This drill can be done indoors to promote a centered turn for improved contact and distance
Two of the most common problems we see in amateur golfers when it comes to ball flight are poor contact and a lack of distance.
This often occurs from improper body movement, or specifically, in how your hips and shoulders turn in the swing. So, let’s evaluate how a “centered” movement of the body in the backswing – a more rotary turn compared to a lateral move, or “shift,” away from the ball we see with many amateurs – can drastically help create better contact and the distance you’ve always wanted.
As the video below illustrates, by using a simple drill with two clubs, you can confidently learn how to create a proper, centered turn in your backswing. This is also a perfect exercise to work on during the offseason in your living room, so use the Line Up the Clubs Drill and improve your golf game this winter!
VIDEO: The Line Up the Clubs Drill
How a centered turn can help
Contact
One swing characteristic that really sets a lot of golfers back is the concept of “shifting their weight” away from the target in the backswing. For right-handed golfers, this means they move their weight back onto their right leg, which also shifts the low point of their swing arc back away from the target and ball.
Among other things, the low point of your swing is a key determining factor to the quality of your shot and location of your divot. The world’s best players take a divot ahead of the ball – a compliment to their crisp, solid contact – which is due to the club reaching its low point ahead (toward the target) of the golf ball. Many amateurs instead have divots located behind the ball, or take no divot at all, because the low point of the swing occurs too far behind the ball from this lateral movement away from the target in the backswing.
By instilling more of a centered turn, therefore – as our SwingTRU Motion Study has proven – it can directly correlate to better contact and divots in front of the ball, since the body’s position more naturally helps the low point of the swing to occur there as well.
Distance
Simply stated, a solidly struck shot travels farther than a mishit so by improving your contact with a more centered turn, it also improves your distance.
But to explain further – since we measure golfers’s body movements through our motion analysis technology at GolfTEC, as our SwingTRU Motion Study also concluded – we know players who laterally move weight away from the target in the backswing often have a reduced amount of turn compared to those keeping their hips and shoulders more centered.
We also know that more rotation in the swing often leads to more distance, so creating more of a centered turn is a direct correlation to hitting the ball farther. Additionally, players that laterally move away from the target overwhelmingly tend to have an outside-to-in club path in the downswing, which is a big-time swing-speed killer and major ingredient to that ugly slice so many golfers demonstrate.
Need more proof? Use the Line Up the Clubs Drill to create more of a centered turn in your swing, and you can improve contact and distance like never before!
Editor’s Note: This article is an updated version of the original post from Dec. 22, 2014.
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Not sure if this drill is right for you? Find a GolfTEC near you and talk to a Coach who can help today!
Attn: Patrick Nuber: I happened to see the golf tip video L to L which you have on your instruction site. I am a single index senior who has been playing golf for a LONG time. If I had to pick one (1) drill to show a struggling golfer, I think that this drill, and the way it is presented, would be the one to use. The two (2) most common swing faults that I see among amateurs are: OTT and Scooping. This drill would help to correct those faults. Having played for over 50 years, I know that occasionally, some valid golf tips will emerge from the mountains of garbage that the “Snake Oil Salesmen” put out. Well done.
RON – Huntington, LI, NY
(Heading out to Fort Collins, CO next week to play some golf with one of my Sons. He is an excellent golfer and I will tell him about you. I think you are based in CO.)