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Club Drop Shallowing
A study from well known golf biomechanist, Dr. Sasho MacKenzie, showed that 39 out of 40 touring professionals had some amount of club shallowing in transition. If you combine this with the fact that many amateur golfers tend to get too steep at this point, we can safely say that this is a key differentiator between low and elite level players. To get a better feel for this pattern, players will get to the top of their swing, drop the club, and then catch it, while pulling in the direction of the target and rotating to a full finish. You will probably want to do this with a split-grip and avoid hitting any balls at first, but you should get a good sense for how the shallowing of the club relates to the movement of the body. Once you have completed a few repetitions of this, you can then move to the next progression, which involves a normal grip and a simple decrease in grip pressure as you again feel the club falling or shallowing in transition. From here, you can go ahead and hit some full shots, while being aware of any tendencies that may overly steepen the club. Overall, this is a great drill that has helped a number of my students quickly pick up on the unique feel of what it takes to properly shallow in transition.
A study from well known golf biomechanist, Dr. Sasho MacKenzie, showed that 39 out of 40 touring professionals had some amount of club shallowing in transition. If you combine this with the fact that many amateur golfers tend to get too steep at this point, we can safely say that this is a key differentiator between low and elite level players. To get a better feel for this pattern, players will get to the top of their swing, drop the club, and then catch it, while pulling in the direction of the target and rotating to a full finish. You will probably want to do this with a split-grip and avoid hitting any balls at first, but you should get a good sense for how the shallowing of the club relates to the movement of the body. Once you have completed a few repetitions of this, you can then move to the next progression, which involves a normal grip and a simple decrease in grip pressure as you again feel the club falling or shallowing in transition. From here, you can go ahead and hit some full shots, while being aware of any tendencies that may overly steepen the club. Overall, this is a great drill that has helped a number of my students quickly pick up on the unique feel of what it takes to properly shallow in transition.
Video Transcript
1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.640
This drill is club drop shallowing, so many golfers need to work on shallowing
2
00:00:04.640 --> 00:00:05.040
the club
3
00:00:05.040 --> 00:00:10.320
with the arms in transition to help with a variety of different patterns.
4
00:00:10.320 --> 00:00:15.530
One of the more common patterns that causes a lot of inconsistency, both with
5
00:00:15.530 --> 00:00:16.160
contact
6
00:00:16.160 --> 00:00:21.290
as well as ball flight, is getting the club to steepen too quickly in
7
00:00:21.290 --> 00:00:22.480
transition.
8
00:00:22.480 --> 00:00:28.600
One study that Dr. Sasha McKenzie did found that 39 out of 40 Tour Pros had
9
00:00:28.600 --> 00:00:29.560
some amount
10
00:00:29.560 --> 00:00:34.290
of this club shallowing in transition, and it's not the most common move for am
11
00:00:34.290 --> 00:00:34.760
ateurs.
12
00:00:34.760 --> 00:00:39.450
So it seems to be one of those differentiators between skill levels of elite
13
00:00:39.450 --> 00:00:40.440
level golfers
14
00:00:40.440 --> 00:00:43.640
and less than elite level golfers.
15
00:00:43.640 --> 00:00:49.390
So one drill that I've used to help with a feeling of the club shallowing is
16
00:00:49.390 --> 00:00:50.080
going up
17
00:00:50.080 --> 00:00:55.170
to the top of the swing, and let's say you're used to the club being more on an
18
00:00:55.170 --> 00:00:55.960
angle kind
19
00:00:55.960 --> 00:00:59.000
of like this, and that would be a shallow movement.
20
00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:02.800
So what we're going to do is we're going to hold the club in the more vertical
21
00:01:02.800 --> 00:01:03.400
position
22
00:01:03.400 --> 00:01:06.740
it would be at the top of the swing, and then we're just going to let it drop
23
00:01:06.740 --> 00:01:07.280
where the
24
00:01:07.280 --> 00:01:12.520
club head is going to fall a little bit faster than the grip.
25
00:01:12.520 --> 00:01:16.840
So I'm going to bring it here, and I'm going to let it drop kind of like this.
