Struggling with your golf alignment? In this lesson, my swing coach Francis at @BeyondGolfPerformance breaks down my setup step by step, from posture and stance width to grip and wrist position to help me build a more consistent swing. These small changes can make a huge difference in hitting straighter shots and finding that reliable draw.
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If your alignment is off, your swing doesn’t stand a chance. Here’s how my swing coach fixed mine in just one lesson. That felt amazing. That sounded nice. In this video, my swing coach, Francis, walks me through the perfect alignment routine that any golfer can copy. Today, target our feet are parallel left, right? We broke down my setup, posture, and wrist positions so I can hit that consistent butter drop. How nice and flighted that is. It went straight to the damn side. I wouldn’t even call it a draw. This is a dead straight shot. [Applause] What do you see as your your biggest miss? Is it more left, more right? Lately, it’s been short or to the right? Short to the right. Okay. Yeah. And it and that’s when like I know I mis hit it, whether hit it thin or fat. Oh, see like that was fat. Okay. I already see something off the bat that I think we can should easily help your swing automatically. Uh, what kind of shot shape would you feel comfortable with if you could pick one shot shape straight? Is it fade draw? Forever that I remember I used to hit fades. Okay. Like they they say power fade or whatever. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever been consistent hitting draws. Okay, that would be dope. Keep it straighter. Yeah, slightly straighter because, you know, more roll and all that. Cool. I always like to ask people that cuz I don’t want to just get into it and be like, “Okay, this this this we got to change, but what are we changing it for?” Right. Already what I’m seeing off the bat is um those last few shots I had you aiming to that white target out there but your feet about like kind of where that ball ended up is where your feet were. Okay. So you’re aiming left with the body and that shot was chunked right. So your eyes are thinking it’s out to the right. Your body’s left. What are you going to do? You’re going to try to react to it. Right. You’re going to try to react to it and hit back behind it. Right. Good guy. Right. Man, that’s good, dude. That was a good one. I didn’t even think about that. Yeah. And we’ll talk more about like low point and how to control low point with a drill. Let’s do one more swing. Let me get a face on view so I can kind of see what what’s tilting, what’s not rotating, what’s rotating, all that stuff. Perfect. Okay, that look better. Yeah, I feel like impact is better, but what I like to do first is kind of go through a swing analysis real quick. Okay. All right. So, off the bat, our target, where’s the white? Okay, there it is. There’s our target, right? Our feet are parallel left of it. Right. Way left. Look at that. Mhm. Okay. And your body is set up like that, too. So, I’m going to put on like our little stick figure 3D overlay here. And we’ll start to see we have dots. The blue dots are the right side of the body. The red dots are the left. So, your shoulders, the red dots more left of the blue dot means it’s more open, but it’s not open. It’s just square to your body line. So, your body is aiming 20 yards left. So, this is the one that you chunked and it pulled it left. Right. Okay. So, the other thing I want us to do is look at a um Wow. I like to look at your spine angle cuz I’m not going to tell you to stand up or go down more if I don’t know what we’re looking at. Right. So, I want to put a number on this. So, I’m just going to find a spot the flattest part of your back there and I’m going to draw an angle. So, I’m going to take that. And how tall are you again, Ro? 6’4. 6’4. Okay. It’s pretty It’s pretty tall, dude. Yeah. I wish I was 6’4. Has it benefits? Um, so backline’s about 153. I’d say that might be a little bit higher than what I like to see. You’re not that far off though. 152 151 for someone tall like you is. So meaning like how how how bent over we are or how tall we’re sitting. Right. So um you have you have long arms which is great. So you don’t have to actually go down too much with your with your front bend. Right. So that’s good. This looks really nice. I like to see the balance line over the balls of the feet. Um, with this angle, do you feel like when you set up over the golf ball that your weight is in the balls of the feet or do you feel like it’s more in the laces? I think it’s more in the in the middle between the heel. Okay, cool. So, if I draw a line or balance line that’s just kind of underneath the u just underneath the right bicep, that balance line should start to dissect the knees and go right into the balls of the feet. And you see this line kind of going towards the middle. Okay. Okay. So, that’s what we’re noticing. Okay. If we got you taller, we got you lower, it’s definitely going to change where your balance line’s going to be. So, I’d like to figure out a way to get you a little bit more on the balls of the