Improve Your Ball Striking with Alex Noren's Practice Routine

When you struggle with a flip, scoop, or inconsistent contact, it is easy to lock onto the symptom and assume one isolated fix will solve everything. But in most swings, the visible mistake at impact is tied to several motions that happened earlier in the downswing. Alex Noren’s practice rehearsal is a great example of how elite players improve ball striking without rebuilding everything from scratch. His routine appears simple, but it helps clean up multiple issues at once: an arm-dominated transition, a trapped trail elbow, and a release that depends too much on the hands. If you tend to pull the arms down, get stuck, and then save the shot with a late flip, this is a pattern worth understanding.

What It Looks Like

The pattern starts in transition. Instead of the downswing beginning as a coordinated movement of the body and arms, the first move is more of an arm pull-down. From the top, your arms try to race into the slot before your lower body and torso have created the space for them.

That early arm pull often leads to a chain reaction:

• The trail elbow works behind your body instead of moving more in front of your ribcage.
• Your lead shoulder lifts too early, which takes away the room the trail arm needs.
• The club approaches the ball from a compromised position, often too steep or too trapped.
• Your body slows or stalls through impact because it no longer has room to keep rotating freely.
• Your hands and wrists take over late, producing a scoop or flip.

In a face-on view, this can look subtle. You may simply notice that your hands seem overly active through impact, or that your right elbow appears pinned behind you. But from down the line, the pattern becomes clearer. The club can look as if it is being dragged down by the arms, while the chest and pelvis are late to support the motion.

That is why many golfers misread the problem. They see a flip and assume the wrists are the issue. They see a chicken wing and assume the follow-through is the problem. They see thin and heavy shots and blame posture. In reality, those are often aftereffects of a transition that was out of sequence.

By contrast, the improved version of this movement looks much more blended. The lower body, core, and arms begin the downswing together. The lead shoulder stays down a little longer, creating room. The trail elbow moves more in front of the body instead of getting trapped behind it. The shaft shallows more naturally, and the release happens through the arms, body, and club together, rather than through a last-second hand throw.

Why It Happens

The root cause is usually not that you are consciously trying to flip. More often, your body puts the club in a position where flipping becomes the only available rescue.

The arms start down too independently

If your first instinct from the top is to yank the handle or pull the arms toward the ball, you can outrun the pivot. The body has not rotated enough or shifted well enough to support the delivery, so the arms get crowded. Once that happens, the trail elbow tends to get stuck behind you.

This is a common pattern for players who have been told to “drop the arms” or “start down with the hands” without understanding how the body should work with that motion.

The lead shoulder lifts too soon

Another key piece is the lead shoulder. When it rises too early in transition, it reduces the space in front of your torso. That makes it harder for the trail elbow to pitch forward. Instead of moving in front of your side, the elbow stays back and the club gets trapped.

When the lead shoulder stays down a bit longer, you create room for the arms to work into a much better delivery position.

The trail elbow gets trapped behind the body

Once the trail elbow is behind you, the release options become limited. You may have to shove the hands outward toward the ball, stall your rotation, or throw the clubhead with the wrists to find the ball. All of those are compensations.

This is why a lot of golfers feel “stuck” in the downswing. They are not stuck because they are rotating too much. They are stuck because the elbow and shaft are trapped behind a body that did not organize the transition properly.

The release becomes wrist-dominant

When the body and arms are not synced up, the club must be squared somehow. The fastest emergency solution is a handsy release. That may produce a playable shot sometimes, but it is difficult to time under pressure.

You might notice:

• Fat shots when the low point moves behind the ball
• Thin shots when you pull the handle up to avoid the ground
• Hooks when the face flips closed too quickly
• Blocks when the body stalls but the face stays open

You focus on the symptom instead of the sequence

This is one of the biggest takeaways from Noren’s rehearsal. A better swing often is not about fixing one visible fault in isolation. If you only try to “hold the lag,” “bow the wrist,” or “stop flipping,” but do not improve how the body and arms transition together, the old compensation usually returns.

One good drill can improve several linked pieces at once:

• How the lower body starts down
• How the core supports the arms
• How the lead shoulder stays down
• How the trail elbow moves in front
• How the shaft shallows
• How the club releases through the ball

How to Check

If you want to know whether this is your pattern, use both face-on and down-the-line video. Many golfers only look at impact and miss what caused it.

