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The Golf Fix: Viewer's Special - May 23, 2011 (45:17)

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Michael Breed answers email and analyzes videos from loyal Golf Fix viewers.

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-You asked for it and we listen. It's our Viewer's Special. We'...

-You asked for it and we listen. It's our Viewer's Special. We're showing videos, emails, and you know what they said, video killed the radio star Let's do this. -The Golf Fix with Michael Breed, brought to you by SkyCaddie. -We have been listening. You've been listening. You got the videos to us, that contact it's essential. That's how we're helping you with your game and you know it. The email address is thegolffix@golfchannel.com. Our telephone number 800-842-9987. Twitter, Facebook, and obviously the videos. That's the best part that we're gonna get to a lot of videos and a lot of emails tonight. Let's take a little look at what we've got coming up on the show. Well in the first we're gonna talk a little about the viewers and then that we're gonna talk about viewers a little bit later and then well we're gonna talk a little bit more about some more viewers and we're gonna do it in a variety of different ways. We're gonna show you some videos. We're gonna take some emails. Who knows? We might even take a phone call. I don't think so. Alright. We got, let's see who we're gonna get to right away here, hold on. Hey, it's Scott Dickson, you know him, you love him. By the way if you know Scott Dickson get on the phone, call Scott and tell him we are going to show and break down and help him with his game. Here we go. So pretty good action there by Scott really. I mean when you look at the setup position, let's go back to the beginning. Your setup position looks really good. These lines that he has right here, I love this nice line through the spine angle. There's not a rounded back there. Great weight distribution, very, very good job right there, Scott. Now there's a couple of little flaws here that we see going on and obviously then Scott you know this. You've got some flaws. You sent the video to us, so we're gonna be able to help you with the game. Let's just watch what happens when we go back here. Club starts to go back. It works outside and away from the ball. You can see how the head of the club is outside here. When this starts to work in that fashion, what starts to happen is the club starts to work up and you're gonna start to bow your grip, I mean bow your wrist. But before we even see any of that, I want you to take a look here at what that grip position looks like right there, and I don't know if you can get close in to that grip like that, but what you can see is he's got a little bit of a claw. So the first thing that we're gonna do here, Scott, is we're gonna get to your grip position. I'm gonna show you a little key here to make sure that you get your grip held properly. Now what happens is when you start to go up to the top, you start to lift your body up. I'm gonna draw a line right along the top of your head right here. You're gonna lift your body up and you're gonna bow your wrist right here. So start standing up right there. You could see how there's-- look at how much he's lifted up that body. So now he's way up here like that. I'm gonna erase that line so we know we've got some body lift. We gotta help get that spine angle to stay constant and then I gotta change that position with that wrist because this is what we call in a laid-off position and a laid-off position is the following. At the top of the swing, we want the shaft of the club to be pointing around the ball line, okay? So when I draw a line along your shaft line right here, you could see that that shaft line is nowhere near the golf ball. So we have got to get that shaft line to be much more towards the ball there, okay? So now we start to go down into this, nice sit down into that, a nice lag position but because the club is in a wrong position and it's been moved out in a way what's gonna happen is you're gonna hit this off the toe. You do a little standing up through the ball. Watch this. See how straight up and down that body is right there. So now all of a sudden we're coming out of that. The club has worked and away from us and when we get to impact position, look at the impact position. That's dead off the toe right there and then finally and again we're talking about a lot of little different stuff here, Scott, but it's all as a result of what you're doing in the backswing there and what you've done with the grip so we're gonna fix the grip and then we're gonna fix that backswing. So when you take the club through, there's a little bit of a release into your left. It wouldn't surprise me if your left elbow was hurting you or you were starting to get some pains of like they call it tennis elbow just because of what you're doing with this release position right here. It's a lot of work into that and when you get on this other side, what you're gonna see is this cupping of this wrist over here. You could see how much that's cupped right there and that's as a result of what's going on with that position at the top of the swing, okay? Now those of you at home that might be having a little bit of a problem, maybe hitting the ball off the toe. Well, this is something you wanna pay attention to, and by the way when you're talking about making a proper golf swing, you have to discuss the grip and those of you that are at home that are wondering what's going on with your game, the grip is the most important thing and you need to understand how to do this properly. So what we're gonna do is this. When we set up we hold this