Make a Centered Pivot

Stay on the ball! This is another one that is often debated among teaching professionals (no shortage of such debates really), and slow-motion videos of touring pros are often used to emphasize the point that the head can and occasionally does move rearward in varying degrees during the backswings of many great players. (And yes, you can find videos of pros that illustrate a centered turn as well...far more these days than days of yore.)

But we've also heard the adage that we should "turn like you're standing in a barrel." While I think you'll find that there are no shortage of differences among professional golfing turns and pivots as they relate to the position of the head during the backswing and downswing, I believe that we amateurs benefit by staying as centered as possible. Why?

If you move off the ball during the backswing (i.e., your head shifts too far over towards your back foot), you've effectively moved the swing center backward from where you established it at address. In short, you've introduced unnecessary inconsistency into the swing. This means that the bottom of your swing arc has also moved backwards and will require timing to get it back to the right place consistently. Remember, pros can do all sorts of crazy things because of their talent--not necessarily because it's the right way. Also, you increase the chance that you'll sway (i.e., your weight will move to the outside of your back foot instead of staying on the inside where it should be).

Here's what you should try. Set up using the proper posture, grip, aim, and body alignment. With your shoulders properly squared to your knees and hips, your right shoulder should be noticeably lower than the left (assuming you play golf right-handed), and this will place your head slightly behind the ball using irons and wedges (the wider your stance and longer the club, the further your head will be behind the ball at setup).

Now, focus on the keeping the lower body stable and unmoving during the takeaway and backswing, as your shoulders turn and your weight turns into the inside of your back leg. The feeling you want is that the hips and knees stay parallel to your target line for as long as possible and only move in response to the shoulders turning back. Your head may move slightly to the right as a result, but it should stay relatively steady.

Achieving a centered pivot is possible when you recognize that the right hip does NOT move to the right at all during the takeaway: It moves straight back and even towards the body's center line in response to a proper shoulder turn, and the right leg stays angled towards the target (does not move towards a perpendicular-to-ground position). The right knee also stays bent. As a proper on-plane takeaway keeps the club head outside of the hands, the correct opposing move is for the right hip to move straight back. This thought should also keep you pivoting correctly.

Now simply unwind into your downswing and try to keep your head in the same place (or even moving slightly back) as your arms come through. One thing all pros do is to keep theirs heads behind the ball during the downswing. In some cases (especially with the longer clubs like driver), you will notice that the heads of professional players will sometimes even move further back (secondary spine tilt increases) as the arms come through. But that's only during the downswing and usually with longer clubs.

Slightly kicking in the right knee at address or at the beginning of the backswing will assist in stabilizing the body and help prevent a lateral sway off the ball.

Strive to stay centered on your backswing pivot and behind the ball on the downswing and you'll gain consistency.

The classic teacher from the 1930s Percy Boomer coined the phrase "Turn in a barrel." Boomer recognized that turning around your body, rather than sliding your hips sideways, results in more consistency. It's difficult to hit it solid when you move off the ball on the backswing, because you have to move back to the ball the exact same amount to hit it flush. That takes more talent than most golfers have and more practice than they can afford.

Jim Flick And Jack Nicklaus: Turn Don't Slide: Golf Digest

"Turning while keeping your chest in place not only eliminates swaying and the likelihood of fat contact, it improves the quality of your rotation, because if you sway you can't turn. Ditch the sway and your backswing becomes 100 percent rotation."

Hunter Mahan, Keep Your Chest Over the Ball, Hunter Mahan's Five Moves to Make Your Swing Great Photos | GOLF.com

The body needs to make a centered turn around your spine with limited up and down or side to side motion, thus creating an efficient coiling of the upper body and lower body.

Increase Swing Speed for More Distance | Instruction Feature | PGA.com

 

Failsafe Fades and Draws by Jack

There's a reason Jack Nicklaus is still the greatest player of all time (at least in terms of majors won). I've blogged so many times about ways to hit fades and draws. All of the methods work on the same D-plane principle (i.e., all roads lead to Rome), but some methods are easier to understand and pull off than others. Feel free to review my early post on factors that are associated with various shot shapes or ball flights.