26
00:01:16.840 --> 00:01:21.670
So you can see that I'm actually pretty much taking my hands off the club, and
27
00:01:21.670 --> 00:01:22.360
I'm losing
28
00:01:22.360 --> 00:01:24.360
some of the sense of the club face.
29
00:01:24.360 --> 00:01:26.680
It's rotating as well.
30
00:01:26.680 --> 00:01:32.970
And this I've used with many golfers to get the feel of the club dropping in
31
00:01:32.970 --> 00:01:34.720
transition.
32
00:01:34.720 --> 00:01:38.240
Many good golfers have described the club feels like it's falling.
33
00:01:38.240 --> 00:01:40.480
I feel like my arms are dropping.
34
00:01:40.480 --> 00:01:44.080
There's a, I feel like I'm not doing anything with my arms.
35
00:01:44.080 --> 00:01:48.000
All these relate to this feeling of a club shallowing.
36
00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:50.880
So how do we do this as an actual drill?
37
00:01:50.880 --> 00:01:57.810
So you're going to take your hands off and let it drop, and at the bottom once
38
00:01:57.810 --> 00:01:58.760
you catch
39
00:01:58.760 --> 00:02:03.930
the grip again, you're going to be already rotating your body, and that's going
40
00:02:03.930 --> 00:02:04.560
to allow
41
00:02:04.560 --> 00:02:10.540
you to pull along the club in the direction of the target.
42
00:02:10.540 --> 00:02:15.920
So I'm going to drop, and then when I catch it, I'm going to start pulling.
43
00:02:15.920 --> 00:02:19.760
So I'm going to drop kind of like that.
44
00:02:19.760 --> 00:02:20.940
Now it's very hard.
45
00:02:20.940 --> 00:02:23.240
I do this usually from a split grip.
46
00:02:23.240 --> 00:02:29.680
So it's very hard to make solid contact when doing it as a hitting drill.
47
00:02:29.680 --> 00:02:33.110
But I have done it where I'm dropping it for students, and it seems to work
48
00:02:33.110 --> 00:02:34.960
pretty well.
49
00:02:34.960 --> 00:02:39.520
For you, I would say once you've got this sense of that club dropping, then
50
00:02:39.520 --> 00:02:40.140
take a few
51
00:02:40.140 --> 00:02:47.970
practice swings and try to let go of the club and grab it again down here at
52
00:02:47.970 --> 00:02:49.280
the bottom.
53
00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:51.960
But don't actually take your hands off of the grip.
54
00:02:51.960 --> 00:02:57.880
So lose the grip pressure, but don't let go of the grip.
55
00:02:57.880 --> 00:03:03.790
So now I'm going to make that movement, so I'm going to let it drop with zero
56
00:03:03.790 --> 00:03:04.880
grip pressure.
57
00:03:04.880 --> 00:03:09.360
I'm going to let it drop so it's in a more horizontal position, and then catch
58
00:03:09.360 --> 00:03:09.760
it and
59
00:03:09.760 --> 00:03:10.760
pull.
60
00:03:10.760 --> 00:03:14.690
Then I'm going to try and execute that same movement with a golf ball getting
61
00:03:14.690 --> 00:03:16.440
in the way.
62
00:03:16.440 --> 00:03:20.570
So I'm going to go up to the top, I'm going to let it drop, and then right
63
00:03:20.570 --> 00:03:21.280
about here,
64
00:03:21.280 --> 00:03:29.040
I'm going to catch it up, drop, go.
65
00:03:29.040 --> 00:03:33.950
Now I'm going to do it without pausing or without breaking it down quite as
66
00:03:33.950 --> 00:03:34.560
much, but
67
00:03:34.560 --> 00:03:38.870
I do recommend that you do a couple of those where you get used to catching it,
68
00:03:38.870 --> 00:03:39.480
because
69
00:03:39.480 --> 00:03:44.180
many of you are going to top the ball the first time that you get there if you
70
00:03:44.180 --> 00:03:44.840
're used
71
00:03:44.840 --> 00:03:49.840
to pulling in a more vertical manner from the start of the swing.
72
00:03:49.840 --> 00:03:53.520
So we're going to go up, we're going to drop, and then from here we're going to
73
00:03:53.520 --> 00:03:55.220
swing through.
