hinge naturally, to have supple
arms so the club feels heavy, is gonna create width
and effortless power. I talk about it in most of my videos
cuz it is such an important principle, but I have to remind you of
it because if we are so tense, we cannot get maximum speed.
We just simply cannot. And it's an important
reminder that even with small swings like this, okay,
allowing those risks to hinge, allowing them to flow around the body, even very sloppily if you will. We can garnish a lot
of speed effortlessly. So we combine that with
the correct movement, with that backswing sort of wind up and
the hand speed here and the sequence we want. You are in a very good
spot. We've got more lessons on it, but I just wanted to remind
you, we still have a firm grip. We've got soft wrists and soft arms. Okay? Think of it like a big weight on the end
of a big long piece of string to create that width and pulling and
pushing force to extend us out.
And the main feel that you are gonna
want to have is as you un like hinge and unhinge the wrists, we want to feel like the arms
are straight past impact here. That we are truly
releasing this way, okay? We're not flipping the
hands, we're not doing that. We are just releasing them this way.
The club is going out to the right, the body is coming to the left and
the arms are soft. They're not bent, they're just soft, effortless speed. If you are finding that you are lacking
a bit of distance and you're a little bit flat-footed as you try
and swing through, okay, you are going to benefit
greatly by using the ground just a little bit more and a
bit more of a lateral movement. And the way we do this is just
from the start of the swing.
So we want to feel actually
that the hips move just an inch or two away from the target. And what's gonna happen is that
helps us to move back through with the momentum that we need here. So it's a tiny little surfing movement, this slight little lateral shift. Now notice I am not moving my upper body, I'm not doing this to get behind it. I'm starting my swing
with my hips just shifting slightly towards the backswing
just by an inch or two. And then they turn behind. All
right? It's a little bit complicated, but it's actually very natural. So it's the smallest movement and you
can practice just by standing your feet together, okay? Like this and stepping back
and then turning around.
You notice that. So it's like this lateral shift
is creating that momentum for me. So feet are together, I step back and then I turn
behind allowing my hips to shift. And from here they shift
backwards. Exactly, you know, back towards the target exactly where
I want them to be. Slight bump forward, which I like to create momentum
and then we move it back. I'm not moving the knee outside,
I'm not moving the foot outside. I'm allowing it to stay on
the inside of the foot here, but the hip is loading up into
the right glute and I'm turning behind, okay? That is a key power move that
gives you ability to launch the legs.
All right, I'm
gonna be brief with this one. Too many golfers are bent with the legs
trying to get lower down to the ball. What happens is we kind of come out
of it this way and then it's also difficult to maintain that
position through the balls. So those kind of legs straighten. We fall back and we push through and
we're kind of on the back of our heels. Not very athletic, but if we do a slight
modification of standing taller, okay, we basically
get a little checkpoint, the heels are in line with the butt,
okay? Especially with the driver. Our heels are pretty much
in line with the butt here.
We've got the weight on
the balls of our feet, but our knees are not over the balls. And you can sort of do a
little checkpoint here. They are behind and what that's
doing is main maintaining a nice sort of tool, uh, spine. But we're
relaxed in the upper back, okay? We are very relaxed here, but what's
gonna happen is as we make our backswing, we're not trying to load into the
right side and squat down here.
People think they still need to do that. You don't to get free flowy
and actual speed, okay? We want to allow those legs to
straighten because that's gonna help us, you know, complete a backswing. Whether it's a short one here or
whether it's a longer one here, it's gonna help us complete
and clear outta the way. And then from there it's much easier to
shift through to square those knees up and to actually be in a more
athletic position through impact and speed where it counts.
Okay? So that's it. Just check where you are in your
setup and as you make your backswing, as you shift the hips to the right and
pull them back up just a little bit, bit here, those legs are gonna straighten and
then we can sort of squat down using the ground back towards
the ball. It's priming it. So do that checkpoint with your feet and
make sure you're doing it right. Yeah, this is costing you yards. I'm
not asking you to chop it off, but I'm asking to free it up.
Let me
show you how. Just get up and try it. Lock in your head in place
and try and make a backswing. It's much harder to to have a
nice free flowing strain free backswing. All right? It's harder to get through the ball if
we are locked tight with the neck here. So all I want you to do is
feel as you make a backs swing, you can do this little test. Just
stand there, turn to the left, okay? Turn your neck to the left and
then make your backswing here. Then put your arms up right now.
I want you to main try it
with your head dead straight. Now make a backswing. I haven't
done anything different, but my head is in the
way because this head, if you were throwing a ball again or
slinging this club, it's going to move. Now, I don't mean, I do not mean that we want it to be
like this lifting up and luling around. We just want to feel like
it's actually turning. Okay? So we're looking out of our left eye here
and then we're looking at of our right eye here. And you can aid
that just by at setup, just tilting your head
just a little bit, okay? You're gonna tilt your
head just a little bit, that's gonna open up down the line
where we want to actually swing it to you see that, okay? But it's also gonna help us
have a bit more mobility as we swing back.
