Check Your Posture

I start every lesson with a posture check. Many issues with the pivot or the plane and especially balance issues start with a setup position that’s out of whack.
From the down the line view I want to see the chest up, rear end out in a nice athletic position. The tips of your shoulders should be right over the tips of your shoes. This posture sets you up for a balanced golf swing.
Keep your head up. Don’t bury your chin in your chest. this just restricts your pivot and can cause too much arms swing or even lateral slide.Remember you get down to the ball with a slight flex of the knees not a roll over from your shoulders.From the face on view I would prefer for a right handed golfer the left hip to be slightly closer to the target than your shoulder. I prefer for the shoulders and hips to look as if they are running slightly up hill.The deal killer here is people who have their front hip lower than their back hip and have shoulders and hips which are running on different and converging lines.If you get postured correctly you are set up to make a great golf swing from the start

Trouble Pulling Putts?

Struggling with pulling their putts to the left. They are obviously a right handed player
Putting is just like your full swing. We want to move the putter with our pivot rather than our hands.
As in a full swing if our pivot motion stalls or slows the club head will pass the hands and hit the ball to the left. I often use the analogy of a speed boat pulling a water skier. If the boat slows down the momentum of the skier carries the skier past the boat on the outside. Well the same thing happens with a golf club or in this case your putter.
The putting stroke because the shaft is much more vertical or up and down requires a posture which is more bent over and a shoulder motion which is more up and down.
Try this feeling and see if you don’t hit better putts and eliminate the pulls
When putting try and make your lead shoulder feel as if it is going down toward the ball on the back stroke and back up and around on your forward stroke. If your should and pivot moves the club your hands will be less likely to be active.

Straightening Right Leg?

Another great question comes in this week from the Dewsweepers mailbag. A Dewsweeper is struggling with the issue that they are straightening their right (back leg) during their back swing and it is causing them problems. They aren't sure how to fix.Like I always say here on the Dewsweepers it helps to first understand why this is happening. Most of the time when a golfer is straightening their back leg it is because without doing so they feel as if they can't make a big enough back swing and feel as if they wont have enough power. It is key here to remember that the straitening of the right or rear leg causes you to give up the coil that you have built up during your back swing and makes you less powerful, even if it allows you to get the club further back.It is next to impossible to fix this while making swings at full speed with a ball in front of you. You will continue to make the same mistake and swing over and over. The best, fastest and most effective way to fix this is to make slow correct rehearsals in front of a mirror without the ball. This will insure that you are making the correct motion and give you the opportunity at this slow speed to learn what the correct motion feels like. Learning in this way will give you an opportunity to change your mechanics over time and be able to take them to the golf course.