Rotation is Bad, Part 2
In our first video, Rotation is Bad Part 1, we talked about how trying to rotate fast/hard will cause your foot pressure to go to your toes to early in the swing. This will cause you to come over the top, shank, early extension, etc. Part 2 details a great drill for getting the sequence properly timed in the transition and early downswing.
Grab any alignment rod and run it through the belt loops on the front of your pants. Be sure to keep the majority of the rod extending out your trail side, right side for right handed golfers. You should be able to hit balls without having the shaft of the club contacting the alignment rod. This will give you a great feeling for slowing/delaying the lower body so that the arms/club and get down in front of your body.
Grab any alignment rod and run it through the belt loops on the front of your pants. Be sure to keep the majority of the rod extending out your trail side, right side for right handed golfers. You should be able to hit balls without having the shaft of the club contacting the alignment rod. This will give you a great feeling for slowing/delaying the lower body so that the arms/club and get down in front of your body.
Increase Touch & Feel for Speed Control
There’s often a great debate of what is more important to putting, Line or Speed? I can easily argue both sides but in this segment, we’re going to tackle the speed control element! After all, you can only lip out a putt when it’s traveling too fast!
As with all our games and drills, Leap Frog will make your practice time more engaging and more productive. Begin by placing a tee in the ground at your starting point and then take 2 paces to put your next tee in the ground. At approximately 5 feet, this will be your first marker. Next take 3 more steps and place another tee in the ground to mark the end of your target area.
The goal is to roll your 1st putt just past the 1st tee, but as close as possible to the tee. Your second putt must now Leap Frog the 1st ball! Continue until you run out of room by passing the last tee in the ground. Your score for the game is the number of balls you were able to fit in between the two tees without leaving one short or going past the last tee.
You will have the best success when using your eyes to stare at the spot you want your ball to stop and by using a very soft grip. Pop strokes will have a lot of difficulty controlling speed with this game and on the golf course.
Let’s add a tweak to Leap Frog now… Please do this after playing the version above.
Leap Frog Verbal is something I learned from Jordan Speith’s coach, Cameron McCormick. You will find that afte rrunning the normal version of Leap Frog, that this will drastically increase the number of balls you can fit in between the 2 tees, therefore helping you increase your touch and feel.
The goal with Leap Frog Verbal is to call your shot instantly after impact, Short, Good or Long. Good is defined by approximately 12′ after the target(I use my shoe length). We’re still scoring the game by the number of balls you can fit in between the two tees, you just now have to call your shot verbally out loud.
Have fun and happy putting!
As with all our games and drills, Leap Frog will make your practice time more engaging and more productive. Begin by placing a tee in the ground at your starting point and then take 2 paces to put your next tee in the ground. At approximately 5 feet, this will be your first marker. Next take 3 more steps and place another tee in the ground to mark the end of your target area.
The goal is to roll your 1st putt just past the 1st tee, but as close as possible to the tee. Your second putt must now Leap Frog the 1st ball! Continue until you run out of room by passing the last tee in the ground. Your score for the game is the number of balls you were able to fit in between the two tees without leaving one short or going past the last tee.
You will have the best success when using your eyes to stare at the spot you want your ball to stop and by using a very soft grip. Pop strokes will have a lot of difficulty controlling speed with this game and on the golf course.
Let’s add a tweak to Leap Frog now… Please do this after playing the version above.
Leap Frog Verbal is something I learned from Jordan Speith’s coach, Cameron McCormick. You will find that afte rrunning the normal version of Leap Frog, that this will drastically increase the number of balls you can fit in between the 2 tees, therefore helping you increase your touch and feel.
The goal with Leap Frog Verbal is to call your shot instantly after impact, Short, Good or Long. Good is defined by approximately 12′ after the target(I use my shoe length). We’re still scoring the game by the number of balls you can fit in between the two tees, you just now have to call your shot verbally out loud.
Have fun and happy putting!
Make Clean Contact from Hard Pan Lies
Making clean contact from Hard Pan and waste areas is difficult for everyone. The first step towards success is understanding how our tendencies and desires can cause our body to move poorly and ruin the shot.
The desire to get the ball up in the air is the leading cause for the body to hang back on your trail foot. This will cause you to hit behind the ball with a scooping motion of the hands. Put simply, the low point of the club’s arc is behind the ball.
