Tony Ruggiero' Golf Tip of the Week

Shut Club Face?

2010-02-01T12:32:00.000-06:00

When it comes to club face issues I always start with the grip. One thing to check is to make sure that your left hand if you are a right handed player is not turned over too far to the right. If you can look down at address and see 3 or 4 knuckles or the back of your entire left or lead hand than your grip is too strong and could be leading to a shut club face
Also monitor your Right hand or rear hand of a right handed player. Too often a player will have the right hand underneath the club and way too strong. Make sure when looking down at address at your right or rear hand that you done see the fingernails of your 4 fingers. Place your hand more on top of the club at address.
On the takeaway keep your right or rear hand on the side of the club as the club goes back with the toe rolling open. This will help keep the face from shutting down and help you make a swing with a square club face.
Try these suggestions and see if you don’t fix your shut club face

Pre Shot Routine = More Consistency

2010-01-23T11:32:00.001-06:00

We had a great question come in this week.
What can I do to become a more consistent player.
Most club level and amateur players are rarely set up or have the ball in the same spot from swing to swing.
The development of a good preshot routine can help reduce this inconsistency and lead to more consistent shot patterns.

Begin behind the ball
Rehearse any mechanics behind the ball away from the hitting station. We don’t want any mechanical thoughts when we are over the ball
As you walk into the ball place your grip precisely on the club. We don’t want player's fidgeting with their grip once they are over the ball as it increases tension.

Step into the ball finding the back of the ball with your rear foot. At the same time aim the club face behind the ball at the target.

Now bring your front foot up next to your rear foot and square to the target line. If you drop your rear foot back a step and take a small step forward with your lead foot your ball will be in the proper position.

Take a long look at your target and swing.

Repeating this pre shot routine will produce more consistent shots and lower scores
And that’s the Cleveland golf tip of the week,.

At Home Remedy to Fix your Swing Plane

2010-01-11T07:46:00.000-06:00

If you are having trouble swinging the club on the correct path and cant start the ball on line try this at-home remedy that I use daily in my teaching
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 light.
Make rehearsal backswings very slow, tracing the line with the bottom mag light. When the club gets to waist high and r wrist 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

Stop Throwing the Club Head!

2010-01-05T12:27:00.001-06:00

A dewsweeper writes in that they cant stop throwing the club head at the ball. Whey know they do this and cant stop can I offer some advice for them.
Well lets first deal with why you might be throwing the club.
Often time the rt wrist for a rt handed player straightens or throws the club at the ball because the pivot motion which moves the ball around the circle stalls and centrifugal force builds up in the club head and causes the club head to pass the hands and be thrown away.
First I always like to make sure that the student has a properly developed pivot motion that can move the club around the circle.
After we have a pivot we need to educate the hands to hit the ball with a bent rt wrist and flat left.
One of the best training aids I have seen to help with this and I use it almost daily in my teaching is the key
The key is a wonderful aid to help you get the feeling of keeping your rt wrist bent.
We have some of the keys available in the dewsweepers store at dewsweepersgolfshow.com
And that’s the Cleveland golf tip of the week

Finish off a Good Round

2009-12-23T07:35:00.000-06:00

This tip comes from watching many of my students play in club tournaments which are important to them all too often they get off to a great start well on their way to a personal best only to collapse and feel dejected when they shoot a less than ideal round.
Have you ever gotten off to a great start during a round of golf? Have you ever gotten off to such a great start that you immediately started to think, "I have a chance to shoot my all time low round!" Then unfortunately a poor swing arises and mistakes are compounded and all of the good you had done with your fast start has gone away and you are left feeling frustrated and upset over a wasted chance to shoot a great score. All too often people get off to a good start and they become too aggressive and try to force the action. Players tend to start trying to force birdie putts in the hole rather than just playing golf. The lesson to learn here is to try and practice more patience on the golf course and stay in the routine and with the game plan that you have set for yourself. Just as we do not want to beat ourselves up over poor shots we also do not want to allow quick starts and good shots to cause us to abandon our strategy and force us to make poor decisions which erase the the good we have done.
So if you want to set your personal best... the next time you get off to a quick start don't get overconfident and try and force the action rather stay the course and continue along with the same strategy that had gotten you off to the quick start. If you follow this strategy I can promise that you will finish off good starts better and set more personal bests.
And that is the Cleveland golf tip of the week.

