January 2, 2014
I have always had a problem with swinging with my arms and releasing the club head early - not maximizing club head speed, lag, etc., so I have been concentrating on getting my hands in front of the ball at impact.
Martin Chuck - one of my favorite online teachers - has a great drill pertaining to keeping your hands ahead at impact while using your body pivot to square up the club face (not your hands).
Here is Martin's video:
I have never been a great pitcher of the ball. I often hit is fat, or thin, but most often fat.
I have been searching for quite awhile and have come up empty on most occasions. I unknowingly got caught fanning the face wide open and trying to manipulate the club back to square with my hands.
As I watched this video and started taking cuts, I realized how much the body squares up the club face automatically when you pivot (or turn) correctly. Ben Hogan states that you need to trust your body and arms and not your hands to do the work. I now know what this means.
So after I hit a couple hundred balls using the small swing, I started to blend that feeling into a full swing and could tell that my ball compression was getting much better.
Because I used to be so 'handsy' with the swing, I never felt comfortable with opening the face of the golf club on my take-away as that would lead to making it more difficult to close on the way down - and would lead to high, lame fades and not having my hands in a good place (ahead of the ball) at impact. So I used to go back very 'shut' like Steve Stricker and the swing felt mechanical and not fluid.
However, this drill allows you to have (what I feel) as an 'open' club face and once you feel that ever so vulnerable feeling of having the club face open at the top of the swing, it forces your to square up the club face by using your pivot in order to square up the club face. The end result is that (1) the club stays in front of your body more and (2) once you pivot, your hands stay ahead of the ball at impact.
This might be the big breakthrough I needed in order to pitch the ball with better results, as well as deliver a more solid blow to the golf ball with my irons by having my hands ahead at impact.