club. The left hand is pretty good and Scott's position is really pretty good. But the problem here is, let me just get over here. When you grip the club this way, what I'm looking for is I'm looking for that V to be attached so you could see that line right there. Scott's grip is like that. It's kind of a claw. So there's no real connection between the thumb and the index finger and I want that to be connected that way. So what you're gonna do is you're gonna take a tee and you just gotta put a tee right in there like that. So if you can't put a tee in between the index finger there, that first joint on the index finger and the thumb, if you can't stick a tee in there, then you don't have the right hand or the trail hand position properly. So what you're gonna do is, it's very simple. You just gonna put the tee literally behind your ear here. You get and you hold your grip like this. Now wherever you're low hand is or the trail hand, the one without the glove, wherever that is, you're gonna then take the other hand off, grab that tee, put it in there like that and then you're gonna just hold that and get your grip back again. Now you got that tee in there and you should be able to swing this club through, keeping that tee right in there in your hands. If you can't get the tee in the first place, then you're not holding the club properly and what happens is this. Because we haven't created this crotch here, this V to support the club at the top and what's going on with Scott is he hasn't done that. So now what he does is he rolls his arms and creates this bowed wrist so that he could support it with the back with the right hand underneath the club instead of using that crotch to support it. He's got it that way. Well what happens is is that clubface gets shut and when the clubface gets shut, then he starts to do some rather I would say unathletic things through the hit. So what we wanna do is this, Scott. The first thing that we wanna do is we wanna get that grip held properly. Then were gonna watch him. I'm gonna use this golf bag over here, okay? And what I want you to do is I want you to-- I'm gonna put this right back here like this, okay? Now, what I want you to do when you take the club back is I want you to move this club back and I want you to feel the head of the club hit that bag just softly. You're gonna let the head of the club hit the bag and have your hands inside here. What you're doing in your swing as you're going like this, rolling your hands out like this and the club might even get inside the bag or when it hits the bag, you're hands and arms are away from you. We need to keep the hands and arms inside here as a drill. So what happens is you're gonna do this like this. It's gonna get to here. That's the first part. Now what you're gonna do after that is you're gonna take 2 alignment sticks and you're gonna put them inside so that the low alignment stick is touching that toe. What I want you to do is I want you to feel like after you've hit that when you get the club starting in the backswing, that we're gonna take the shaft and we're gonna point it into this channel. Now typically what I'm looking for is I'm looking for the shaft of the club as I've said before to point around the golf ball near the target line. But in your particular situation because you're so far above it, I've gotta take you to an extreme here and get you to feel like you're pointing this towards the toe line so we've got that channel right there. So you get your grip and these are your 3 things. You get your grip, take the club back so that that club head hits the bag and the hands are inside by your thigh. From right there you're gonna stand the club up into the air so it's pointing down into that channel. That's 3 things. That's a lot of stuff. So here's what I wanna remind you. When you go to go practice and this is for everybody. When you go to practice, work on one thing at a time. Scott, you should be able to get that grip without a problem when you go to practice and then what you're gonna do is you're gonna do that 1st drill first and you're gonna do that drill and continue to do that until you get that backswing to that point, then you can start work on standing that shaft straight up and down in a perpendicular relationship so that golf club can get down the line and you can support it properly, okay? I know that's gonna help you. We've got plenty of more coming. All videos, Jake Castillo is up next so Jake, or those of you who know Jake, give him a call. We'll be right back. It's our Viewer's Special. This may then get in to the top here. Must be some little bit shut right there. Alright. So I got Jake all covered. We'll get him done. Welcome back to the Golf Fix. I wanna remind you all that you know your swing may or may not get up tonight but those of you whose swing we don't look at tonight, you still can learn some stuff and we're doing a lot of juniors tonight as well. And for those of you that have young children that are getting into this game, you really wanna pay attention to this stuff because what you're gonna see is how bad grip or maybe some posture or some motion through the hit is affecting what's going on with the ball and what I would tell you is one, keep a close eye on this. Make sure that your children maybe get to a PGA professional so that they get some right fundamentals so that they're not creating some bad habits as we go along here. Alright. We're gonna look at young Jake Castillo. This was actually videoed by his father, Tony, so Jake's got a pretty good setup position. There's a little flaw there that I'm not a big fan of, but very good width in the stance right there. This grip looks a little bit strong and it appears as if