feet so we could use the ground better to rotate into our back swing. So, I’m going to draw a swing plane now. So, it’s just going to be a line going up the body. And this club head, I’d like to see this club head on that line as long as possible. Club head. Mhm. That club head right there. That iron head. I see. Okay. So, if we can get that club on that line, see it goes a little bit above it. Okay. So, too high maybe. Then it hits it. Yep. And then as we come down, you kind of stay on that same plane, which is really good. Stay on that same plane. Club face may be a little bit open, so you have to use the hands to flip the dirt that came out. So, I mean, it’s not a heavy flip, but you can see how the toe is going from, you know, here to here fairly quickly. Mhm. Yeah. The hands are going around the body. Okay. But one thing I’m noticing, and I saw uh face on as well, is that your lead shoulder will tend to go up. So, if I don’t see that lead shoulder come back down around your your chin, but actually kind of move up and into your chin here, then we’re getting a quite high angle with our shoulders, which keeps the chest back behind the golf ball. So, we’re not rotating our chest enough on top of the ball to cover it. So, what you’re doing right now, if you were to shove your body laterally forward enough to move your low point two or three or four inches more forward, you’d hit a perfect little push draw. Wow. Right. Okay. You’d hit a perfect push draw. But knowing that we’re not controlling the draws as much, I can see why we have to hit that push draw cuz your shoulders going up and out. Chest stays pretty, you know, flat or like pretty neutral. If you want to hit more of a fade or cover the golf ball, we have to be a little bit more open and use that body to really turn to and face the target more. Okay. So, staying lower, staying a little bit lower with the hands, staying lower with the body, making sure that your right shoulder is going to the golf ball this way and not behind the golf ball this way. or making sure your left shoulder goes down and around before it goes up rather than up and back and around. Oh, I see. Yeah. Wow, that’s a good cool. So, face on. This is where we can start to see exactly what I saw down the line. So, face on. I just want you to look at your shoulders. So, pretty neutral. I think that’s pretty good. They’re not too high. They’re not starting too high. We get back behind the golf ball really well. As you move down, left shoulder starts to go up. As that left shoulder goes up, the body has to hang back a little bit. Oh, yeah. So, sometimes we hit them fat and then we have to start turning our hands and releasing through the shot. So, you’re like stuck behind. Mhm. You do a really good job of getting through the golf ball. Yeah. Um, we noticed that the uh divots were getting a little bit steep. All the divots are going more left. So, we know that was from body lines, right? Okay. Okay. So, I want to figure out a way for us to feel like we can control the club face more. Mhm. Um we don’t start the ball left and it going left or start have to push it out right and go left. We want to see a more neutral ball flight, right? Okay. Well, consistent. Let’s um let’s get right into the setup. I want to see how you set up over the golf ball real quick. Okay. Just the same thing. Why? Same thing. Yeah. Just Yeah. Yeah. Same thing. Setting up with that nine iron. What I normally do is I look for a thing in front of it that lines to the to the mark target. I love that. So, do you look an inch in front or two inches or an inch or two? Okay, cool. and and then I I just picture a line and then I try to get my feet parallel to that line. Okay. So, I want us to set up with let’s say there’s that spot in front. Yeah. Let’s put an alignment stick. Okay. Right down. This is going to be your target line. So, you can you can move it around or let me know if you feel like that’s kind of at your target or not. Yeah. Okay. So, let’s try to get our body parallel to that. I like to start with neutral. Like, I don’t want us to necessarily have to set up open or close if we don’t have to. But, let’s start neutral and see where we go from there. That looks pretty good. Okay. Right here, I feel like I’m parallel. Good. Now, I want you to figure out a way to get your your body more over the balls of your feet. Now, I think for you that might be to either I feel like you’re a little bit lower with the chest. That’s good. Okay. Oh, yeah. So, right now, I feel like I’m sitting back a little bit. Sitting back. Y. So, if I just feel Yeah. We call that position the doging in the in the lawn. Exactly. And now I’m like I feel like a little hunched over in the balls. I feel pressure. Cool. I want to be relaxed. Right. This is good. Um, do you feel like you’re getting a S curve at the bottom half of your spine or do you feel like your hips are kind of tucked in so it’s flat? No. I feel like the little S maybe. Okay. So, I want you to tuck your hips underneath you just a little bit. It’ll protect your lower back and hopefully kind of turn on the connection between upper and lower body just a little bit. Oh, that’s so weird. Mhm. So, now everything should start to work together. This is great. You know, putting a little alignment stick here right next to the balls of your feet. The front of the knee. I feel the weight on my balls of my feet here. Good. Cool. So, let’s take I feel like I’m like way like about to tip over. Okay, cool. So, here’s the thing. You know, I think the golf swing is a lot about balance, right? So, we bend over so much, but our butt is back enough to keep us balanced, right? So, why do we have the weight in the balls of our feet? Well, we use that to start to push into the ground and start to extend that right side of the body that helps us turn. