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The Wedge Guy: Engage your core for better wedge play

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As I am getting to know a new group of golf buddies since I moved to a new club this past summer, I have the fun of observing all these new swings and techniques. What I see most often is plenty of struggles around the greens.

What I see most often in mid-to high-handicap players (and some low handicap ones) is a technique that is overly dependent on hand action, where body core rotation is practically non-existent. This causes the golfer to make a slap or jab at the ball with the clubhead in an attempt to make contact.

This reliance on your hands is then aggravated by one or two shots that are hit poorly, thereby making you more “impact conscious.” And the vicious cycle begins – bad shot, more handsy, another bad shot, tighter grip, another bad shot, quicker tempo, and holes just thrown away.

Years ago, I created a simple drill to feel how your body core should be engaged, even on short scoring shots, so you can try to cure this terrible affliction.

Pick up a wedge and take your normal grip. Now hold it directly in front of you, with your upper arms relaxed at your side and your elbows bent so your forearms are parallel to the floor and right in front of your chest. The club should be vertical, so that you are looking right at your right thumbnail (for right-handers). Now, keep your eyes focused on your right thumbnail and your upper arms close to your chest, rotate your upper body to move your hands and the club back and forth, starting about a foot in either direction. You want to feel like nothing is moving but your body core. As you continue to rotate back and through, lengthen the range of motion until you are making nearly a full shoulder turn. But always make sure that your hands are right in front of your sternum throughout the range of motion.

Now, extend your arms straight out in front of you, so that now the club is pointing away from you at about 45 degrees. Repeat the drill, moving the arms and club back and through only by rotating your body core. It helps to focus your eyes on the right thumb so that you are very aware if you start swinging the arms without rotating the body. That’s what a pitching swing should feel like – one-piece rotation of the body, with the arms and hands “quiet.”

The last piece of the puzzle is to gradually lower the club as you rotate back and through – do this by bending at the hips, flexing the knees and lowering the hands. Lower the club a little bit on each rotation, so that you continue to feel like the body core is driving the entire action. Once you get so that the club is brushing the turf or carpet as you go back and through, you will be feeling what a solid, functional and repeatable wedge swing should feel like.

I realize this is abbreviated but try it and I think you will see just how inactive your body might have been on your pitch shots.

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Terry Koehler is a fourth generation Texan and a graduate of Texas A&M University. Over his 40-year career in the golf industry, he has created over 100 putter designs, sets of irons and drivers, and in 2014, he put together the team that reintroduced the Ben Hogan brand to the golf equipment industry. Since the early 2000s, Terry has been a prolific writer, sharing his knowledge as “The Wedge Guy”.   But his most compelling work is in the wedge category. Since he first patented his “Koehler Sole” in the early 1990s, he has been challenging “conventional wisdom” reflected in ‘tour design’ wedges. The performance of his wedge designs have stimulated other companies to move slightly more mass toward the top of the blade in their wedges, but none approach the dramatic design of his Edison Forged wedges, which have been robotically proven to significantly raise the bar for wedge performance. Terry serves as Chairman and Director of Innovation for Edison Golf – check it out at www.EdisonWedges.com.

7 Comments

7 Comments

  1. Vii Pii

    Nov 22, 2021 at 5:40 pm

    Pictures would be helpful.

  2. No Donkeys Allowed

    Nov 8, 2021 at 12:11 pm

    Kdouuuuuuche, Kdouuuuuuche, Kdouuuuuuuche, Kdouuuuuuuuche,Kdouuuuuuuuuuuuche, Kdouuuuuuuuuche, Kdouuuuuuuuuuuuuche….

  3. ChipNRun

    Nov 5, 2021 at 12:09 pm

    Terry,

    Players who don’t use the core often do well on “straight back-straight through” chip and run shots. But, they often have erratic wedge games because SBST doesn’t generate power for longer pitch (lofted) shots.

  4. dkash

    Nov 4, 2021 at 1:35 pm

    Tell Stan Utley that…..

  5. Vinnieluvv

    Nov 3, 2021 at 6:24 pm

    Engaging your core also protects your back. I also do it more now when putting and it definitely helps keep the back from flaring up.

  6. geohogan

    Nov 3, 2021 at 5:08 pm

    Our lower body needs to adjust to change in balance the movement
    of weight of our arms(25-40 pounds) causes even in small pitches.

    If we start from the ground up ie with our feet, our cores will automatically be engaged.

  7. Acemandrake

    Nov 3, 2021 at 3:47 pm

    Tom Kite said he was a good wedge player because he kept the butt end of the club pointing at his belly button throughout the swing.

    He also said he’d be really good if he could do that with all his clubs.

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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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