This article contains information about how drills work and two very helpful drills. The most critical point of understanding is to be careful how you do drills Every drills start from the correct starting position and ends in the correct finish position. This means paying attention to very specific checkpoints of correct performance. To get the most out of your time and effort, it is important to know a little about how drills work.
Eliminate, Isolate and Concentrate
- A drill should eliminate the fear of failure
- In a drill, you remove the target, the ball, the club and most of the swing, then you can isolate/focus your concentration
- When you are not worried about where the ball goes, you can focus your attention on what you will do right, not the dozen things than can go wrong; this is the essence of "part" learning
- A drill must mimic the correct movement of a real swing while isolating a "mini" (specific) point of performance
- Focus your concentration on one specific "feel" for what you must do right
- When there is more than one checkpoint, isolate your focus on one specific point for 10-15 movements and then switch your focus to another checkpoint
Why/How Drills Work
- A drill must be close to idiot proof; the idea is to simplify complex movements
- The logic of what you are doing and why you are doing it should be obvious
- Drills should be easier to perform than the normal full movement
- Drills require discipline and MUST be correctly performed with some measure of discipline
Drills are VERY powerful learning tools... failure to correctly perform a drill replaces one bad habit with another bad habit. "Slopping" your way through a drill is MUCH worse than not doing the drill. Given a choice between doing drills in a sloppy manner and drinking a cool one in your Lazyboy, enjoy the brew!
Drills Teach Feel
- Your task is to pay attention to how the movement feels to the exclusion of everything else; o not use your eyes, feel the movement; drills are good for making blind swings
- You must have a standard of correct performance associated with every movement.
- Feel both the position and movement of a particular body part.
- As your feel develops, "chunk" the feelings for different body parts into a composite feel.
Continuous Motion
- Drills are characterized by continuous, back and forth movement.
- If there is more than one checkpoint of performance, isolate your attention onto a single checkpoint. Make continuous swings, back and forth paying attention. are used for position by position learning.
- Drills are most appropriate for the initial stage of learning (beginners and players overhauling bad swings)
- Shaping and Chaining techniques are better suited for intermediate players who are refining their skill
Hooker/Staggered Release Drill
Purpose: To teach you to take command and control over a slice; to turn a slicer into a hooker in less than five swings; to provide the confidence to know you are not a victim, but in charge of your swing motion
Starting Position:
- Narrowed stance, feet together or spread much less than shoulder width apart
- Staggered, closed stance, toe of back foot even with the heel of the front foot
- Split hands grip; top hand weak (11 'clock), bottom hand strong grip position (1 o'clock)
- Normal posture (as close as you can get), back straight, chin up, weight balanced toe to heel
Execution
- Make a slow backswing up to about the ½ to ¾ length/position... the modified stance and hand position cause you to be sensitive of every little detail in your swing... weight transfer, balance, elbow and thumb positions, nose
- Point your nose at the ball and leave it where the ball WAS as the arms pass the nose
- Initiate the forward swing motion by rotating the right hip (outward towards the ball and then forward; towards the target); it is very important to clear the hips for the arms to pass the nose
- After making a number of dry swings without a ball, add a ball and gradually, work your way out of each modification... first move your hands closer together
- When you feel some comfort, add a ball... from this position, you will hook the ball as soon as you have control of your elbows and thumbs
Modifying the Drill... this drill can be modified by reducing each of the preswing "tricks" which cause you to violently hook the ball. Every 10-215 swings, widen the stance, close your hand position and reduce the stagger. As each trick is removed, the huge amount of hook is reduced to something closer to a draw. After using this drill and modifying the drill you should never again doubt your ability to command and control your swing motion!
The Elbow Drill (1/2 Back, 3/4 Thru)
Purpose:
- To teach correct extension of the takeaway (delayed wrist cock) continuing the correct use of the hands as passive connectors... this is the same movement as seen in a pitch shot
- To teach correct weight transfer onto the back foot
- To teach correct elbow position to control swing path
- To teach the feel for the transition move (separation of the hips from the arms)
Starting Position
- Correct, normal, full swing address position; ball or no ball
ExecutionCheckpoints
- The shoulders and left arm are the prime movers of the whole motion
- The L shoulder moves backward, not downward
- 75% of your weight transfers onto back foot
- Handsfree, two handed takeaway, the thumbs are still on top of shaft
- The shaft points 180° away from target; thumbs on top of the shaft; toe of the club points up
- The wrists have minimum wrist cock
- Each elbow folds naturally on each side of the swing
- Swing forward by rotating the right hip and shoulder past your nose which is fixed on the ball
- Slowly and continuously reverse the movement back and forth focusing on the position of your thumbs remaining on top of the shaft, the elbow folding and the weight naturally transferring.
These two drills are easy to do, but difficult to fully visualize. Click this link to visit the original webpage which contains the graphics needed to get a better picture... http://craftsmithgolf.com/Drill%20Principles.htm
