This tip will improve your ball striking and also stop the dreaded ‘over the top’ downswing move that produces unwanted slices, pulls and overly chunky divots.
The great thing about this practice drill is that it you can work on it regularly at home – no golf club or golf ball is required.
- Take your posture inside a door jam/frame with your imaginary golf club- as shown in pic 1.
- Ensure that the top of your forehead is just resting against the frame and that your hands hang to leave about 6 to 8 inches space to the inside of the frame.
- Make a slow smooth and deliberate backswing ensuring that your head stays in contact with the frame as it does at set-up. If you ‘sway’ on your backswing, you will struggle to do this. However, if you rotate your hips and shoulders correctly it will be easily achievable
as in pic 2. - A key reason that many players strike the golf ball inconsistently is due to them ‘swaying’ off the golf ball during the backswing instead of ‘staying-centered’ over the ball.
- Initiate your downswing move with a slight compression of your bodyweight into the left foot at the same time as rotating your left hip anti-clockwise – this should bring your arms down on the same plane/path as that of the backswing and will deliver the hands to reach the doorframe in the same position that they were at set-up. See pic 3 = correct position leading into impact.
- Pic 4 is INCORRECT – it shows what happens with an ‘over the top move’ when the upper body arms/hands/shoulders have initiated the downswing ‘over the top’– in pic 4 you will see that hips have remained static and haven’t rotated – my hands have stayed high and have moved outside of the doorframe slamming my left wrist into the woodwork (I firmly suggest performing this drill slowly until it feels natural –bashing the doorframe is painful!)
- Make backswings and downswings repeatedly for 2 minutes twice a day. Ensure that you don’t sway on the backswing and be sure to stop when your hands are level with the frame on the downswing. Your head position will move once your hands have delivered the imaginary club onto the ball so DON’T try to complete the downswing keeping your head in contact with the frame.
Tom Long – Golf Professional