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz the shoulder doesn’t turn. The shoulder is a joint on a part of our body that helps us turn, right? The hip doesn’t turn itself, right? We have to figure out a way to move it. How does the hip turn? Well, we push down on the gas. We push into the ground. the ground pushes back and now this hip goes back, right? So, we’re on the balls of our feet, so we could feel that push. Now, the weight goes from the ball of your foot to the instep of the right foot, which is what you do naturally. Now, maybe in some bad swings, your weight stays in the in the instep of your foot or back of your foot and stays there. Yeah, potentially. So, I want us to be a little bit more over. Hopefully, it’ll keep us more on plane throughout the swing. Should I be looking for keeping the hands out? Let’s Let’s talk about that next. I want to see your back swing now. All right. All right. Should I do hit or no? Now just go slowly up to the top. Okay. Swing deck slowly. I’ll kind of catch you. Cool. Okay. Where do you feel your weight on your back foot? Inside part or outer half? Yeah. Heel and then outer like outer side. Outer half of the right foot. Yeah. So if if we were to see face on or actually right now I can tell if I draw a line straight down from your hands. It’s out here and you’re really reaching and you feel the weight on the outer half of your back foot. you have broad shoulders, you have a a wider foundation. I think a wider foundation could help with that. So, maybe a little bit wider with the feet, but nonetheless, I think if you kept the the hands a little bit more in front of you as you set the club, you wouldn’t have to feel the weight so far behind you, which can cause you to move your low point also behind the I thought I was supposed to intentionally feel like I’m doing that. I like the idea of gathering in that in the back foot, but you never feel like the weight goes the outer half. Oh, I see. Yeah. Yeah, cuz if it goes the outer half, there’s a lot more manipulation we have to do with the body to get back to where we have to be. Right. Right. Okay. So, I’m going to figure out a way for us to to feel that out. What do you feel like is the uh difference between your weight on your front foot versus your back foot? Is it 50/50? Is it more on the back versus the front? I would say the balls of my feet are pretty or a little like maybe 60/40. So, 60 on the left. Love that. Okay, cool. Maybe. Yeah. So, now I want you to take it back to what I call the first parallel position. So that’s where the club shaft gets parallel to the ground. So before we were out here, you’re really reaching out here, right? Okay, cool. I know. I was trying to do that. You’re trying to reach. Okay. Trying to reach out. Do that again. Okay. So you’re saying not to do that. I want you to be a little more in front of you. Like there. Yeah. Hands even lower. Yeah. Like that. So your hands really don’t have to move too far. Just like right there. Wow. Now we get it. It’s starting to get loaded. This is great. Now this is crazy. So if you go here, like you’re going to you’re going to fall off of it. You have to figure out how to do this. And that’s why we see like in the videos and all that, you’re moving so well through the ball, but you have to move laterally so much. Now, you can do that and protect a pull because the more you move left, the further the club head’s going to be behind your hands for a good player like yourself. Then you get these big push draws or if you get too quick, it’s a pull hook, right? Okay, that’s a good one. So, we don’t want to feel like we got to slide so so hard. I think you have enough power here. We don’t have to slide laterally, right? We’re going to try to feel a little more stay in position. Yeah, just a little bit. And we’re going to do that just by maybe controlling the width of our of our hands. Okay. So maybe your hands go right about here. Good. Right when the hands start passing the right knee, the right leg, that’s when they start to feel like the club gets up. Now, what do you feel like happens to get the club up here? Is it the fingers pulling it up or is it the handle pushing down? Uh, it’s the the wrist. Perfect. That’s a good answer. Yeah, the wrist doing it. Better players feel that. Now, from there, go ahead and show me the next part. Good. Push it down. Feels weird. This feels like I’m like Oh, you feel like you’re more laid off. Yeah, big time. Yeah. Okay. So, show