Drill Needed

I am looking for a drill that will help me turn around my center in the downswing. I believe that my hips are moving too much in a lateral position towards the target during the downswing and I push the ball. I am not certain why it is happening. I suspect that it may be a lifting of the right heel prematurely along with too much lateral swaying of the hips during the downswing but not 100% positive. I would like to find a drill that would help me create more of a turn instead of a sway. Any reccomendations?

Work on your swing with your feet tight together. If you sway, you fall.

Speaking of Harvey Penick, I was reading in his Little Red Book the other day that the way to start the down swing is the simultaneous returning of the left heel to the ground along with returning your right elbow to the body. I haven't gotten a chance to hit the range yet (tonight - my girlfriend is out of town ), but it sounds like it has potential.

I think once you start trying to turn your left hip out, what you're much more likely to do is sway rather than actually rotate the hips.

Try this,

First be sure your hips don't sway to the right ( if you play right handed ) during the end of the backswing. Then, instead of thinking to lift your right heel during the downswing, think of trying to hit your right knee against your left one.

Hope this helps.

Question: Is this Reverse K position supposed to be accomplished by a slight thrust of the hip forward, like a tiny body check? This is what your words suggest. Or is it done by tilting the upper body to the rear, which is what the link you posted suggests. The two are definitely not the same. With the hip bump method, the head stays in the same position relative to the ball; the tilt method moves the head further behind the ball.

Having tried both now, the hip bump feels more balanced and seems to work better. And for me, based on my limited trial, it works better too. But I'd like to know how it's supposed to be done.

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Todd
Philadelphia, PA
USA

The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing. ~Phyllis Diller

Fair enough, I'll give that a try.

This, I take it, means just "nudging" to the left or right, keeping the shoulder line parallel to the ground.


Now that's very very interesting. I need to try it, because I think this has been a problem. I've sensed a kind of conflict between keeping the head still and needing to do the swing properly, but I'm afraid if I release the head it'll just pull up and I'll swing back down and top the shot--which I've done about 10,000 times. But if I understand what you're saying, I can start by looking at the ball "sidelong" and then let my shoulders follow my head, instead of pulling against it.

That would be, ah, not me.

Thanks much; I'll play with the Reverse K and the sidelong head for a while and see what happens.

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Todd
Philadelphia, PA
USA

The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing. ~Phyllis Diller

Well, I can say this: if there's one thing that people tell me, who watch me swing, it's that I don't make a good hip turn. My instructor has said it, and skilled amateurs have said it. So I guess it's true. I find it difficult to fix, possibly because I'm NOT a natural athlete, and not used to generating power from the hips.

Years ago, when I studied shotokan karate, I had the same problem: using the hips to drive the strikes. I DID get the hang of it, but it took time.

So every little thing I can learn to make this aspect of my swing better is well worth my attention.

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Todd
Philadelphia, PA
USA

The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing. ~Phyllis Diller

Todd,

When you practice, are you practicing a full swing with a ball?

You can practice metally and you can also practice very small pieces of the swing. Visualise what you are trying to accomplish. Watch tapes of proper technique, compare your own videos and find out exactly where you need to work on. It is proven that just running through the processes in your mind's eye causes very small triggers in the muscles that will help you get your hip turn.

Also, practice a trigger to get you from the top of the back swing down to where the club is parallel and your right elbow is on your right hip. This is the most powerful move in golf. I spend about 5 minutes a day going back and forth between those two positions.

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Gord

Quote of the month:
"It's easy to see golf not as a game at all but as some whey-faced, nineteenth-century Presbyterian minister's fever dream of exorcism achieved through ritual and self-mortification." ~Bruce McCall

Sometimes. I practice my swing every day without a ball. I just go out in the yard with a club and do my full swing, working on the feel of it, rhythm, etc. I'll do 20-30 full swings that way, working on the making the swing feel big and round and smooth. Some days I do this twice a day. In addition to that, I go to the driving range when I can, to hit balls. Usually I only bring one or two clubs with me, and usually one of them is a wedge. It's at the range that I often try some of the things that I read about in this forum.

Now that's a tricky thing. The thing I try for is a kind of whiplike feeling, where my hip is whipping the rest of my body around and making the swing happen. So when I can, I try to use a slight forward hip twist as my trigger. It has to be slight, because if I do it large it throws everything into disarray. Once in a while I get that whiplike feeling and a good shot out of it. But I also have to say that once I transition into the downswing I feel almost as if I'm a zombie and the swing does what it's going to do without any help from me. Whether it's going to be a good swing or a bad one, it's as if it's determined at that moment.

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Todd
Philadelphia, PA
USA

The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing. ~Phyllis Diller

Okay, I've tried this drill and paid attention to the ankles...which is something new.

But since you've mentioned it, this finish position with the knee pointed in and the right foot on tiptoe is something that has never come naturally to me. I've seen other people who instinctively do this, but I'm only just beginning to get the hang of it. My right foot wants to stay planted and to twist on the ground a bit, letting my knee flex somewhat, but not completely, toward the target. I've worked on this a lot, but the trick is not to make a conscious foot movement but to do the swing so that the foot just naturally ends up the way you describe. I've made progress but I'm not fully there yet. This probably isn't something that most people have to work on.

Yup, I found that out. If anything, I turn the back foot in just a tiny bit toward the target to get that feeling.

I'll give that a try tomorrow. And I'm also going to actually play a round! Will I break 110?

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Todd
Philadelphia, PA
USA

The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing. ~Phyllis Diller

I used to have a similar problem as well as the drills mentioned one thing i did on the practice fairway was put my umbrella (or shaft whatever is avaiable) in the ground and address the ball with my left foot (right foot if lefty) against my umbrella if you move laterally your left hip will hit the umbrella. Just make sure you do not follow through with your weight on the back foot in order to avoid hitting the umbrella