his thumb, his left thumb right there is kind of peeking out from his right hand which means either that his left hand, it means his left hand and his right hand aren't connected together so we'll get back to understanding the grip part here, Jake, okay? Alright. So let's take a little look at this swing. Great motion, very good balance through that swing right there. So as we start to go through here, gonna look a little bit more closely at what goes on in that grip so I can see that thumb right there. I can see his left thumb so I know his right hand is really not in a great spot right there. I think his right hand is a little bit too much underneath the grip and so we'll see as we go up to the top here. What's gonna happen is is that this clubface is gonna get a little bit shut. Now you might ask and you'd be smart to ask this question, how do I know that it's the right hand that's creating the problem, because at the top of the swing here, typically what you see is when you see a face of the club which by the way when the face of the club is pointing up to the sky, that's what we call closed. So typically when you see a closed clubface position, you'd see a bowed left wrist position for the right-handed player. That gloved hand would look like that. But Jake doesn't have that. Jake's got a little bit of a cup in that wrist so now I know that his right hand is the culprit here because if I wanted him to bow that wrist more, get it flat, what would end happening is that clubface will get even more shut. So this is a right-hand dominated swing, probably a right-handed player. I mean probably a right-handed individual and as a result, he's dominating that swing with the right hand and once again supporting the club at the top there which is not uncommon for young juniors. He probably learned when he was a lot younger to support that club with the right hand in that position versus in that position. So now as we start to come through, he does a phenomenal job hanging on to this angle. Look at the angle that he retains there and how he's loading that shaft. It's fantastic, really, really good position right there. Now he starts to get rid of the club and you can see the club is starting to kick right there. Even though when he's got the hands in the thigh, the shaft is still up in the air, he's starting to kick it right there and that with a closed clubface is a really big problem so we've gotta get that clubface more open. So when he comes through here, this impact position looks great but what's happened is is that as he's hit the ball, he hit it out on the toe which is gonna give this illusion that the clubface is square right there through the hit and then of course as you know he does a beautiful job, great extension through there, absolutely fantastic. Maybe a little bit of a reverse C and that would tend to happen as a result of that clubface being square. He's gonna kind of try to hold on to that a little bit more and keep that club going down the line so he doesn't overhook it and then he releases very late, okay? So really nice job with that swing there, Jake. But a couple of things that you need to do and the first one is back to that grip, okay? So this is where he is and I'm gonna make an exaggeration so when he holds the club like that, you can see how right there, you can see this part of my left hand right there and that means that the right hand, the right thumb is on the wrong side of the shaft, but the kind of the rule that you wanna have is as follows: that the thumb, whichever thumb, the left thumb is gonna be on the right side of the median of the shaft or the centerline of the shaft. So when I'm right here, when I see that golf pried right there, what I see is that my left hand now is on the right side of the shaft. If I drew a line down from the golf pried down through the center of that grip, my left hand is on the right side and now my right-- I'm sorry. My left thumb is on the right side and now my right thumb is gonna be on the left side of the shaft. What you don't want is your right thumb on the right side of the shaft or your left thumb on the left side of the shaft. Do you understand that? You want it on the opposite side of the centerline of the shaft and that helps you support the club. Now in Jake's situation, what happens is and this would be, Rut, if we could get a down-the-line shot here. What happens is and I'm gonna sneak in here. He's got his hand in such a position when he takes the club back like that, he supports the club at the top with his hand like this but his wrist like that so the clubface is in a-- you see how that clubface is dead up into the air there. Okay. That's a shut position right there so what we wanna do is we wanna get this hand on the club properly so that when he takes the club back, that the toe starts to hang. The ideal position that we want right here, Jake, and for all of you at home is we want the face of the club to be parallel to this forearm at the top of the swing right there. What we don't want is we don't want shut and we definitely don't want open. Most of you at the top of the swing or an open position right there, what we want is we want square which is where that leading edge and that forearm right there. Let me get right over there, yes. That leading edge of that forearm right there are parallel, okay? So what we're gonna do is we're gonna make sure that we get the right grip and then what I wanna have happen is from the right grip, what will in effect happen for Jake is as he starts to take the club back, he's gonna have the club in a good spot. The face is gonna be in a good spot and then he's gonna be able to go through. Now the part that I want Jake to focus on in the through