If you’re like me, the winter was entirely too long - certainly super excited to get the season...
GET THE RUST OFF YOUR GAME! Part 5: The Impact
Ok the last thing I want to look at in my golf swing especially after coming out a lazy winter time is the way that my club rotates through the ball.
So, a really quick recap - we looked at the grip and the grip pressure, we’ve looked at our posture to make sure we’re set up for success, we looked at the takeaway of the golf club and making sure that everything is moving properly to set up the swing, we’ve looked at our club set position, and making sure we’re generating as much power as we can, but here’s the last thing I wanted to show you, and its the way you’re now able to roll your hands through the ball, again generating the most amount of power you can in your golf swing.
I’ve got a little hack for that, and you’ll see that I’m wearing my watch today, I try to practise every spring with a watch on because it reminds me of how my wrists should roll through impact. What I tend to do, and I think a lot of people are similar, is they get to their backswing, and they come down and they leave their club face open. Leaving that clubhouse open generates the ball to spin to the right. So what I try to do is wear my watch, and you really want to focus on a couple key parts - right now, you’ll notice that my watch is pointing towards the target at address, when I move the club back, that watch is now pointing perpendicular to my target (again that key point we looked at in the club set video). So at this key moment you’ll see that the watch face is pointing towards the camera. When I come back down from the top of my backswing, you’ll notice that my watch is starting to rotate. So again, back at the ball position, you’ll notice that my watch face is pointing towards the target - here’s the key one: when I roll through the ball, I want that watch face to be pointed behind me. What I tend to do, is come through the ball and have it left open, swing up and it’s too late - a lot of spin to the right. So again, what I’m trying to do, especially in the spring to get the rust out of my golf swing, is on my takeaway make sure that the watch face is pointed out, on the way through make sure that the watch face is pointed behind me. I think you’ll really feel your wrists rotate through the ball, I certainly do every spring, and I think that’s really going to help you.
The last thing I do too is, look we’ve come out of winter and it’s been incredibly wet and cold, and a lot of the golf courses (unlike here in Florida) are really, really, wet. So we’re getting ready and doing everything properly, and in the summertime you can really hit down hard on the back of the ball and generate a lot of spin, but you can’t do that in the spring (especially in Atlantic Canada). So whilst we’re looking through grip pressure and key positions in the golf swing, don’t be afraid in the spring to grip up on your golf club, I do that a lot as well (especially with my wedges, knowing that the golf course is really really wet), and it’s okay too to swing at 3/4. Coming out of the winter, you won’t be hitting it the same distance that you would be in the summertime anyway, just because of the layers, your body is getting warmed up to playing golf again, so don’t be afraid to grip up on the golf club, and think about swinging at a 3/4 swing, so that you really try to pick the golf ball off the ground. As the golf courses become a little drier, certainly feel free to hit down more on top of it and generate a little more power, but for today grip up on the golf club, little 3/4 swing, and again remember that watch rotating through the ball