Therefore, we must address our set up slightly to acknowledge this tendency. After taking your normal address position, tilt your spine towards the target by loading into your lead leg a little more. Try to keep the pressure loaded into that lead leg throughout the swing, but especially at impact.
To further ensure your success, try to visualize a low boring trajectory right at the flag.
The desire to get the ball up in the air is the leading cause for the body to hang back on your trail foot. This will cause you to hit behind the ball with a scooping motion of the hands. Put simply, the low point of the club’s arc is behind the ball.
Therefore, we must address our set up slightly to acknowledge this tendency. After taking your normal address position, tilt your spine towards the target by loading into your lead leg a little more. Try to keep the pressure loaded into that lead leg throughout the swing, but especially at impact.
To further ensure your success, try to visualize a low boring trajectory right at the flag.
Acceleration is Bad for Pitching!
The most famous double hit must go to TC Chen who left his mark at the ’85 Masters tournament. Nothing could be more devastating to your confidence than double hitting a pitch shot. Too much of anything can be a bad thing and in this case, too much acceleration of the club head through and past impact can lead to the chip yips and the double hits.
If we start measuring the actual speed of the club head during any high quality pitch shot, you will see that the peak sped is at or just before impact. Therefore, the club head should be slowing down as soon as you hit the ball. So where did this magical advice of “accelerate through the ball” come from? As is with many of the golf tip cliches they stem from someones actual “feeling” which can have zero bearing on what actually happened. Take the most used tip in golf, “keep your head down”… when studying tour professionals this couldn’t be more wrong and if applied accurately, it will crush your swing’s freedom of rotation. Please don’t keep your head down and please don’t accelerate the club through impact.
In pitching, actual acceleration of the club head past impact will most often lead to the yips and double hits. The yips is due to the poor impact that occurs when applying this feeling. The player then becomes obsessed with the fear of mishitting the shot and boom! You’ve got the yips! The double hit comes when the player applies excessive acceleration post impact which gets the club head moving faster than the ball.
For the best contact and results, feel a long soft easy backswing and then let the arms/hands/club fall back to earth with the speed of gravity. Allowing the club head to pass the hands immediately after impact will help expose the bounce to the turf which will keep the club from digging. Please note that ‘allowing’ and ‘forcing’ the club to release will have greatly different effects on your motions. Please use the one hand drill in the video below to feel this occur.
If we start measuring the actual speed of the club head during any high quality pitch shot, you will see that the peak sped is at or just before impact. Therefore, the club head should be slowing down as soon as you hit the ball. So where did this magical advice of “accelerate through the ball” come from? As is with many of the golf tip cliches they stem from someones actual “feeling” which can have zero bearing on what actually happened. Take the most used tip in golf, “keep your head down”… when studying tour professionals this couldn’t be more wrong and if applied accurately, it will crush your swing’s freedom of rotation. Please don’t keep your head down and please don’t accelerate the club through impact.
In pitching, actual acceleration of the club head past impact will most often lead to the yips and double hits. The yips is due to the poor impact that occurs when applying this feeling. The player then becomes obsessed with the fear of mishitting the shot and boom! You’ve got the yips! The double hit comes when the player applies excessive acceleration post impact which gets the club head moving faster than the ball.
For the best contact and results, feel a long soft easy backswing and then let the arms/hands/club fall back to earth with the speed of gravity. Allowing the club head to pass the hands immediately after impact will help expose the bounce to the turf which will keep the club from digging. Please note that ‘allowing’ and ‘forcing’ the club to release will have greatly different effects on your motions. Please use the one hand drill in the video below to feel this occur.
Rotation is Bad… ?
Too much or too early of anything can be a bad think in your golf swing. We often hear about how increasing rotation can help us hit the ball further, however, when applied at the wrong time… this will have quite the opposite affect!
The world of foot pressure has become such and incredible source for the fast track to success and power that it necessitates a closer look at some of the massive power leaks that we see on a daily basis. This specific look centers on what could easily be one of the most misguided applications of proper knowledge in the game. After all, it is a fact that increasing your rotation can generate more club head speed….or can it?
I’m am continually blown away by the quantity of people who sacrifice ground connection and stability in the pursuit of increased rotation. It is an incredible age to be a golf coach with the ability to use advanced equipment that can show us measurable data of exactly what is occurring with rotation and foot pressure!