74
00:03:55.220 --> 00:03:56.640
So we'll do it in two parts this time.
75
00:03:56.640 --> 00:04:01.560
So we're going to go up to the top, drop, and swing through.
76
00:04:01.560 --> 00:04:04.990
Like I said, I almost, I caught that a little thin, not quite a top, but
77
00:04:04.990 --> 00:04:06.000
definitely a little
78
00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:07.000
thin.
79
00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:10.270
So now on this next one, I'm not going to pause, I'm just going to feel that
80
00:04:10.270 --> 00:04:11.080
weightlessness
81
00:04:11.080 --> 00:04:20.880
during transition, and then pick it back up halfway through the downswing.
82
00:04:20.880 --> 00:04:25.760
And there you'll see, lost my balance a little bit, but by focusing on that
83
00:04:25.760 --> 00:04:26.880
drop movement,
84
00:04:26.880 --> 00:04:30.870
I got a really good sense of the club coming more from the inside and from the
85
00:04:30.870 --> 00:04:31.440
bottom of
86
00:04:31.440 --> 00:04:32.440
the swing.
87
00:04:32.440 --> 00:04:35.390
As long as I do the motorcycle movement, that's going to have a nice, solid
88
00:04:35.390 --> 00:04:36.680
draw to it with
89
00:04:36.680 --> 00:04:38.960
very little muscular effort.
90
00:04:38.960 --> 00:04:42.700
So if you're struggling with getting the club to shallow in transition, I
91
00:04:42.700 --> 00:04:43.680
highly recommend
92
00:04:43.680 --> 00:04:50.460
trying this drop for shallow and working through that drill will help you get a
93
00:04:50.460 --> 00:04:51.080
sense
94
00:04:51.080 --> 00:04:54.690
of powering the swing with your body instead of your arms, and that is one of
95
00:04:54.690 --> 00:04:55.880
the key differentiators
96
00:04:55.880 --> 00:04:59.120
between elite level ball strikers and amateurs.
Have questions?
Ask Mulligan for helpClub Drop Shallowing
A study from well known golf biomechanist, Dr. Sasho MacKenzie, showed that 39 out of 40 touring professionals had some amount of club shallowing in transition. If you combine this with the fact that many amateur golfers tend to get too steep at this point, we can safely say that this is a key differentiator between low and elite level players. To get a better feel for this pattern, players will get to the top of their swing, drop the club, and then catch it, while pulling in the direction of the target and rotating to a full finish. You will probably want to do this with a split-grip and avoid hitting any balls at first, but you should get a good sense for how the shallowing of the club relates to the movement of the body. Once you have completed a few repetitions of this, you can then move to the next progression, which involves a normal grip and a simple decrease in grip pressure as you again feel the club falling or shallowing in transition. From here, you can go ahead and hit some full shots, while being aware of any tendencies that may overly steepen the club. Overall, this is a great drill that has helped a number of my students quickly pick up on the unique feel of what it takes to properly shallow in transition.
A study from well known golf biomechanist, Dr. Sasho MacKenzie, showed that 39 out of 40 touring professionals had some amount of club shallowing in transition. If you combine this with the fact that many amateur golfers tend to get too steep at this point, we can safely say that this is a key differentiator between low and elite level players. To get a better feel for this pattern, players will get to the top of their swing, drop the club, and then catch it, while pulling in the direction of the target and rotating to a full finish. You will probably want to do this with a split-grip and avoid hitting any balls at first, but you should get a good sense for how the shallowing of the club relates to the movement of the body. Once you have completed a few repetitions of this, you can then move to the next progression, which involves a normal grip and a simple decrease in grip pressure as you again feel the club falling or shallowing in transition. From here, you can go ahead and hit some full shots, while being aware of any tendencies that may overly steepen the club. Overall, this is a great drill that has helped a number of my students quickly pick up on the unique feel of what it takes to properly shallow in transition.
Video Transcript
1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.640
This drill is club drop shallowing, so many golfers need to work on shallowing
2
00:00:04.640 --> 00:00:05.040
the club
3
00:00:05.040 --> 00:00:10.320
with the arms in transition to help with a variety of different patterns.
