Students Q & A

Q – When you say start with your front shoulder do you mean drop the shoulder to get the swing started?

A – No not down, you want to wind your shoulders around your spine, and you push your front shoulder in the direction that would do this based on your spine tilt or angle. I know that sounds weird, but it changes for every club. If you were standing straight up and down, you would push back level to the ground, but once you tilt some, you push more up the swing path or tilt path. Some golfers prefer to use their back shoulder to pull back behind them to wind up… or some use both shoulders working together. Again the key is to “Wind your shoulders around your spine”. There is a great book out on this called One Move to Better Golf. Carl Lohren saw Ben Hogan making this move in the 1950′s. This is an awesome move once learned… hope this helped it is very difficult to explain… Ross

Q – When I work with your lessons, I am not sure what I’m doing wrong, but I’m getting a lot of pulls and pull hooks. Any thoughts? Thanks.

A – You may not believe it now, but that is a good thing. It means you are turning (what we want), but at the same time you are letting your hands and club control impact and take over passing your body rotation (makes the ball go left). As you practice with easy 40 yd shots, be totally aware of any grip pressure changes during the swing. You want to feel that your body turn can control impact. Impact is not a moment where you need to do something, it is a continuum, meaning it is where the ball gets in the way of your turn as your body keeps rotating to the finish. The only thing that messes this up is THE HANDS, trying to help. The more you keep them passive, the more the Large Muscles take over and the more consistent you will become… please let me know how you are doing. Here is a new video I just put up that addresses this move… notice the slow motion at the end uses body roation, NOT HANDS …talk soon… Ross

Q – Do I still shift weight to my back foot when I take the club back?

A – No … I don’t teach that… there is no need and only messes things up… keep 60% front 40% back… let your shoulders push the club back against a firm lower body.. hence the word “hold” that we use… hold is holding your front knee to keep your lower body still on takeaway… this creates a ton of torque… the backswing is really a very small, powerful move… more of a windup… all that shift your weight stuff is old school and very bad… Ross

Q – Just started golfing 3-4 months ago. Doing pretty well with irons and driver (your videos helped!) My biggest problem is hitting 3 W and 3-5 H off the fairway. I usually either hit it thin or push it to right. Have tried moving ball around (front, middle) but hasn’t helped much. Any advice? Thanks!

A – Hi Jim
If the ball is going right (and you are right handed), the face is open, which means you opened is sometime during the back swing. Watch this video http://www.youtube.com/user/DUPLESSISGOLF#p/u/7/jAirSQJVbSE and you can see how the club face should be to not have the going right issue… Now a couple of things for setup with the clubs you mentioned. Most golfers put their front foot too far ahead of the ball and they get stuck there and can’t turn. You want to setup your front toe and the club face in line 90 degrees to the target… again, the foot and club head are in line with each other. Now if it is on the grass, this is directly behind the ball… but if on a tee, leave a 1-2″ gap …this allows you to turn into the ball and pick it up on the up swing.

Your thin issue is one thing and one reason always… FLIPPING. Which is to throw the club head with (usually) your back hand… just keep your hand quiet, passive and use large muscles to control your swing… Ross