One of the common killers is early rotation, specifically looking at the trail hip/shoulder during the transition phase of the swing. When people desire to increase speed and rotation, this is often the time of the swing they focus on. This causes the trail hip/shoulder to move directly towards the ball which gets much of the foot pressure onto the toes. This act of increased toe pressure instantly decreases rotation!
Please stand up now and try it! Get into golf posture and then put all of your foot pressure onto your toes… now try to rotate as far towards the target as you can while maintaining the toe pressure. You’ll see there is a distinct limit to how far you are able to rotate. NOW! Pretty please take your Lead Foot and slam it back onto your heel… and what, pray tell, just happened to your belt buckle & rotation?! Yes, a massive increase in rotation!
The next time you get to work on the swing, begin with some practice swings with your EYES CLOSED so that you can easily focus on your foot pressure. What are your tendencies? Heels or toes? Lefts or
The world of foot pressure has become such and incredible source for the fast track to success and power that it necessitates a closer look at some of the massive power leaks that we see on a daily basis. This specific look centers on what could easily be one of the most misguided applications of proper knowledge in the game. After all, it is a fact that increasing your rotation can generate more club head speed….or can it?
I’m am continually blown away by the quantity of people who sacrifice ground connection and stability in the pursuit of increased rotation. It is an incredible age to be a golf coach with the ability to use advanced equipment that can show us measurable data of exactly what is occurring with rotation and foot pressure!
One of the common killers is early rotation, specifically looking at the trail hip/shoulder during the transition phase of the swing. When people desire to increase speed and rotation, this is often the time of the swing they focus on. This causes the trail hip/shoulder to move directly towards the ball which gets much of the foot pressure onto the toes. This act of increased toe pressure instantly decreases rotation!
Please stand up now and try it! Get into golf posture and then put all of your foot pressure onto your toes… now try to rotate as far towards the target as you can while maintaining the toe pressure. You’ll see there is a distinct limit to how far you are able to rotate. NOW! Pretty please take your Lead Foot and slam it back onto your heel… and what, pray tell, just happened to your belt buckle & rotation?! Yes, a massive increase in rotation!
The next time you get to work on the swing, begin with some practice swings with your EYES CLOSED so that you can easily focus on your foot pressure. What are your tendencies? Heels or toes? Lefts or
Chicken Wing – A Chain Link of Reactions
The Chicken Wing is one of the most obvious things that people will see when they watch their golf swing in video. Then off to the range to try to fix it, right?
This is the most common reaction and error when seeing the Chicken Wing. However, many don’t realize that anything you view in the golf swing is merely a reaction or a result of a previous movement. For instance, downswing, leads to impact, impact leads to follow through. Anytime you want to fix Anything, you should always look earlier in the swing for the root of the cause.
This is the most common reaction and error when seeing the Chicken Wing. However, many don’t realize that anything you view in the golf swing is merely a reaction or a result of a previous movement. For instance, downswing, leads to impact, impact leads to follow through. Anytime you want to fix Anything, you should always look earlier in the swing for the root of the cause.
Who Leads in the Back Swing?
The entire golf swing is a chain link of events and once you’ve broken the chain…all bets are off! It’s imperative that you begin the back swing with the correct sequencing and speed in order to maximize rhythm and efficiency & therefore power!
I like to think of the pelvis and torso as a father taking his child to the dentist. The torso is the father and although they’re both moving towards the top of the back swing, the father is certainly dragging the child along with him. You can’t blame the child, nobody likes the dentist! Now the second that tooth cleaning is over, that child is going to be running out of the office leading dad to the ice cream store in the down swing! Any time you’v got the child leading dad to the dentist’s office…something is seriously wrong with the power sequence! :- )
The pace of the torso and pelvis in the back swing is an important focus. It’s not that the torso must move before the pelvis, but it certainly moves faster than the pelvis. I like to imagine a rubber band tied to the two and although they’re both moving, the torso is stretching the rubber band further and further from the pelvis. This continues until just prior to the club getting to the top of the back swing when the pelvis needs to move back towards the target creating a little more stretch of the rubber band. This only happens for a brief part of the down swing before the torso grabs onto the pelvis and goes shooting past it. I love the analogy for this of when we were kids riding bikes and you would grab your buddies shoulder and rocket your self past him, thus transferring energy from the pelvis to the torso. The arm then grams on to the torso and then the power is transferred into the club just prior to impact.
