Every Bad Golfer Thinks This Works

The swing sequence is one of the most underrated elements of a good consistent goal swing. I'm going to give you three drills that you can do today that will help you forever have a better goal swing sequence. The steps of a good swing sequence are in this order. Lower body, and this applies for backswing and downswing. It's one complete movement. It's going to be lower body, torso, arms, and wrists. Lower body, torso, arms, wrists. So how do we develop and train that? Let's get into drill number one. This is really helping us with lower body sequencing and really activating the lower body because if we are too static with our lower body and we try and force it with the upper body, the arms, or the wrists, we end up flipping the club quite a bit, or we can end up sort of casting and trying to shove it through. Basically, we're never really ever going to get into a nice dynamic impact position that delivers the power and control that we want. So this is an old school drill, but it does work very, very well. And it's the step drill. And what the step drill is going to do, let's say take my setup here, right? If I take a step back, this is a little bit exaggerated, but if I take a step back, and as I start my takeaway here, as I start my backswing movement here, I'm actually going to begin stepping into where I would have been at my sort of setup, all right? We can sort of have a little marker in our minds where we want to step to, but we kind of want to keep our eye on the ball, but I'm going to step there. And what that does, that's basically ensuring that I'm planting my foot, I'm applying my pressure, then my upper body comes through, then arms and wrists. To make this a little bit easier, we're just going to tee this up. And I'm only using a pitching wedge because we're not trying to get distance off this, we're trying to get that sequence to work. And having it off the tee, it's just going to help us feel like we don't have to find the ball quite so much. It's going to take our mind off trying to make a clean contact, because I really just want you to focus on the step. And it is about the sequence, it's about that timing. I want you to practice at first without a ball. Let's try three swings. So there's my setup, that's where I'd want to be. Now I'm going to step to the side, now I'm going to swing back and swing through. Do that two, three times. Now we're going to come into the ball, there's my regular setup. Take a step, I'm going to swing back and swing through. And I have a nice full balanced finish. I'm facing the target and I'm through. All my arms did is follow my lower body, my upper body in that sequence. It's a great drill. When you master that, it might take a while, but that is going to give you the weight transfer that you need. Swing ratio. And the swing ratio is, as we start our swing, we don't want to be using too much upper body too soon and the arms are back here. They've got to travel late and a lot further. Likewise, if we just use arms and then try and use body, we're kind of cramped and we're stuck, and that's going to affect more casting or various other things. So it's very simple, but all I want you to do is try and complete your backswing. So by the time you've got the lower body, the torso, the arms in place, we want to have the club head and basically the arms reach the top of the swing at the same time. There's not like a specific number that I want you to figure out. It's just, okay, the only task I have is start the swing and everything's going to complete at once. And then I'm going to start down. Everything's going to complete at impact at once. And then all the way through nothing is overpowering anything else. It's just understanding what has to move a little bit further, a little bit quicker, if you will, just to ensure that we complete everything in the correct order at the correct time without rushing the swing. So after some slow rehearsals, you can upgrade to just hitting a few little shots where it's complete the swing, complete the swing. If you try and create a nice goal swing and you make a slow backswing, what will happen is you'll tend to snatch it from the top. So we'll get to the top and then we'll snatch trying to swing faster. But what that does, that snatchiness, that jerk, often sends our arms over the top and we spin out of it. And you're like, crap, why am I slicing? But you're like, well, I'm trying to swing slow and smooth. You might be slow and smooth going back, but you snatch from the top. Likewise, if you swing too fast going back, so you can move through the ball quicker in that transition. As I mentioned, we don't have that athleticism that we once had potentially, and we don't have the ability, the mobility, the strength to be able to absorb that speed going back to transfer and create the sequence that we want to be able to deliver that power. So we end up almost wasting that power and kind of quitting a little bit because we've wasted our energy and we can't stop it and move it back towards the ball quick enough. If either of those things sound familiar, you are not alone because that is most golfers are struggling with day in day out. So what's the fix? I want us to emphasize a little bit more on that transition. I'm not asking you to pause. I'm asking you to notice the sensations, the feeling of that change of direction to give yourself more time because that time is so precious to be able to give you the sequence, the confidence to be able to change direction, to be able to absorb the change, the movement back to the ball. Remind yourself what you're trying to do. All we're trying to do is hit this stupid little club back at the golf ball. It's not about closing our eyes and trying to swing as fast as possible. It's a very simple task, but we have to give ourselves that fraction of time. So as we just do some smooth swings, I want you to feel like a gradual change of direction that's smooth. It almost feels like you've got all the time in the world to swing through and gather the weight of the club. A little cue that might help you find this transition time is the sensation of the arms feeling heavy. Okay, we're very conscious of the weight of the club, the arms feeling heavy. So as I come to a stop, if