Josh’s Tips & Tricks: Stop hitting it right!

Welcome

Welcome to this weeks tips & tricks. I hope you enjoyed practicing hitting out from under the imaginary trees last week. We had fun in roll-up classes putting it into practice and hopefully you did too.

This week we’re going to look a little bit closer into how the forearms and wrists work to control the clubface. I bet most of you reading this have spent your fair share of time looking down the right side of the golf course in trees and thick rough, I know I certainly have! Most people I teach miss to the right more than the left so I’m going to help you lower the chances of this happening and hopefully find you some straighter shots.

Squaring the clubface to target

It is very important to understand how the arms work to control the clubface in the golf swing. If you don’t know how your hands control the golf club then I highly recommend taking some notice of what’s to come.

When we make contact with the ball we ideally want the club to be moving towards the target with the clubface pointing as close as possible to the target also. Like I said previously most of the people I teach come to me because they’re spinning the golf ball to the right. Most of the time this is because the clubface is open at impact sending and spinning the ball away from the desired target. If we get the clubface rotating in a more conventional way through the downswing to impact, the chances of hitting the ball right of target will be decreased.

Let’s have a look at the video.

Clubface Rotation Drills

In this video I have shown you some of the drills I use to encourage more forearm rotation in the golf swing.

Drill 1

The first drill is to swing the club around your waist like a baseball shot. Turn the clubface to face the sky in the backswing, then turn it to face the target at impact, then turn it to face the floor after impact. This will allow the forearms to gently rotate all the way through the swing.

Drill 2

The next drill is starting the clubface closed after impact. If you start with the clubface in an exaggerated position and try to recreate it through impact it should help the clubface to point less right as you hit the ball.

Drill 3

The third clip is holding the left elbow in place and only using the left arm to swing the club. Most golfers are right handed however most of the control comes through the left hand if you play golf right handed. Understanding how the left wrist and forearm control the clubface is crucial and you can follow the steps I have in the video to help understand this.

Summary

There are obviously many other factors at play when you swing a golf club but for me, understanding which way the clubface points during each part of your swing is crucial. If you are likely to miss to the right give these a go and try to get the clubface pointing at the target or even left of target to see some different results. It will take patience and practice but give them a go and see if you lose less balls right next time you’re on the course.

Like I say every week, if this is something you struggle with and would like me to take a look, book yourself in for a lesson and we can get you sorted.

See you soon,

Josh