This is creating efficient power and is called the Kinematic Sequence.
I like to think of the pelvis and torso as a father taking his child to the dentist. The torso is the father and although they’re both moving towards the top of the back swing, the father is certainly dragging the child along with him. You can’t blame the child, nobody likes the dentist! Now the second that tooth cleaning is over, that child is going to be running out of the office leading dad to the ice cream store in the down swing! Any time you’v got the child leading dad to the dentist’s office…something is seriously wrong with the power sequence! :- )
The pace of the torso and pelvis in the back swing is an important focus. It’s not that the torso must move before the pelvis, but it certainly moves faster than the pelvis. I like to imagine a rubber band tied to the two and although they’re both moving, the torso is stretching the rubber band further and further from the pelvis. This continues until just prior to the club getting to the top of the back swing when the pelvis needs to move back towards the target creating a little more stretch of the rubber band. This only happens for a brief part of the down swing before the torso grabs onto the pelvis and goes shooting past it. I love the analogy for this of when we were kids riding bikes and you would grab your buddies shoulder and rocket your self past him, thus transferring energy from the pelvis to the torso. The arm then grams on to the torso and then the power is transferred into the club just prior to impact.
This is creating efficient power and is called the Kinematic Sequence.
Unlocking Your Potential by Rocking Your Routine
There are two ways you can achieve lower scores; you can play to your highest potential or you can raise your capabilities. This will cover the art of bringing out the best in what you are currently capable of doing. The pre-shot routine is the easiest way to lower your scores without dealing with physical abilities.
There are many parts of the pre-shot routine that we can talk about, like reading the lie, or planning the shot and choosing the club to hit. We are going to cover the execution phase of the pre-shot routine which begins after you have completed every other phase. Essentially, you’ve already decided the club you will hit, the swing to use, the shot shape, starting direction and landing point. Now it’s just time to make it all happen!
So much easier to type that than to actually do it because of our brain trying to get in the way and screw up your well thought out plan! So we need something to keep you mind and body connected to the present moment…. Meaning that we aren’t thinking about the money you could win if you make the putt or about the last bad drive we hit. These are great examples of focusing on the future or the past which creates tension and poor motions. We need to keep ourselves busy with a goal that’s a little more abstract than ‘hitting the green’ or ‘make the putt’. Please keep your focus and goals centered around the physical and mental execution routines.
You need to know exactly where and when you place each foot. How many times will you look at the hole? One or two practice strokes? No practice strokes? So that covers the physical but we must also make sure the mind is solidly rooted in the present as even focusing on ‘nothing’ is just allowing for something to creep into your brain!
Please check out the video below for a more specific example of what you need to do to unlock your potential.
There are many parts of the pre-shot routine that we can talk about, like reading the lie, or planning the shot and choosing the club to hit. We are going to cover the execution phase of the pre-shot routine which begins after you have completed every other phase. Essentially, you’ve already decided the club you will hit, the swing to use, the shot shape, starting direction and landing point. Now it’s just time to make it all happen!
So much easier to type that than to actually do it because of our brain trying to get in the way and screw up your well thought out plan! So we need something to keep you mind and body connected to the present moment…. Meaning that we aren’t thinking about the money you could win if you make the putt or about the last bad drive we hit. These are great examples of focusing on the future or the past which creates tension and poor motions. We need to keep ourselves busy with a goal that’s a little more abstract than ‘hitting the green’ or ‘make the putt’. Please keep your focus and goals centered around the physical and mental execution routines.
You need to know exactly where and when you place each foot. How many times will you look at the hole? One or two practice strokes? No practice strokes? So that covers the physical but we must also make sure the mind is solidly rooted in the present as even focusing on ‘nothing’ is just allowing for something to creep into your brain!
Please check out the video below for a more specific example of what you need to do to unlock your potential.
The Fear of Fairway Bunkers
What’s the big fear of a fairway bunker & how will this affect our technique? This is a classic example of how our fears & doubts will cause our technique to crumble. We are all afraid of the ball hitting the lip of the bunker, therefore we will tend to lean back and try to ‘help’ the ball get up quickly. This only causes us to hit behind the ball with a chunk or we skim the sand and skull the ball on the way up! We must acknowledge this long before we attempt to hit the shot.
