(golf club swinging)
- Hi, Adam Bazalgette here,
founder of Scratch Golf Academy.
Today's subject, a pretty good one,
how to stop rushing your downswing.
(upbeat music)
So how to stop rushing your downswing.
I'm gonna give you three categories here,
that I think really hurt people in that area
and give you some drills and some ideas
that'll help you master it a little bit.
If you like this video, please subscribe
to the YouTube channel, scratchgolfacademy.com's
my home website.
Okay, our first key to not rushing
the transition, rushing your downswing
is actually to make a good backswing.
And the thing's we touch on,
are storing energy in your pivot,
and not only doing that,
but synchronizing it with where the club is.
Let's have a look at a great player in action.
So there's Francesco Molinari,
recent Major Championship winner from last year.
And just watch here, watch first of all the nice pivot,
and how there's movement in his body
all the way to the end of the backswing.
And then notice how the arrival of his hands
at the top exactly coincides
with the completion of the pivot.
That's what you're looking for.
By the way, if you want solid strike,
I've got a whole free course on that
down in the description box,
just help yourself down there.
Okay, when the pivot is sound,
in other words, when there's balance
when the pivot continues to move well
to the top of the backswing,
and of course when it synchronizes
with where the golf club is,
you're mind is at rest, so to speak.
It's not having to subconsciously
solve all sorts of problems
tends to calm it down a little bit.
So, it's a fairly deep subject,
but let me give you one little thought here.
Get your good golf posture,
do it in front of a mirror initially.
I like this thought, instead of turning of so much,
get your arms at your side, like so, and just pivot
so that you feel like you're on the angle
that relates to your spine angle,
and practice that pivot.
Do it so you feel a nice depth
to your right side going back,
but that you still feel in balance.
We don't wanna get in our heels,
certainly not to the toes,
til you feel like you're in balance.
Then, grab the golf club,
get a sense of where you wanna get to at the top,
and just make some swings to where you can feel
the same thing and just feel like hey,
the arms and club arrive right when I finish that.
Hang out with it a little bit,
you'd be surprised how quickly
you can get a good feel for this.
Okay, next barrier to good rhythm coming down.
Maybe the most common one, and that is,
we've talked about how to store energy
in the backswing a little bit.
You should continue to store it as you start down.
Most people, that fateful instinct to try to hit
and hit hard takes over.
Let's look at a great player momentarily,
so I can give you a couple clues.
Then we'll come out and see what we can do about it.
Okay, Tiger Woods here.
Now just watch the stretch in his upper body here,
and then notice as he starts down,
watch how that increases.
His hips go, look at the stretch across his golf shirt,
what Jim McLean calls the X-Factor,
that's a great example of it.
The other thing you'd notice as well,
if you look at the golf club that's roughly
over his head cover in the back swing,
it's a lot closer to him in the downswing.
And if you're storing power, not getting rid of it,
starting down, it will really help your rhythm.
All right, here's a couple of drills
that will really help you.
Number one, we talked about that X-Factor,
the way the body moves.
Get your bag next to you,
get your hands on top of your driver head cover there,
and just practice that sense of separating
your lower body from your upper.
I can feel that stretch there,
very natural in athletics,
if I was to skip a rock or something like that,
that's a great way to work on it.
Let me move that to the side.
And then of course the second one,
and that is the ability to let the club load a little bit.
And what I mean by that,
grab the club, try this at home,
at the bottom of the handle,
you're gonna grip it with just the fingers for a second
in that trail arm, make a little swing,
and as you feel a little bit of that hip motion,
that club is predisposed to continue to load.
The weight of it still going back.
With this grip, I can't thrust it down.
Feel that a little bit.
Then just grab a club, this is an 8 iron,
super soft wrists, super soft pace.
Take it back, just a little bump of the hips,
let that wrist slow it up a little bit.
The battle, I'm telling you, is in the mind.
You know, people just, the thing happens so quickly,
they don't know what happened coming down.
The instinct to hit it so strong there.
You've gotta practice it on a small scale,
then notice if that's what you're doing when you hit.
So, I'm gonna get a certain sort of feeling here.
Extra soft, extra flowing there like that.
Then I'd ratchet it up, make a full swing.
See how similar it feels.
Get your mind off outcome for a sec,
relax, compare notes, go back to the little ones.
Couple of these on the driver,
and just work it in there.
There's no packed formula
that'll give it to you in 20 seconds.
But you hang out with these drills,
start to notice where that hits instinct
is coming from, if you have it,
you'll be able to dissolve it and
get it out of there soon enough.
Okay, let's say you worked on those first two
but you still find you know what,
I have a hard time with my rhythm and
staying in a nice flow as I start down.
You'll probably have some agitators
in your golf swing.
You have to work to get those out of there.
It's a fairly lengthy subject.
But let's touch on a few things.
Believe me, your subconscious mind is doing
almost everything during that two seconds or so
it takes to swing.
You feel like you're controlling it
with your conscious mind, very little of it.
So the more difficulties and obstacles
you present your subconscious, the less likely
you are to have fluidity and nice rhythm.
Couple of things that would come to mind.
Balance issues.
Balance overrides almost anything.
I tell you, you could be walking along
talking to someone, you start to slip,
your mind will go right to that.
So subconsciously, if your body senses
we're getting out of balance, it's gonna try to fight
and rush to put you in balance.
So pay attention to that.
Not just with the body, either.
Balance of the golf club.
If that club gets out of position,
behind you and starts to move around,
again, subconscious is trying to correct for that.
It makes it very, very difficult.
One final one, that I do find agitates people a lot.
If they get a poor grip, and they get the club face open,
you'll know you're in this category
if you hit a lot of glancing hit and slices,
anytime that face is open
and the ball's tending to take off there,
it incites a bit of a reaction to shut the face down
and try to get it square.
So if you're a slicer,
that is gonna be a real agitator as well.
Go back to working on the club face
and those things, then you can come back
and improve your balance and improve that
rhythm as you start down.
So how to stop rushing your downswing,
I hope that helps you.
Work on these things a little bit.
I don't even have it down pat all the time.
I'm still at times catching myself
rushing a little bit.
So, put these drills into practice regularly.
If you like this video, please subscribe
to the YouTube channel, lots of free content
and scratchgolfacademy.com is my home website.
Full courses in every aspect of the game there.
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