me where you usually like to be. So, show me the old back swing. Okay. It’s not a back swing. Little bit of a cup wrist here. Let me see your grip. How many knuckles do you see on the back of your left hand? One, two, one and a half. Two. One and a half or two. Okay, cool. So, neutral. I’d say maybe about neutral. Yeah. I think with your neutral grip, you’re able to get a good match up with the wrist. So, I’m going to show you what we want to do there. Okay. So, when you showed me the swing before, you were taking it back out and then because it goes out, it has to go back and around. So, to exaggerate what the feel is, you’re actually cupping this left wrist and that makes the face like kind of kind of weak, kind of open. So, what happens? Well, we saw in the video that your face was a little bit open and then now you have to do a lot of this and you kind of do that with the hands, right? Now, it’s a timing game. It’s not a bad thing. Just dissected. It’s not a bad thing. No, like we could try a couple things here. I think I think it’s easier to just get the wrist in a good position on the way back or on the way down somehow and just hold that all the way to impact. Should I have it more of like the strong boat or No, here’s the thing. That’s a really good question because a lot of people are out there watching a bunch of videos on YouTube just like this one and thinking, “Okay, maybe I have to bow my wrist. Maybe I have to to cut my wrist.” Well, it depends on your matchup. If you’re a strong grip player, meaning you’re for a righty, your hands are more underneath the club. Your left wrist, your glove hand will sit more in a cup position. And as you go up to the top, the face will actually be a really good position with a cupped left wrist. And you’re going to keep that cup longer. For a neutral player like yourself, you’re going to have a little bit of a cup, but it’s going to get to a flat position. Mhm. For a weak grip player, you have to bow it a lot more. So, if you go less than one and a half knuckles, you’re going to have to bow Dustin Johnson style. Yeah. But I don’t know if we should make you do that. Okay. For some people, it’s easy. Some people Yeah. No. No. I mean, I’d say let’s just go a flat. Let’s do it. Okay. Let’s do it. So, two knuckles on that left hand. Got it. Good. Swing back slowly. Right to here. Good. You’re going to feel like it’s setting a little bit. So crazy right here. Good. Yeah. So, you should feel your weight more. Yeah. I feel like also to the left side a little bit. Good. So my my thought is like, okay, if I had a kettle bell in my hands, and if I let the kettle bell swing this far back, I’d fall over, right? So So what does your body have to do to react to that? Well, that’s where you start pushing in that ball of the foot to go back to the go back to the back half of your foot. Yeah. Good. Now, at this point, I’d like to see you more flat. Okay. I want you to pretend like you’re John Rom. Dude, come on down. John Raw. Now put more weight in your front foot. Good. Now pull it out of my hands. See where your hands are? Oh yeah. Boom. Now turn. Keep turn. Keep turning. Come all the way up off that back foot. Pull off the back foot. Okay. Mind if I try? Yeah. Go ahead. So just a quick blueprint. The thing that’s blown my mind is how not to over or not go so far. Yeah. And that’s kind of all I would really do today. you know, give you a good back swing thought so that, you know, I’ll talk about what it should look like coming through, but your back swing thought would be, okay, if this is the center of my of my golf swing, I’m not trying to go back this way, cuz the more you go back out this way, the more you have to do this, right? So, we want to keep you have a pretty good compact swing. We want to stay compact, but over the golf ball. So, I’m going back to here and now setting it right. My hands are maybe just outside my right knee or on top of it. Now, from there, because I’m pushing down on this part of the wrist, the butt end of the club, I’m going to now use my elbow to bicep curl and turn. So, if I do that correctly, the hands stay more in front of me. Now, it’s a flat left wrist position. Face is nice and neutral. Yeah. Okay. Now, from there, if I just did a punch shot from there, I would turn down, weight goes to the front, rotate, turn through, and then finish. Yeah. I’m going to see if I can hit a shot. Would I would I be feeling more so now weight over my left now that I’m not swaying right? You know, because if I normally sway, but I’m not swaying, you’re going to feel you’re going to feel like it’s easier to get to your left side. Okay? And when you get to your left side sooner, you’ll be able to turn a little bit better, too, cuz you’ll fall you’ll probably start to notice with your old move of swaying laterally. Being that you’re on your left side sooner now, if you tried to sway more, you either either fall or you’ll buckle back and go back to the bad habit. But if you get to your left leg sooner and you could rotate out of the way, that’s kind of what we’re trying to work on is getting that feel. So what I would do just for a quick drill is