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Tips to get the most out of your swing changes

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If you believed everything you read in golf media, it would be easy to assume that a few small swing changes or the adaption of a new technique is all that is required to play your best golf. Unfortunately, many golfers often have a hard time transferring their play to the course from the range, where they have been making all of these great changes.

Remember that even the best swing changes will not automatically result in the ball flying toward your target each and every time. In fact, you might even play worse after a swing change. That being said, here are some ways to help you transfer your new skills to the course.

Starting line

So you’ve improved the fact that your ball curved excessively to the right and now you have a slight draw that falls to the left. That’s great, but many golfers will still be used to seeing a ball that starts right of the target and that can be a huge problem. With your old swing, starting right (and curving right) was a disaster and despite now owning a better ball flight, you continue to start the ball too straight (or even left) of the target. No matter how much your technique improves, your mind has to change with it.

Transfer tip: Stick an alignment rod in the ground 15 feet in front of you and focus on starting the ball right of it (if you’re a right-handed golfer working on a draw, that is). That will help you become more comfortable seeing the ball start right of the target and allow your new technique to finally show its worth on the scorecard.

Distance

A better concept of impact and some hard work means that you are now striking the ground in a repeatable place and your ball striking has improved dramatically. Unfortunately, however, just striking the ball better and having it fly longer distances does not automatically lower your scores. A lot of golfers can actually start to fly the ball too long. That makes them tentative, and therefore they can’t perform their best with the great new swing they’ve been honing.

Transfer tip: In an ideal world, use a launch monitor such as Trackman or Flightscope to see your new carry distances and write them down. If this is not possible, go onto your practice facility, hit 10 shots, ignore the two best and worst shots and calculate your new distances.

Creativity

That chipping session that you had — the one on improving your technique and striking the ball more consistently — was very useful. However, without knowing what shot to hit and what club to use, the new skills probably won’t lead to much lower scores.

Transfer tip: Take your most lofted club, a pitching wedge, 7 iron and 4 iron, and try all of them from various lies around the green. Experiment with your new technique, but different clubs. Your discoveries of how and when different clubs will work best will enable you to hit your short-game shots closer to the hole.

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Remember that “random practice” as I like to call it and a willingness to constantly change the environment you are practicing in will make your practice more akin to the situations you will find on the golf course, which is the best way to practice if you want to shoot lower scores. Be sure to not exclusively practice by hitting the same 7 iron at the same target 20 times in a row, or practice in a similar fashion with other clubs. While those routines may give you a short-term feeling of success, they’re not the best way to transfer new skills to the golf course.

Give these ideas a try and see the work you have put in translate to lower scores out on the course.

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Andy is currently coaching in Shanghai, China. He is a UKPGA member and graduate of the AGMS degree at the University of Birmingham. Andy has coached in more than 30 countries and traveled to work with many of the best minds in golf to constantly improve his coaching. His No. 1 desire is to help golfers reach their dreams, and to enjoy the process! Website: andygriffithsgolf.com Online Lessons: swingfix.golfchannel.com/instructors/andy-griffiths Twitter: twitter.com/andygriffiths1 Facebook: facebook.com/andygriffithsgolf

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Dr Howie Carson

    Jul 9, 2014 at 2:17 pm

    http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1750984X.2011.613682#.U72GBvldUuc

    I agree Andy, swing changes are very difficult, especially when a performer is more experienced and has undergone multiple changes in the past.

    Here (link above) is free access to a model (the Five-A Model)I published which provides a systematic guide to facilitate permanent and pressure resistant changes to already well-established skills. Hope it helps you and others to overcome this difficulty.

  2. Jim Benjamin

    Jul 9, 2014 at 10:31 am

    Andy… I have gone through many swing changes and one thing I noticed is we focus so much on the smaller part of our swing, trying to acquire that “change” that we lose the feel of a full swing that we use on the course. I like to work on changes for a few swings then try the change within a full swing where it’s a part of the full swing. I think that makes it easier to take your changes to the course.

  3. Pingback: Tips to get the most out of your swing changes | Spacetimeandi.com

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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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Instruction

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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