4
00:00:10.320 --> 00:00:15.530
One of the more common patterns that causes a lot of inconsistency, both with
5
00:00:15.530 --> 00:00:16.160
contact
6
00:00:16.160 --> 00:00:21.290
as well as ball flight, is getting the club to steepen too quickly in
7
00:00:21.290 --> 00:00:22.480
transition.
8
00:00:22.480 --> 00:00:28.600
One study that Dr. Sasha McKenzie did found that 39 out of 40 Tour Pros had
9
00:00:28.600 --> 00:00:29.560
some amount
10
00:00:29.560 --> 00:00:34.290
of this club shallowing in transition, and it's not the most common move for am
11
00:00:34.290 --> 00:00:34.760
ateurs.
12
00:00:34.760 --> 00:00:39.450
So it seems to be one of those differentiators between skill levels of elite
13
00:00:39.450 --> 00:00:40.440
level golfers
14
00:00:40.440 --> 00:00:43.640
and less than elite level golfers.
15
00:00:43.640 --> 00:00:49.390
So one drill that I've used to help with a feeling of the club shallowing is
16
00:00:49.390 --> 00:00:50.080
going up
17
00:00:50.080 --> 00:00:55.170
to the top of the swing, and let's say you're used to the club being more on an
18
00:00:55.170 --> 00:00:55.960
angle kind
19
00:00:55.960 --> 00:00:59.000
of like this, and that would be a shallow movement.
20
00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:02.800
So what we're going to do is we're going to hold the club in the more vertical
21
00:01:02.800 --> 00:01:03.400
position
22
00:01:03.400 --> 00:01:06.740
it would be at the top of the swing, and then we're just going to let it drop
23
00:01:06.740 --> 00:01:07.280
where the
24
00:01:07.280 --> 00:01:12.520
club head is going to fall a little bit faster than the grip.
25
00:01:12.520 --> 00:01:16.840
So I'm going to bring it here, and I'm going to let it drop kind of like this.
26
00:01:16.840 --> 00:01:21.670
So you can see that I'm actually pretty much taking my hands off the club, and
27
00:01:21.670 --> 00:01:22.360
I'm losing
28
00:01:22.360 --> 00:01:24.360
some of the sense of the club face.
29
00:01:24.360 --> 00:01:26.680
It's rotating as well.
30
00:01:26.680 --> 00:01:32.970
And this I've used with many golfers to get the feel of the club dropping in
31
00:01:32.970 --> 00:01:34.720
transition.
32
00:01:34.720 --> 00:01:38.240
Many good golfers have described the club feels like it's falling.
33
00:01:38.240 --> 00:01:40.480
I feel like my arms are dropping.
34
00:01:40.480 --> 00:01:44.080
There's a, I feel like I'm not doing anything with my arms.
35
00:01:44.080 --> 00:01:48.000
All these relate to this feeling of a club shallowing.
36
00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:50.880
So how do we do this as an actual drill?
37
00:01:50.880 --> 00:01:57.810
So you're going to take your hands off and let it drop, and at the bottom once
38
00:01:57.810 --> 00:01:58.760
you catch
39
00:01:58.760 --> 00:02:03.930
the grip again, you're going to be already rotating your body, and that's going
40
00:02:03.930 --> 00:02:04.560
to allow
41
00:02:04.560 --> 00:02:10.540
you to pull along the club in the direction of the target.
42
00:02:10.540 --> 00:02:15.920
So I'm going to drop, and then when I catch it, I'm going to start pulling.
43
00:02:15.920 --> 00:02:19.760
So I'm going to drop kind of like that.
44
00:02:19.760 --> 00:02:20.940
Now it's very hard.
45
00:02:20.940 --> 00:02:23.240
I do this usually from a split grip.
46
00:02:23.240 --> 00:02:29.680
So it's very hard to make solid contact when doing it as a hitting drill.
47
00:02:29.680 --> 00:02:33.110
But I have done it where I'm dropping it for students, and it seems to work
48
00:02:33.110 --> 00:02:34.960
pretty well.