The first step to battle this fear is to make sure you choose a club or loft that will easily clear the lip of the bunker. Any club which causes even the slightest doubt of trajectory to creep in shall be deemed the wrong club. You may need to commit to a loft that doesn’t allow the ball to reach the green, as long as it easily clears the lip. You may need to have an internal conversation with yourself to confirm; “This club has plenty of loft and I don’t need to worry about clearing the lip.”
Our second biggest fear is making poor contact….which we kind of addressed above but let’s go a little further. If you are able to hit the ball first off the grass then why can’t you do the same off the bunker! This is another internal conversation you should have as you prepare to hit the shot. “I have a loft that will easily clear the lip and my swing hits the ball first.” This will decrease tension and all you to commit to hitting the shot!
The first step to battle this fear is to make sure you choose a club or loft that will easily clear the lip of the bunker. Any club which causes even the slightest doubt of trajectory to creep in shall be deemed the wrong club. You may need to commit to a loft that doesn’t allow the ball to reach the green, as long as it easily clears the lip. You may need to have an internal conversation with yourself to confirm; “This club has plenty of loft and I don’t need to worry about clearing the lip.”
Our second biggest fear is making poor contact….which we kind of addressed above but let’s go a little further. If you are able to hit the ball first off the grass then why can’t you do the same off the bunker! This is another internal conversation you should have as you prepare to hit the shot. “I have a loft that will easily clear the lip and my swing hits the ball first.” This will decrease tension and all you to commit to hitting the shot!
Slicer’s Heaven with New Wrist Motions
The golf swing is merely a chain link of reactions to a motion that already happened.
Just let that resonate a little bit, because it’s truly the best thing I ever learned about the golf swing! Ok! On to the topic of hand which is the body hang back you see so often of all slicers…
As I just primed you for, the body hang back isn’t the motion you need to fix first. It is a reaction to the club face being so far open and out of position that the hang back is the only way to get the face close to square at impact. If you were to try to fix the hang back before the club face, you would hit the ball 80 yards right because you’ve already got a club face that’s wide open and moving the body further towards the target will leave the face pointing well right.
The first place to look on slicers is the club face position at the top and in the wrist angles during transition. One thing to clarify first… If the leading edge of the club and your left forearm are parallel, the face is square. If the face is pointed at the sky, it’s closed and if it’s pointed towards your head, it’s wide open. This last one is the killer for the slicers! A little strengthening of the left hand grip can help this out drastically however, what happens with the wrist angles in transition can kill even the best intentions.
We must strengthen/close the club face as we begin the downswing.
This will be achieved with a wrist motion that will mimic Dustin Johnson’s position at the top of his swing with the left wrist bowing. Now DJ starts the top position with that bowed wrist, but we’re going to focus on increasing that bowing as the start to our downswing. As opposed to the slicer’s first move which is to unhinge the wrists and often increase cupping of the left wrist!
Just let that resonate a little bit, because it’s truly the best thing I ever learned about the golf swing! Ok! On to the topic of hand which is the body hang back you see so often of all slicers…
As I just primed you for, the body hang back isn’t the motion you need to fix first. It is a reaction to the club face being so far open and out of position that the hang back is the only way to get the face close to square at impact. If you were to try to fix the hang back before the club face, you would hit the ball 80 yards right because you’ve already got a club face that’s wide open and moving the body further towards the target will leave the face pointing well right.
The first place to look on slicers is the club face position at the top and in the wrist angles during transition. One thing to clarify first… If the leading edge of the club and your left forearm are parallel, the face is square. If the face is pointed at the sky, it’s closed and if it’s pointed towards your head, it’s wide open. This last one is the killer for the slicers! A little strengthening of the left hand grip can help this out drastically however, what happens with the wrist angles in transition can kill even the best intentions.
We must strengthen/close the club face as we begin the downswing.
This will be achieved with a wrist motion that will mimic Dustin Johnson’s position at the top of his swing with the left wrist bowing. Now DJ starts the top position with that bowed wrist, but we’re going to focus on increasing that bowing as the start to our downswing. As opposed to the slicer’s first move which is to unhinge the wrists and often increase cupping of the left wrist!