swing is because he's had this clubface in such a closed position, that as he starts to go through he starts to hang back like this and get into this reverse C position. What I wanna have happen is I wanna get that club in that spot and then I want you to feel like your right shoulder is gonna get over your left foot. So as you come through, that right shoulder is gonna get over the left foot and I'm in a straight up and down position over here. So make sure you get the good grip, take that back and then the right shoulder over the left foot. And as you start to do that, you're gonna start to get going that way. Now let me do one more here. I can't send it to a break on that swing. That was not good. So good position, right shoulder over the left foot. Now we go that way. Now I have good balance. Now the ball is going where we want it to go. Okay? Alright. So much more. Evan Johnson is up next. Give Evan the call, hey Eve, we're gonna take care of your golf swing. Don't go anywhere. It's our Viewer's Special. Welcome back to the Golf Fix, our Viewer's Special rolls on. Evan Johnson. He's gonna be the next one up here. Let's see what old Evan has got going on here. Great little setup and this looks like this is down in the basement of the house. I'm liking it and there's a punching bag right there in case you don't hit it right where you wanna hit it. You just go there and take out a little frustration on the bag. I like it, Evan. Well done. Alright. So let's see the swing. Very good motion right there. There's a number of really good things about this swing. First of all, setup position looks very good. I might get you just a little bit farther away from that ball. At address your arms are hanging down there just a little bit too much inside there. There's not a lot of space right in there, so I might just have you get a little bit farther away from that ball. Now as we start to go back here, looks like Dad's doing the video taping right here, which is Pop, when you're video taping get a tripod and put the camera on the tripod. That way you don't have to worry about staying still and all that stuff, okay? So get a tripod. Club's going a little bit to the inside right there, nice full turn. If that club is way, way, way on the inside, his arms and hands have moved way across his body. His hands are right here and I'd love to see his hands over the toe line right there, okay? So I'd love to see the hands go outside and we'll give you a little drill for that. Now as the club goes up here and he starts to lift, the club gets into a really good position. Toe is hanging beautifully but as a result of his arms going so much to inside, this forearm right here is leaning away from the golf ball. What we want the position at the top we want is this. The forearm is either gonna be dead perpendicular to the ground or parallel to the spine or somewhere in between but we never wanna get to where that forearm is laid back like that. Now that's happening because that arm is going so far to the inside and then when he lifts, this goes this way. So we've got to take care of that position. And what happens is this. Now Evan does a beautiful job coming down here. I want you to pay attention to how he drops down into that hit so I'm just gonna set that line right there. Alright and actually you know what? Right at the top of his head and watch what happens as he comes down. He drops beautifully down into that hit. This squat position, this sit down position, one of the hardest things to teach people, so Evan great job by you. But what happens is is because that forearm was in that bad position, he's gonna start to rise up right here and now all of a sudden at impact, he is straight up and down and this is one of the most common faults that we see, that straight up and down position so what you're gonna notice when we get all done with this is this footwork. Watch this left foot. It's gonna drop back and then it's gonna spin out. So let me show you that again. So here's the foot position right there. Watch that lead foot drop back right there. Did you see it drop back? And now he's straight up and down right here and that foot has dropped back so now he's just made a very athletic move to stay in balance there but that's gonna make the consistency of the shots be not so successful and then as he comes through, he ends up finding that balance, good full finish. So there's a lot of really good stuff going on right there, Evan, but we need to make some changes, just a couple. So let's go on over here. And what we wanna do, I'm gonna need an alignment rod for this. So we're gonna take an alignment rod. I'm gonna put the alignment rod down here. Now what I wanna have happen is this. If I can get-- hey Rut, can you give me a down-the-line here? Beautiful. So what happens is is this. When Evan gets set up, he gets set up just like this and what you're gonna see is when you have an overhead shot. Now how about an overhead shot here, Rut. What you're gonna see is that my shoulders right here are right on top of that line and you can't see my arms and my hands. Now when I get to that proper position where I'm just kind of like this, now my arms are extending out a little bit and now you can see this forearm right there and you could see this space in here so it looks like that alignment rod, my hands are on that side and my feet are on this side. When we get to where we're like this, where both the hands and the feet are on the same side of the alignment rod, we're too close, and that's what's going on with Evan. So Evan you gotta make sure you get your setup position so that you have your hands out here a little bit. From your eye what you're gonna see is you're gonna see the grip right in