This 5 Second Drill Beats Hitting 5,000 Balls On The Range

Now, every shot in your practice session is either training a good swing or reinforcing a bad one. And if you're not currently checking this position, then you're pretty much wasting every hour you spend there. Look, I see this all the time. Golfers out there hammering balls at the range, working on all these different types of movements. You're filming your swing, you're comparing to what you see online, and you generally want to get better. Golfers skip this initial move entirely. If your takeaway is off in these first two feet, the rest of your swing is spent trying to correct it. All these other movements you're focused on can't happen effectively. And I get why. We all want that perfect shot. And we think to get that, we need everything to be perfect just here, just like the world's best. But here's the thing, the world's best see that perfect impact position so consistently because they're making sure that they're nailing this position first. It all starts here in the takeaway. So today I'm going to share a simple takeaway drill that just works. And it's going to save you hours and hours of wasted range of time. And once you get your foundation sorted, your club is going to be allowed to move without compensations. All these other pieces that you've been working on is going to fall into place automatically. And you'll straight away see the improvements you've been working towards. Now the hands are the only connection we have to the club. And in the takeaway, the number one thing I see is a golfer who gets their hands too high too soon and away from the body. Now, when we see any poor movement, we automatically start to see a second one. And in this case, as a result of the hands moving this way, the club head falls behind. Now, already in this position, you've lost control of the club face and you've lost any balance in your swing. The weight of the club so far behind the hands, and this is a big problem. Keep this in mind because it's so important when we look at the drill, it's going to fix this shortly. So from here, the rest of your swing is just a continuation of these compensations as we try and get the club back to the ball the best way that you can. So let me show you the drill that fixes this and locks in your new takeaway. I want you first to notice as you grip the club, this slight cupping that you have on the back of the left arm and the back of the left hand. I then want you to take your right hand and lightly grip your left arm. Now we're going to move the club back to 45 degree angle. Now this move comes from this slight hinging from the left wrist. And I want you to use your right arm to support your left arm and stop it from coming anywhere else. It's not a huge hinge like this, it's just a subtle one. And we still have the club head pointing down to the ground. Now from here, I want you to turn your core until your club shaft is parallel with the ground. Now the three key things to check for here are these. Number one, the amount of cupping we saw in the address position on the back of the left arm and hand has remained the same. Number two, your left forearm has just rotated slightly and you'll feel this in your right hand as it supports it. And number three, the top of the club has moved opposite the outside of your right leg. So you have this nice width in the swing, but it's also moved closer to the body. So you've kept this correct hand path. And the right hand supporting your left arm is helping you keep everything connected just here. And that's it. It's as simple as that. When you get used to this, you'll be combining these two movements. So here's how it looks. It's hinged to 45 degrees and then turn to the parallel. So it's hinge and turn. And when you're on the course and you feel those old habits creeping back in, those high hands and that disconnection, you just reset with this hinge and turn and it brings you right back to the foundation. So now we have the hand supporting the club here. Remember when we talked about balance before and how we'd lost control of the club face in this position? Well, now it's totally the opposite. You've automatically feel the weight of the club and the control you have over it compared to before when it was falling behind you. This just feels so much easier. So it's control of the club face along with the swing path and the hand path as we build up from here. Now, remember, if we keep any of these early compensations out of your swing, you're going to make hitting the ball so much easier for yourself. Even with these swings and how the club is moving down, it just feels so much more natural. Nothing has to be forced in getting it back to the ball again. Everything just feels so much more simpler and it all comes from that correct start position. And once you feel that and you feel the club is balanced, you're not fighting to get it back to the ball. And remember at the start when I said every shot you hit is either training a good swing or reinforcing a bad one. And this is what training a good swing feels like. There's no forcing it, there's no flipping, just natural movements back to the ball. Now, two more things to check so you know that you've really nailed this. Your hands in this position are only slightly higher than they were at address. This is so important to get out of this high hand move that you had before. And my favorite checkpoint, if you set the camera up down the line, I want to see a triangle. Your left shoulder and your club head should be in the same line and running parallel with your target line and with your hands slightly closer to your body. Now, here's what I need you to do at your next practice session, and it's non-negotiable. Film one swing from down the line and check this triangle position. If you're not seeing it, this is where 100% of your focus needs to be. Because if you skip this step, you're back to reinforcing this bad patterns that we talked about at the start. And keep hitting the drill. It's not a waste of time. This first movement in the swing is what's setting you up. It's your foundation. Like with myself or my students, if you make the changes here, you'll see the real changes start to happen with your shots. And you won't be wasting hours and hours on the range, reinforcing a takeaway that's hurting you. Now, we hear about real versus feel in golf. Now, these high hands are something I have to fight in my takeaway. So I know when I dial it back into the correct position, it feels so, so different. So mix the drills with shots and with the occasional video so you can check yourself. Now, we've talked about the hands and the wrists and the club in this takeaway, but the final thing we wanna check on is the elbows. Now, in the old takeaway, if you watch my elbows, you would see daylight between my arms too. And this is another way that we lose connection. Now, the drill takes care of this automatically, but keep this in mind. So the old habits don't creep back in when you're tired or under pressure on the course. Keep the arms connected early and this right elbow stays slightly higher than the left. And that's really gonna help you keep the club on the right path. Look, I can't emphasize this enough. If you want to work on your swing, you need to first work on the first few feet of the takeaway. That's why your range sessions don't currently feel like they're paying off. Master this takeaway and every ball you hit will start to master a better swing. Commit to the drills and feel this connection every time. Now, as always, I put everything from today's video in a free PDF practice plan, all the key points, all the checkpoints and the drills. And you can get that by joining Community 360 in the link below. And there's also confined details about the free swing analysis that I'm offering. So go and check it out. Now, if you've enjoyed this video or if you have any questions, please let me know in the comments. And if you're not already, please consider subscribing and hitting that like button. Now, thanks for watching. Now go and build that perfect takeaway.