KFC with Longer Clubs; Drills

@Alan Studnicky - Now that's some dedication.... In fact, some might just call it "obsession", but I love it!!

Hopefully you'll be outdoors soon!!

Tom

😁

Nice reply, @Alan Studnicky! Timely as well because I am actually in the process of testing a new training aid that specifically addresses head movement throughout the swing. The concept seems rather simple (which I like), supportive of a centered swing (which, as per your comment, you know that I teach), and potentially quite effective (which I also like... 😎) If I am impressed with how it works for me I'll be recording a video on it in the near future.

In the meantime, you can always work on ingraining the centered feel by getting in your posture with your head against a wall (and without a club in your hand unless you want the dings in your wall to match those on the ceiling 🙄), making your full targetward tilt and adding shoulder turn while your head stays in place to complete the backswing, and then transitioning to the forward lateral hip slide of the downswing with your head still in place until after "impact" when it can release to the finish. That'll force you to understand what staying centered feels like as your body executes the proper motions.

Tom

Maybe take a video of yourself with the shorter club and then take one with the longer clubs and see if you can analyze the difference. Even though I'm still practicing in a spare room and marking up my ceiling while it's still cold out I get a groove for one day where I feel like I'm smashing them. Then the next day I'm topping it and hitting it fat. I take a video and I can see my head moving all over the place. What the heck. When did that start to happen? I get the head still and I can smash them again. Then something else starts to go wrong and I video it again. Now what?!? lol Anyway, just a suggestion. I would do what Tom suggests first, of course. And I found 2 huge flaws in my swing when my GF took a video of me at a simulator earlier this year. I could see where I was losing power in my follow through and I had the fake hip turn. I don't know if I'm better this year, yet, but I can now see why I was struggling last year. I wasn't doing the swing at all. No question. Hopefully I'm a little closer this year to getting it. But the self videos have been priceless as I work through the school and watch Tom's videos over again and the new ones. Just my 2 cents from the peanut gallery.

@medic3847 - You may also be interesting in reading through the recent thread titled "Long Drive SagutoGolf style" as you may garner something from that dialogue as well. Just copy and paste that title into the Forum search bar and you should find it.

Tom

@medic3847,

Oftentimes when golfers are hitting everything well except for the longer clubs it can be attributed to one of the following:

1) They don't start with - or maintain - enough weight on the front side. In general with the longer clubs we should add a little more front weight load at address - more like 60/40 instead of the 55/45 prescribed for the other clubs. This forward weight should gradually increase to the top of the backswing (70/30) and build further on the downswing - approximately 80/20 halfway down, 90/10 impact, and 95/5 finish.

2) Their hips are not continuing their lateral slide through impact. This is common with the longer clubs as the wider stance means that the hips have a greater distance to travel. If the hips stop moving laterally towards the target on the downswing then their rotation takes over, changing the low point and rerouting the club. This can produce a variety of undesirable results including fat and thin contact, topped shots and popups, straight pulls, and “banana” slices. HERE is a lesson and drill from the Downswing chapter of the Fixing Common Swing Problems part of the school specific to building in more lateral hip slide. You can also find more information on this in Chapter 6 of the Golf Swing Simplified course which is all about the downswing.

3) They are not allowing the length of the club to dictate the backswing path and are getting too steep as a result. The shaft length of the longer clubs encourages more of an around the body backswing as established by the shaft plane at address. It may "feel" flat as you take it back along the shaft plane for the first few feet, but as long as you maintain the "weight forward, shoulder down, and hands in" components while allowing the club to work around you, it should put you in the proper position at the top so you can attack the ball from the inside.

This is a common issue that I am regularly asked to fix, Mike, so if yours doesn't relate to any of the above causes - or if it does and you are experiencing difficulty resolving it - we can always arrange for an online lesson or a V1 swing video analysis to pinpoint the culprit and offer an appropriate solution.

Tom

Stop trying so hard. Dont let your ego get in the way. Get out of your mind that you are going to smash the ball. Swing the club a easily as you would a shorter iron. Keep your tempo, let the club do the work.