Josh’s Tips & Tricks: Towel Under Arms
Intro
Hello golfers and welcome to this weeks tips & tricks. This week I would like to show you a practice drill that could really help you with controlling the golf ball. We are getting closer to the start of the season so we need to start thinking about how to score better on the course . This is going to get better with better ball striking, especially with wedges and irons. Using this towel drill should help you find some connection in your golf swing between your arms and body.
Towel Drill
Putting a towel under both arms and across the chest will help to bring the upper arms close to the body. This is important because we don’t want the arms making big excessive movements and taking over in the swing. Creating connection and timing between the arms and chest should really help with timing and striking with irons and wedges.
This idea of this drill is not to hit full and long shots. We want to try and make some half to three quarter swings but really get the feeling that the body and arms are working together. Put the ball on a small tee and start with a pitching wedge or short iron. As you get better you can take the ball off the tee and start use a slightly longer club.
Take a look at the video below to see some common mistakes and how to do this drill properly
TOWEL UNDER ARMS DRILL – VIDEO
Notice in the video how I rehearse making small connected movements into the backswing. I then try to rehearse how far I would like the club to get into the backswing. By the end I can make almost full swings and make good contact. This takes a lot of practice so keep it short and sweep to start. Try to feel the hips rotating, the better you move your hips the easier this drill becomes.
For lots of you this drill will feel awful. The towel could come away from either arm depending on the faults in your swing but persist with it. Make lots of practice swings doing this even if you don’t hit balls. The great Ben Hogan apparently did this drill every single day. If it’s good enough for him it’s good enough for me and you! Justin Rose is also a big user of this drill. He often tucks his sleeve under his armpit on the course to remind him of good connection.
Lots of you could benefit from the drill. Not only because it will improve connection and improve body rotation but it it can also help shorten the backswing. If the backswing is wild and out of control getting back to the ball consistently is tough. Lots of people feel their backswing is half or three quarter but it actually gets close to parallel at the top. A shorter backswing can really improve ball striking and consistency so give it a go.
Summary
Work on this drill for more control and connection in your swing. It can help control the length of the backswing and improve the rotation through your hips and torso. It’s not easy to start with if you have faults in your swing but persist with it.
If you would like some help understanding this drill or would like to book a lesson follow the link below.
See you all soon!
Cheers,
Josh