New Golf Instruction

Had a student ask for tips on various bunker conditions… here are my responses:

On an Uphill bunker shot you want to pre-set your weight up the hill into the front leg playing the ball on that foot. Your center is up the hill across from that foot. You do NOT want to open the face in that the slope is already adding loft. If it is a short shot choke down. Use your front shoulder to push straight back, then the hips unwind to rotate to face the target. Let your body rotation impact the sand an inch behind the ball and keep turning. The faster you rotate through impact the farther or higher the ball goes… or your can push back farther and rotate completely at a slower pace for a “drop out of the sky” kind of effect.

On Downhill bunker shot (toughest shot in golf), you want to open up the face and your stance so you can swing across the slope. This gives the path a more level environment vs. a path following the down slope (too hard to get the ball up and stop with a path down the slope). Stopping the ball on a downhill bunker shot is usually the tough thing. You must also commit to this shot to pull it off, you can’t quit on it. Needs practice to build confidence

The buried lie you want to first create what they call a “Dig Sole”, which is closing the face or hooding the face a bit. What this does is to remove some of the built in bounce in the SW, so the club can now penetrate much easier down through the sand and pull out your buried lie. You must use your body rotation and mass to keep turning to use the sand to bring the ball up and out. The ball will roll more and you must compensate for it.

Controlling distance depends on how deep the ball sits in the sand and how much sand you need to go through to move the ball. This just takes practicing various scenarios of bunker shots to gain experience and confidence. The big key… use your body rotation to execute all these shots. Old golf instruction says to use your hands and arms to hit through the sand, but Old Style is not nearly as reliable as using your body turn… Ross

A golfer sent me this question in an email and I thought a few of you might be suffering from this.
Q. – My biggest problem is…I just can’t keep my head down and my eyes on the ball just before striking the ball. Any hints on how to correct this problem?

A. – I suspect that your setup may have the ball too far back in your stance causing you to feel like you need to use your hands to hit quickly before you hit the ground, so you raise up to allow the hands and arms to pass. I can’t tell you for sure until I see your swing video but if it is, this will help. Move the ball just inside front foot. Keep 60% weight on front foot during the backswing and then just unwind to face the target. The ball will be in perfect position… but you need to turn. Most golfers end up with their weight on the back foot, then slide forward and hit at the ball with their hands. The golf swing rotates, a rotary, turning, athletic unwinding move. I don’t teach keep your head still because it stays still as a side effect of the proper movement … unwinding vs hitting with hands. So move that ball forward and turn!!… Ross

First, I don’t use this term since it does not occur using Large Muscles to control the golf swing, but I get asked how to fix this often. Here is a quick definition of how you develop this problem and how to prevent it from happening.

Q: Ross, Whats the easiest way to stop coming over the top and also to get more power

A: The most common reason for a need to have a “Coming Over the Top” recovery move, is that the takeaway came inside, usually do to the hands taking over and pulling the club inside and (or) the hips rotating on their own during the backswing that adds to the problem. Result… the club is too far behind you.

The Correct Move: If you push the club straight back and up, using the front shoulder, you will be in an ideal position to use your lower body (hips) to start the downswing and unwind all the way to face the target. This removes the need for the over the top move. It also removes the need to hit at the ball with the hands. Just unwind and hit the ball with your body turn.

Temporary Help: While you are learning your new takeaway, if you Start the Downswing using the hips to unwind, your over the top move will be controlled and go along for the ride. Now you will still be returning from the inside (not good), but your over the top problem will be in check. Also be aware this will create a new ball flight but it’s a start. The Real Key… fix your takeaway and backswing.

One last thing… yes more power since the shoulders will control winding up against the lower body resisting… MUCH MORE POWER!

Here are some great drills that will help:

Large Muscles Drill
The Ross Move
Front Foot Drill
Straight Arm Drill

The Golf Swing is a combination of Elements.  These elements are comprised of an Analysis of the conditions and current situation, then a Decision on the kind of shot and club needed, and a Routine to recall, remind and prepare your body to produce the shot that you’ve take before on the course or at practice.

Now each one of these elements have their own concerns.  For example, the Analysis will consider the weather, the lie of the ball, the conditions of the golf course, what the ball will do once it leaves and is in the air, and how it will react once it lands.  From those considerations, you’ll start to make decisions on shot and club and risk/reward.  The risk/reward is like gambling between different shots or strategies you might take, to minimize the number of strokes to finish the hole and protect your attitude.  An example might be, laying up in front of the green then chipping close with a 1 putt vs. trying to hit the green from the rough with a 3 wood and hope it stops and probably 2 or maybe 3 putt.

The Routine is an automatic pre-shot check list to reassure yourself that you have not overlooked something you want to do.  Visualize your shot, check key Setup concerns (grip, elbows, shaft, alignment, balance, ball position), Look at the target and Imagine* the body movements you’re about to make. Use mental Keywords to help trigger the particular movements or tempo you are working on.  Then checking your Finish position for balance or divot for feedback on path.

As a golfer you may be aware of all or very few of these elements and concerns.  Better players have learned the value of a productive routine and can rely on it in times of pressure.  The routine is “familiar” like a friend you can trust.

