Lesson #1

Hey Ryan, welcome to the site! From this view we can see your posture is a little too bent over so I made you get closer to the ball and standing taller. This helps make sure the lie angle of your club matches the ground in an effort to produce straighter shots. Your backswing is great, but I would like to see that left arm more in line with your shoulders at the top, your’s is a little bit too high. On the way down and into impact you are pretty on top of the swing plane for 2 main reasons. Your address position makes your shaft plane very low and flat to start which makes it harder to return to that position at impact. In addition to that you have hardly any lateral movement which is the main contributor to swing direction (or swing plane). The club exits very high due to your excessive vertical force through the shot. Ideally we want the club to exit out of the shoulder plane after impact. (click on photos to enlarge)

From this view I noticed your stance was pretty wide for a wedge shot. Typically we only want our stance outside our shoulders for the longer clubs like 5 iron and up. You do really good job of keeping your head steady throughout your swing. You can really see the legwork action from this angle and if you notice your trail leg it doesn’t like to go towards the target on the downswing. The leg stays straight due to the excessive vertical force which then requires you to flip your hands and slow your chest rotation a little bit in order to square the clubface. On the way through you can see your left arm bend a little early as a result of slowing down to square the face. Below you can see the change in knee flex throughout your swing. (click on photos to enlarge)

During the SuperSpeed stick training we can instantly see better positions when the focus is off the ball and more towards swinging fast through the “imaginary” ball. The trail knee is kicking forward early in the downswing which opens the hips to the target nicely and you hold the wrist angles for much longer. We can see at impact the shaft is leaning towards the target with the body staying back allowing the club to release well in front of the ball. You can still see a slight flipping of the club from the old movement pattern of slowing down rotation to square the face. (click on photos to enlarge)

Here’s a swing right after swinging the SuperSpeed sticks. At address I started to notice your shaft was leaning back away from the target sometimes which adds extra loft to the club. Make sure you always have a little forward press or shaft lean at address. You lose the wrist angle a little early still due to lack of lateral movement but your trail knee is starting to move more towards the target compared to before. At impact you can see a better position with the lead arm and wrist more in line with the shaft. Follow through better as well with just a little left arm bend. See PGA Tour Player Tommy Fleetwood below as a reference. You can see his “flighted” finish as well that we worked on when controlling distance with your wedges. (click on photos to enlarge)

From down the line while you were swinging the SuperSpeed sticks we can see some better positions right away again. Left arm position is more in line with your shoulders at the top with the clubhead perfectly on plane halfway down. Through impact the leg is working more towards the target with the hips more open. The stick exits out of the shoulder plane into a good finish position.

This was probably one of the more fun drills we did. Throwing clubs! This drill always produces some of the best positions that we see time and time again in all Tour professional swings. Weight is moving towards the target, the focus and awareness is at the target, the wrist angles are held for much longer so that the release may happen after the “Ball” towards the target. See Tommy Fleetwood below for another perfect flighted swing and knee bend references throughout his swing. (click on photos to enlarge)

What and how to Practice this lesson:

1. Step drills - 30 to 50 swings 2-3 times a week to improve swing direction and contact via lateral weight transfer.

2. Hit balls with a “target release” mentality instead of “ball release” mentality, a.k.a. throwing the club at the target, at least once a week to help with training the arms and hands to maintain wrist angles (lag) longer.

3. Hit 3 shots with all wedges, one full power, one 75% power (flighted finish), and one 50% power (abv. backswing and follow through). Record distances with each wedge to get better at distance control with the scoring clubs. Do this at least once a week.

4. Practice new setup posture in mirror as well as left arm position at the top of your backswing at least once a week. The lead arm should be in line with the shoulders at the top of your backswing.

Happy Practicing, see you soon!

Here’s a video demonstrating the step-drill in case you forget how to do it.