One of the most common problems my students have is flipping through impact. Flipping is a double whammy. First, you’re changing the loft of the club through impact, so you have inconsistent trajectory and distance control. The other problem is you also close the clubface inconsistently so the amount of draw or hook varies dramatically.
Let’s think about this. Every time I hit the ball I’m not sure of the ball’s distance, height or direction. Golf isn’t much fun when this is your game.
On the other hand, if you can control the clubface, you can
control the distance, trajectory and whether the ball is going to draw or fade. It’s much more fun to play when this is the case!
In one of our previous blogs, we talked about using the forward lean drill to control the clubface. However, things change a bit when you have to
turn your body.
Now, at the top of your backswing, it seems like your elbow cannot go forward because your body is in the way. The good news is, if you saw our other blog about how the body turns, you can combine these two drills if you understand the sequence and timing of the arm and body movements.
I’ve probably watched more golf during my lifetime than any other living human being. I tape and watch every golf tournament. Even at 11 years old when cell phones were a distant fantasy, I would film golf swings with my 16 mm movie camera, take them down to the drugstore to get them developed and go through them frame by frame. This has been going on for 56 years.
What I have noticed is swing trends develop on the PGA Tour from time to time. Some parts of the golf swing survive while other
things, like stack and tilt, go by the wayside. Many of these trends go unnoticed by instructors, golf magazines and the Golf Channel. For example, I noticed when Tiger was enjoying his greatest success around the year 2000, setup and posture changed dramatically among tour players. I’m certain that they were copying Tiger’s setup. As a matter of fact, most of Butch Harmon’s students, such as Adam Scott, had outstanding setups and posture.
One of the reasons I began studying the biomechanics of the golf swing was so I could look at trends and determine if these trends would make the swing more simple and survive the test of time.
The trend I’m seeing now is many young players using their oblique muscles to turn the torso rather than their hips. I think this is
fantastic, as the biggest problem among top players is timing of the hips and shoulders.
Most top players were opening their hips too quickly, causing their shoulders to do the same. The great thing about using the obliques is there are only two muscles needed to turn the hips rather than 24. Additionally, the obliques open the torso much slower than the hips, so the oblique may be fired as fast as possible. This is much better under pressure, as the hips no longer have to be timed perfectly.
The other interesting thing about this change is it allows the arms to stay on their same path (or plane) from delivery to post-impact. As a matter of fact, if one observes the path of the right elbow from delivery to post-impact, you’ll see using the abdomen to turn the torso actually creates space so the elbow can continue parallel to the target line. I have noticed when the elbow stays parallel to the target line through impact, there’s no
flipping of the wrist. However, when the elbow comes out toward the target line significantly before impact, the club has to slow down, the load of the club releases early and the result is a flip of the wrist through or before impact. The more the right elbow comes out toward the target
line, the more the golfer is going to flip.
In this video, we look at some of the top players and what they do to prevent this from happening. In our blog, we have two significant videos that have addressed this problem. One is how the body turns and
the other one is the forward lean drill. We’re basically going to put these two drills together to create superior ball striking ability. I would suggest you review the two previous videos in addition to this one. I think you’ll have a much more clear picture of what the arms and body should do in the golf swing. Work hard, and you’ll get better.