DRILL #2 GROUND CONTACT

For this exercise, place an alignment stick in front of you, centrally between your feet as shown. You don’t need a ball. Grip the club in your gloved hand only. Make a half-backswing, your lead arm no further back than horizontal.

DRILL #1 Lead shoulder focus

Here's a drill to help you feel how to shift that low point forwards and down. Focus on the movement of your lead shoulder from the top of the backswing.

NO! UP AND OUT

In this image, I’m demonstrating the typical downswing motion of the poor ballstriker. From being broadly under the chin at the top of the backswing – a relatively low position – the lead shoulder quickly moves upwards, and even a little backwards. It takes the whole of the lead side with it, and this leant-back attitude causes a weak upward strike on the ball.

YES! FORWARDS AND DOWN

Instead, I want you to feel that from the top, your lead shoulder drifts forwards, towards the target, and retains the low position it had at the end of the backswing. Of course, eventually it will start to rise as the upper body uncoils; but for a beat at the start of the downswing, feel your lead shoulder moving forwards and, if anything, slightly downward. A cane through your belt loops will help you assess your success: get the move right and it continues to angle downwards.

GOLD STRIKE

All you are going to do here is to get the sole of the club to make contact with the ground on the target-side of the cane as you swing down and through. That sounds simple enough, but in fact it’s only achievable if you make that small but important shift – forwards and down. Repeat this drill until striking the ground in the right place becomes effortless. Then replace the cane with a ball, add your trail hand and hit some regular shots.