Face-on checkpoints

From the face-on view, look for these signs:

• At the start of the downswing, do your arms pull down first while the lower body stays relatively quiet?
• Does your trail elbow stay back on your side instead of moving more in front of your shirt seam?
• Through impact, do your hands appear to pass the clubhead with a lot of wrist throw?
• Does the release look narrow and handsy rather than wide and connected?

If the downswing looks like arms first, then elbow trapped, then wrists throwing, you are likely dealing with this pattern.

Down-the-line checkpoints

This view often reveals the issue more clearly. Check for:

• A lead shoulder that pops up early in transition
• A shaft that does not shallow naturally, or one that gets driven steeply before rerouting
• A trail elbow that works behind your torso
• A body that appears to stall as the club approaches impact
• A release that looks like the hands are taking over instead of the arms and torso moving through together

You may also notice that the club works outward toward the ball too early, rather than approaching from a connected, organized delivery.

Ball-flight clues

Your ball flight can also confirm the diagnosis. This pattern often produces:

• Inconsistent turf contact
• Shots that start right and curve left
• Occasional blocks when the hands do not save the face in time
• Distance control issues because strike quality varies so much

If your good shots feel timed and your bad shots feel dramatically different, that is often a sign you are relying on compensation rather than sequence.

Feel versus real

One important note: you may feel as though you are rotating aggressively in transition, when the video shows your arms actually starting down first. This is common. Most golfers are poor judges of sequence in real time. That is why slow-motion video is so valuable. It lets you separate what you feel from what you are actually doing.

What to Work On

The goal is not just to stop flipping. The goal is to improve the delivery sequence so the flip is no longer necessary.

Blend the body and arms in transition

From the top, work on a downswing that begins as a unified motion. Your lower body and core should help bring the arms down, rather than leaving the arms to start on their own.

A good feel is that your pelvis, torso, and arms all begin shifting and rotating together. You are not yanking the handle down. You are letting the motion of the body support how the arms fall into position.

Keep the lead shoulder down longer

This is a subtle but powerful piece. If the lead shoulder stays down a touch longer in transition, it creates the room your trail arm needs. That allows the trail elbow to move more in front of you instead of getting pinned behind your side.

For many golfers, this one feel can clean up several problems at once:

• Better space for the arms
• Less steepness
• Less trapped trail elbow
• A more connected release

Get the trail elbow in front of the body

You do not need to force the elbow tightly into your side. In fact, that can make the stuck pattern worse. Instead, work on the feeling that the trail elbow moves forward in front of your ribcage as the body turns.

When that happens, the club can shallow more naturally and the arms can extend through the ball instead of dumping the angle with the wrists.

Organize the shaft with the forearms

In Noren’s rehearsal, there is also a clear sense that the club is being organized by the forearms during transition. This helps the shaft shallow without a dramatic reroute. It is not a manipulation for its own sake; it is part of getting the club and arms synced with the pivot.

If you tend to get steep or trapped, a rehearsal where you feel the forearms helping the shaft settle behind you can be useful, as long as the body is moving with it.

Train one rehearsal that covers multiple pieces

The biggest lesson from this practice routine is that one rehearsal can tie several matchups together. Rather than trying to remember five swing thoughts, build one motion that includes the essentials.

Your rehearsal might include these elements:

1. Make a backswing to the top.
2. Start down with a gentle blend of lower body, torso, and arms.
3. Feel the lead shoulder stay down slightly longer.
4. Let the trail elbow move in front of your body.
5. Allow the shaft to shallow with the help of the forearms.
6. Release the club with the arms and body moving through together.

This kind of rehearsal is especially useful because you can shift emphasis depending on what you need that day. Sometimes your focus may be more on the lower body and core. Other times it may be more on shoulder depth or elbow position. But the drill remains one connected motion rather than a collection of disconnected thoughts.

Prioritize contact over appearance

Finally, remember that the goal is not to copy a tour player’s style exactly. The value in studying Noren is seeing how a small rehearsal can improve the function of the swing. His changes are not dramatic at first glance, but they have a major effect on strike quality because they improve how everything works together.

If you can turn an arm-dominated transition into a body-supported one, get the trail elbow more in front, and release the club with less hand rescue, you will usually see the payoff where it matters most: cleaner contact, more predictable start lines, and a ball flight that no longer depends on perfect timing.