Power Loss???

We have a question here from a dewsweeper who is concerned because they have lost power and are not hitting the ball as far as they feel they should. This dewsweeper says they are over 6 feet tall and plenty big but only hit the drive 200 or less and theie irons are even weaker. What can they do.
First we need to realize what the engine of the golf swing is and that is the pivot. Your pivot motion is the main power source and if you suffer a severe power loss make sure that you are making a back swing pivot.

We always talk here about the need to turn through the ball and hit the ball with your chest and your trunk. Well if you don’t wind up your chest beind the ball the ball than you don’t have anything to hit the ball with.
Follow these tips to put more power in your game by fixing the windup in your backswing.

Practice pivot drills:
Get in your posture cross your arms over your while holding a club across your shoulders and is parallel to the ground.
Now turn your chest over your right knee while keeping the shaft relatively parallel to the ground. If the shaft tilts toward the ground on the backswing you are not turning but tilting and just throwing power out the window.

Practice this until you can feel what a proper windup and pivot feels like.
When hitting balls feel the weight of your body turn into the inside of your right heel. When you get the weight there you have made a proper windup.

You can find this drills and other great information in the book that I use as my instruction bible, How to Win the Three Games of Golf by Hank Johnson available in the Dewsweepers store.

Improve your fairway woods and hybrods

One of the most asked questions from my students and from listeners to The Dewsweepers the top golf instruction radio show in the southeast is: “I hit my irons great but I really struggle with my fairway woods and hybrids?” Follow the following tips and you will no longer be scared to pull out those fairway woods or hybrids and you will be on your way to scoring better on those longer par fours!
Hit your woods and hybrids like you hit your irons. One common thought that golfers have which causes trouble with the fairway woods and hybrids is that they want to hit down on the irons and sweep the long clubs such as their fairway woods and hybrids off the ground. Let’s go ahead and scratch that idea and realize that swing for your longer clubs is exactly like your shorter irons. The length of the shaft and the lie angle of the club flatten out the swing path for you and shallow out the angle of attack. However, the club still swings on a big circle which has a low point. That low point still needs to happen in front of the ball if you want to hit it solid. That hitting down and smashing of the ball into the ground is what gets the ball up into the air. Sweeping the ball or trying to swing up at the ball causes mishits and unsolid shots from your fairway woods and hybrids.
So let’s come up with a few thoughts to take to the golf course and a few drills to help you get the feel for hitting down on your fairway woods and hybrids and improve your longer clubs so you can feel as confident with hybrids as you do with your short irons.

On the course look in front of the ball. Try to look about a ball in front of the ball and focus their rather than at the golf ball. Remember that we are trying to make the low point or the point where the club hits the ground happen in front of the ball. Let’s change our focus away from the ball and to focus on where we really want our swing to bottom out.
Take practice swings before you hit a shot with the correct divot location. Make sure that you rehearse correctly before each shot. If you take a practice swing and you either miss the ground or make a divot in the back of your stance you did not rehearse the swing you want in order to hit a good shot. Make practice swings focusing on hitting the ground up in the front of your stance. Correct rehearsals will help you develop a correct feel for making good swings on the course.
Hit practice shots with your right foot up on its toe and your weight on your left foot. Now make some swings and focus on hitting in front of the ball. This drill is great for getting a feel hitting down on the ball correctly and for finishing off of your right side and onto your left.
Try these simple thoughts and practice and your fairways woods will feel more solid and you will learn to have the same confidence in your longer clubs that you have in your short irons.

Trouble Swinging the Club on Plane?

A question comes in from a dewsweeper who says they are having a problem swinging the club on plane. Do I have any suggestions to help them fix their path at home.

First of all I think its critical that you find out the root cause of your plane issue. Find out why you are swinging the club off plane…is it your grip your posture or something else. But here are some suggestions for fixing your plane.

First and preferably I use a plane board on the lesson tee. However most golfers don’t have the room or ability to have one in their garage.
My next preference would be the flash light drill.
If you are having trouble swinging the club on the correct path try this at-home remedy.
First you will need:
Two mag lite flashlights
24 inch piece of PVC pipe
Bungee cord
Put one mag light in each end of the PVC pipe connected with the bungee cord. Now you are ready to fix your path!
Find yourself a seam in your driveway or garage or you can use the seam where your carpet meets your baseboard inside.
Turn on both mag lights.
Make rehearsal back swings very slow, tracing the line with the bottom mag light. When the club gets to waist high and hinges you should have the butt end of the flashlight now pointing at the line you were tracing.
Repeat this over and over and no matter what path flaw you have, you will be on the way to a better swing plane!

I also suggest the perfect connexxion training device. Connecting your arms to your pivot will help insure that the club swings up and down the correct path. The perfect connexxion is one of the best tools I've found and I use almost every day in my teaching.

You can always find the perfect connexxion in the dewsweepers store
So if you are struggling with your swing plane whether it be too much from the inside or over the top try these and get the club more on plane and get the ball struck more solidly and started online