Face awareness drill - heel/toe/square

WEBVTT

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Mr. Rill is heel side, toe side, face training.

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So there are three primary skills that I talk about all the time.

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One is sequencing or how you create power.

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Two is controlling the path, both low point and swing direction.

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And three is controlling the face to path relationship.

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So when I'm working on a golfer trying to train the face to path relationship,

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the first

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drill that I always go to is this heel side, toe side discussion.

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So basically, what most golfers will feel is the weight of the club compared to

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the path,

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not necessarily the target.

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We can adapt this to training it to the target, but this is really about

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training it to the

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path.

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So when I start this, I basically ask the golfer, if you were to hit a fade,

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then assuming

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you make center contact, which part of the club would lead into the golf ball?

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So I'll give them the options, would it be the heel, would they come together,

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or would

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it be the toe?

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And everybody always says heel, which is correct.

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So I want to practice taking some swings and feeling like the heel leads the

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toe into the

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golf ball.

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And then I'm going to take some swings where the toe leads the heel into the

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golf ball.

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So I usually hold up the yoga block and do it up at about belly button height

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first, which

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is where you should probably start, but I'll do it down here with the impact

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bag to help

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stop it.

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So if the heel leads the toe, it would come into the yoga block like this.

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And if the toe leads the heel, it would come into the yoga block like that.

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And then I would try to get a photo finish.

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So I would basically try to get the heel and the toe to make contact together.

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And what I'll say is if the heel beats the toe, then your face is probably open

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to the

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path and the ball will curve to the right.

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If the toe beats the heel, then the face will be close to the path and the ball

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will

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curve to the left.

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And if they're pretty much a photo finish, then the ball is going to go pretty

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straight.

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So once they can do this just in space without the ball, either eyes open or

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eyes closed,

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just kind of feeling where the club face is, then we'll introduce the golf ball

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and try

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to get deliberate curves.

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So now what we'll try to do is whether we're doing nine to threes or whether we

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're doing

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full swings, we'll do some swings where we'll say, okay, I want the heel to

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beat the toe

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and it should have a subtle curve off to the right, depending on how much I let

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the heel

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beat the toe.

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Then we'll say I want the toe to beat the heel and we're not really worried

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about start

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line right now, we're just trying to refine the amount of curve.

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The next little exercise is you're trying to get the heel and the toe to get

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back to

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the ball together.

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Now some golfers, when they start going through this, feel like they're doing

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it all down at

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the bottom and that it's totally risky.

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So we might play around with some different timings of it.

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So I'll say, can you get the heel leading right here and keep it leading all

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the way

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until they're in the follow through or vice versa.

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Can we get the toe leading at waist height?

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And can we keep that toe leading all the way into the follow through or the

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toughest one

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is the straight shot, but if we can get the toe and the heel to come through

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photo finish,

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I use that phrase a lot, photo finish if you want to hit it straight.

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So if you set up on a hole and you know that you want to hit a draw, then you

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can throw

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out some of the mechanics and just focus on the feeling of the club phase being

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closed

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to the path to make sure that it's going to draw.

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And the amount that it's closed helps you predict or dictate how much it's

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going to

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curve.

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So if I set up on a hole and I say this absolutely has to draw, I'm going to

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make sure toe is

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winning here and toe is winning there.

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And if I do that, it's probably going to feel like the toe is leading all the

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way down.

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So I got that that was more of a pull draw because I didn't really adjust my

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path, but

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all I'm focused on right now is getting the face awareness and controlling the

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curve.

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If I decide that I want the ball to curve one direction, let's say I want to

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hit a fade,

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then now I can start to play with can I get the heel to lead the toe and can I

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get different

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path.

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So that might be the heel leading the toe with more of a kind of inside out

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path.

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And then I might try to do the heel leading the toe with more of an outside in

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path.

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And now I'm getting a ball flight that starts just left to my target and then

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curves back

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to the flag.

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So if you're struggling with controlling that key skill of club face control

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and thinking

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about the motorcycle isn't really having a big impact on your ball flight, then

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sometimes

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just training the skill of club face awareness is what it will take for help

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you to master

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that club face control.

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You should always re or understand what your technique is trying to do.

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So if you're working on something to help you with the club face control, you

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should

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understand how it will relate to this skill, which is ultimately all it takes

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to control

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curve.

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The thing that controls curve is the face to path relationship.

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And this is one of my go to drills for training it.

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Now if you find that when you swing hard, you're not able to control the face

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to path

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relationship, it might indicate that you have a club face control issue that's

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tied to how

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you're creating speed.

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And ultimately it's your choice to prioritize on the course, which is more

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important for

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you.

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Face control and hitting it straight or feeling powerful and hitting it as far

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as you can.

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But ultimately the better you get it controlling the face, the more comfortably

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you'll be able

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to swing hard on the course.