Your Personal Lesson Page
PRE-SWING Fundamentals- Grip, Aim, and Setup/Posture
Keys to a good swing are sound pre-swing fundamentals:
These fundamentals are important to allow the club to swing and your body to move properly. Incorrect placement of your hands, grip pressure, poor alignment, or not proper posture will lead to swing faults. These areas will always need your attention to ensure positions are correct. It's easy to get off track! Using a mirror at home is a great way to check your posture, on the range use alignment rods on the ground to verify your alignment is correct. Do 5 minutes a day of only grip placement and tension awareness holding the club. Check out the videos below.
Grip- Placement more in fingers vs. palms, maintain same pressure during entire swing, no tighter than a 4 on a scale of 1-10 (tightest 10)
Aim- Feet, Knees, Hips, and Shoulders are parallel to the target line (clubface square pointing down target line) Leading edge of clubface square and aimed down an imaginary line at target. Use alignment rods when practicing to check your aim. Tour pros always practice their alignment. Watch them on the range.
Setup/Posture- Tilt hip bones downward to point toward ground, feet shoulder width apart, athletic balance, slight knee flex, arms hang down soft not firm. If your hamstring or hip flexors are tight it will make a proper posture more difficult for you.
Aim- Feet, Knees, Hips, and Shoulders are parallel to the target line (clubface square pointing down target line) Leading edge of clubface square and aimed down an imaginary line at target. Use alignment rods when practicing to check your aim. Tour pros always practice their alignment. Watch them on the range.
Setup/Posture- Tilt hip bones downward to point toward ground, feet shoulder width apart, athletic balance, slight knee flex, arms hang down soft not firm. If your hamstring or hip flexors are tight it will make a proper posture more difficult for you.
TAKEAWAY DRILLS
Triangle Drill
Use this drill to feel a one piece takeaway. By placing the butt end of the club into your stomach and then using only your thumbs and index fingers you will feel how you need to move the back of the trail side shoulder blade, back and down to keep the one piece unit of the clubhead, hands, arms, and shoulders moving in the correct order.
Club Shaft on Hip Drill
This drill will help you feel the correct sequence to begin the swing. Taking the club away properly make's it much easier to swing the club down into a good impact position. Go slow when practicing this drill, look at yourself in a mirror as you do this drill for correct positions.
Balance Disc Drill
The connection of our feet to the ground is what helps to produce power in the golf swing. If you are not balanced at your setup it will be hard to maintain your balance during the swing. These balance discs will help you be aware of where you are putting your weight at setup into the backswing and then as you swing down into impact. Unloading from the ground up on your downswing will help you gain distance. Having a strong core and glute muscles will also increase the power you can apply on downswing which will lead to more distance.
BACKSWING / DOWNSWING DRILLS
Pivot Drill
This drill will teach you the correct movement of your body into the backswing and thru to the finish. Perform this drill with a mirror in front of you moving slowly at first to see and feel correct movements. Correct sequence and timing will translate into being able to hit the ball with more distance.
Step Thru Drill
This drill will help correct the over the top swing fault. By beginning the sequence of the downswing with the target foot stepping out in this drill it gets you to feel the correct start to the downswing. Make sure your arms feel heavy as they are hanging and your grip is correct pressure. We DO NOT want firm or tense arms and hands. You will gain distance and correct your slice by using this drill, as it gets the club to come down on the correct path, creating more lag. It will make it easier to fix the slice. You must make sure to be aware of the tension in your hands and arms as too much tension will often lead to a Slice. Having soft hands and relaxed arms swinging on the correct path makes it easy to correct the slice.
Merry Go Round Drill
This drill will give you the feel of maintaining your spine angle at and past impact. Do drill very slowly so you can be aware of the movements of your body. If you tend to block shots to the right (righthanded golfer) or top shots, you maybe coming up out of your spine angle at impact.
Club Upside Down Drill
This drill is especially good for auditory learners. You will hear a whoose sound when performing this drill. The sound should begin at and/or in front of the ball, NOT behind it. Also, the more relaxed your arms and grip are, and the faster you turn your body the louder the sound will be which helps to create more distance.
Falling Glove Drill
This drill will teach you the proper downswing sequence so you will swing the club on the correct path which will eliminate any curvature you have on the flight of the ball (Slice).
IMPACT DRILLS
Impact Bag Drill
This drill will help you learn how to use the loft on the golf club to impact the ball and get it airborne. Learning how the club works will then make your body move correctly. Go extra slow at first to see how the club is returning to the impact bag. Make corrections if the club face is open, closed, or tilted back too much exposing the leading edge. The face of club points down to ground with the shaft leaning / tilting down towards the impact bag. Practice without the impact bag at first, watch yourself in front of a mirror, go VERY SLOWLY so you can SEE and learn the FEEL of how the club works.
Shortened Club Drill
This drill will help you learn the feel of the correct release in the downswing. If you release your wrists too early in the downswing the butt end of the club will hit you in the rib cage. DO THIS DRILL SLOWLY AT FIRST SO YOU DON'T GET INJURED. Learning the feel of how the wrists work on the downswing will help to create more lag in your golf swing which leads to more solid contact and greater distance.
If you find it hard for your body to move into any of these positions there could be a physical limitation which is not allowing you to get in that position. Specific stretching exercises may be needed to assist you. Check out the swing faults list here: