New Golf Instruction

One big key to a powerful golf swing, is to use the front shoulder to push the arms and club all the way to the top of the backswing. You see many, many tour players these days using a little push from the front shoulder (pre-shot move) that replaces the waggle*. This is preparing the front shoulder to start the swing, not the hands.

Now, one subconscious movement that will stop the shoulder from continuing to push to the top, is to actively start hinging our wrists. Once this starts, the shoulder will stop pushing and the hands will hinge and lift (weak not repeatable). Also, the hands (almost never) hinge the club correctly, so that problem will have to be fixed on the downswing. We want to push with the front shoulder until the club hinges on its own close to the top of the backswing.

If the front shoulder controls the backswing, the club will hinge perfectly, so on the downswing, it can unhinge on its own when it should. Again, keeping the hands passive will allow all this to happen for a more consistent golf swing.

One trigger I use with my students on the backswing is, when the front shoulder touches or arrives under your chin, START THE DOWNSWING**.

* I believe the waggle to be a detrimental movement. It is preparing the hands to take over. In a Large Muscle controlled golf swing, the hands take a passive roll to allow the Large Muscles to do their job. Actively moving the hands prior to the swing, works against what we want to do. Say goodbye to the waggle and use the Front Shoulder pre-shot move. This is the move that will start the swing so let’s practice it just before we start the swing!

** The downswing starts with the hips/thighs unwinding pulling the arms and club back down in front of the body as you keep rotating to face the target. The arms and club do NOT pass the body rotation until you are facing the target. Watch this

Dear Ross, We are progressing.

One of my students asked:

Q – On the downswing is it the turning of the hips at a nice pace with the right wrist cock retained?

A – The hips “PULL” your arms back down in front of your body… A powerful image would be to visualize that, your elbows realign with the hips as you rotate (how they were at setup)… again this must come from the hips/thighs pulling them down via unwinding (not the arms coming down on their own). Now, that being said, if you achieve this synchronization (actually very easy and natural once the right muscles take control) you can turn as fast or slow as is needed for the shot… you do not want to rely on having to turn at a “nice pace”… your pace is not a factor. If it is, there is something wrong somewhere… there really is no need to try to time things. Yes there is the correlation of elbows and hips, but it is to help train your body how to move. Hope this all makes sense. The big key… DON’T LET THE HANDS AND ARMS TAKE OVER ON THE DOWNSWING. If you keep your hands and arms passive, your core (hips/thighs), can easily pull your arms and club right back down in front and continue turning.

Now… I previously taught, “Retaining the Wrist Hinge” since we were all taught this from previous instruction. What this was trying to do was, use the hands to hold back, or postpone the stored potential until the last possible moment. Then, change holding back to throwing the club head as hard as possible into the ball and hopefully square the club face and maybe hit the sweet spot. I now know, that keeping the hands passive and a constant grip pressure during the swing, allows the Large Muscles to control the swing and all thoughts of swing plane and hinging work automatically and perfectly every time.

The power in the golf swing comes from winding up the shoulders against a resisting lower body in the backswing and then… unwinding the downswing completely… not in the wrist hinge as a lever for hitting with the hands. Actively hinging or retaining, disrupts the harmony of the entire body working together. Hitting with the hands will never be as powerful or consistent as the entire body working, turning, trapping the ball, while accelerating to the finish…

What’s better? A fast moving club head with a short length and changing club face, or twice the length including all the body mass rotating athletically with a constant, square club face?

About 15 years ago I was practicing getting out of deep rough close to the green and had a HUGE revelation. I realized that the ball could easily come out every time when I had the shaft in line with the front arm, kept my wrists exactly the same during the swing, and used my entire body mass (rotating) to move through the grass and bring the ball out. This kept the face exactly the way it was at setup, giving me the loft I wanted and solid, centered contact. It also kept the club face square to the intended target line since I was not using my hands to chop at the ball. This was amazing. It was so easy. Keep my hands passive and use my body turn to bring the ball out.

This concept lead to a lot of thought for the full swing and other shots around the green. “Let the body turn be the source of power not the hands.” This also lead to the more natural athletic concepts you hear me talk about. I could see this move in many other sports moves, and even in every day life when we just subconsciously use or body to do a job.

Now Mass vs. Speed. We are all trying to get the ball to go straight and a certain distance using a golf club. This can be achieved many different ways. I now knew, that you can hit the ball solid (in the middle of the club face) and straight every time, when you don’t let the hands disrupt everything. I was amazed to learn the ball actually would go farther when hit with more mass rotating at a slower rate. Yes! It is awesome! Now, what prevents this from happening, is when you let your hands take over to hit at the ball, four bad things happen:

1. Your body stops rotating!! (no one hits and rotates at the same time, it is one or the other). Your body stops to support the “Hit”.
2. Your radius is cut in half since you are now hinging your wrists at impact to create more speed at the club head. The club head does speed up, but the length is cut in half (shorter radius).
3. The only mass moving with the club head (to help move the ball) is your arms and hands (since the body stopped rotating).
4. The club face direction changes (not what we want).

So the opposite of this is, to have all your body unwinding athletically trapping the ball. Here are the benefits… since the shaft is in line with the front arm and not changing, we hit the sweet spot of the club face every time producing solid repeatable contact and predictable distances, the ball goes straight since your hands are passive not changing the club face and we get more distance because the length stays the same since we are not flipping the club head with our hands. Whew! That sounds great!!

The best thing about all this, is by removing extra movements and allowing the Large Muscles (shoulders & body turn) to control your swing, this occurs naturally.

* FYI – Watch when a baseball player hits it out of the park… it is usually as he is rotating with the bat in line with the front arm and no flipped wrists…food for thought… Ross

Learning to use the Large Muscles Athletically can be a little tough at first if you don’t immediately break movements that will send signals to your brain, that you are just doing your old golf swing. One of the biggest culprits is “Sliding” or allowing yourself to shift weight to the back leg (sliding must go).

My method sets up with 60% of the weight already on the front leg and it will stay there and increase to the finish. The reason is … we are simulating IMPACT at setup and a powerful, athletic, unwinding golf swing, must have more weight on the front leg so the body can immediately unwind and turn. If we allow our body to slide to the back foot, most get stuck there and can’t start the downswing athletically (hips unwinding on the front leg) because too much weight is on the back leg. Then they have to slide right back where they were at the start anyway and then try to turn.

Learning to feel what it is like to keep your weight on the front leg, while using your shoulders to wind up against a resisting lower body, is KEY to trusting my method and seeing and feeling amazing results.

You want to feel like your front side is glued to a wall as you push the arms and club straight back using your front shoulder. You want the backswing to be controlled by the shoulders only (no lifting or hands). Then on the downswing, since you haven’t moved off the ball, you can easily start with the hips unwinding because your weight is already on the front foot.

This is a drill I use with my students called Front Foot Drill. Here is the link Front Foot Drill

The start of the downswing is an athletic unwinding from the ground up sequence. It is mandatory that there is more weight on the front leg to start this sequence. You can not start to unwind with more weight on the back foot. Traditional golf instruction has been sliding and loading up the back side and causing the need to recover from this problem so they created the “Bump and Turn” recovery technique that fixes the fact that you slid your weight to the back foot to start with. This all has to go! If on the backswing you maintain at least 60% of your weight on the front foot, it creates much more potential power because the shoulders can wind up against a firm lower body. Then on the downswing since your weight is already on the front foot, the small muscles in the knees can easily start to unwind the larger thigh muscles in the legs, that engage the hips to unwind the torso and shoulders. The arms & club just go along for the ride. This also fixes many miss hit shots once all the sliding is gone. When you don’t slide, you get Wind up, then Unwind … not slide and wind up, then slide back and unwind. Welcome to the middle of the club face almost every time!
Now, what generally upsets this natural, easy and athletic movement, is the impulse to hit at the ball with the hands. Learn to keep your hands passive with constant grip pressure and the Large Muscles will control your Backswing, Downswing … Golf Swing… Ross

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What is a Chicken Wing anyway? What happens? Why is it wrong?

First of all, The Chicken Wing can occur on the backswing and/or the downswing.

The Elbows work kind of like “Supports” under the shaft. At the top of the backswing, the back arm is folded under to support the club shaft. Then on the downswing, once the body is finished rotating, the front arm is folded underneath supporting the shaft again. All this happens naturally if the arms and hands are passive during the swing.

Now a Chicken Wing look on the backswing will have the back elbow actually pulling the arms and club behind the golfer. Instead of being underneath the shaft, it has been lifted up as much as 90 degrees (from being underneath) and is now in line with the shaft. This is not a repeatable or productive position.

Now the inverse of this is the Chicken Wing on the downswing, that usually occurs at impact and just after. Again you have the elbow (this time the front elbow) actually pulling the arms and club across the body. This Chicken Wing look after impact usually means your body rotation stopped and the hands and arms took over. The way the front elbow should work on the downswing is, the front elbow will point back at the front hip at impact and later on in the swing folds underneath to support the shaft at the finish.

This is what the arms and elbows should look like during the swing… At the top of the backswing, the front arm is straight with the back elbow bent (*about 90 degrees) underneath… then on the forward swing after the body is completely rotated, the back arm is straight with the front arm bent and elbow underneath.

The Big Key: THE ELBOWS ALWAYS STAY CLOSE TOGETHER DURING THE ENTIRE SWING. If they come apart it is usually because you are pulling and trying to use them. Keep the arms passive and let the shoulders and body turn move them.

*Really great players help maintain their radius and extension during the swing by not allowing the elbows to bend in towards the arm less than 90 degrees). This keeps the width of the swing arc constant for a more reliable swing.