49
00:02:34.960 --> 00:02:39.520
For you, I would say once you've got this sense of that club dropping, then
50
00:02:39.520 --> 00:02:40.140
take a few
51
00:02:40.140 --> 00:02:47.970
practice swings and try to let go of the club and grab it again down here at
52
00:02:47.970 --> 00:02:49.280
the bottom.
53
00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:51.960
But don't actually take your hands off of the grip.
54
00:02:51.960 --> 00:02:57.880
So lose the grip pressure, but don't let go of the grip.
55
00:02:57.880 --> 00:03:03.790
So now I'm going to make that movement, so I'm going to let it drop with zero
56
00:03:03.790 --> 00:03:04.880
grip pressure.
57
00:03:04.880 --> 00:03:09.360
I'm going to let it drop so it's in a more horizontal position, and then catch
58
00:03:09.360 --> 00:03:09.760
it and
59
00:03:09.760 --> 00:03:10.760
pull.
60
00:03:10.760 --> 00:03:14.690
Then I'm going to try and execute that same movement with a golf ball getting
61
00:03:14.690 --> 00:03:16.440
in the way.
62
00:03:16.440 --> 00:03:20.570
So I'm going to go up to the top, I'm going to let it drop, and then right
63
00:03:20.570 --> 00:03:21.280
about here,
64
00:03:21.280 --> 00:03:29.040
I'm going to catch it up, drop, go.
65
00:03:29.040 --> 00:03:33.950
Now I'm going to do it without pausing or without breaking it down quite as
66
00:03:33.950 --> 00:03:34.560
much, but
67
00:03:34.560 --> 00:03:38.870
I do recommend that you do a couple of those where you get used to catching it,
68
00:03:38.870 --> 00:03:39.480
because
69
00:03:39.480 --> 00:03:44.180
many of you are going to top the ball the first time that you get there if you
70
00:03:44.180 --> 00:03:44.840
're used
71
00:03:44.840 --> 00:03:49.840
to pulling in a more vertical manner from the start of the swing.
72
00:03:49.840 --> 00:03:53.520
So we're going to go up, we're going to drop, and then from here we're going to
73
00:03:53.520 --> 00:03:55.220
swing through.
74
00:03:55.220 --> 00:03:56.640
So we'll do it in two parts this time.
75
00:03:56.640 --> 00:04:01.560
So we're going to go up to the top, drop, and swing through.
76
00:04:01.560 --> 00:04:04.990
Like I said, I almost, I caught that a little thin, not quite a top, but
77
00:04:04.990 --> 00:04:06.000
definitely a little
78
00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:07.000
thin.
79
00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:10.270
So now on this next one, I'm not going to pause, I'm just going to feel that
80
00:04:10.270 --> 00:04:11.080
weightlessness
81
00:04:11.080 --> 00:04:20.880
during transition, and then pick it back up halfway through the downswing.
82
00:04:20.880 --> 00:04:25.760
And there you'll see, lost my balance a little bit, but by focusing on that
83
00:04:25.760 --> 00:04:26.880
drop movement,
84
00:04:26.880 --> 00:04:30.870
I got a really good sense of the club coming more from the inside and from the
85
00:04:30.870 --> 00:04:31.440
bottom of
86
00:04:31.440 --> 00:04:32.440
the swing.
87
00:04:32.440 --> 00:04:35.390
As long as I do the motorcycle movement, that's going to have a nice, solid
88
00:04:35.390 --> 00:04:36.680
draw to it with
89
00:04:36.680 --> 00:04:38.960
very little muscular effort.
90
00:04:38.960 --> 00:04:42.700
So if you're struggling with getting the club to shallow in transition, I
91
00:04:42.700 --> 00:04:43.680
highly recommend
92
00:04:43.680 --> 00:04:50.460
trying this drop for shallow and working through that drill will help you get a
93
00:04:50.460 --> 00:04:51.080
sense
94
00:04:51.080 --> 00:04:54.690
of powering the swing with your body instead of your arms, and that is one of
95
00:04:54.690 --> 00:04:55.880
the key differentiators
96
00:04:55.880 --> 00:04:59.120
between elite level ball strikers and amateurs.
Have questions about this video?
Ask Mulligan for personalized guidance on technique, drills, or how to apply what you've learned.
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