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Alignment Stick Loading

An alignment stick exaggerates the loading the hands apply to the shaft. This drill helps you feel the combination of wrist movements that produce the more consistent combination of load, path control,  and club face control. The trail wrist trigger finger load feeling can be an especially important feel for golfers who cast the club. 

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Tags: Not Enough Distance, Drill, Advanced, Intermediate, Beginner

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The drill is looking at alignment stick loading.

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So we're going to use an alignment stick to exaggerate the feel of the hands and the risk

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on the club.

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Because as you can see, if I step on this club and apply some force, you can see that the

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stick actually bends.

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So when we take a golf swing, what will happen is in transition, you're going to create

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some speed in the handle that's going to cause the club to lag behind and then you're

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going to do some things in the release that cause it to kick out.

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And the goal is to get it to kick down at the bottom.

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Well, the way you push on your on the club can change the way it kicks and change the

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way that you'll control the low point and club face down at the bottom of the swing.

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So to exaggerate this, we're going to use an alignment stick because you can see that

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I can bend this a whole lot easier.

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So first we're going to do the left hand.

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So left hand we're going to use the left thumb and we're going to use the right hand

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to kind of push against it like so.

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Now I'm not trying to stretch my wrist back as much as possible.

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I'm going to push almost like I'm using a hammer, but at the same time I'm going to

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be pulling back with that right wrist.

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Now that would make my wrist want to extend.

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So the only little caveat is I'm going to make sure that I keep it a little bit more

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bold kind of like this.

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Now I'm going to do that at about this point in time over here.

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So this right arm is going to pull in and that left arm is going to resist.

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You're going to get down to about delivery position like so.

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And then I'm going to let it snap out and as it snaps out, I'm going to let it rotate.

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So I'm going to let this hand basically do the single arm release training.

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So I'm going to load and then let it rotate.

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And one thing you may experience is if you're used to having a really long thumb or

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gripping it in the palm, it'll be very weak when you go to push against this.

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So right now I've got a lot of range of motion, but it feels very weak and it's going

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to snap out in a slower manner.

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So as part of the reason why I'm an advocate of at least a medium thumb or at the very

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or possibly even a shorter thumb.

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You rarely see long hitters who have the thumb well down the shaft.

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There are hand-foil of them, but most of them are going to have the shaft or the thumb

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in a position where you can apply more of this resistance.

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So left hand's pretty simple, feeling that load and then just do the good single arm release

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movements to control the width of the swing and the bottom of swing as you unload it.

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Now looking at the trail hand.

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So the trail hand, what we're going to do here is I'm going to put the club up against

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the ground, kind of like this.

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And I'm going to take this joint right here, just underneath my first knuckle and I'm going

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to place that on top of the club so I can we're on top of the alignment stick so I can push

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it like so.

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So now I've got this gripped so that I've got that whole first joint of the index finger

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as my pressure.

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Now I'm going to push and at the same time I'm going to kind of cover it so I'm going

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to feel that right there.

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Now the timing of when that happens is right about here as the left wrist is really

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taking over with that unhinged that right wrist is going to push and rotate and kind of

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cover and you can see that those two work together hand in hand.

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So if I'm doing it just right wrist rotation, I'll anchor it down there, kind of feel that

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push.

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Now I'm going to push on top of it and having a little bit of rotation.

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What I will frequently do is I will come in a ply a little bit of resistance so that they

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can feel the energy and the connection between that part right there of the index finger

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going all the way up into the shoulder and trying to get that kind of rotation through.

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So this works pretty well.

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Getting that rotation through kind of like that.

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So I'm taking my grip.

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What I'm not doing with the right hand is I'm not pushing on it with the thumb a whole

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lot like I'm using a hammer.

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That's more of the left hand's job.

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So I see a lot of higher hand you have golfers who have the thumb kind of like this and

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they're really pushing on it with the thumb.

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That's not the trail hands goal or roll.

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The trail hands should be pushing more with this part of the hand more like that.

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Once you've got that exaggerated feeling you can then do 9-3s and 3-4 drills just kind

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of emphasizing the feelings of either the right hand or the left hand and how they're

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pushing on the club.

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That'll help you control the club face as well as the width and flat spot a whole lot easier

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and it'll provide a little bit more clarity if you're lost and confused on what's going

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on down here.

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I find that many golfers once they get a clear sense of what the hand should feel it's

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a whole lot easier to do it especially when you start applying more speed.

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So using the alignment stick at home is a great way to exaggerate those feelings of the

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load of the club and the unload so then it'll be a little bit easier when you're

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practicing working on those arm and hand movements on the range.

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We've got pushing you can see the close up of the thumb in the last 3 fingers.

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You can see it really bend the shaft there as opposed to if it's narrow like that and it

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doesn't really bend too well.

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Now here's that shaft 45 view or even closer.

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Here's that shaft 45 view instead of pushing or like this pushing right through.

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There we'll get this this is how I normally demonstrate it just like that.

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So just like that where this is pushing and twisting in order to bend the shaft.

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