- Hi, Adam Bazalgette here in beautiful Naples, Florida.
I'm two-time PGA Teacher of the Year Award winner,
founder of Scratch Golf Academy, great subject today,
how to start the downswing correctly.
(upbeat music)
So how to start the downswing correctly,
boy that's an important subject, affects your consistency,
how solidly you can hit the ball, we'll flesh that out,
show you a couple of things for solid contact
and a couple of things, or one thing specifically
that'll help you with direction, I hope.
If you like the video, please subscribe to the channel,
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and of course scratchgolfacademy.com is my home website.
Okay let's get started.
Okay so as we get started maybe it's a good idea
to look at what we're trying to accomplish
with the start of the downswing,
we're gonna look at two aspects from here
and then one from there, and let's start with these two,
now this is something, listen to this,
100 percent of all great players do, 100 percent,
now they may do it to slightly differing degrees
but these are those two things, in every case
as great golfers start the downswing the swing narrows,
the club gets closer to the body, the wrist angle increases,
not just a matter of holding wrist cock.
So we're gonna look at that and that leads directly
to number two and we're looking at a fairway shot
when we say this, the club shaft not only gets closer
to the body, but the club shaft passes the ball
and leans this way as it hits the golf ball.
These are basically true of woods as well
but we're more behind the ball, so let's have a quick look
at a couple of players doing that,
give you a clear picture and then we'll back out.
There we go, so Olivia Cowan, Brandt Snedeker on the right,
she's right through that white sign there on the way back,
as she moves the club gets closer to her on the way down,
and you'll notice, she's on a par three two,
so the ball's on a very low tee,
but still she is gonna drive that club shaft past the ball
and the shaft will be leaning when she hits the golf ball.
Let's have a look at Brandt, so he's on the other side
of that palm tree going back and on the nearside of it
coming down, look at the difference in wrist angle there,
and too, he too I should say, like Olivia, drives the shaft
past the golf ball and leans in at impact.
Now one other little thing that you'll wanna know,
if you really wanna get the most outta this,
you wanna be dynamic and hit the ball a long way,
who doesn't, you have got to use the ground a little bit.
We're gonna get into the sequence of motion here
momentarily, it starts with the core and if you don't
use the ground and squeeze down a little bit,
you're just not gonna hit the ball that far.
Let's look at one of the best ball strikers briefly,
and we're gonna get out and really get into
this whole sequence here.
So one of the best of the best, Dustin Johnson,
watch his head relative to the lake there,
and watch how it lowers, watch how he's moving down
towards the ground, now what's happening,
he's not squatting his knees way down or dipping his head
at the ball, he is increasing that angle
and providing downward pressure into the ground,
and as he pushes down, and squeezes down with his body,
he can really start to explode out of there
and make a dynamic move.
Alright so let's flesh it out a little bit,
what are we tryna do is start the downswing,
how are we gonna accomplish those things
and do it with power and consistency.
These days in the golf industry almost anything
is measurable, they know what the ball does, with the club,
with launch monitors, they can measure with force plates
and three dimensional or 3D motion sensors like K-Vest,
what the body's doing, so you may find an elite player
say something, that's what they feel,
but the reality is this is the sequence of great golfers.
Now the first thing is the core, that would be your glutes,
your abs, everything around your hips here,
that's the first segment to move,
second segment would be your thoracic spine,
that's the top of you body up here,
lower body's a little more stable,
that's more of a stabilizing component,
and sections three and four are arms then club,
so that's the acceleration pattern we've gotta have,
and the great players do this really well.
Now one little thing before we talk about a drill for that,
if you're really gonna get power,
we've talked about using the ground,
but if you're gonna get power,
the faster you move those segments in order
and then the quicker you decelerate them,
the more rapid the movement is,
the more power you'll create, so if you've watched
some of my videos before, you've seen me use this towel,
again that's a nice sequence, that's core leading,
club head coming last, but there's not a lot of energy,
so I've gotta move this end quickly
and decelerate it quickly, that's wat gives it power,
so I would suggest you make some little practice swings
without the club initially, if you're at home there,
give that core literally a little shiver and just feel that
work up the system, and let your arms
just relax and respond to that.
Now when you get out to the range, I've got an 8 iron here,
hit some little shots, and again you're tryna create energy
in a small amount of space and start to feel that movement,
but get extra soft with your arms and club,
let them kind of shiver and load like the towel does,
so here's a little swing,
so I really created some energy there,
I felt my arms respond to that, that ball for me went
a pretty long way for a little mini swing,
and just camp out with that a little bit,
and I'm gonna get back, I'm gonna shiver this
and let the arms just totally respond
and let the energy go up the segments.
Like so, and as you get a little bit more confident,
just start doing it on a slightly bigger scale.
That's a pretty solid shot for a medium sized shot,
and again as I do that, and you can practice this,
I feel that sense of squeezing the ground
'cause it really helps me accelerate in the proper sequence.
That's the kind of feel, then I'll start it
with some big shots, this is fun, you'll be amazed
how far you can hit the ball if you do these things.
Let's have a look from this angle.
Okay so those first two things deal primarily with
solid contact and speed, how can you hit the ball harder
and how can you hit it dynamically.
Let's look a little bit at direction,
obviously that's critical in golf,
then again we'll assume solid contact and we'll assume
some club face control, your swing plane is hugely
determinative of how good a directional control you are
so the way you change direction has to
influence you out there towards the target.
I've put two little white sticks up there
as we go over this set of bunkers,
kind of give you a sense of it a little bit, and listen,
we've got this all fleshed out at Scratch Golf Academy,
a full course on building blocks and what not
but I wanna give you something at least to touch on here,
and that is to say, just let your instincts show up
a little bit here, and I love the club toss,
you may have seen this if you've watched a few of my videos,
if you had to take a golf position and just toss a club,
most likely, in one or two tries,
you would begin to toss it relatively well at the target.
And I promise you, this is something I learned
from Fred Shoemaker out in California, one of my mentors,
if you can get a feel for that, that's about how you wanna
swing the golf club, now what's the real problem,
and again this goes back to some stuff Fred showed me,
most people deep down are aiming at golf ball too much,
so invariably they're gonna come down too directly
at the ball, too steeply, this golf club is gonna
put pressure on the ball and drive it somewhere,
you wanna put pressure on the back of the ball
to send it towards the target, I mean that's obvious right,
so if you wanna practice that, take a golf club,
look out there if you like, and you'll find your toss
will come from the side of your body,
underneath and out to the target, no thinking,
there we go right in there, actually knocked the stumps
a little bit there, and just work off that feel.
I've got an 8 iron here, hit a couple of little short shots
over the top of those hopefully.
And again, I'm starting to sense the direction of swing
that's gonna drive that ball towards the target
and I'm avoiding letting the golf ball be the target,
that's not the emphasis point in my swing.
So I hope that gives you some clear ideas
as to how to start the downswing correctly,
give you some power and some consistency,
again scratchgolfacademy.com is my website,
we've got a full course in the building blocks of the swing,
full courses in everything, hope you'll check that out,
please subscribe to the channel if you liked the video,
would love to get you more free content,
there's already a lot out to see.
Thanks very much.