Instruction
Fix your hook with the “bucket drill”
The great majority of articles on how to fix a ball flight are based around what? People who slice the ball. It’s justifiable. Stats are thrown around that say about 90 percent of golfers slice the ball.
But what about the other 10 percent? That’s still a lot of people. This article, as is evident in the title, is geared toward those who struggle with the opposite of the other 90 percent of golfers. They struggle with a hook!
Generally speaking, a hook is a “good” problem. Many of the pieces that eventually lead to the hook are conducive to solid contact and distance.
First, let’s make sure we are on the same page with that a hook actually is. We will define a hook as a shot that curves excessively to the left from where it starts. There are three categories of a hook:
N0. 1 — The push-hook: The ball starts to the right of the target and curves too far left.
No. 2 — The straight hook: The ball starts straight at the target and then curves too far left.
No. 3 — The pull-hook: The ball starts to the left of the target and curves even farther left.
See the common denominator here? Too much curve to the left. So, why does it happen and how do we fix it?
Why it happens
There are really two main components as to why the ball hooks. Either your path (the direction you swing the club) is too far to the right, or your club face is too “closed” to your path. That means the club face is pointed too far to the left relative to the direction you swing the club. So if you are swinging the club too far to the right, your club face is pointed some amount to the left of that.
How to fix it
So we have two options in terms of what we can attack. We can work on your path to make sure you aren’t swinging too far to the right, or we can work to make sure your club face isn’t pointed as far to the left of your path.
I would HIGHLY suggest fixing No. 1 (path) first. Just about every time you correct the direction you are swinging the club, the club face will eventually take care of itself.
I suggest using the “bucket drill” to fix this problem. I first saw this drill being used by my former coach, Paul Viola, who coaches out of Bethlehem, Penn. Odds are, if you were to walk up and down our range, you would see multiple people with this in action.
The drill is pretty simple. It is designed to ensure that you do not swing too far to the right or “in-to-out.” The bucket is positioned as such that it does’t allow you to do it.
The beauty of this is that when you go to practice, you will always get something from the range that holds the balls. The training aid is always included. You don’t have to use a bucket or basket for this. You could also use a range ball bag if they use that or even a towel that is folded on the inside of the ball.
The positioning of the bucket is key. From the face on view, the front edge of the bucket is in line with the middle of the back foot.
From the down-the-line view, the bucket is placed just below the shaft line.
If you are someone who struggles with a hook, there is going to be a huge difference here with that you “feel” and what is “real.” When you put the bucket there, it will most likely feel like you are swinging “over the top,” or way from the outside. But you know that you are not since you positioned the bucket yourself. That is the key.
Take this “feel” that you get with the bucket and start to transfer that to practice without the bucket. This is what you need to “feel” for now while you are practicing and playing until you train it into a habit!
I would suggest starting with the bucket slightly closer to your feet so it is a bit easier until you get used to it.
Once you get a bit better, make it a bit tougher and put the basket slightly farther from your foot so it is just barely below the shaft plane.
Typically, when we start someone with this drill, we also make sure the ball position is slightly more forward and definitely not back!
See how the ball position is more forward here, in line with the logo of his shirt. This is what we are looking for.
This ball position is more in line with his shirt buttons. This position is fine for a normal situation, but too far back for the drill.
If you hit a few slight pulls to start (that aren’t curving) that is fine. If you do this drill and the ball is still curving too much to the left, which is unlikely, you need to look at reason No. 2 above: the club face angle.
There are certainly lots of other ways to go about fixing a hook, but this is by far the best one I have come across.
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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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Alex Perez
Nov 28, 2018 at 6:37 am
Hi Eric, I’m having problems with straight hook in my short irons, Wedges,9,8, but no issues with 7-down. How can fix it? Thank you.
leftright
May 28, 2014 at 10:17 am
This is a great article, especially for lower handicappers who are fighting a hook. It works for me as my biggest problem in golf since I started playing fairly well has been “laying it off” or taking it too much to the inside. Perhaps this is why I can hit low draws/hooks with the best of them but prefer high straight balls. Look at the PGA tour, I bet on any given weekend you will see half a dozen guys practice swing taking that club back more outside before hitting their shot.
Eric, I consider this the best article for me in WRX in a long while, thanks.