line with that alignment rod, alright? You won't be in here like this where you're looking at it and the grip is on the inside part of the alignment rod and that's gonna be a really important thing for you here, okay? Alright. So now what we wanna do is we wanna get this forearm into the right position and we wanna make sure that this club is working in the right fashion and it's a very simple drill. You're just gonna hit some shots with one hand. What will happen is you're not gonna go like this with your right hand. What you'll do is you'll take the club up and you'll go like this. Let's get a down-the-line shot here, Rut. So when you get set up with one arm and you go like this, and you'd take the club up like this, what you're gonna find is is that your forearm is gonna be dead straight underneath it or you'll have a little bit this way because that's a stronger position. This is a very, very weak position with one arm. So you're never gonna take the club back and go like this. That's just uncomfortable. It hurts your lateral muscle right there. So what I want you to do is I just want you to hit some one-arm shots and I want you to feel what it feels like to have this arm moving in this direction here. So it's back like this and down through, alright? One more, back like this, right there. You can see that forearm right there. Excellent. And now we go up, down. Now you get a feel for what that feels like to move that arm properly and then the last thing I want you to do is I want you to work on making sure that you stay in that spine angle. And a very simple drill so now we got 2 hands on it. We've done that one-arm drill and again I'm gonna remind you Evan one thing at a time here, okay? So now you're set up like this. Now what we wanna do is we wanna make sure that we maintain that spine angle and all I want you to feel is that when you come down, you're going like this, okay? What I want you to do is I wanna feel it like your chest, you do a beautiful drop into it. Now what I want you to do is I want you to feel like your chest is gonna stay faced to the ground right here and that's how you're gonna stay in that spine angle, okay? So a little one-arm drill and then a little bit of chest action and you'll be in a good shape. Alright, gotta take a break. We're gonna come back with little halfway house. Don't wanna go anywhere, Viewer's Special. Welcome back to the Golf Fix. Halfway house. You know Golf Channel was celebrating healthy week on the networks of NBC Universal and you have to be healthy to play this game and we wanna help you get healthy. One of the most important things in being a good player or getting better improving your game is making sure that you stay stretched, make sure you stretch in the morning before you go play or do whatever. I wanna give you a couple of ideas as to why it's so important. The first thing is this and the area that we're gonna focus on is the hips because for the most part, now it's actually just having a conversation with my brother about this, because he's had a knee surgery and his hip as a result of that has gotten very tight. You gotta make sure that you stretch it out. What happens when your hips get tight is you're gonna do a couple of things. One, you're not gonna get any hip turn at all and you're gonna limit your range of motion or two, as you start trying to get some range of motion but your hip won't turn, you're gonna slide like this. You're gonna do a lot of sliding and as a result your weight distribution is gonna move on improperly. So what I wanna do is I wanna give you an idea of how to stretch properly to get your hips so that they move correctly here or at least move better. What you're gonna do is you're gonna get out, you're going to go practice. You're gonna do whatever. You're gonna grab 2 golf clubs and what I want you to do is I want you to just swing these clubs slowly so that you get a chance to get some range of motion. The extra weight of the club is gonna help you, but that's not gonna help necessarily get your hips stretched out. And you need to make sure that you do some soft drills. So what you're gonna do is maybe hold the 2 clubs, cross your legs like this, get the hamstrings to stretch out a little bit, so you can do this drill a little bit and make sure you do it on both sides, so you're stretching on both ways, almost like you're a skier getting ready to go out of the blocks there except your feet are crossed so you're doing that right there and that's gonna get some real pull on the hamstrings, but the hips are critical to the motion here. So you've given yourself some range of motion here with this turn and now we've gotta get to the hips. A very simple drill. You gotta turn the clubs upside down, you're gonna cross your leg just like this, right so it's on the knee, and then all I want you to do is just squat into this. Now what you're gonna find is that and in my case my left hip is much more relaxed than my right. So when I'm doing this, you can see how far down I'm able to go like this. Now when I go to my right leg which is the right hip that's really not very loose at all, all of a sudden I have my range of motion is not very good and my knee won't sink down like there and you can see how hard that is. This is something that I do all the time. I'm making sure that I'm stretching this right here and that's gonna help you get the hips so that they're freed up and as you start to do that more and more, what you're gonna find is one of the most important moves in the game is making sure that the hips move properly. Once your hips start to slide all over the place and you lose the framework of what's going on here. In other words, when the low part of the body starts to