Tilters vs Turners

2009-12-06T12:05:00.000-06:00

One thing I learned early in my teaching profession was to take tilters which is the majority of golfers who are struggling and learn how to make them turners.
If you slice the the ball and/or end up on your back foot and never seem to be able to get onto your front foot at finish most likely you are tilting during your back swing. By tilting what I mean is that your front shoulder (left if you are right handed) goes down towards the ball. What is happening is that your shoulders are working in too much of an up and down movement rather than staying level and turning across and behind the ball.
The fix: Try and turn your shoulders more level and make your left shoulder feel as if it is turning straight across your body to a position that is even with or behind the ball. Try this back swing tip out and see if it doesn't help you make better back swings and hit better shots!!
Do pivot drills in front of the mirror
Place a club across your chest
Get in your posture put club across chest
Arms crossed
Turn shoulders level and over your left foot
That is the feeling of what your pivot should feel like
Practice these away from the course and see if your pivot doesn’t improve on the course and you don’t hit better furhter tee shots

Dont let your arms take over on the course

2009-12-06T12:04:00.001-06:00

Dewsweeper writes in that they are having trouble on the golf course with their turn or pivot stalling and their arms taking over the swing and hitting errant tee shots. Can I give them a tip to use on the golf course which will help.
What is happening on the course is that your pivot is stalling and your arms are coming disconnected from your body. Here are two things you can do to keep it together to hit it better on the course.
1 make practice swings with a glove under your left or lead shoulder. Don’t let the glove fall out this will give you a feeling of what it feels like to stay connected.
Second and this is one that many tour players will use tuck your sleeve up under your arm pit and swing keeping it there during your swing.
This is completely legal and will help you keep the feeling of keeping your pivot going and staying connected

Hit one club better than your others?

2009-12-06T12:00:00.001-06:00

Many times a player will feel like they hit their irons good but struggle with their driver.All too often they tell me that they make a different swing with their driver and something must be drastically wrong.If that sounds like If this sounds like you let's check your setup..
Hardly ever do you have completely different swings for different clubs in your bag. Make sure that your setup and ball position is correct for the club you are hitting.If you hit your irons good but struggle with the driver make sure that you have the ball place far enough forward in your stance. A ball that gets out of position at address can cause compensations to occur during the swing which result in poor shots. These compensations can also cause the swing to feel completely different form others you hit.You fix this by setting up a practice station which includes a rod on the ground for aim as well as one running perpendicular to the aim line to monitor ball position.So next time you are struggling with one club and not the others go to the range and double check your setup.

Here is a quick and general setup guide for alignment and ball position.

Alignment: Feet run parallel to the target line. The common error I often see is that golfers will align their feet at the target. The club face should be aimed at the desired target and the feet will be set on a line that runs parallel to that target line. Imagine railroad tracks. The ball sits on one rail your feet on another.

Ball position: For irons place the ball even with the logo on your golf shirt or about 1 1/2 inches inside your front heel. For your driver place the ball even with your front heel.

Set Your Personal Best

2009-12-06T11:58:00.000-06:00

This tip comes from watching many of my students play in club tournaments which are improtant to them all too often they get off to a great start well on their way to a personal best only to collapse and feel dejected when they shoot a less than ideal round.
Have you ever gotten off to a great start during a round of golf? Have you ever gotten off to such a great start that you immediately started to think, "I have a chance to shoot my all time low round!" Then unfortunately a poor swing arises and mistakes are compounded and all of the good you had done with your fast start has gone away and you are left feeling frustrated and upset over a wasted chance to shoot a great score. All too often people get off to a good start and they become too aggressive and try to force the action. Players tend to start trying to force birdie putts in the hole rather than just playing golf. The lesson to learn here is to try and practice more patience on the golf course and stay in the routine and with the game plan that you have set for yourself. Just as we do not want to beat ourselves up over poor shots we also do not want to allow quick starts and good shots to cause us to abandon our strategy and force us to make poor decisions which erase the the good we have done.
So if you want to set your personal best... the next time you get off to a quick start dont get overconfident and try and force the action rather stay the course and continue along with the smae strategy that had gotten you off to the quick start. If you follow this strategy I can promise that you will finish off good starts better and set more personal bests.

Check Your Posture

2009-11-19T14:47:00.000-06:00

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?

2009-11-19T14:46:00.001-06:00

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?

2009-11-19T14:45:00.003-06:00

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.

Blading or Skulling Bunker Shots?

2009-10-13T08:03:00.000-05:00

Dewsweeper writes in that they are hitting too many bunker shots thin and bladed over the green can I help.
Lets start with what we are trying to do in a bunker shot. We are trying to hit a fat shot and hit the sand before the ball so that the sand will splash the ball up onto the green.

Most problems with bunkers I find come from poor ball postion. Most amateurs play the ball too far back which places the ball in the path of the club before the ball hits the ground or the sand in this case.

The fix: move the ball up in front of where the low point is supposed to occur. We’ve mentioned many a time here on the dewsweepers that the lowpoint should occur under the left shoulder if we simply put the ball forward of our left shoulder socket we can insure that the club hits the sand before the ball.

Also if you square the face of the sandwedge up it will make the leading edge dig the sand and act more like a shovel.

This will also help reduce the likliehood of the ball coming out thin or bladed.
That’s the Cleveland golf tip of the week.

Make Sure Your Setup Fits Your Shot

2009-10-05T09:10:00.000-05:00

Make sure your setup matches the shape of shot you want to hit. Many times players will come to me and have too much fade, slice, draw or hook on their ball and be struggling to fix it.
I always start with the setup for these players as it is important to have a setup in which the alignment of your body matches the type of shot you are going to hit.

For example if you want to draw the ball you need a grip that for a right handed player will be slightly stronger with the thumb being slightly to the right of center. You want a square to slightly closed stance . You would want hips that are level to running up hill with your left hip slightly higher than your right at address.
You want square shoulders and from the down the line view you would want your left forearm visible over your right forearm.

If any of these components are off or are in the opposite position you are more setup to hit a shot that curves to the right.

Conversely if you want to play a fade your thumb should be more on the top of the shaft and your stance and shoulder may be slightly open. From the down the line view your right forearm would be higher than your left hiding it from your view. Your hips would be set level.
Remember to have the variables in your setup match the shot shape you are trying to play.
This will make it easier to control your shot shape and to hit better shots.

down the line or around the cirlce

2009-09-15T01:15:00.000-05:00

A dewsweeper writes in that says they have been told two different things and are confused. One that they should swing down the line nad one that they should swing the club around to the left (they are a right handed golfer) after impact which is correct.

Well first lets discuss what really happens in the golf swing. The swing is a circle and because of that the club must swing back up the arc to the left after impact.
The club only hits the target line for a split second and that is at impact.
what happens when a person swings down the line is that they become diconnected with their arms and their trunk. they tend to swing the club too much to off the plane to the right
they will lose power and be forced to use their hands to get the ball started back on the proper line.
this will reduce their power and their consistency.
tools you can use to practice swinging the club around the circle:
lay a small hula hoop on the groun and hit balls standing in the middle of it let your hands feel as if they travel around the hoop after impact with the ball.
this will help you visualize the correct arc rather than swinging down the line.

Stop the Smother Hook

2009-09-03T07:56:00.001-05:00

A dewsweeper writes in that they are tired of low smother hooks and hitting it left can I give them any help to start hitting a fade.

Here is where I start. First lets look at where the balls starts in relation to the target line.
If the ball is starting to the left of the target line for a right handed golfer in most cases it means the path of the club is too steep or from the outside.

My remedy for this would be the old tee your golf ball up an inch or so away from your driver headcover and see if that doesnt get the ball started out on the right path.

