HOW TO SET YOUR SWING IN
MOTION
Grab a club, and follow these simple drills to discover the true simplicity of making
a natural golf swing – in just 20 minutes you can transform the way you play
WORK IT ALL TOGETHER
We are less than 5 minutes into this lesson and just look
at the position Louise achieves as a result of repeating
this simple exercise. Maintaining a great posture, her
only focus is on knocking away that second ball – there
is no manipulation whatsoever with the hands. The triangle shape formed between the arms and shoulders is
intact as she moves the club over the first few feet of the
swing – mission accomplished in the takeaway. All we
have to do now is add an appreciation of the way in
which the wrists hinge to set the club up on its ways to
the top of the backswing – and that calls for another simple drill (overleaf).
A simple thought that will help you to
achieve this textbook first move is to
imagine you are making a putting
stroke – rock the shoulders to move
the triangle of the arms and the clubhead will stay low to the ground
A great drill for the range: place a second ball a foot or so behind the one you
are aiming to hit, and then simply knock it away as you initiate the sequence
With your grip pressure such that your arms and shoulders are
relaxed, turn the triangle to sweep that rear ball away in one motion
LET THE CLUBHEAD LEAD YOU INTO MOTION...
Those of you who missed the first in this
three-part series can get up to speed on the Gi
website, or via the digital edition of the magazine (look for issue 114) at iTunes. And, as I
emphasised last time, it is vital that you take
on board the basics of grip and posture – the
starting points for every golfer – before moving on to the swing itself.
Once you have those elements in place, you
will reap the benefit of a body structure that
allows you to then work on developing a
sound technique, one in which your grip can
be seen to hinge correctly, both on the way
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back and on the way through, to unlock that
all-important quality we are looking for
through the impact area: clubhead speed.
A lot of golf instructors will begin a lesson
talking about the importance of getting the
body action working to create a basic turning
motion, the assumption being that the arms
and the club will follow suit. That can work
very well for the more advanced player who
has a feel for striking a golf ball, but in my
experience beginners – and particularly
women – tend to learn more quickly and
effectively when they focus on what the club-
head is doing, and allow the arms and
body to respond to its momentum as they
work on swinging that weight on a natural
arc.
And the key to setting that reaction in
motion lies in getting the swing underway
as efficiently as possible – which is where the
simple drill you see me helping Louise to master (above) will really help you.
By Jonathan Yarwood
SHOT ON LOCATION AT TREVOSE GOLF CLUB
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARK NEWCOMBE
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FEEL SWING,
HEAR SWISH
SWING & HINGE WITH THE ‘L-TO-L’ DRILL
There’s a wonderful (and quite
simple) symmetry in a good golf
swing. This exercise will help
you to recognise and understand
it – and once you get the hang of
this ‘L-to-L’ drill, as I term it,
there really is nothing more technical to worry about as you then
continue the process of ‘layering’
good moves one upon the other
to gradually develop your technique.
From a comfortable and balanced set-up, the the first move
away from the ball is designed to
get the key components of your
swing (hands, arms, club and
shoulders) working together in a
bid to initiate momentum. The
next step is to introduce the
wrist action that enables you to
swing the club up on its way to
the top of the backswing (a
move that is mirrored on the
other side of the ball en route to
the finish).
Each of the three exercises
you see here are designed to
help you experience the sensations involved in making a good
swing – and the more you
rehearse them, the more readily
you will make these moves out
on the golf course.
First, flip the club around so
that you grip the shaft down
near the head (left), and, alternating between your left and
right hand, work on turning your
body and hingeing your wrist to
create this L-shape between your
arm and the shaft. Place your
‘free’ hand on your stomach,
and feel the rotation of your
middle as you swing the club up
into the backswing and then
release it in the follow-through.
With each repetition of this exercise you will be strengtheing the
heart of your golf swing.
Feet together, grip the
shaft down near the
clubhead and make
free, uninhibited swings
to create swish through
the hitting area...
The right arm swing mirrors the
left – so that in the follow through
the L-shape is created between the
right arm and the club
Through-swing is a
mirror-image of the
backswng as the
wrists hinge up
Again with the club flipped
around, use both hands to create a grip just below the head,
and stand with your feet pretty
close together. The club will feel
light in your hands, and the idea
is to use that to your advantage
as you fine-tune your swinging
motion and make as loud a
swish as possible through the
impact area.
The only thing I want you to
think about is keeping your left
arm as straight as you comfortably can as you hinge your left
wrist in the backswing, and then
on doing exactly the same thing
with your right arm as you swing
into the follow-through. Let your
wrists do their job of providing
that essential coupling between
you and the golf club, hingeing
and re-hingeing to create speed.
The third exercise I recommend involves extending the club
up through your fingers until the
butt end rests in your belly button, and simply reminding yourself of the need to have the club,
arms and body working together
on either side of the ball (below).
Do this in between the rehearsal
swings, just to remind yourself of
the rotation that exists in a solid
swing and also the way the arms
remain in their ‘triangle’, working
in tandem with your body.
Work on this simple rotation exercise in
between making L-shape swings – it’s a
great way to appreciate the feeling of the
way the arms stay in their triangle at the
start of the swing, through impact and again
in the follow-through. Do this at home
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LADIES
See how a good wrist action
gels together the movement of
the arms, club and body
FINE-TUNE WRIST ACTION FOR SPEED & SWOOSH
You can see from the images on this page just how well
Louise has taken on board the lessons covered within this
feature. In the 20 minutes or so that it took to shoot these
photographs, she displays all the encouraging signs that I
look for as a beginner builds on good fundamentals with
a basic idea of what it takes to create a natural golf swing.
The key to the ‘breakthrough’ for all golfers is educating (and trusting!) the wrists to hinge correctly so that the
club is free to swing up on the backswing – as above –
and again at the corresponding position in the follow
through. That is what unlocks your potential for generating speed.
The training club we are using here is simply a shaft fitted with a short length of rubber tubing. You could easily
make a similar club to use at home, and regular sessions
working on your swing will help you to appreciate the role
of the wrists in generating speed – which you hear as a
loud swish through the impact area. It’s like cracking a
whip, and through trial and error you learn to associate
good hand and arm movement with the most effective
acceleration through impact.
Best of all, your arms will pull your body into a series of
good positions...without you having to think about it!
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