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Side Bend Through The Ground
Some golfers have a great sense of their feet and how they work with the ground. Others do not. If you are having a hard time focusing on the movement of your pelvis and just feeling where your pelvis is in space during transition, then this drill could help you find a better way to do it for your brain. Ultimately, it is training the same movements that we discuss in the body during transition, but helping you feel a direction to push can sometimes help to connect the dots.
Tags: Early Extension, Early Extension
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This drill is side bend through the ground.
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So side bend through the ground is basically feeling how the legs and the feet push against
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the ground and how that helps trigger the movements further up the chain.
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So in the transition section we talk about that trail leg push and in the early extension
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section we talk about push the ground away.
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What we're going to do in this is we're going to connect those to so that you just have
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a good idea of how the trail leg works, how the lead leg works, what the pelvis is going
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to do and how that's going to relate to the side bend movement which is so critical for having
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a good path for the longer clubs.
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So essentially what's going to happen is I'm going to push the ground on a slight angle
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kind of away from me like so.
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Now the image that I like is a very Sanders making a cutback.
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I like to look at a lot of other sports for inspiration for the movements that work in
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the golf swing and if you look at a running back who's making a cut going back 45 basically
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what you will see is to push through the ground this way that will cause my body to go back
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this way.
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If I was to take a normal step I'm basically going to push the ground away from me like
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so and that's going to propel me forward.
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So I'm pushing through my toes and I'm pushing the ground that way to cause myself
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to move that way.
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If I want to get my pelvis to actually go back this way then what I need to feel is I need
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to feel like my foot is pushing almost on an angle kind of like so.
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So I'm going to try and push my foot through the ground this way and if I keep my upper body
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in kind of the same spatial kind of orientation what'll happen is when I go and push that's
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going to create this Jackson 5 movement or this side bend.
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We always want things to be moving kind of in the direction of the target.
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So this side bend movement being initiated from the lower body will help create leg and
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delay the arms.
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What can happen is if you are trying to just manufacture this side bend by tipping backward
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with the upper body it will be very hard to have the proper arm movements and so you'll
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usually dump those arms and kind of hit fat shots where the club gets bottomed out because
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my arms are extending and my path is too right word.
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So in order to do this side bend correctly ultimately we want to connect it to what the feet
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are doing with the ground or at least what the hips are doing where the hips are working
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kind of in this back 45 back 30 kind of direction.
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So if I were to do it from this point of view basically what you'll see is that I'm going
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to push the ground away from me kind of like so and I'm going to let my hips go backward
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kind of like so.
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So I'm pushing the ground that way.
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Now it doesn't have to be a super aggressive push.
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It's not like I'm trying to push as hard as I can.
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It's more like I'm trying to push just like I'm taking a step.
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So about the same amount of push as if I was throwing the ball.
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If I were to push too explosively it'll usually throw off the rotational speed that
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I'll want later in this way.
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So you can actually hit golf balls this way.
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But I recommend if you're going to hit golf balls this way you got to be about a 10
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handy cap or better.
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You're welcome to try it.
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It's just going to be very tough for you to make solid contact with this much movement.
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But basically the way you would do it is if I'm going to push that way that's going to
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cause me to step about a foot back kind of like so.
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So if I was to make a backswing and then basically as I'm starting transitions so well
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before my arms finish the swing if I was to step back this way.
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This is going to build the proper feeling for that trail leg.
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So I'm basically going to swing and step back just like so and I should still be able
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to hit a nice little draw.
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In fact that's going to help create the space for the proper arm movements.
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If you feel like you've got kind of a, or you've done this and you've had some success
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and you feel like you have a good idea then your goal is to try to initiate that feeling
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of the step without actually stepping.
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Doing this will help create that side bend.
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Help create this shallow angle of attack and allow you to make the good arm movements
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that we want to build during the release.