I would take an alignment stick. I love using alignment sticks. I think it’s the best golf training aid out there ever. We call this a target line. Okay. So if my ball is on the target line, put alignment stick under my golf club. So we’re talking about setting the club a little bit differently, right? So you used to set the club maybe more like this. See where the grip is pointed inside. Yeah. Right. So then you have to do something like this to come down or this and you get steep and you turn. Right. So let’s say this ball is on that line. As I’m turning back, I’m going to try to point the stick at the target line. So now what what does that look? Looks more like a 45° angle. Right. Hands a little bit more back. I’m loading the right wrist better. The right wrist you can make this move. So the right wrist is a little bit more cuped. Gotcha. Okay. Right. And then my left wrist can be nice and flat. Yeah. These wrist and the right elbow for us righties, they all work together to make the club face open or closed. Right. Right. Right. So, someone might be like, “Okay, I have a very uh cupped left wrist. So, I just have to roll my wrist out.” Right. Well, no. You can’t do that without making this happen, without making this happen. Right. Right. Right. And this is a position see all good golfers get to, right? That trail elbow in front of the trail hip. Yep. Yep. Yep. Okay. Wow. So, you’re saying with this stick though, what am I worrying about? stick pretty much is getting you on the right plane and feel going back. So, I’d love to see you hold your club like this, sit up to your golf ball here, and take the club back and see if you could point this stick at the target line. And now, if we get that move down, then we could unlock the next part of the game. This feels so weird. Okay, cool. See, right now I feel like it’s hidden. Doesn’t matter if it’s hitting my Doesn’t matter if it’s hitting your side. I actually like it to hit your your left hip. Okay, cool. Cool. You’re going to feel like you hit your left hand a little longer. Good. Right there. Good. Oh, so I should be looking parallel. Okay. Exactly. Good. Good call. So, first parallel club shaft stick. Everything’s parallel to your target line. Right. Now, turn and try to pull. See, I’m naturally like I want to do this. You try to pull. Yeah. That’s crazy. You’re going to go up more. Yeah. Point that stick at that stick. Good. I want to do a little bit more of a that right there. Wow. Good. More here. Now, from there, go back to parallel. Good. See how I didn’t go out here? Yeah. That’s what I want. I feel like I want to do out here. Yeah. Well, we’re going to go here. Completely changing my swing, dude. Good. Here to here. Wow. This feels like natural. Show me the face. It’s like compact. Wa. Your hands have never been that far ahead. And you’re doing it without having to be steep and hit like hit down on it. You’re doing it by turning around your body. So, it should shallow out that divot a little bit more. There’s a practice I saw online a while back where I’d do like here and then do this. Yep. to like work on twist. And then here, I would constantly try to do that the range, but now this is like this is what I I feel like I’m normally doing. Do that one more time. Yeah. Like my old swing, I was like, “Yeah, you’re way over there.” Yeah. Your head was like way outside your right hip there. Yeah. So, a good a good way to feel this, and not a lot of golfers think about it, but in our fial vision, like out of our vision, if that ball starts to move left and you kind of start noticing that, then you know you’re swaying. Right. So, you’re going to always try to feel like that ball isn’t moving that far away from the center of our vision. Very nice. This feels so weird, dude. You’re getting so turned there. That’s awesome. This feels so weird. What I love here is that your shoulders get to 90° to our average. Your hips are getting about 45°, which is great. I feel like I’m not getting any power cuz I you know, I feel like I don’t know. I just feel like there’s like no power there. Interesting. Well, let’s see what Let’s see what happens. Let’s see what happens. Okay, so let’s go over here. Let’s not use the alignment stick anymore. Let’s just feel like we’re getting to that 3/4 position. And we have our launch monitor here. What do you usually hit your 9 iron? How far you hit your uh 150. 