shift this way, the upper part is gonna go on an opposite direction to stay in balance and stay inside your framework or it's gonna shift outside here. So let's say that you're one of those individuals who lets it shift outside like this. When you swing back through you're gonna top the ball or if you don't top the ball, you're gonna have a very difficult time transferring your weight because when your weight gets back here like this, you might hit from back here and all of a sudden you're gonna notice that your right foot or your trail foot is on the ground, because you're not able to get your weight to go forward there. Well what happens is when we have the proper motion with the hips, our body can turn from in here. We get much greater range of motion with our upper body. We can get a full turn this way and now we could transfer our body weight through the hit because the hips have allowed that freedom. You wanna make sure that you get your hips and your hamstrings stretched out so that you can have the greatest range of motion so you can make this club go consistently and consistently fast. As you start to go away from that target, when the club is going that way, you're robbing yourself of club head speed here. So we need to make sure that the body weight and the club head are moving in the same direction through that hit in a forward fashion and one of the reasons why you're not gonna be able to do that is because your hips have been locked up and that lockup has taken away tremendous power or potential power that you've had, okay? Alright. We're gonna do a little Facebook and some emails when we come back. We gotta take a break. Don't go anywhere. -Time now for this week in golf history. In 1998, Tom Watson takes the title of the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, the last of his 39 career PGA Tour wins. In 2001 the United States Supreme Court rules that disabled golfer Casey Martin can ride in a cart during the PGA Tour events and in 2003, Annika Sorenstam tees it up at Colonial, the first female to play the PGA Tour in 58 years. -Let's make the target. Let's bring the target into 180. 180, not 280. 180. There you go. Alright. Nice work, Gates. You're the man. -Welcome back to the Golf Fix, our Viewer's Special here. Let's take an email. Actually let's take a Facebook. This is Kevin McArthur. My club gets too flat at times. One instructor said that it was in my backswing; the other said that it was at the beginning of my downswing. All I know is that it causes havoc at times. Please help. Okay so the question obviously is what's too flat. So we're gonna take these 2 alignment rods again and were gonna just understand what too flat is and again I explained that before with was going on with Scott in his swing. Basically what we're trying to do is this. When we take the club back I want the club and that shaft angle. You see that shaft angle right there is kind of pointing into that channel. That would be what we would call on plane. Too flat would be when the shaft of the club is pointing well above that, almost as if it's pointing over there to camera 5, so that the butt end of the club, you can't see much of the club shaft right there. When I get this club to this angle, now you can see a lot more of the club shaft. That means I'm closer to getting this club on the proper plane. So what happens is is that what's going on with Kevin here is he's taking it back and he must be rolling the forearms to go like this to get that that way. You cannot get that flat without this forearm rotating in order for the palm of my hand to get to where it's pointing down to the ground just like that, okay? So if I put a club in my hand like that, the palm of my club is down to the ground. That's gonna create a flat motion right there, alright? So what happens is my arm, my forearm has to rotate to get my hand to point to the ground. So what we need to do is we need to make sure that when we take the club back we don't let that forearm roll. So what you do is this. You take a tee and you're gonna put it in the grip of your left hand just like that and what I want you to do is I wanna make sure that that tee is always gonna point out to camera 5 right here, alright? So when the tee points out to camera 5 and then you just feel like you're gonna continue to point that tee in that direction, now the shaft of the club is gonna stand up. If I take the tee and I point it behind me over here, now all of a sudden I'm gonna get flat like that and that's how you're gonna get into trouble. Whether it's in your backswing or your downswing, you gotta get out of that, Kevin, okay, particularly when your professional tells you not to do that. Alright. Chris Eckert, I was a 7-handicap but now I'm an 18. Chris, news flash. You're going in the wrong direction like that. I'm glad you sent this. This is a big problem. My confidence on the range is near perfect and can hit many shots. However on the course especially during stroke play or 4-ball tournaments, I get the freeze and can't get the negative thoughts out of my head. Any suggestions to get this devil out of my head and back to enjoying the game. Absolutely, Chris, and this is a very, very common problem. A lot of people get stuck over the golf ball and they can't figure out how to get going. So what you can do is this and I give you a couple of different ideas. First, what you're gonna do is you're gonna line up 3 golf balls just like this, alright? And what I want you to do is I just want you to do this drill and you're gonna probably be doing this drill for about 30 days. This is gonna take you about 30 days to get out of this problem. What you're gonna do is this. You're gonna just swing this club just like