A relaxed swing of the golf club

A common fault I see a lot is that players try and overly control the club head throughout the swing.  When players have this fault, they will have a lot of tension in their hands, forearms and shoulders in address.  During the swing, the wrists will not set freely.  The swing will look very tense and wooden and probably they will use their upper body and big muscles in the downswing to create speed resulting in many different faults.  If this is you, try this drill:

• Tee the ball up
• Rather than gripping the club with all the fingers in your left hand, take your baby off the grip, only gripping with 3 fingers.
• Reduce your grip pressure as much as you can.
• Take some practice swings, feeling the weight of the club swinging around your body with relaxed hands, arms and shoulders.
• Once you have a feel for this, go ahead and hit some shots completing the same drill.

After some practice, you will start to feel that you do not need to use your upper body and big muscles as much to create club head speed ,and trust to not overly control the club head.  Let it go – let it swing freely.

Transcript

HI this is Robin Symes. A common fault I see a lot is that players try to over-control the club heads throughout the swing. Only at this fault, they’ll have a lot of tension in their hands, forearms, shoulders at address. The wrists won’t cock freely in the backswing, the swing will look very wooden and probably their upper body or their bigger muscles will dominate in the downswing. This player is trying to muscle the ball forward, rather than let the swinging movement of the club create the club head speed. If this is you, try this drill.

Start by teeing the ball up, and rather than gripping the club up with all four fingers, remove the baby finger from the end of the club, so you’re only holding the club with three fingers in your left hand. From there, put your right hand on as normal, and reduce the grip pressure as much as you can. Before you hit a few shots, take a few practice swings, letting the weight of the club swing, feeling the weight of the club throughout the backswing, downswing and follow through. The weight of the club is swinging around your body. Once you’ve got a little feel for it, go ahead and hit a few shots. I think after a little practice, you’ll start to realize that you don’t need to use your muscles as much to create club head speed. You’ll develop a little trust in letting the club head go throughout the swing.