– I'm sure you've heard
that the golf swing is very much like the baseball swing. And it is, but only if you think about it in the correct way. You see, whenever I have
someone tee up a ball like this and hit it with a
baseball bat, intuitively, what they'll do is
they'll position this tee outside and more in front
of them toward the target. The reason for that is that it allows you to do it more powerfully. And intuitively, you know that. So what this allows me
to do is this allows me to shift my weight to my lead side. This allows me to open up, get that lag, get that bat lagging behind me, and to be able to square up this bat with the direction that
I'm trying to hit it. So imagine this, imagine
I had to hit this ball dead straight down this line, but I had to place the ball in a position I would maybe have my seven iron, so slightly forward of the middle of my stance, about right here.
If I were to hit that
ball straight forward, I wouldn't be able to
do that very powerfully. I would have to kind of hang back. I'd have to kind of pull my hands in, and I'd have to early release this bat or what feels like an early release, to get it to go straight. So the trick is to not square up the shaft with where you're trying to hit it. It's to let that ball get deep and to imagine like
you're hitting the ball down the opposite field. So the golf swing is
like the baseball swing. It's like the baseball swing
if we were hitting the ball down the right-field line
for a right-handed golfer, left-field line for a left-handed golfer. So if I were to hit this
ball from that position as powerfully as I can, I would still shift my weight forward.
I would still open up my body, get this bat lagging behind me. But I would let my hands get in front and I would try to square up this bat with the direction I'm trying to hit it. So that's the trick. We have to trick our brain into thinking we are hitting the ball down
the opposite field line. So how do we do that? So let's put this away. And I have a great drill for
you that's gonna allow you to kind of trick your
brain into doing that. So this is like, a gymnastic mat, like a mini gymnastic mat. You can get this in any
sporting goods store. I think this was like, 20 or $30. It's not very much. You can use an impact bag, too. I just like this because it has a large, flat, padded surface that works really, really great for this.
So what I'm gonna do is
I'm gonna set this up. I'm gonna open this up,
this foldable one here. I'm gonna set this up to where I have a large, flat surface
right here that's vertical. And what I'm gonna do is
I'm gonna place a ball about a foot and a half behind that. So you can think of that as
a grip-length and a half. So if I take this, a grip length, and then put it right there, and then a half a grip length, I'm gonna place the
ball right about there. And that puts it about in
the normal iron position. I'm gonna move this
over just a little bit. And what I'm gonna do is I'm
gonna do some practice swings where I go up to the top, I'm gonna pause, and then I'm gonna come
down, and I'm gonna try to square up this shaft to this mat. And intuitively, this is
something you're gonna be able to do because it's very much like hitting a baseball straight forward. Right? So that's the feeling that I'm having.
I imagine like there's
a baseball right here, and I'm trying to hit a
baseball with the shaft of my club here, and I'm trying to hit that straight forward. I'm trying to hit a low-and-in
fastball straight forward, straight to center field. That's the feeling that I'm gonna have. So I'm gonna move up to the
top and I'm gonna pause.
When I come in, and I'm gonna come in and hit that dead flat. The fact that it fell
over, that's a good sign because that means that
I hit it nice and square. Now, you're gonna be able to feel it. If you don't hit this, if
you come in and you hit it, and you don't hit it squarely, if you come in and you
stick the head in there, you're gonna feel it. So you wanna come in, and it
wants to be a nice, solid hit where the shaft, everything is
hitting this, this whole part of the shaft and the
club head is hitting this at the same time.
So I want you to go nice
an slow with it at first, and then start to build up the speed. And get to where you can do
that pretty much at full speed, where you're goin' up to
the top, you're pausing, and then you're coming in and hitting this dead
flush, at full speed. Once you're able to do
that, then let's do it where we actually come in
and we brush the ground. We go up to the top, we pause, and then we brush the
ground and hit the mat. So that will look something like this. Go up to the top. (mat slams) So I come in and I hit that dead square after brushing the turf. So I'm gonna get to where I can do that at pretty much full speed. Now, once I'm able to do that,
I wanna take out the pause. I'm gonna go up to the
top, nice, fluid swing.