you will, about three quarters, halfway back, I'm noticing that slowing down, that slowing down, applying the brakes, but I'm making that intention to move back towards the ball very, very smoothly. So do some swings and almost try a Goldilocks, I would suggest. Some of them are going to be faster back swing, and you'll start to notice that doesn't quite feel right. Some of them are going to be slower, doesn't quite feel right, because it creates that snatchiness that I mentioned earlier. But if we have a feeling of just smooth transition to get that time, you get this wonderful like whoosh through the ball, but it's because you've gathered the energy and feeling the energy wind up and move. I haven't given you any instructions about particular body movements here. This is all about you and what you're feeling, because the only task I want you to have is time in the transition. Just a few days ago, I was giving a student a lesson right here actually, and he's been making lots of good progress, but he has a big challenge in that, and I'm sure many of you can relate to this, he overthinks a lot and he tries very hard to produce a good goal swing. One thing we worked on just the other day was what I'm going to show you today. One of the examples I come up with who is actually renowned as one of the best ball strikers ever to have played the game, the most consistent ball strikers, I would say, and that's Colin Montgomery. No, he didn't quite win a major, but he was incredible on the European tour, had decent success on the PGA tour, but man, that guy was so consistent. I'm not saying we have to swing exactly like Colin Montgomery, okay, like this, all that excessive flow, kind of, kind of steep into out. We don't have to replicate the whole thing, but what I gave Phil the other day in the lesson was what I want to teach you today. What Colin did a little bit on his takeaways was he almost looked like he was keeping the club in the ground. He was starting his swing, and the swing sequence is very important, of lower body, torso, arms, then wrists, lower body, torso, arms, and wrists in that order. This is also going to be perfect for those of you who feel too tense in your swing. If you feel like you're having to force every shot, force every swing, and try just a little bit too hard to make a shot happen. To improve the sequence and to stop getting stuck, we're kind of going to forget about the club head for a minute. We're going to focus our attention on the handle and also what the body and the kinetic chain is going to do. And what we're thinking about is keeping this club head stuck in ice just for a fraction of a second as we're making our swing. I'm going to use my feet, my legs first to start my swing, and I can't move my lower body really without the arms following suit, without the torso following suit, but my sequence is started with the legs. And what I'm going to do is feel like I'm doing a sort of takeaway, a start of the swing that is actually adding this reverse lag. I'm going to exaggerate it a little bit to begin with, but we're going to do a takeaway that's here, right? So this handle is dragging back that way. Why? Because what it's going to do, as long as you're very supple in the wrist, you have to maintain suppleness. Doesn't mean we're weak, we've still got a nice hold on the club, but our wrists, our arms are supple, we're nice and loose. Embrace the Colin Montgomery a little bit here with me, and you're going to do a takeaway. It's staying loose, but as I sort of throw the club back just a little bit, what it's going to do, it's going to feel very heavy and it's lagging behind. This is that reverse lag. Now, as I make my way back to the downswing using my lower body, my torso, and then my arms, what's actually happening is my wrists are just going to hinge correctly, but I'm not trying to do it. What this is going to do is show that this is what's going to move the golf club more than anything else, than trying to move this with force. We're using momentum, gravity to help us. So we're going to start small, we're just going to allow that to hang back and just drop it through. If you struggle with this to begin with, it shows that you're either too tight in the arms and everything, or that you're too tight in the wrists and you're trying to sort of make something happen. We're exaggerating the intention here to show that we can have a lot more flow and freedom. And this is very useful, especially as we get older. So as we start to do this, it's going to feel weird at first, but as we take the club back, it's almost like the grip of the handle is coming up higher, right? Doesn't mean I'm standing up, but my intention is like here. I'm pulling it back, I'm doing a normal golf swing, but I'm allowing it to catch and swing through. It's exaggerated, but man, that strike is out the middle and I could do that all day long. I often suggest using a tee when you're practicing a drill or making some kind of significant change in what you're doing or what you're feeling. It just helps to take, you know, we're understanding we still need to try and make contact with the ball here, but we're not having to do too much to try and get it airborne. We're not too stressed about the strike. You can start with chip shots, pitch shots, but the more you understand that even exaggerating, you can get flow and freedom in your swing. But what happens is when you practice it just a little bit, you'll find that it will start to take the element away from the clubhead. And you will be practicing the main movements and the suppleness in the wrist to have the flow and freedom you need. So you can sort of start creating a bit of a hybrid that is just a little bit laggy and you can build it up that way. The more you do that and bridge the gap, the more flow and consistency and you know what power you're going to have. You might be thinking, does this work with driver also? Yes, it does. It's a whole swing sequence that we're trying to improve and create that effortless power. If you want a specific lesson on that effortless power, especially with the driver, this is one of my most favorite lessons. And lots of people just like you have seen great results just from this alone. Thanks for watching. See you next time.