- Adam Bazalgette, Two-Time PGA
Teacher Of The Year Award winner,
back here at the beautiful club
at Mediterra, Naples, Florida.
Today's Video subject is a golf Backswing Drill
for a better Takeaway.
(Upbeat music)
So golf backswing drill for a better takeaway.
Now bear in mind, there is two things
at least my view of it, there is two things
you're trying to accomplish here.
One is the sequence how everything flows together.
And two of course is the swing plane,
it gets you started on the swing plane.
I'll show you some ideas and a drill
for both as we go along in the video.
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(hits golf ball)
Well that was an 8-iron swing for me.
Let's talk a little bit about the takeaway
and I believe the first thing that we want
to get right here is we want to get everything moving away
a little bit together, we'll expand on that
and there's really two reasons why I think that helps you.
Now what I mean by it is we want to get
the core of the body, the arms and the club
all kind of working away together.
Doesn't need to be stiff, doesn't need to be rigid or wooden
but I think that does two things that are really important.
Number one it helps get the power sequence going.
The club really should always be reacting to the body
and the golf swing, even get it a little out of sync.
But most of the time when I teach golf
when people kinda snatch that club back, usually
the first instinct they have is to whip the club down
so it gets you out of sync.
And secondly I think you're fine
when everything moves away more together
it's just much more repeatable.
Let's have a look at a great player in action.
- [Commentator] Okay two of the finest swingers in the game.
Both named Justin, Justin Thomas on the left,
Justin Rose on the right, and we're going to look
at in terms of playing here, what are acceptable corridors.
That's the way Jim McLean describes it
and the acceptable corridor for the takeaway is somewhere
pretty much straight back from the ball
between the body and the golf ball.
He of course does that beautifully
and I think it's pretty clear that when he does that,
that relates really well to his target out there.
Let's have a look at Justin Rose.
And something very similar, if you get behind your body
or out beyond the golf ball there
it's possible to hit it certainly
but to me that would be a pretty complex way to play.
- Now when I watch people hit golf balls,
usually the thing they do is, they kinda snatch the club
head back, they get too much break in that back wrist there
and that's kind of how they get started.
So I really like this drill, you are gonna set up normally,
we are not gonna hit a ball with this drill
and you're gonna take this normal grip here
but just split hands so you're just down
to the metal there on that hand.
The club hand is gonna be about 5-6 inches off the ground
and feeling this movement just practice that
first foot or two off the ball.
What's going to happen, you're gonna really be aware
of if you break that angle down
so this is a beautiful way to kind of rehearse that feel.
Then just simply slide your hand down there.
(hits golf ball)
See if you can get the same feel.
Let me show you that close up and I will show you
a really nice variation on that drill
that I think is helpful too.
So there is that split hand drill wonderful feel
as I mentioned you will definitely know it
if you break that down.
A great variation on that drill, let me go in front of you,
get your right hand flat, put it in front of the shaft.
You will be up near your left hand in this case
and just practice moving it away this way.
You will get a lovely sense of your right palm
aiming more forward towards the target.
And again you can really sense when you do that
it is actually difficult to do that
because you don't have your right hand on the club
to snatch it like that, so wonderful
auxiliary part of that drill.
Okay so let me show you a little drill
I use at the golf academy frequently
that I think really helps people
but you will be surprised how tricked up they get on it.
I will show you, and to me it really helps people stay
in this corridor, if I could back up one more second there.
I'm putting this in the end of the video
because I think when everything is moving in a good sequence
as we discussed at the beginning of the video
this drill becomes much easier.
Here is the drill:
Put something on the target line, doesn't really matter
if there is a target out there,
a couple of feet away something visually obvious
like that towel, so when I'm standing
at the golf ball, I can see it.
We knock the golf ball out, we make a few imaginary
takeaways, just saying hey if I had to go over the towel
or hit the towel or some such imaginary thing,
where would your backswing go?
Invariably they would be within that corridor.
I have yet to see the person look at the towel
and snatch the club in there or go over here.
So here is stage two of the drill
and this is where it gets kind of interesting to me,
it kind of demonstrates how fixated on the golf ball
and if you like how fretful over solid contact
most people get, I will say they take an 8 or a 9 iron,
this is an 8, we are just gonna hit it
35 yards with no concern for contact.
If you don't hit it well, no big deal.
And I will say to them let's get set up here
and let's actually look at the towel
or the target and chip one from there.
You'd be surprised how difficult that is for people.
They are so conditioned to fixate on the golf ball,
they can't even trust themselves if there is no consequence
for bat contact to look over at the towel.
But a minute or so later we can get them over this.
I encourage you to try this and simply,
contact doesn't count, look at the towel.
(hits golf ball)
It happened to hit that pretty solidly.
Chip a few balls then look back away from the towel,
you can peripherally see it, chip a few more
and just kind of compare notes with yourself.
Where do I go when I'm looking at the towel?
Is it different to when I look at the golf ball?
Again this is a shortcut because if you have got
good sequence of motion, a little bit of target awareness
will significantly help you get within that corridor.
We'll hope that golf backswing drill
for a better takeaway is helpful to you.
Work on some of those ideas, they're fairly simple really.
And if you do the drills, I'm confident,
you'll have some success.
I appreciate your interest in the videos,
please subscribe to the channel if you like it
and of course Scratchgolf.com, my home website
has full courses in every aspect of the game
including building blocks of a great swing.
That would cover this in a lot of detail.
Thanks again.