And I'll come in, I'm
gonna brush the turf, and hit the mat. Once I'm able to do that,
now what we wanna do is have this moved to the side. All right, so I have
this moved to the side. And like I said, you can
do this with an impact bag. I just like this because
it's a nice, flat surface. And this might actually
be a little bit cheaper than an impact bag. So I'm gonna move this off
to the side a little bit. But what I'm gonna do is
I'm gonna take a full swing, again, where I'm coming
in, I'm brushing the turf, but I'm going to pretend
like that mat is there and that I'm swinging through it.
So that'll look something like this. I'm gonna go up to the
top, I'm gonna pause, I'm gonna come down and
I'm gonna brush the turf, and then I'm gonna square
up the club to that mat, and then I'm gonna come
around into a full finish. So if I do that nice and slow, that'll look something like this. So now, if you look at that on video, it may not be perfectly lined up. But that's the sensation that I'm getting. You imagine this. If I came in and I really
did that, if I came in, I mean, look how much
shaft lean I would have to get that to happen. So this is an exaggeration,
having it a club, you know, a grip width
and a half in front, but we really wanna exaggerate things 'cause we can always ease off of it. All right, so get to where you can do this in a practice swing and
look at it on video.
You know, look on video and
see how close you're getting with the practice swing with getting that and then add the ball and
do it with the ball there. Now what you may find
is that when you do it with the ball, that that
ball goes off to the right. This is perfectly normal. So that's why I want you
to go on to the next drill which is what we call
the anti-roll method. So what that means is is that when we get the hands more forward at impact, that opens the face. And that's a big reason why
your brain is telling you to square up the shaft with the ball because that can help you
to square up the face.
But you've trained yourself to square up the face with the shaft. So what we need to do is we
need to get the shaft open, essentially, but the face square. Because if you have
those same wrist angles that you had before, well now, you're just gonna open the face. That club face is wide open. It's pointing way to the right. You will hit the ball down the opposite field
line, if you do that. So what we need to do is we need to square up the face
as we're coming down. So that way, when we
get the hands in front, we're gonna have that
face nice and square there at impact, with the shaft leaning forward and be able to compress the ball a ton.
So if you pair up this anti-roll method with this baseball-type
drill that we did here, you're gonna start compressing
the heck out of the ball. I guarantee it. So if you wanna see a preview of that anti-roll method video, the drill, all you have to do is stick around. But if you wanna see the whole video, just click the iCard that's
gonna appear up on your screen. If you don't see the iCard, no worries. Click the link in the description below. Play well, start compressing the ball, and I'll talk to you soon.
– Here's the bottom line. If you've been taught to roll the club in the early downswing, that
causes the shaft to get steep. And that steep club
causes all your problems, causes you to hit it way
behind the big hitters, and way inconsistent with
your quality of strike. So you're in the tall grass and the trees, and the hazards all day long. Now the great news is this. There's really only two
pieces that you need to know to fix all these problems. The first one is we need
to learn the proper way to square up the club face. Instead of rolling the
forearms and getting steep, there's another way that the pros do this. Once you learn this right way
to square up the club face, then you can shallow out from the inside and everything starts to fit together. Now I'm gonna teach you this right now in what I call the anti-roll method. You may also hear this
called the motorcycle move or the tour twist, but let's walk through exactly how to do that. Now what I want you to do is go ahead and go kinda in the last
parallel in the downswing.
So here, I want my hips to
go ahead and be opening up. I want my club to be
parallel with the ground, and I want my hands to be
in front of my right thigh. Now, when I take my grip,
you're gonna notice that when I do this, the club face is basically straight up and down. So if I'm looking at it from this angle, you'll see the face is
straight up and down and my logo of my glove is
pointed out, in front of me.
Now from there….