150. Okay. So, from here, I want to set a few shots to where we get to that 3/4 position with a flat wrist. So, first I like to reprogram what we’ve already been doing. So, you’re going to go back to 3/4. Just check that that left wrist is flat and that club is a little bit back. Do that two or three times. Pause it on top. Yeah, just pause it. And then you can reset and hit the golf ball. Okay. Okay. That’s all I’m focusing on. That’s all you’re focusing on. Exactly. Go ahead and check. And you know, head’s going to be centered. And go ahead and swing back right there. I want to see that left arm parallel to the ground. Right there. Really nice. Let’s do that again. Dang. Cool. Stay on top of the ball. And then left wrist flat. Still. Good. You’re good. Make sure your weight is on the inner half of that back foot. And now here’s one thing you can do. I’d like to see your toe flare out. Oh, flare. Mhm. And that other toe flare up. Good. Even more. Let’s go like penguin foot. Yes. Really good. Yeah. Yeah. This is so weird. Now feel feel what happens in your feet. Like see if there’s any difference in stability. That looks so much better. What the It doesn’t look like you’re hanging out on your back foot anymore. So you could honestly get a little bit of a sway cuz you have 60/40, right? You’re 60% in front. You could sway a little bit, but you’re loading now. You’re not Yeah, there you go. You’re a lot more on top of the golf ball. Okay, cool. This is so weird, dude. I feel like I’m not turning, I guess. And this is just a three/arter back swing, right? We’re just doing a three/4er abbreviated back swing because if we can get this position with the wrist at that point, then all we have to do is turn. Yeah. To get to the top. And all we’re going to do is go back to the same exact spot that we’re doing now and punch our shot. So, I want this to be a punch shot. You go 3/4 back. Punch. Turn all the way through. And I want to see both arms nice and extended. Okay. Yeah. Long left arm. Just like that. No wrist set. Right. Right. Right. Right. Okay. All right. I see that. But the same stuff you were talking about. Yeah. Just three/arter back swing with that flat left wrist and then hit a little punch. Good. Flare the toes out. That’s the last thing we really want to Yeah. There you go. You’ll get balance. This is so weird, dude. This is so weird. Like a pigeon. Good. Good. See a 3/4. A little punchy. How nice and flighted that is. Your way straight to the damn side. I wouldn’t even call it a draw. This is a dead straight shot. Wow. Okay. So you usually hit your what 9 iron 145 150 uh you full swing it’s like 150 155 good with a range ball we carry it at 138 let’s say 139 on a punch on a punch. So we’re going to add about 6 to 8% because this is a range ball to give you a true yardage. So let’s say 10% on the high end. You’ve now carried it almost as far as how much you’d almost hit it with a full swing. 140 150 something. That’s pretty interesting, right? So, all we’re doing is we’re bringing the club back with with a little bit less loft or actually playing the true loft of the golf club. If you’re hanging back on your shot and you’re throwing your hands, there’s a a good case to where you might be adding loft and hitting those high shots. Like a lot of your your shots were high, right? Yeah. Yeah. Especially on the range over there. So, you’re trying to hit those shots low, but you’re still letting the letting the hands go or you have the cup left wrist making it high. And I normally been one to always like compress the ball, make big divots or or deep divots. Uh, and I know that was an issue, but would this be considered maybe fixing that because I’m not swaying? Yeah, because you’re not swaying, not having to sway back on top of the ball, right? The more the more laterally you move here with your position at the top of the swing, you had to hit down this way. And that’s why your divots were really steep and left. So, again, one of the things we want to do is just feel the weight on the balls of the feet, flare the toes out more, and we’re just going back and setting. And just check that left arm. Cool. Wrist is nice. Okay, cool. So, I’m going to try to do the same thing. Just a little punch shot. Wow. A little bit left of what I wanted, but it’s like a little draw. Yeah. I don’t even see you shift to your right. I feel like Yeah. You just kind of It just I’ve always had a very stable um upper body. I always kept my head very still. I noticed that. I was watching old videos of my junior golf swing back in high school and I always did that. Like my lower body would do all of this, but my head was always so stable. I’ll do that one more time. Now, I’m going to try to feel like I’m hitting a fade. Now, before you’re playing the ball a little bit back in the stance, um when it’s back further from the center of your your low point, like your arc, yeah, the ball the club’s gonna be coming in from an into out arc. Okay. Okay. As it reaches its middle point, the the the point to where it starts to move left, like the ball goes more forward, I can hit more of like that fade or neutralize that shot shape. If you want to see more of a fade or a straighter shot, we need to play the ball more off the front side of middle, just like a hair forward of middle, so that as we’re turning, the club is actually coming neutral and going this way rather than coming from the inside and going out. Oh, so more the front of the stance. I like to hit draws and fades from a neutral setup position cuz I’m not trying to hit 20 yard draws and fades. Like I’m trying to practice a a shot that goes like straight right or straight left. So straight falls right, straight falls left. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I want to see everything go straight. And I think that’s maybe our mindset, too, is like don’t worry about shot shape yet. Just think if I can do this, I hit the ball straight or start it straight and you’re one step closer, right? Okay, cool. So, I’m going to try to start straight. Yeah. I want to look at this orange line. Think to myself, okay, I’m just going to hit like a straight fade. I just got to hold the face a little bit longer and just turn more from the top. So, start a little bit left and then move a little right. Yeah. Damn. But I’m always finishing for this drill about right here. All right. That’s what I’m looking for. Intentionally. Mhm. Intentionally. So, you can do this a couple times. I think what I like to do after you hit this, like let’s go into your 100 yard shot cuz we talked about that, right? Yeah. You like a full swing lob or like a 3/4 sandwich wedge and it’s just like I don’t know what to pull the trigger. Gotcha. You know, for the 100 yard or the 110th. I think maybe some of it was maybe this just not returning the club with the right loft. Right. Yeah. Okay. So, open toes. Open toes. is a little wider. Ball a hair more forward. A hair more forward. That’s it. Really nice. Cool. And then just kind of check your left wrist. Make sure your left wrist is nice and flat going back. Yep. Yep. Dude, that was smashed. Was that a 3/4 swing? That was a 3/4 swing. That was a 90 mph 3/4 swing. Is that Is that fast or That’s pretty good. 151 carry with a range ball. With a range ball. What? And that was just you feeling 3/4, which you probably went a little bit further back, but that’s you feeling 3/4. Wow. So, we’re hitting the distance that you typically hit with a full swing. Now, imagine if you went full, which is maybe just a couple inches more with the left shoulder. You might be getting more like five or six more yards. 160. That can’t be right. That’s crazy. Yeah. Okay. What do you feel are the top three things to take away from that? Uh, well, the toes. For for one, toes. and then feeling like I’m not doing this cuz this is like right here was my thought was like feel like I’m stretched parallel to the ground and then turn. But now I feel like I need to be like just like right here. Like it’s so weird. Just think John Rom for your SW. So weird. Yeah. So good cuz you you have a lot of power here, right? Your arms are already have some power behind it, too. But you want to use the mass of your torso, your lower body on top of that golf ball and smother it this way rather than use long arms. I thought that was for power. There’s there’s different ways to load it. If you go back too far, it’s hard to catch yourself to go back, right? So, I like feeling like there’s a little bit of a lateral shift, too, especially with my driver cuz I’m wider and I could do that. If you’re too narrow and you do that like you showed me before, you’ll fall. That’s why I wanted to do a little wider just in case you go back to your old habit. If you do shift laterally, you’ll catch yourself. That’s good. So, toes flare. If you if you slide, it’ll be okay. So, the idea here is with my driver, I’m like swinging that kettle bell, right? So, I’m going this way, but I’m falling. stopping and moving up, right? I’m not going out here. Yep. Yeah. It’s more like the lower body feeling that flow and the arms just kind of following it. Okay. That’s more of that. So, like on uh at the gym, I’ve been doing the kettle bell swings and I kind of I kind of been doing it and then intentionally kind of staying low and doing this. Yeah. You know, and kind of like Yeah. Like you said, push through. But I never thought about the Let me Let me grab the kettle bell. Let me grab the kettle bell. I want I want you to show me what you do. Okay. So, I got this pressure board here from Downshift. Um, the owner, super cool. We I met him playing a playing a charity scramble uh here in in Austin and then, you know, a couple years later, boom, he started downshift. So sick. So, he’s been really cool helping us with our golf academy and kid just giving us some boards to use. So, what’s cool about this is that you can start to feel what you used to do. So, you used to be a little narrow and your kettle bell swing would have been Yep. Now, what do you do to get back? Like, oh, can I do this? Okay, now you got to laterally pull, right? So, if I use this correctly and I start on my left and start to use my lower body, my shoulders to pull that back and then boom, I could feel it. Just a little bit of a turn with that right hip and then up and through. So, really, we’re pushing down. We’re changing our pressure. Weight goes there and we pull up intentionally going to the right. And I like to do this. Yeah. And I watch my head. We have a shadow here. One of the other best cheapest golf aids in in in the game. Just put a ball right where your head is. Shadow drill. Don’t let that ball move too far out of that head. So, I’m really keeping my head still. Yeah. Whereas you might be here. Yeah. I want you to try that a couple times. I’ll put that ball where your head might be. So, for this though, what am I looking to do? Yeah. So, I want you to just do a uh say a back row, right? With a with some rotation. Exactly. Now, put your head put the ball right where your head is. Should I be keeping