this and then also we're gonna walk in, we're gonna hit that ball, hit that ball and hit that ball. And you're gonna do all 3 of those in a row like that, alright? And you make sure that you're moving continuously. Don't stop, keep going. What's gonna happen is is that you're gonna train your brain to react to hitting a ball, okay? And then in your mind what you can do is this. When you get on the course and you go to go play. Now this is a process. This is not gonna happen overnight. It's a process. So you have to be patient with yourself here. What you're gonna do is you're gonna take a practice swing just like this. You're then gonna step in 1, 2, look at the ball and then you're just gonna hit it. Now in the beginning what's gonna happen is is that it may feel like a force. It may feel like you're gonna force yourself to start and it will be that way and you should feel that way and then over a period of time you'll be done with that, alright. So again just like this, you get into the shot. You're on the golf course. You take your practice swing beside the ball. I don't want you to take your practice swing back over here. You take your practice swing here and you come in, right foot, left foot, club goes down one look and then go. And what you're gonna do is you're gonna just force yourself to move and you'll get out of that stuff and you'll start thinking better and you'll start having more fun or get back to that single-digit handicap. Alright. Howard in Centreville, Virginia. What drills or drill will help a senior increase the driver club head speed and therefore distance. I was at one time a 5-handicap but the lack of distance has caused me to reach double digit. I've been told too much shoulders and not enough hands. What does that mean? Okay. Let me get a driver over here, Howard. Now, what happens to us as we get older is we start to lose that flexibility. That's what we were talking about in that last segment in the halfway house about doing some stretching and creating some flexibility here. So what happens is is that as we get a little bit older we lose some flexibility. And as a result of losing that flexibility we tend to change our posture. So this is a little complicated but I know you can get this. As you start to stand up more like this, you're gonna start to get your grip into more of the palm of your hand so when I stand up like this now my posture looks like this where I have a lot of knee flex, not a lot of waist bend and my arms are going dead straight down to the ball like this. When we do that, we have the grip going into our hands much more in the palm rather than the fingers. And so when we get it into the palm we can't create any hinge or any leverage, alright? What I want you to do is this. I want you to take the club. I want you to hold the club so that's perpendicular to the ground, get your arm parallel to the ground and I want you to put the club in your hands like this so that you have a nice what we call long thumb right there, so you can see right there how long that thumb is. Then what we're gonna do is you're gonna set up and you're gonna feel like you're bent over more like this. Now after you done that, now what's gonna happen is you're gonna have created much more hand activity and as you bend over more, you're gonna lock your body down a little bit. So as I bend over I create less range of motion and if you're telling me that you've got too much shoulder motion going on, I've gotta stop that. You gotta stop that more than I've gotta stop it. You gotta stop that so we gotta hold this in the fingers of the hand and create some leverage. So all I want you to do is feel like you're gonna point the butt end of the club to the ground right there very simply done. Stick a tee right in the grip just like that, point that to the ground and then go. Okay? And that's how you're gonna be able to get rid of that. Alright. We're gonna take a break. When we come back we're gonna talk about one of the most important things in the game, proper weight distribution. We can all benefit from that. You're watching our Viewer's Special. Welcome back to the Golf Fix. So as I said when we headed to break, one of the biggest problems, most challenging things that you at home have is making sure that your weight distribution is proper through the hit. But first before we get into understanding how to do that, we gotta understand what we're trying to do, what we wanna try to have happen here. When you set up you've been told probably many times to get your weight over the balls of your feet. That's incorrect. I want you to get the weight in the arches of the feet, so when you set up here, I need it to be in the arches of the feet which is gonna feel a little bit more heel side, alright? Now from starting from that position, here's the way the weight distribution should work. When my hips turn, my right hip is gonna sink back behind me so when that right hip sinks back behind, I should get weight distribution to go from the arch of my foot here to the heel of my foot. On the trail foot, it should get to the heel. And in the forward foot, it should go from the arch to the balls of the feet. I don't wanna get the weight ever out on the toes. We never want the weight out here. The most we ever want is we want the weight to move to the arches and it moves to the arches when the weight moves to the heel of the opposite foot, of the right foot. So when you get weight to the balls of the feet on the left foot, you've gotta get weight to the heel on the right foot so that we keep that balanced in the center. As we start to drive back down, that's when the weight starts to move to the outside part of the left foot and the weight starts to shift towards