Top 100 teacher Tom Stickney points out a common, distance-sapping fault he sees from amateurs and the simple solution that will build speed in the golf swing, leading to longer drives.
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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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Instruction
How a towel can fix your golf swing
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
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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RBImGuy
Jan 15, 2019 at 6:28 am
Student added 80 yards from tee.
He tells me that’s with a 3w and rangeball from the deck.
He says 100+ is likely.
from am 220 to 300+ yards
That is a speed increase.
Don
Jan 14, 2019 at 8:54 pm
Sic – I was going to say the same thing. 😉
Appreciated the response.
Jasonic
Jan 14, 2019 at 5:27 pm
Great video not explaining HOW to gather speed just that you need to. Ummm duh
geohogan
Jan 13, 2019 at 9:34 pm
“Gravity makes falling objects gather speed. Objects fall faster
as they zoom closer to the ground.”
When we let our arms and club fall with gravity, they gather speed.
Isnt that what Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus and others also said?
sic sicneill
Jan 14, 2019 at 1:59 pm
Nothing to do with gravity. Gravity in and of itself adds nothing to swing speed. The “gathering” that Stickney refers to is the proper sequencing of the transition and downswing. The most important force at work is centrifugal force which acts upon the clubhead as it moves in a circular path around the swing center (ie, the body). The correct sequencing of the use of the two primary levers in the swing- the levers created by the body and the lead arm and by the lead arm and clubshaft- allow the player to retain the force until the correct moment when the “release” of the angle created by the lead arm/clubshaft lever allows centrifugal force to supply substantial speed at the moment of impact. Releasing the angle early or inefficiently allows centrifugal force to dissipate the retained energy too soon, ie, casting or flipping.
geohogan
Jan 14, 2019 at 11:13 pm
@sic
The primary levers you speak of, work to create clubhead speed by angular momentum
Centrifugal is not a real force… a fake force like your argument.
The gravity drop (so named by Jack Nicklaus, Johnny Miller, Ben Hogan etc)
allows building of angular momentum. The vernacular being lag.
BTW gravity travels at the speed of light.
Rick
Jan 29, 2019 at 5:39 pm
Ummm. no, not quite. Gravity is a force that pulls objects down toward the ground. … Gravity causes an object to fall toward the ground at a faster and faster velocity the longer the object falls. In fact, its velocity increases by 9.8 m/s2, so by 1 second after an object starts falling, its velocity is 9.8 m/s. That being said, what you’re not considering are the torques applied by the golfer to the grip and the linear and angular accelerations applied.
geohogan
Feb 3, 2019 at 1:19 pm
https://ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/cpa/article/download/6828/6125
This is the science, measured force exerted by the hands during the golf swing.
We hold the club, with minimal force exerted by both hands, relative to angular momentum that results in clubhead speed.
The angular momentum built by gravity and Lag, and wrists acting as free hinges
is what creates clubhead acceleration, NOT torque exerted by our hands.
geohogan
Feb 3, 2019 at 1:26 pm
“These results indicate that the longitudinal force along the grip handle exerted by the gripend side hand would be a great contributor to the generation of the club head speed because
the force shows the largest value compared to other components of exerting forces of the individual hands. “
geohogan
Feb 3, 2019 at 1:29 pm
“During a collision between the ball and driver, peak force applied to the ball can be as high as 4000 pounds.” 18,000 N
Carlos Cordero
Jan 13, 2019 at 5:39 pm
I found a blog to learn and it helped me a little … I think that by taking the good things here something amazing is achieved