Let the Big Dog Run… Right now!

Let the Big Dog Run… Right now!

Hey, if you’re losing distance as you get older, it’s not your age, it’s your setup and it’s your sequence. So, in today’s lesson, I’m going to show you exactly what’s killing your distance and a few cheap moves that fix it fast. But this is not a lesson about swinging harder. I’m going to show you why that’s actually what’s killing your distance and what to do instead. If you want to rip it, you got to whip it. Let me show you how. If you don’t know me, I’m Craig Jones. I taught 10,000 lessons at Golf Techch, ended up owning my own five Golf Tech learning centers for 10 years now. I’ve been teaching Face First Golf online for the last 10 years, becoming, as I get into my mid-50s here, a little bit obsessed with this driver distance for older players. So, one of the huge sources for effortless power is the whip of the toe of the club past the heel of the club. That’s what this video is going to be all about. But what do most players do? Most players are doing the exact opposite. Instead of whipping the toe of the club past the heel of the club, they are holding that club face open and making this chicken wing move because most players are swinging over the top. So the idea here is that when you swing over the top, like the vast majority of players do, this is over the top. It just means for a right-handed player swinging that path left of target. If you whipped the toe past the heel of the club, you would pull it way left. So, the adjustment that people make is they come over the top like this and then they’ve got to hold the face open so that the ball doesn’t go left and then it turns into this chicken wing move. Of course, when it turns into this chicken wing move, the club head lags way back here. The face stays open as opposed to watch what happens when I make the toe of the club past the heel of the club release with this elbow down. Boom. Look at the difference right there. Right. Here’s chicken wing. Here’s elbow down. Whipping the toe past the heel position. Same spot in the swing, but look how much further the club has traveled. So, not only does this help you square up the club face as you come through impact, but it also means the club has traveled a lot further at the same point in the swing, which means it’s going faster. So, you get the benefits of both putting a lot more onto the shot with the square club face, plus the club’s actually traveling faster, even if it feels like you’re not swinging faster. So, that is the start to this. But, let’s talk about that little over the top move here. And this is what everybody’s struggling with right here. Here’s what it looks like. It’s just And the harder you try to swing, the more over the top you will tend to come, right? So everybody has that feeling like, all right, I’m really going to step on one here, you know, and they get up here and then it’s just the harder you swing, the more over the top that it comes, the more that chicken wing comes out and you end up with that shot, right? So that weak one, I might have exaggerated it a little bit there. That was quite a a huge slice and a really weak ball flight. I think I really exaggerated coming over the top in the down swing and really held that face open quite a bit, but you get the idea. That is what most players struggle with. We’re going to work on the exact opposite. It starts with the grip. And by the way, if you want some free lessons on the grip, you can go to facegolf.com. And so, let’s get into that first piece right now. Before we get deeply into that whip it to rip it part of this, there are a few cheat moves that you need to make here. And I’ve talked about these a lot in some videos, so I’m not going to get into a ton of detail. I’m going to try to hit these really quickly here. The first is the closed face grip. Okay? And this is where we turn this hand over this way on the grip of the club. And essentially all that this is is the more that you turn this hand for a right-handed player over to the right on the grip of the club, get this V between this lead thumb and forefinger pointed over towards that trail shoulder, that makes the toe of the club want to really whip past the heel of the club. Okay, that’s going to be really important when we get to these next pieces where we swing that path more from the inside on the down swing. If you want some free grip lessons, I get into a lot more detail, go to facefirstgolf.com. But that’s the first piece is the closed face grip that helps you whip that toe past the heel. All right, cheat number two. We’ve got to, as we talked about, if we’re going to be now, we’ve got that closed face grip that’s going to whip the toe past the heel, but we don’t we can’t be swinging over the top if we’re going to be whipping the toe past the heel and getting that benefit of that effortless power forearm rollover release. Right. This is the effortless power forearm roll over release when that toe whips past the heel. If you’re going to get the benefit of that, you’ve got to get that path coming more from the inside instead of over the top. By the way, people say, “Oh, nobody swings over the top like that.” Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit uh for the purposes of showing it, but I assure you I had somebody one time in a golf tech bay, the monitor sits on the floor about probably about right where that uh alignment rail is right there. And I had somebody and it sits back maybe a foot from the ball. I had somebody one time actually hit that thing with the toe of their club on the down swing. That’s how over the top some of those swings can get. So, it’s a it’s a big problem. And the way that we help with that is to drop this trail foot back a little bit here. Okay, this is a little cheat move number two here that helps you swing that path more from the inside. When you drop that foot back a little bit, it kind of presets your body turn a little bit. And what ends up happening is if you’re square and you struggle to turn like most players, the hands go too up right here. Then that’s that over the top down swing move. If we drop this back foot back a little bit, you’ve already preset the turn a little bit and it helps you get the hands a little deeper behind you. Makes it a lot more easier to make this swinging that path from the inside move. So that’s cheat number two is just closing the stance or dropping that trail foot back a little bit. Cheat number three here. So backspin is the killer of distance with driver. You need less backspin. And one of the ways that we get less backspin is to swing up at driver. Okay? And it means that we want the bottom of the swing arch to occur back here and we want that club traveling up as you make impact with the ball. So the third little cheat here is just this little hip bump move. And so after you have walked in here and you’ve take set the face here and you’ve taken that strong grip and then you drop this trail foot back a little bit here, the last thing we’re going to do is just make this little hip bump. And you can see how that sets my spine tilt away from the target. When I set my spine tilt away from the target, it makes my swing arc want to be swinging more up at the ball. So that little hip bump there is cheat move number three. All right, real quick here before we get into the action of the swing and the tensious tent tensionless gez, easy for me to say tensionless whip of the toe of the club past the heel of the club. I just want to take you through this little routine that ties together those first three cheats. This alone will probably help you hit it a bunch better. But we go in here and it’s feet together, aim the face, close face grip, smaller step, bigger step, hip bump, and we are ready to go. And there’s a nice little solid draw up that right side. So just those alone are going to help you hit more shots like that. So, but let’s talk about the action of the swing. Hey, by the way, if you like this kind of stuff, hit subscribe, enable those