THE WORST GOLF DRILLS EVER – These are ruining your swing. We can say that because these golf drills were ruining our swings before we figured out they were causing us more harm than good.
If you’re working hard on your golf game but not getting results, there’s a good chance you’re practicing the wrong golf drills. In this video, Mike Granato and Shaun Webb of Athletic Motion Golf reveal the 3 golf drills that will ruin your golf swing and explain why so many golfers get stuck in bad habits trying to “fix” their swing.
From takeaway drills that destroy your club path to the infamous towel underarm drill and impact drills that block your release—these common mistakes could be the reason your swing isn’t improving. These outdated training methods are still being taught today, leading to flipped clubfaces, tipped-out swings, and frustrating inconsistency.
If you’re a dedicated golfer or serious practitioner looking to improve your swing mechanics, timing, and consistency, this video is for you. We’ll also give you better alternatives to help you develop a more powerful, accurate, and repeatable swing.
In the comments, let us know what drills have helped your game and which ones you wish you had never tried.
👉 FREE: Get Instant Consistency in your golf swing With This GO TO DRILL:
Get AMG Training here: https://pages.athleticmotiongolf.com/consistency
Video Chapters:
00:00 – Why Bad Drills Hurt Your Swing
01:54 – The Worst Takeaway Drill (and What It Teaches Wrong)
05:45 – Better Takeaway Drill for Shoulder and Club Path
07:12 – Towel Under Arm Drill – Why It Doesn’t Work for Full Swings
09:18 – What To Do Instead of the Towel Drill
12:12 – The “Don’t Let the Shaft Hit You” Drill Breakdown
14:40 – BB in the Shaft Drill: How to Train Natural Release
16:04 – Stop These Drills and Improve Faster
#golf #pga #athleticmotiongolf #amg #golftips #golfdrills #badgolfdrills
20 Comments
🎁FREE: Get Instant Consistency in your golf swing With This GO-TO Consistency DRILL: https://pages.athleticmotiongolf.com/consistency
This is one of the most important golf tutorial videos I have ever seen. I personally suffered frustration because of the last two "bad" drills. It started to make me question every part of my golf swing, ending up making it very uncoordinated and uncomfortable. It would then take me even longer to get rid of these bad influence. Thank you so much for making this video!
Few years to late on this one
The “hello darkness my old friend” tease sent me🤣🤣🤣!
My coach wants me to keep the trail arm above the lead arm, essentially keeping the trail arm dead straight on the backswing for as long as possible to prevent overfolding of the trail arm. Can this cause more problems than it solves? I notice Sean lets his trail arm fold a little by shaft parallel to the ground. Any feedback is appreciated as always.
I was taught drill 3 as recently as six months ago. I was slicing the ball off the planet. I'm just now recovering from it.
I’ve definitely been practicing that hands in club out drill to fix my inside takeaway, I have noticed my club tumbling and hitting pulls a lot. Great explanation as to why that happens! Will have to work on the takeaway you describe.
The worst thing about being given bad tips is that instructors generally say that you must ignore the results regardless of where the ball goes – and we trust them! Surely we should know that if it doesn't improve your golf straight away it's unlikely to ever do so.
That last drill has always felt alien to me. I could never stop the stick hitting my left side. Glad to know I can stop doing it 😂
Get to the point
Great stuff Guys ⛳️💪😘
This is Myles from UK, I have to say a big thank you from the UK. I find your coaching drives clarity and deep understanding in the correct body and arm movements in a modern golf swing.
When you explain the issue of a poor takeaway using old fashioned techniques it really illustrates the vital and yet subtle differences to the correct modern understanding and approach.
Your example of how it can lead to flipping the club over / excessively rotating the lead forearm and getting it too laid off at the top. This then encourages a pull straight out towards the ball movement.
Then the everything becomes a compensation to get the ball back on the ball to target line. Leading to that club head being tipped out over the swing plane as the handle moves in the opposite direction being pulled back in towards the body (having reached too far out earlier). Can you believe people are still out there teaching this model?
Great videos, just love the swing instruction. My ongoing problem is the club releasing fully after shaft parallel but well before ball strike. Can see this on video (face-on and DTL view) but I can't feel it happening in real time. Pro I'm working with has me using a device that has ball halves with magnets that slide on a shaft with a reminder grip (old Ledbetter product). The ball halves click together as the club releases. I don't feel it carries over to actual ball hits on the range or in play. Any drill you can suggest to work on this?
*Great video!* Over the past 20+ years, I’ve taken lessons from four different golf pros, and each one had their favorite drills. At times, I felt like I was overdoing them and ended up creating problems I didn’t have to begin with.
That said, the Punisher Drill (with the alignment stick) really helped me understand my backswing path. It made me realize how badly I was casting the club and not rotating properly. But you guys are absolutely right—it doesn’t always translate well to full swings.
When I was struggling the most with casting, one instructor told me to exaggerate the opposite feeling—to really hold off the release. That helped me get a better sense of what proper movement should feel like. Sometimes, you need to experience both extremes to find the right middle ground.
I love to practice, and there are a million drills out there. That’s why I always tell people to get a proper lesson first. Understanding your setup and your swing is key before diving into random drills—otherwise, you might “fix” something that wasn’t broken.
Great job on this video, and I’d love to see more content like this!
Get a Divot Board and learn to create a divot in front of the image of the ball. A decent grip and ball first contact. That’s it. Changed my golf ability after hundreds of random tips from YouTube. Kind of like this channels. It’s is less than 1% of amateurs who hit long and left. What makes you guys any different from the generic providers who give tips to golfers they have never seen? The answer is that you are not different. You are just as worthless.
Another great video! I have a question for you guys: when I video my swing I notice that my head moves a little off the ball at the start of the swing and bit down after/during the transition, but just before impact it moves backwards kind of dramatically which I think leads to a lot of toe contact. Do you guys see this in Ams a lot? Is it a consequence of early extension? Or is there something else I'm likely doing earlier in the swing that sets this move up? If it's a common enough mistake I'd love to see a video about it!
Thanks! your catalog has really helped me understand how the swing is supposed to work!
I’m a true believer that if a new move is taught and implemented…you should see the ball flight (results) within minutes of that new move being introduced. Too many teachers saying “do this drill and know that your ball flight is going to be garbage for a long time until you get it right.” This teaching concept ruined my golf swing for years. The ball flight doesn’t lie.
You guys definitely helped me understand the why’s and the how’s of the golf swing more so than ever and I’ve been playing over 30 years. I appreciate your teaching method/format. Thank you 🤝
It was nice to have explained why those common drills just felt so wrong. The feel of the BB is clutch. I always just told myself “feel the weight of the club head the whole way through the swing.” I think that feel fixes a lot of these problems.
Sounds like a knock on the Malaska move