To hit a draw, you could strengthen your grip, close your stance, move the ball back, swing out to the right, and do any number of other things that we've been told will help hit a draw. Same thing for a fade (except the reverse). But I've found that these methods sometimes have too many variables and don't always end up giving us the shot shape intended; sometimes the ball hooks wildly instead of mildly drawing, slicing instead of mildly fading, or ironically going straight! Being able to shape the ball is important in order to advance in skill. Shaping the shot allows one to bend the ball around obstacles, fight the wind's influence, reach a tucked pin, control trajectory, control roll upon landing, and generally avoid trouble.

I think Jack's method (being taught in the video below to beginning children of the First Tee program) might be the one to use because of its simplicity. Jack Nicklaus advocates using the same swing for all shots. What he changes is the club face and maybe the ball position. In other words, he loosens his normal, neutral grip, opens or hoods the club face slightly (depending on the desired shot shape), and then regrips with the same neutral grip. However, keep in mind the caveats below.

Many instructors correctly advocate creating a divergence between club face and swing path to shape shots, but they often are nebulous in their explanations (i.e., "aim your club face at the target and swing either left or right of the target"). However, one must either change the grip on the club (i.e., stronger or weaker), change the club face position at setup (as Jack describes), or use the hands/arms to control the club face during the swing. Simply "aiming the club face" with no other modifications will do nothing except cause one to lose another ball. Actively rolling the forearms (closing the face for a draw) or blocking the forearms (slowing the face for a fade) is a method best left to the timing of professionals.

Here are my embellishments to Jack's simple method. Stand behind the ball and pick a desired target. Set up on that target line as if you were going to attempt to hit a perfectly straight ball. To hit a draw, hood or close the club face a few degrees as described above (ungrip and regrip the club to do this). Now adjust the body and stance such that the newly hooded club face is aimed at the desired starting line (i.e., for a draw, aim the face and body further right of the target line). Now take a normal swing as if you were trying to hit the ball well to the right of the target. The ball flight should start right (where the club face was aiming at address) and draw or turn back towards the intended target.

For a fade, reverse every step above; you should ungrip, open the club face a few degrees, and then regrip. Aim the body, stance, and club face left of the target line and take the swing as if you were trying to hit the ball well left of the target. The ball flight should start left and fade back to the right. Use the exact same swing for both. We're following Jack's advice by reducing variables and making the swing simpler.

Now a few caveats. When attempting a fade, go with at least one club of lesser loft (e.g., 5-iron instead of 6-iron) for the required distance; this is because the fade shot will tend to go higher, shorter, and land softer, with little or no roll. The opposite is true for a draw: it will tend to go lower, longer, and run after landing, so choose a club with more loft for the required distance (e.g., 8-iron instead of a 7-iron). When you open a club you're adding loft and taking away loft when you close a club (closing down a 3-iron will turn it into a 2-iron or less).

Also, clubs with lower lofts (like a driver) don't need to be opened or closed quite as much to impart the same amount of side spin as higher lofts (like a pitching wedge). So you should hood or open clubs with lower lofts (e.g., driver or 4-iron) much less than you would with higher lofted clubs (e.g., 8-iron or wedges). As always, experiment!

Next, close your face a bit at address. But be careful not to close too much. Drivers don't have much loft so if you close the face too much, you can't get the ball airborne and lose the distance.

How to Hit a Draw & Fade with a Driver | Golf Tips & Lessons

Then all you do to play a fade is aim your body slightly left (as Jim is making sure I'm doing above), open the clubface, and make the exact same swing.

Jim Flick And Jack Nicklaus: Hit A Fade With Power: Golf Digest

You are starting the ball to the left because you aimed your whole body to the left. In other words, you are purposely trying to hit the ball left of your target. In trying to teach this shot to people this is where they go wrong. They aim there stance and body to the left yet they swing down the target line. REMEMBER: if you aim left, you have to swing left. The ball will spin right because of the clubface position.

How to Fade the Golf Ball

In order to hit fades and draws or to hit the ball low or high, Nicklaus uses the same swing. It is the angle of the club head at impact that enables you to hit these variations in your shots. To get the club head on these angles, Nicklaus simply adjusts the position of the club head at address.

How To Draw Golf Ball, How to Fade Golf Ball, Improve Golf Swing

 

Aim Putts at Spot 6 Inches Away

I've found this to be the best way to get the putt rolling on the correct line. After standing behind the ball to choose your line, pick a spot on that line about six inches in front of the ball and keep staring at it as you address the ball. Align the putter head so that it's pointing to that spot.

