Instruction

Big body turns for better swings

Published

5 years ago

May 8, 2019

Improve your torso rotations and the rest will follow

This article has been co-written with Tom Motley. Based in the U.K, Tom coaches an impressive and ever growing stable of elite players. His evidence and data lead approach yields tangible results for all abilities of golfer. You can check out his website here and instagram page here.

In my experience, most golfers these days are looking at their golf swings on a regular basis. For the golfer who takes an interest in their golf beyond playing once a week, YouTube seems to be the source of most people’s information for “tips” and “swing fixes”. You could spend days trolling through “how to fix a slice” videos and “how to gain more distance” and end up in a whole world of trouble. In fact I’ve gone on record saying if it weren’t for YouTube swing fixes I’d be out of a job, as coaches who work in person are the ones clearing up the messes golfers have gotten themselves into.

There are many reasons why there is no substitute for face to face coaching sessions, but I think the main one is being able to offer direct and immediate feedback to ensure the student doesn’t get the wrong concept of the movement they’re attempting. We all know feel and real can be very different and this why I’m very keen to give my clients movement exercises that they can do anytime and anywhere, not just in a golf context. This helps to ensure they’re training improved movement patterns, not just training a swing once or twice a week if they get the chance practice.

When it comes to what I believe is the most important part in any good golf swing, it has to be moving the big stuff well, I’m talking torso and lower half movements. To me, irrespective of what the hands and arms are doing, if the body isn’t moving optimally, then it’s my first port of call. For anyone who has followed my instagram page you’ll see I often use a specific training aid to help students develop the feel of the correct movements of the torso and create a stable lower half; the key ingredients in a good golf swing. If you can rotate the torso in a simple and efficient way and stabilise the swing with a solid base, then I’m a firm believer that the arms will do a far better job than if the body is not “moving well”.

This is where the GravityFit TPro comes in, it has so many different applications, but I mainly use it to simply help the clients understand and gain feedback on torso movement in the back-swing and through-swing. When they have that understanding, they can go away and work on a daily basis on improving their movement patterns and ensuring there is good connection between the arms and torso. It’s by no means a miracle cure (we all know that’s a fantasy) but in my experience the changes to rotation and connection for clients are far more likely when they firstly get the feedback and then are able to work on it daily, away from the coach or golf scenario.

So if you’re really looking to start improving your action for the upcoming golf season, then consider getting some feedback on how your torso moves, then repeat, repeat, repeat the movement pattern until it’s automatic. You’ll find that a simpler and more effective way of improving your ball striking than constantly tinkering with the small stuff.

You can start that process right here, ideally using a GravityFit TPro but substituting for a resistance band if you don’t have one yet. This can also be used as a really simple but effective way to warm up before practice and play.

1. Start by getting into good posture

– stretch tall in an upright position and set your shoulders back (feeling 3 points of contact if using the TPro).
– palms up and arms turned out at 45° to your spine
– squat a couple of inches and hinge forward into a golf set up position

2. Rotate the chest keeping the pelvis and legs still to a point where you can rotate no more, you’ll feel the pressure in the feet shift slightly toward the heel of your trail foot.

3. Soften hips to allow them to rotate into a full turn.

4. Mirror for the follow through to create a nice simple pivot.
You can check out Tom’s articles on his website or follow him on instagram

More info on the equipment featured can be found here

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Instruction

Clement: Laid-off or perfect fade? Across-the-line or perfect draw?

Published

1 week ago

Apr 24, 2024

Shawn Clement

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

Published

1 month ago

Mar 29, 2024

Terry Koehler

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.

Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!

Published

2 months ago

Mar 4, 2024

Shawn Clement

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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