From there to fade the ball play the ball slightly more forward so that the driver is swinging more to the left when it makes contact with the ball.

Next open your stance slightly aiming your feet a few degrees left of the target.
Now here is the important part:
You need the correct hand motion:
when coming through the ball let the back of your left hand feel as though it is pointing up to the sky. this will help leave the face open in order to cut the ball.
try these setup keys and new hand action and see if you dont hit the cut you are looking for off the tee.

2009-08-25T15:27:00.001-05:00

A question comes in from a dewsweeper who writes that they often struggle coming down the stretch loosing there driver to the right. They are a right handed golfer. Can I help them.
Well relax this is going to be an easy one to fix. If your drives are getting wayward and you tend to hit shots that start oo much to the right and drift that way it would be my guess that you are becoming disconnected in your forward swing.

Here is what I mean by that. we want your arms to be hooked to your pivot and your body. If the club begins to be swung independently of your body with your arms it is easy for you to swing the driver away from your body and off plane to the right which would result in a loose swing and loose tee shots under pressure.
In order to fix this and tighten up your driving under pressure we need to get your swing more connected.
You cand do a few things to help this.
pitch balls with a towell under your arms thsi will help give you the feeling of having your arms connected to your pivot.
the trainnng aid I use which is great because you can hit balls at full speed and with your driver is the perfect connexxion. It is wonderful to help you keep your arms connected to your body.
practice with these tools and next time on the course try and make your swing feel like it does with the towell or connexion.

See if your swing and drives dont tighten up.
the perfcet conexxion is available in the dew store at dewsweeper store!

Stop the yips

2009-08-18T11:56:00.000-05:00

This week we talk about some putting yips.
A dewsweeper writes in and says they they putt 10 to 15 foot putts great but constantly miss the 3 -5 foot putts for pars. they say they yip them can i give them any help.
lets understand first what a yip generally is.
The yip is an involuntary reaction in which your body anticipates the impact of the club with the ball and the result is that your hands give the putter head a little extra push and try and help the ball to the hole. All to often this results in a missed and pulled short putt.
The putting stroke is like all other strokes we have discussed here on the dewsweepers. we want the pivot or body to control the club not the hands.
Here are two things I have learned and tried which have successfully help overcome a yippy stroke on 3 and 4 footers.
Since a yip is the anticipation of impact it Can help by putting yourself in a situation in which you cant know when impact is.
try either on of these two:
close your eyes after you settle in over the ball and take a long look at the hole and your target line. stroke the putt with your eyes closed.
Just as effect and you might find it more comfortable is to look a few feet out in front of the ball rather than at the ball while making your stroke.
both of these make it difficult to anticipate impact and yip the putt
try it and see if you don't hole more 3 and 4 footers.

PGA Championship Edition Get Your Driver in Play

2009-08-06T07:50:00.002-05:00

Club selection: Just because it is the tee doesn’t mean you have to hit driver. If you struggle early with your driver go to your 3 wood or hybrid. Don’t keep hitting driver after driver out of play. Be flexible with your tee strategy. Select the club that will land in the widest most generous landing area.
Focus on the process not the outcome. Each of us has something that we need to try and feel and do in our swing that we are doing when swinging our best. Focus on that thought when struggling off the tee in tournament play. Don’t focus on where you don’t want to miss or what poor tee shots have happened. This guarantees more poor tee shots to come. Get more involved in the process and stick to your routine.
Rhythm: when tension gets high and the driver gets wayward rhythm almost always increases. I can frequently be heard telling students to try and go 60 percent speed. Try this with your driver next time you struggle and see if you don’t gain your control back slower rhythm will help get you back to more solid contact. I always use the analogy that a car wreck at 50 mph is worse than one at 10., same principle here. If something is going wrong in your swing fast rhythm only makes the results and damage worse.
Tee it lower. When struggling off the tee. Go old school and tee the driver down lower. Make sure that the top of the ball is not sticking up above the head of your driver. The higher the ball is in teed up the easier it is for the driver to get underneath the ball and impart more curve spin on the ball. A ball teed higher also lends itself towards leaning back and swinging up at the ball which can produce erratic tee shots.
Try these suggestions next time driving the ball is a premium and your are struggling to get the ball in play off the tee. See if you don’t shoot lower scores.