In order program the distance in your mind, take a look at the hole (or breaking point) and then back at the spot. Now, using the correct stroke length for that distance, roll the ball over the spot that's six inches away. If you read the break correctly, you should come very close to the hole or even nail the putt!

Dave says not to look at the ball when you putt, but rather to pick a spot a couple of inches in front of the ball, right on the putting line you have chosen. Then when you make your stroke, simply focus on rolling the ball right over that spot.

Weekend Tip: Don't look at the ball when you putt: The Instruction Blog: Golf Digest

 

Correct Shoulder Plane

I posted previously about my whacky left shoulder hitch on the downswing. But I have flaws that have exacerbated that problem.

My shoulders usually turn properly on the backswing, with my left shoulder moving DOWN under my chin and my right shoulder moving UP behind me (i.e., shoulder line maintaining a perpendicular relationship to my original spine angle). Note that the left shoulder should not point down early or it can cause the upper body to tilt toward the target; the left shoulder move across before pointing down. (Updated 1 Mar 15)

However, in an attempt to aid hitting from the inside and avoid an OTT (over-the-top or outside-in) move, I've developed a habit of having my shoulders see-saw on the downswing. In other words, the shoulders have too much up-and-down, linear shoulder motion with little to no rotational movement.

Therefore, my shoulder plane was rotating back correctly but changing directions and becoming too vertical on the downswing. It was going too much down and not enough around. This is the identical problem that Tom Watson talks about in his Lessons of a Lifetime; his right shoulder moved too much under and not enough around; his ball flight errors were pushes off to the right. He fixed it by feeling like he was coming OTT compared to what he had done before. For Tom this amounted to his "secret." It was his eureka moment.

In reality, the correct shoulder plane has the left shoulder pointing down toward the target line on the backswing and right shoulder pointing down toward the ball on the downswing; think of hitting the ball with the right shoulder--some call this "covering the ball" with the right shoulder.

The key move is to feel like the right shoulder on the downswing REPLACES the left shoulder's backswing position and points DOWN at the ball. In other words, the right shoulder must move DOWN, FORWARD, AND OUT. Too much of either isn't good. Keeping the head back behind the ball while using this motion allows one to hit from the inside instead of coming OTT. If the head (and spine angle) shifts forward with the weight shift to the left leg, this shoulder move will cause the swing to be OTT.

Another feel to go after is that the right shoulder stays higher coming through the ball; in other words, the shoulders feel more like that turning level to the ground (in reality they aren't). This provides a shallowing effect to the swing, resulting in a swing that's flatter and more "rounded" as opposed to "up and down."

The correct finish will have the right shoulder pointing at the target; if it's trapped behind the left in any way then the swing went unfinished--a stuck swing.

It's important to note that this is a feeling. With a proper setup, backswing, and throughswing, the shoulders will be only slightly open at the moment of impact. Because of the continuity of the swing's motion, the ball will be just departing and then the right shoulder comes through powerfully.

At the top, think of replacing your left shoulder with your right. That will help you turn through while keeping your right shoulder under your head instead of spinning out in front of you.

The Turn Secret You Don't Know | GOLF.com

'MOVE THE RIGHT SHOULDER TOWARD THE BALL'

When I start down from the top, I try to feel as if my right shoulder goes directly to the ball, and this improves my swing path. Chuck also says this makes the body square the face at impact, which is more reliable than trying to do it with a lot of hand action.

Golf Instruction: Jason Dufner: Duf's Moves To Hit It Solid: Golf Digest

If the right shoulder comes down (rocks slightly) as it begins to turn, it brings the upper right arm against the right side and the swing starts down on an inside line.

It is when the shoulders turn, throwing the right shoulder high and out toward the ball, that the golf swing goes outside. Keeping the head back helps the slight rocking action which brings the right shoulder down.

Golf Downswing: Third Magic Move

If the head comes forward at this point, we lose the tension and get ourselves, in a manner of speaking, "over the ball" as we hit it.

If we keep the head back we do in truth stay back of the ball where we should be.

Golf Downswing: Second Magic Move

The head must be set back as the golfer reaches half way down to ensure the golfer attacks the ball on the correct inside swing path.

Head Angle in the Golf Swing Helps Dictate the Plane of the Swing | Suite101.com