Pingback: Fix your hook with the “bucket drill” - I'd Rather Be Golfing
marcel
May 25, 2014 at 9:29 pm
there is only one way how to fix it – get yourself AAA+ coach in your area and stop watching/reading quick fixes that are not for your specific fault…
as my old man coach told me once – “i love this instructions from magazines – they helping my business to flourish as they confuse everyone to come back to me for more lessons”
Break80
May 25, 2014 at 9:23 am
I fix #1 by calling it a draw.
perisho
May 24, 2014 at 10:12 am
A concept that helps me more than anything is ball position. Grab a 7 iron and put the ball a few inches OUTSIDE your left foot – way forward. You have to come around the get it. You never dump it inside or you won’t get to the ball.
Eric Cogorno
May 24, 2014 at 4:04 pm
Yup, that one works great!
perisho
May 24, 2014 at 10:10 am
great drill but then I just pound the bucket down the driving range for an hour.
Eric Cogorno
May 24, 2014 at 4:05 pm
That’s motivation to not hit the bucket 🙂
Josh
May 24, 2014 at 7:25 am
The pull hook is an OTT move with a shut face is it not?? This drill would only make it worse.
Eric Cogorno
May 24, 2014 at 4:07 pm
So, we will define a pull hook as a shot that starts left and curves left.
That’s a clubface thats pointing some amount left of the target at impact and a path some amount to the right of the face. It’s a face-to-path issue. Chicken or the egg thing usually.
The pull hooks aren’t coming from swing “over the top”, though.
Josh
May 25, 2014 at 6:40 am
I agree with the club face/path point, but the pull hook has always been an OTT move for me, confirmed by launch monitors. Regardless, no drill can be considered a bad one in golf as it gets the golfer experimenting to fix issues. Even if its some crazy Martin Hall drill with pool noodles, balanced one one foot and an egg under your armpit.
Thank you for the article Eric and the simple drill for us to try at the range.
paul
May 24, 2014 at 1:15 am
“its all in the take away”… Take the club to the outside = fade/slice. Take the club inside is usually straight or a draw. To get a feel for it is just like putting, push the club back with the left hand, and then switch at the top to pushing through with the right. Easiest way to think of it. I have been playing the best golf of my life since I figured how to take the club back that way.
paul
May 24, 2014 at 1:19 am
If I am wrong about the pushing concept please let me know. I would love to chat about it with a knowledgeable instructor.
perisho
May 24, 2014 at 10:04 am
No. It’s not that simple. The pull hook simply means the face angle is seriously closed to the swing path – whatever the path may be.
Typically the prime offender is “inside-out”
Eric Cogorno
May 24, 2014 at 4:08 pm
For some, it can be as easy as that feel. For others, it isn’t. All depends!
nikkyd
May 24, 2014 at 6:23 pm
I never thought of it that way! I like it
nikkyd
May 23, 2014 at 4:49 pm
Rntolent, ill have to give that a try. Its just scary when opening up left when you you already Hit a nasty hook out of nowhere
nikkyd
May 23, 2014 at 4:50 pm
And im a forum idiot, wow
Ken
May 24, 2014 at 4:28 am
I play with an open stance and it works well
I am a bit confused about this drill.. I am sure this will help fix the in to out path but I don’t like a drill that requires you to hit balls with improper ball position. Your asking for more swing band aids or slight adjustments to hit the ball that may find it’s way in your swing
Eric Cogorno
May 24, 2014 at 4:09 pm
Open stance can really help, agreed!
nikkyd
May 23, 2014 at 2:12 pm
I find that my release or closing action of the club face causes me to hook too much. I find it nearly impossible now to hit a fade or slice after teaching myself how to release the club for power. Maybe i need to use a kung fu grip with my leading hand and possibly hit a power -push fade ala nicklaus
rntolent
May 23, 2014 at 4:00 pm
Have you tried just opening your stance? I hit draws (and hooks sometimes) but when I absolutely need the ball to stay straight or leak right, I open up a bit. It still lets me release and as long as I don’t hang back, its fading (instead of duck hooking). I wouldn’t caveman grip it, you may tear a muscle!
Eric Cogorno
May 24, 2014 at 4:11 pm
Opening the stance can really help with someone who has a tendency to have a path excessively to the right. I do that in my own swing…Bubba Golf!