Stop Toe Hits

2009-07-06T07:42:00.002-05:00

We have had several questions come in about what causes and how to stop toe hits on the golf club.

I always start with setup.
You need to check your posture.
Make sure you re not too far away from the ball or too bent over at the waist.
Incorrect posture can make you come out of your posture during the swing as your body tries to find a balanced position. Your Body's number one goal is to not fall down! It will always adjust posture to balance itself.

This would move the ball towards the toe resulting in toe shots or unsolid mishits.
The most common cause of mishits I see in our teaching is over use of the hands.
Remember the hands are just for holding of the club hot for hitting
If you are a right handed player make sure you try and hit the ball with a bent rt wrist at impact.
If you push the club to the ball with your hands at impact this moves the toe of the club to the ball and it’s the ball out on the end of the club.
Two practice tools I prescribe are the key training aid and hitting pitch shots or full shots next to a 2x4 or head cover

Both of these give you immediate feedback and help you find the middle of the club face
The key is available in the dewsweepers store at dewsweepersgolfshow.com

It is imperative that when trying to fix a flaw you have the ability to get immediate feedback when you do it correctly versus incorrectly. This is how you develop a feel that you can repeat on the course and improve your game!

Set Your Personal Best...

2009-06-07T10:41:00.003-05:00

Have you ever gotten off to a great start during a round of golf? Have you ever gotten off to such a great start that you immediately started to think, "I have a chance to shoot my all time low round!" Then unfortunately a poor swing arises and mistakes are compounded and all of the good you had done with your fast start has gone away and you are left feeling frustrated and upset over a wasted chance to shoot a great score.

All too often people get off to a good start and they become too aggressive and try to force the action. Players tend to start trying to force birdie or par putts in the hole rather than just playing golf. The lesson to learn here is to try and practice more patience on the golf course and stay in the routine and with the game plan that you have set for yourself. Just as we do not want to beat ourselves up over poor shots we also do not want to allow quick starts and good shots to cause us to abandon our strategy and force us to make poor decisions which erase the the good we have done.

If you are off to a great start keep doing what has produced a great start. Stay focused on your target and on what your swing key is. That is what produces success.

So if you want to set your personal best... the next time you get off to a quick start don't get overconfident and try and force the action rather stay the course and continue along with the same strategy that had gotten you off to the quick start. If you follow this strategy I can promise that you will finish off good starts better and set more personal bests.

Power Loss???

2009-05-30T08:25:00.002-05:00

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

2009-05-14T07:53:00.001-05:00

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?

2009-05-04T07:27:00.002-05:00

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

Having Trouble Hitting Ball Off the Toe?

2009-04-28T16:19:00.003-05:00

Having trouble hitting too many shots off the toe?

The question came in from a Dewsweeper who has problem with too many toe hits and not enough shots hit in the middle of the club face. The cause for this generally speaking is overactive hands . Remember that the hands are there simply to hold the golf club. The job of the hands is not to add power or to square the club face. When done correctly, the pivot motion provides both the most effective power source and also squares the club face.

Here are some drills to help you hit the ball more in the center of the club face. Understand what the hands are trying to do. As Ive said in other segments here on the dewsweepers you want for a right handed golfer a bent right wrist at impact. Practice small shots monitoring your finish position with your hands. Know what your hands are supposed to be doing then monitor them.
Make sure you have a pivot motion to supply the power so you don’t have to use your hands. Most golfers who have over-active hands either have an incorrect pivot motion or an incorrect grip.

I also use the training aid the key frequently to help people learn to achieve the correct hand positon at impact . it’s a wonderful aid that can help you hit the ball more on the center of the face. The Key is available in the dewsweepers store.

Another trick that I use to help get the ball hit more in the center of the face and to improve ball striking is to hit shots with a ball place about an inch away from a 2x4 leaned up on its side. This will help improve your path and reduce mishits.