weight on the left or start left and then let the pressure change and push up on the right? It’s so hard. I want to go right right now. Just pull straight up and back. Good. Now, let that pressure move to the right and then pull up. Good. Oh, dude. Look at that swing. Yeah. Right. Okay. So, pressure first, then pull. Good. Pressure and then pull. Good. Now, see if you can keep your head more centered. Good. Dude, it’s so hard. And that’s okay. like your head might move a little bit behind that ball, but you were before you were like three or four balls behind that. It’s like so naturally I want to do that. Mhm. And then show me how you’d swing the the kettle bell back and forth. Oh yeah. So how I do it is to work on like that. Mhm. I’ll be here and I would do that. Okay. I kind of like doing these swings. I’m going to show you maybe a different way of doing that. Right. So I like that cuz you’re rotating the body but we’re not really pushing back up. Right. So I want you to feel the the pressure change. So, I want you to start with your weight on your front kettle bell maybe maybe 2 ft out in front of your left. Okay? Let your shoulders and the weight of the kettle bell swing you back into your right. Same thing coming down and then do like a kettle bell swing low to high this way higher rather than right cuz what do we do? We’re getting disconnected, right? But if I want to stay more connected, there’s more power here. Watch this. I can use my lower body to now push up. Oh, so so using your lateral force for power, we start need to start getting vertical, right? Okay. So then vertically. Yeah. So then from here, good. Start with the weight on the left foot here. Come over here real quick. I’m going to kind of have you here. There you go. Just let it fall and pull you up. Good. That’s it. Now come all the way off and come uh into your full position. Good. head and get your toe down into that downshift board and rotate fully to me like you just hit a full swing. Full swing shot. Come all the way off that right side and then face me too. So fully like full. Yeah. Yeah. Come off and face me. That’s it. That’s what I want you to start feeling. But stop it about here. Okay. Yep. So start left. That is so weird. Good. Start left. Let it swing you. Let it swing you. Good. Come through. Yes. Now you’re controlling the weight. Oh, okay. Yeah. I so feel like I feel like I need to like do more of like a lead the thing with my hips. Yeah. No. Yeah. No. Let let the weight pull you. Good. Yeah. So, really inadvertently we’re changing pressure and changing weight and now you’re using the weight to kind of pull up and through, which I should be doing. Yeah. That’s great. That’s exactly it. So, now we just worked on mobility. We talked about how to return, dude. Yeah. It’s what we do out here. Yeah, I know it’s like 90° right now and there are people that still want to get their work done out here. I know we got summer camp going. But yes, we like to do mobility that you can do in the gym cuz the more you do these moves in the gym, when you get out to hit that range for that one or two hours in the week, it’s going to be a lot better. You be a better spot. That was another thing. Is that enough time to get better one two hours a week if it’s done efficiently? Yeah. Right. if you’re not taking 1 hour and hitting like as many balls as you can and getting frustrated now it’s like a machine gun out there. But if you can make each ball last like 2 to 3 minutes cuz then you’re focusing on a move and reprogramming the more you can do without hitting a golf ball the better cuz now you’re doing something without thinking about a ball cuz when you think about a ball we go back to our old swing typically default. Yeah. So I like these things in the gym getting your body to start to create new patterns. when your body uses that new pattern, you could use that over the golf ball. Okay. So, you know, depending on how much like you’re a new dad, I’m a new dad again. Yeah, it’s hard to find time, right? And I know there’s probably a lot of people out there watching this thinking like, I don’t have time to go out and 8 hours a day like like I used to in in high school or whatever. It doesn’t have to be like that. If you use it efficiently, that 1 hour, 2 hours a week could be great cuz maybe we’re doing it when the kids are going to sleep. Hey, I know when I’m holding my newborn and I’m rocking her sleep, I’m like I’m on my downshift board. Actually, that could be a video. I’ve done this. And then my wife’s like, “Francis, what are you doing?” Yeah, dude. I’ve got this. We’re trying to regular her sleep. I’ll be like, “Pressure. I’ll be doing this, dude. Head cradles.” She’s like, “What are you doing?” I was like, “Work on my game, babe.” Any anytime we can, right? So, that’s all it is. Just making sure you’re doing the right movements. And that’s I think that’s that’s highlighting the key thing. Like, body’s got to change patterns, reprogram those patterns, and then like throw the club on your hands after that. Yeah. some Okay,
3 Comments
Nice alignment sticks work.
You aiming way left dude. Good change.
Butter draws are the best