So I want you
to feel looser in the neck. Try that little setup tweak
where you're just tilting it, we're moving your head back
just a little bit, okay? To move that head back just a little bit. And that's gonna free up your back
swing, even if it's short, okay? It's going to free up. Just feel looser in the neck on the
way back and on the way through. Feel like water is dumping out of your
right ear to be able to sling it through that way. Don't resist the neck. You're gonna have to play with that a
little bit and feel what it is to you. But just be aware, are you
tight and locked with the head? Are you tight and locked with
the neck? Because if you are, it's costing you distance. So a lot of times people spin the
hips out or the shoulders just move way too far and put
us all outta sink, okay? Where we're dumping the club
down this way, the top pros, the long hitters move their hands
the butter of the club much faster than an amateur.
That's it. The sequence kind of can take care
of itself somewhat after that. But what we're trying to
do is the feel from moving the hands quicker from the
top is gonna give you more speed. All right? So a
couple of things to remember. We do not want to just be snatching
the club from the top and forcing the hands down with tension.
We've gotta keep those arms loose.
But being conscious and aware
of trying to move this grip down as swiftly as possible is
going to help just delay that action of rotating through. Because
if it happens too early, we're screwed. If it happens too late,
we're screwed. Okay? We want to have good sequence
and timing and a gradual speed, but dropping those hands down from
here can help put us in the slot that we want, where we can then turn on the power
and use the lower body to accelerate through.
So whatever
this translates to you, I want you to feel a couple of things.
One is perhaps the most important. This really happens before we've completed our backswing. We don't want to wait and then
push the hands down, okay? We actually want to be doing it
as we are still gathering inertia and movement back this way, okay? So it's going to feel like as we
are moving and transitioning back, the arms are still moving
just up a tiny bit. There's gonna be like a slight delay, but from there the hands are moving
down quickly just to this spot. And the rest of the the, you know, you might feel like the the back is to
the target a little bit longer that we're just delaying it a little bit, but
it's happening quite quickly ideally.
And then from there we
can turn on the power. So with that happening, just before we complete the
backswing to what that feels to you, a drill we can do to emphasize this
is actually the split hand drill. So you take your grip and grip it halfway
down or you know about a foot below the bottom of the grip. All
right? We make our back swing, but we are shoving here. That hand path is moving down.
I'm only really thinking
about the but end of the grip. Now notice I'm not just ripping
it thro forward this way, it's actually going down quite
quickly here and see how the club sort of wobbles when I'm doing that. That shows that I've got power and Rory
McElroy does this, he does it very well, but lots of good players
use the split hand rail. So work on that to just gather a bit
of speed where it needs it because from there we are locked and loaded if you
will. So you able to release through, which will go onto next. Number six, getting through the ball as
opposed to hitting at it is a tenant. You have to trust
and apply to your wedges, to your ions, to your hybrids,
to your fairways and your driver.
Not just to get more speed, but to get the reliability and
effortless consistency that you're after. Okay? Now there's lots of
ways that we can do it, but one of the best feelings,
especially with a driver, especially out on the golf
course is one thing. As you are, you know, let's kind of assume that
you've got everything else right? You've made your transition through your
releasing through to the target here. What happens next? If you stole
your body, you're kind of screwed. We have to make sure that we get through
to the target just like you would if I was throwing this. I
wouldn't hang back like this. I would get through it that way. And the same thing applies with any
distance shot we need to get through. And the way it can happen without
you overthinking it is just by the feeling of this
knee actually pushing towards the ball. As we come down,
as we move that transition down, we push towards the ball,
okay? That knee not, instead of being pulled back,
which causes this over extension, we want to use opposing forces
and push it into the ground.
And by pushing it into the ground,
it actually propels us back this way. Newton's law, right? So it's
gonna pull us back this way, which is gonna give us the room, then we need to feel like we
get through the golf ball. We do that by our knees
touching as a little guideline. So you're out on the golf course,
whatever shot you are trying to hit. And even with practice swings, I want you to just try and feel
like your knees are touching, your knees are touching, okay, that we've got this balanced finish cuz
that's going to show you that you've got through nicely.
And the final little feel is as
you touch those knees together, the belt buckle is pointing up to the sky, but your chest is up to the sky as
well. We're not sort of buried low here, we're not off balance here. We are sort of slinging and
catapulting this swing through because you'll be surprised at
how much faster you swing when you are in balance and when
you try and get through it. So I'm gonna hit this shot
here and all I'm gonna do, and it's a wonderful swing
to have on the golf course, is to feel like I'm just
gonna get those feet, uh, moving through the knee, moving back,
and those knees touching.
All right? I'm not gonna try and
hit a massive one here. I'm gonna try and apply those swing
thoughts that we have talked about. Pretty good. B went where I wanted, I got the speed. I'm delighted
with the result. And the thing is, that is a wonderful swing
thought to take to the course..