alerts because it doesn’t just make sure that you don’t miss anything. I’m putting this stuff out all the time, but it also helps me reach and help more people here on YouTube. So, this brings us to the crux of the situation where we are talking about the whip of the toe of the club, past the heel of the club. Everything that we’ve all of that stuff that we talked about, it sets all of this up. It’s really important that we covered all that and this is going to bring it all together. And what it is is we want to feel the toe of the club whip past the heel of the club as that club pass traveling from the inside of course. But what does it feel like to do that? And here’s what I want you to do. Just take the club in just your trail hand here. Okay? Go to the top of the swing. Set this box. We’ve got a 90° between here and we’ve got this 90° right there. That’s kind of a power box right there. I want you to set that at the top of the swing with just the club and your just your trail hand. Now release that angle. When you release that angle, the club gets a little bit weightless right here. That’s the that’s where you want to be with that weightless feeling. Once you have that weightless feeling like that, now you can get really soft with the hands and the forearms. And that’s the feeling that I want you to feel because what we’re doing here is a throwing motion, not a hitting motion. And the and it’s really important that this is tensionless. And that’s really soft right here. Now, the next feeling is that the trail elbow hits the trail hip and then the toe of the club whips past the heel of the club. So, it’s soft, completely soft and relaxed. Trail elbow hits the trail hip and whip. So, elbow hits the hip and whip. Tensionless whip right there. Right? So, it’s like a throwing motion. It’s like if you were going to skip a rock, right? You wouldn’t do it with tension in your hands and forearms. You wouldn’t go right, you would go skipping the stone on water, right? That’s the kind of move you would make. That’s all that this move is. It’s just trail hip. It’s just trail elbow to trail hip and whip. Okay, both hands on the club, trail elbow to trail hip, and whip. Trail elbow to trail hip and whip. And it just feels like that toe of the club passing the heel of the club. So, those are the feelings. This is Here we are. The exciting part of the lesson, I got one more quick thing to cover here. Then, we’re going to hit a couple and I’m going to show you how this actually works in action. Hey, before we hit a few here and wrap up, I’ve got to talk about this issue that comes up all the time. So, whenever I teach this closed face grip, I get all these comments of people that are like, “Oh, yeah. If you want to snap hook it, that’s a great way to to grip the golf club. And this is so critical to understand what we were just talking about there. This trail elbow hitting that trail hip, which brings that path coming from the inside, swinging from in out, whipping the toe of the club past the heel of the club. What everybody’s doing when they’re making that over the top move. This elbow is working this way. Okay, that over-the-top move with the elbow working that way is a compensation really for your struggles in the past to square up the club face. So you are actually just in the habit of swinging that path over the top left to compensate for a club face that always comes through open or aimed right for a right-handed player. Right? So what so what it means is that if sure you’ll hook it or you’ll pull it if you still make these old moves that you used to have to make. But I promise you, if you get this elbow in here and you get this club coming from the inside instead of getting it out here at this point in the down swing, if you’ve got it in here, you’re going to need all the help you can get to square up that club face. It’s going to start wanting to come through open, right? So, if you do all those old things like this and make that over the top move, sure, you’ll pull it with the strong grip. So, I just want to clarify that it’s those old habits that you used to make to compensate for an open club face that are going to be making you pull it. It’s not the strong grip or the closed face grip that’s going to make you pull it when you’re swinging from the inside. The closed face grip, you’re going to need it because you’re really going to need to need it to help you square up the club face at impact so that you can get the whip and you can get the power that comes from the effortless power forearm rollover release. All right. As you start to hit some balls with this, I really want you to focus on for a right-hand player getting the ball started out to the right. For a left-hand player, getting it started out to the left. And then we’re really just trying to exaggerate that feeling of getting the face closed to the path. So, the path coming more from in to out, right? But we want the face square to the target at impact. That’s what puts that little bit of draw spin on it. And that’s what we want for that effortless power. And it’s really important. I might have mentioned this. Tensionless, right? Tensionless is so important. And it is the hardest piece to this. So, it’s just whipping the toe of the club past the heel of the club. All those cheat moves are really going to help you with squaring up the club face, right? The the cheat grip’s going to help you square up the club face. The cheat stance here is going to help you swing that path more from the inside on the down swing. We still need to feel the trail elbow to the trail hip and whip kind of feeling here, right? So, here’s what it would look like. I like to see you make these little rehearsals really exaggerating it. We’re trying to exaggerate the path too far from the inside and we’re trying to turn the club over too much here, right? So, really just make a always make a couple of these little practice moves before you hit one every single time to reinforce the feelings. Don’t just hit ball after ball and be deliberate. Right? So when you walk in here, that that setup, that routine that I was showing you, feet together, aim the face, good closed face grip right here. Smaller step, little bit bigger step, hip bump, and maybe just wave over it a couple. Trying to just feel that elbow to the hip and whip kind of feeling. And not going hard at it here. Just trying to feel elbow to the hip and whip. And that’s what you’ll feel. I mean, that’s what’ll happen right there. I mean, that is a hot hot one. You know, you can’t imagine compared to that first ball that I hit with that big slice, even though I didn’t really swing with any speed at that. It didn’t really get up in the air, but man, that is such a an efficient strike that’s going to run a long long way. So, that is kind of the feeling right here, man. It’s just such a solid good feeling. And it’s just like and it just feels almost like like your arms are like cooked spaghetti. That’s another good good thing to think about here. Okay. So, it is we’re just going to feel elbow to the hip whip. Tensionless whip. Elbow to the hip and whip. Be deliberate. Go through these steps to the routine. Feet together. Aim the face. Close face grip. Smaller step. Bigger step. Little hip bump. And now it’s just super relaxed whip. Man, that is such a good feeling right there. I mean that just is just jumping off the club face. I mean and it just feels like I mean that’s the that’s the mental image right there. It’s just so that is how you grip. That’s that’s how you how you whip it to rip it. I hope that helps you. If you want to train with me, go to facegolf.com. get started with those five free lessons. Be sure to enable alerts here and subscribe, enable alerts, all that stuff, cuz you don’t want to miss anything. And I appreciate so much you being here, sticking with me through this. And I hope that gives you some real actionable stuff you can take out to start whipping it, to rip it, and start feeling more of that effortless power starting Today.

