkey see, monkey do” juvenile mentality so common in golf.
    Just take a deep breath at address and then swing away… and if you fail miserably that means you haven’t practiced your golf swing often enough. Maybe a New Year resolution will motivate you to practice… and maybe not.

  3. Speedy

    Dec 24, 2018 at 1:14 pm

    For woods, I like a short waggle to loosen muscles. For irons, a very short practice takeaway, not breaking wrists.

  4. Bill

    Dec 24, 2018 at 12:21 pm

    I like to think of a rehearsal takeaway as an “anchor” in sports movement. It raises our attention level for the task ahead and reduces anxiety as we get a feeling for the first movement. Every time Oscar Robinson crossed the midline in the NBA he nodded his head. He was probably not aware of it, but this movement help signal himself to see the floor and set the play going by triggering his attention and helped him gain confidence. I favor a rehearsal takeaway over a a waggle as it replicates the actual movement. I am not a sports psychologist although I have worked with some pro’s on the Symmetra and other tours. I am retired as a clinician and just wanted to add my two cents.

    • lance

      Dec 24, 2018 at 2:08 pm

      I submit that the “rehearsal takeaway” is a fully conscious movement… whereas the full swing takeaway starts with a conscious command and then quickly morphs into the unconscious mode. A fully conscious rehearsal takeaway may alleviate address anxiety but it mucks up the full swing takeaway neuro-muscular pathways. They are two very different psychological worlds.

    • Tom Tucker

      Dec 26, 2018 at 10:47 am

      This comment is right on. The rehearsal takeaway is something that I teach to all of my students, and it’s been very helpful in producing good swings. “Muscle memory” or more correctly stated – your neural pathway for a swing – is actually refreshed by this movement, not negated as mentioned in a previous comment. The rehearsal takeaway also helps focus on getting the clubhead into position for impact, an external focus which has been proven to be successful when teaching the golf swing. This video was way off the mark.

  5. geohogan

    Dec 24, 2018 at 11:49 am

    Though Freudian psychology is mostly discredited, most of our mental activity is indeed subconscious. Think about walking, engaging hundreds of muscles in exquisitely orchestrated coordination without thinking how and when to contract each muscle. The subconscious is playing a major role in everything we do.. Dr David Eagleman

    • geohogan

      Dec 24, 2018 at 1:17 pm

      David Eagleman is a neuroscientist and the New York Times bestselling author of Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain and Sum. He is the writer and host of the Emmy-nominated PBS television series The Brain. Eagleman is an adjunct professor at Stanford University, a Guggenheim fellow, and the director of the Center for Science and Law. He has written for the New York Times, Discover Magazine, The Atlantic, Slate, Wired and many others, and he appears regularly on National Public Radio and BBC.

    • lance

      Dec 24, 2018 at 2:02 pm

      subconscious (noun) — the subconscious part of the mind (not in technical use in psychoanalysis, where unconscious is preferred).
      THERE IS NO “subconscious” MIND AND ANY LEGITIMATE NEUROSCIENTIST KNOWS THIS … WHICH EXCLUDES YOU AND YOUR PRATTLING.

  6. Tom

    Dec 23, 2018 at 1:22 pm

    Practice takeaway can help reduce tension prior to actual swing. It’s up to each player if it helps….no big deal.

  7. Potus

    Dec 23, 2018 at 12:43 pm

    Articles on this site are fake news!!!!

  8. Tony

    Dec 23, 2018 at 4:38 am

    Settle down guys. It’s not that important.

  9. Dan

    Dec 22, 2018 at 6:47 am

    What a load of baloney!

  10. Southbound golf

    Dec 21, 2018 at 11:44 pm

    These guys are going south

  11. Steve Wozeniak

    Dec 21, 2018 at 8:05 pm

    Nope….the attention is NOT ON THE BALL!!!!!! Try again, can you think of what else that might have there attention???? I promise it’s simple.

    • ogo

      Dec 21, 2018 at 10:12 pm

      External focus on the clubhead? Target focus on where the ball will land? Fantasy focus on that babe in the crowd?

    • geohogan

      Dec 23, 2018 at 12:13 am

      @steve wozeniak, the fulcrum point

      • ogo

        Dec 23, 2018 at 3:05 pm

        Where is this “fulcrum point”? … explain yerself!

