Casting your club from the top of your backswing is the NUMBER ONE REASON WHY YOU LOSE DISTANCE! Last week our Swing Tip helped you with the 3 moves to rotate your body and create wrist cock at the top of your swing. This preparation is wasted if you don’t hold the wrist cock as you start your down swing. Punching the butt of your club down from the top of your swing is a critical starting point for LONGER DISTANCE.
A tip from GolfLink Swing Tips by Chuck Cook (instructor to such PGA Tour greats as Payne Stewart, Tom Kite, and Corey Pavin) described this motion as a Punch Drill. He described it as swinging under a tree limb and releasing your wrists through impact. This image is a little strange but you need to train your mind to get this right.
Learning to punch down with the butt end of your club is easy to do in slow motion. Unfortunately there are 3 things happening as you transition from your back swing to your forward swing:
1/ as your club reaches the top of your swing, you need to use the forward momentum to press with your trailing leg and start your hip rotation in the forward direction.
2/ your arms reverse direction and lead the down swing with the butt of your club.
3/ you need to visualize Ernie Els with his gradual acceleration. Slow in the transition and accelerating as you swing down and releasing your cocked wrists as you whip the head of the club through impact. [YouTube video in appreciation from GOLF-Monthly.co.uk ]
Practice this in slow motion to get the punching motion correct. Unfortunately the momentum of your swing to the top can’t be duplicated in slow motion. Momentum is caused by the mass and speed of your club head. That’s why it is so difficult to start a golf swing from a dead stop at the top of your backswing.
AHA MOMENT! ALERT! What else can I say to get your ATTENTION!
To learn to control the speed of your transition, holding lag at the top and acceleration: Practice with a flat souled shoe on your right foot (works best with a rubber soul on a wet mat or grass) and a golf shoe on your left foot. If you rush at the top and cast your club early, your right foot will slip back away from the ball. If you hold your lag and control your acceleration from the top you will be able to stay in balance throughout the swing. [YOU WILL KNOW WHEN YOU ARE DOING IT CORRECTLY WHEN YOU ARE STILL IN BALANCE OVER YOUR LEADING FOOT AS YOU WATCH YOUR BALL DISAPPEAR OVER THE HORIZON – – – just kidding but you get the idea.]
I got this tip from Robert Ryley in Minnesota. He discovered this while playing in flat bottomed running shoes. He had to slow down his swing at the top and hold the lag in his wrists in order to keep his balance. BINGO: He dropped his handicap from 16 to 4. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
Try this tip at the range or while you play a round of golf on wet grass (or while the morning dew is still on the grass). And don’t forget your GOLFSTR+ For every swing in your game: www.golfstr.com
This tip is very well known to most of LONG DRIVERS.To visualize doing the movement right ,put a tee in the little hole in the butt end of your club and direct energetically and forcefully the tee to where the ball lies .
But one useful advice is missing here :you have to cock your right wrist as much as you physically can (Look at the creases created at the bottomof your right wrist ) and keep that cock the longest possible time :that’s where the “whipping “action which imparts so much speed to the clubhead comes from ,as if you were casting a fishing rod .
I don’t quite agree with the tip on the”Slippery and flat footed right foot :to get maximum forward hip rotation you have to push off as hard as you can from the right foot instep .The smoothness of the transition has nothing to do with pushing off the right foot :just forget about the transition or say “Pause “at the top of the backswing to avoid rushing it .
Another piece of advice :your right forearm has to be thrust forward full speed on a straight line to where the ball lies.
When all these moves blend togther ,you have an unmistakeable feeling of speed and power !
I agree with everything you said. The slipper back foot was just a way to learn to stay in balance (and not rushing at the top) when hitting at a moderate speed. I do agree that you need your rear foot anchored for power.