#golflesson #golfswing #effortlesspower

START WITH 5 FREE LESSONS at https://www.facefirstgolf.com

In this lesson, Craig Jones breaks down one of the most overlooked power sources in the golf swing — the whip of the toe of the club past the heel. If you’re an older player losing distance, it’s not your age — it’s your setup and your sequence. Craig shows how small changes in grip, stance, and motion can instantly add effortless power to your driver swing

You’ll learn three simple “cheat moves” to stop swinging over the top, square the clubface, and start hitting from the inside. Then Craig walks you through the trail elbow to trail hip and whip feeling — the key to developing tension-free speed that makes the club feel weightless.

By the end, you’ll understand why “If you want to rip it… you’ve got to whip it.”

⏱️ Timestamps:
0:00 – Why older golfers lose distance (and it’s not age)
0:28 – Craig’s background and focus on effortless power for older players
0:56 – The real secret: toe past heel whip
1:12 – What over-the-top really looks like
1:55 – The chicken wing vs. elbow-down release
3:31 – The 3 cheat moves for effortless distance
4:08 – Cheat #1: Closed-face grip
4:27 – Cheat #2: Drop the trail foot
6:21 – Cheat #3: The hip bump
7:18 – How to combine the cheats into one setup routine
8:28 – The feel of the whip: trail elbow to trail hip
9:26 – Throwing vs. hitting: staying tensionless
10:55 – The strong grip myth (why it won’t make you hook it)
13:32 – Practicing the whip with deliberate reps
14:36 – The “cooked spaghetti arms” feel for relaxed speed
15:59 – Final recap and invitation to train with Craig

What You’ll Learn:

Why older golfers lose speed — and how to get it back fast

How to create effortless power with the toe past heel release

The 3 “cheat moves” to fix your path, grip, and launch angle

The trail elbow–to–hip move that adds whip and speed

How to stay tension-free and swing faster without trying harder

#golflesson #golfswing #effortlesspower #driverdistance #golfdrills #oldergolfers #seniorswing #facefirstgolf #whipit #hititlonger #golfcoach #golftips #lagrelease #golfsequence #whipittoripit