        • geohogan

          Dec 24, 2018 at 8:41 am

          @ogo, Ive replied to steve w, not to you.
          For you, a lump of coal. Merry Christmas.

          • ogo

            Dec 24, 2018 at 10:17 am

            I just gave you a chance to respond to your cryptic comments.
            IIRC, you believe the fulcrum point is between the hands, which of course is totally wrong… it’s the “pivot point” of a hand couple. I hope that’s not too technical for your shriveled Hogan Manual mindlet.

  12. 4RiGHT

    Dec 21, 2018 at 7:35 pm

    Every player has what works, why don’t you make a video about that! How many majors have you won?

    • the dude

      Dec 24, 2018 at 9:20 am

      I love the “how many have you won??” comment…..dork

  13. IMO

    Dec 21, 2018 at 7:27 pm

    The ball isn’t the focal point either. I visit many PGA and LPGA tournaments around the country. What I do notice is a good percentage of the players while on the range do rehearse among other aspects of their swing, a practice backswing as a part of their swing development.

    • Looper

      Dec 21, 2018 at 7:32 pm

      I agree completely with IMO. What Jordan, Justin, Ricky, and others that do have a practice backswing, it most likely came from a drill done with their instructors…

  14. Eric

    Dec 21, 2018 at 3:31 pm

    Doesn’t it depend more on what the player’s thoughts are during this time? Who cares what the movement is.

  15. James

    Dec 21, 2018 at 3:22 pm

    Just to be a contrarian I went to the range this morning and employed the “practice takeaway”. I’ve never hit the ball so well! So put me in the Justin Thomas/Mike Weir camp.

  16. Golfist

    Dec 21, 2018 at 1:36 pm

    The practice takeaway is definitely a distraction! I’ve tried both and for me the waggle is the most reliable method of starting the swing, allowing full concentration on the ball rather than thinking where the club should be going on the backswing.

    • lance

      Dec 21, 2018 at 7:22 pm

      So you waggle before starting the backswing. When you stop waggling do you pause to concentrate on the ball and engage the various brain neural waves… alpha,beta, gamma delta, theta… to enter into an inner peace to let the swing flow?

  17. lance

    Dec 21, 2018 at 12:28 pm

    I recall an early video of Tiger when he hooked up with Harmon and Butch made/forced Tiger to alter his BS takeaway for 6 months until his brain was reprogrammed. Tiger said he hated the drill… go figure…

  18. Bill Kroen

    Dec 21, 2018 at 11:41 am

    As a psychologist, I feel that the “practice takeaway” is a great idea. It is more of an immediate rehearsal than practice. It helps a player start the club back in the correct position and reduces anxiety. The waggle gives a feel for the club head only. Showing the tour players rehires a takeaway and then hit a poor shot is meaningless. Thomas, for one, had his best year since incorporating the move.

    • lance

      Dec 21, 2018 at 7:17 pm

      As a psychologist, you must be aware of the many “memory” modes that encode, store and retrieve when needed. How does a “practice takeaway” utilize the memory modes?
      Memory is not a perfect processor, and is affected by many factors, like neuro-muscular capability. We await your professional opinion on memory rehearsal and practice memory. Thanks.

      • lance

        Dec 21, 2018 at 7:21 pm

        So you waggle before starting the BS. When you stop waggling do you pause to concentrate on the ball and engage the various brain neural waves… alpha,beta, gamma delta, theta… to enter into an inner peace to let the swing flow?

    • geohogan

      Dec 24, 2018 at 8:55 am

      The golf swing is a preprogrammed chain action in the subconscious.

      The practice takeaway is a conscious contrived movement, totally separate and unique from the golf swing. The golf swing is too complicated and happens too quickly for it to be a consciously controlled movement.

      As a psychologist you must know, that a portion of our brain resorts to ritual, to reduce anxiety. Golfers go through many preswing rituals. The practice takeaway is a ritual. If it reduces anxiety, it serves that purpose only.

      The waggle can be done as a ritual or it can have a meaningful purpose, as Ben Hogan described in 5L.

      • lance

        Dec 24, 2018 at 10:26 am

        subconscious (noun) — the subconscious part of the mind (not in technical use in psychoanalysis, where unconscious is preferred).
        Properly, “The golf swing is preprogrammed chain action in the unconsious part of the mind.”

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Instruction

The Wedge Guy: The easiest-to-learn golf basic

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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.

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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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Instruction

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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