the heel. As that's happening with the left foot, the weight on the right foot is moving to the instep of the right foot and out towards the balls of the feet. Through impact it's still on the balls of the feet of the right foot but it's on the instep of that right foot so we strike the ball like that. We're outside and inside and heel side and balls of the feet. Then as you follow through, that's the only time where your balance is completely on your forward leg and you should be able to lift this back foot up and tap the ground just like that. So setting up, weight is on the arches right there. Take the club back, make a good turn, the right hip sinks in like this. We get the weight to go to that heel of the right foot, balls on the left foot just like that. We start to come down. It's now moving back to the center here, back to the forward here, instep of the right, outside of the left, coming to the hit like that. Strike down. You should see this foot right here have a little bit of movement right there. Make sure that you can get in there. See that right there as you come through just like that and then you come through and you finish where you got a straight left leg. The weight is on the outside part of that left foot and on the heel. Now what most of you are doing is you're setting up with the weight on the balls of the feet. You're taking the club back. Someway, it's going this way or going this way, but either way it's going to the balls of the feet and then when you start to come through, you start to do some jumping up and standing up. We saw on the videos tonight, we saw how straight up and down all these players were. It's the most common fault that you've got. The most common fault you've got is coming out of your spine angle. Now I wanna give you this drill again so you make sure you understand how this works. What we're gonna do and you do this up against the wall, you can get a bag sand, whatever. You're gonna set up with your rear end up against this bag and what I want you to do is when you come back through I want you to make sure that you've plant that left part of your rear end back up on that wall or that bag so you're there and you get this sense that your body is in this position here, not this position there. Most of you are going like this and you're standing up and there's all this space back here. What we wanna do is we wanna make sure that that left rear end cheek. I like to call it the cheek. That cheek gets right up on that wall or that bag and then you're coming through to this balanced position. After you've done that slow motion for a little while, then what I want you to do is remove that bag, put that back there like that, rehearse what you just felt, feel that weight moving within the feet right there and how the body balances and then slowly hit that shot, and what I want is your check is do I feel that weight on that heel right there. Okay? And when you feel that you're gonna be in good shape and your balance will be great. Alright. When we come back my final swing thought. We're almost done. There's a lot of information but you don't wanna go anywhere. We'll be right back. Biggie. That goes, that goes 5, 4, 3, you don't go 3, you go 3? 3. Okay. Alright. As we told you before Golf Channel is celebrating healthy week on the networks of NBC Universal and I'm here to tell you how to be more healthy, what you can do with the game of golf to be in better shape so you can live a longer life, have more fun, be happier. These are heavy responsibilities that I'm burdened with but I'm doing this all for you and all of us here doing it all for you so that you can be healthier and I wanna give you an idea. You get to the golf course. You don't do any stretching. You're running up there, you grab your clubs, put them on the cart and you and your buddy go to go play golf. What I want you to do is when you get on to the cart I want you to make sure that as you're sitting in the cart seat, do a little stretching. As I told you before you gotta make sure you're stretched. So that's a very easy thing to do and you can do that during the course of the round. You can when you're sitting on that cart do that during the course of the round. The other thing you can do is this and this is one of the best ideas that you can have. You still take the cart but what you're gonna do is this, you and your buddy are gonna get out there, you're gonna go to go play, you got your carts, your bags sitting on the cart, and the deal is the guy who's in the driver's seat, he's gonna drive the cart on the odd holes and you're gonna walk when he's driving. So there's only one person in the cart at a time. So he's driving on 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, you get the math, you can do all that and you're out there you're walking. You're huffing and puffing and you're walking back here and you get a little bit of exercise and then on the even holes you get in and drive the cart and let your partner go ahead and walk. And what you're gonna do is you're gonna get your heart rate up a little bit. You're gonna get a little bit of a better workout. You're gonna be in better shape and better condition and you're gonna have more fun and you're gonna make better golf swings because your body can go and do it, okay? Alrighty. Listen. I hope everybody had a great time. I hope you learned a little bit. Reminding you that we're here every single week, Monday night, 7 pm. I'm Michael Breed. Thanks for watching the Golf Fix.
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Tags:

PGA Tour
golf course
Casey Martin
Centreville
punching bag
slow motion
index finger
body weight
left foot
upper body
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