* Sending mental images of how your body is about to move is very powerful once you are setup and just before you start the club back.  If you send these images at this exact moment then go, there is almost no way your body can override them.  The same is with bad images.  If you see yourself topping the ball or shanking, you body will think you want that shot and reproduce it,  It is critical to visualize what you want to do.

Test for yourself:
Stand with a golf club straight out in front of you with your wrists a little bent like your setup. Now, walk over to the wall until the club just touches (wrists still bent). Now, release your wrists to try to bow them up and see how you can’t because the radius gets longer and the wall stops you or pushes you away. Well, the wall is the ground!

Most golfers setup with a pronounced angle (20 degrees or more) between the wrists and shaft. They might have this angle from resting the club on the ground and letting their arms hang, then grabbing the grip and setting up this way. Or, strong grip pressure lifts the club head and creates this angle to keep the club head from hanging down. So, what does this kind of bent wrist setup cause later in the swing??

If you were to look at video of the shaft and wrists at impact, the inertia of the club head, out at the end of our arms pulls the club head down and causes that angle that we started with to be non existent or even reverse some. This means our radius lengthened. The wrists instead of being bent are now bowed up, and the position of where the club head was at setup and where it is at impact has changed dramatically.

Okay… so if it changed, how did our bodies compensate for the difference? Essentially, if the angle is gone, that means the club head dropped down but we started at ground level. How can this be? Well, some of us go UP to compensate right at impact, so we don’t hit the ground. Some of us throw the club head through ahead of our turn, so we don’t hit the ground. Some slide forward and block the shot or close the club face with our hands to save the shot. Or we just CHUNK or hit FAT and don’t know why.

Hummm… very interesting. The reason I am mentioning this is my instruction Move Less … Get Good! is about removing non-productive or unreliable setup and/or movements during the swing. Well, we have something that is changing during the swing so how can we remove it? A setup with the shaft already in line with the front arm and very little angle, elbows close together and let that all hang from your shoulders. This setup reduces the amount of length differential during the swing and allows the Large Muscles (shoulders) to take over and control the swing.

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One of the biggest causes of “Flipping” or “Throwing” the club head at the ball in the golf swing, is due to “Active Hinging“. What is that? Okay, I made up the term, but I had to since traditional golf instruction won’t address this as a problem. Active hinging is letting your hands take over and help hinge your wrists into some position. Almost never is this the “Correct” position. The feeling is that we’ve added a lever, a multiplier, by hinging so we can really hit it hard at impact with our back hand. This is not powerful or repeatable. This is a setup for failure because, for every action there is an opposite reaction which is to un-hinge on the downswing, using the hands and the BODY WILL STOP ROTATING TO SUPPORT THIS FLIP. This removes any chance for an Athletic golf swing. It now turns into a “Chop” like an axe into a tree. Not repeatable or powerful.

So… how do I create “Passive Hinging?” Answer: You don’t. Hence the word passive. It happens naturally when you allow the shoulders to carry the arms & club to the top of the swing without disrupting with the hands.

If your grip pressure is about a 3 on a scale from 1-10, the club head will eventually pass “Top Dead Center”*, fall on its own and automatically hinge your wrists correctly. What it looks like, is a flat to bowed out front wrist (a la Paul Azinger, Dustin Johnson, Trevino, or Hogan’s supination just before impact). Now we’re talking. This wrist hinge has the club face square to the plane. You will know it is right if the toe of the club looks about 45 degrees to the plane not in line with it (watch this for more on Square Face). This correct passive wrist hinge ALLOWS THE BODY TO TURN AS HARD, FAST OR SLOW THROUGH TO THE FINISH without any need for manipulation. There is no need to stop and throw the club head at the ball. In fact that messes everything up.

This is a tough subject, but a very cool concept and the outcome is AWESOME once learned… Ross

* Top Dead Center – Is a term I’m using to describe the point at which the club will pass vertical and start to fall due to gravity on its own (if allowed to). This is the subtle force that automatically hinges the wrists.

I recently replied to a students comment about how he checks his balance by wiggling his toes just before he hits and I really like the idea of checking your Balance and being Centered, but prefer my method that also covers other concerns at the same time. My answer:

I see the concept behind the toe lifting as a way to check your balance. I use “Sit Down” with the club head behind the ball, to focus on the entire body being centered and sitting into an Athletic Position. This has the thighs ready to support the shoulder turn and automatically distributes the weight via natural instinct, meaning; as the knees bend to allow the backside to sit, the chest moves slightly forward as a counter balance proportionately still keeping the body centered. This is good, in that all clubs have different lengths of shafts and we want to maintain this Athletic Position Ratio (the more we sit, the more the chest counter balances equally) We need this “Sit Down” also for different lies and slopes (uphill, ball below feet, etc). This is a critical part of the routine and only takes a second to check. It is also great feedback that we are centered & balanced and ready to hit.

One small add-on to this moment in the Pre Shot Routine is that the shoulders must be “Level” as we “Sit Down”. Many, many golfers drop their back shoulder at this time causing another problem…. So, Shoulders Level & Sit Down …

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