Overcome Casting with the Trevino Drill for Better Impact

The Trevino Drill is a simple way to train a better downswing if you tend to cast the club or let your upper body dominate the motion. Many golfers start down with the arms and shoulders, which throws the club out, steepens the path, and makes solid impact hard to repeat. This drill changes your setup so you can clearly feel what a better impact alignments should be: hips more open, shoulders quieter, and the arms working closer to the body. If you want to approach the ball more from the inside and stop throwing the club early, this is an excellent pattern-builder.

How the Drill Works

The drill is inspired by Lee Trevino, who often set up noticeably open to the target yet still delivered the club with tremendous control. To copy that feel, you address the ball with your body aimed well left of the target—roughly 40 degrees open—while still intending to send the ball down your normal target line.

That setup creates an immediate challenge. If you make your usual casting move, the club will want to swing left across the ball. To get the ball back on line from that position, you would have to leave the face very open and hit a weak, glancing shot. In other words, the drill exposes the problem right away.

To make the ball start on your target line, you need a different delivery. Your arms must stay in closer to your body in transition, and your upper body must resist spinning open too soon. Your lower body can be open, but your chest and shoulders need to feel much more closed or square relative to the pelvis. That relationship is what helps the club approach from the inside instead of being thrown out over the top.

This is why the drill is so useful: it teaches you how the body moves the club. You begin to sense that a strong impact is not created by yanking the handle down with the upper body. It comes from the right blend of pelvis opening, rib cage staying back, and arms dropping into position.

Step-by-Step

1. Set up with your body open. Address the ball with your feet, hips, and shoulders aimed about 40 degrees left of the target if you are a right-handed golfer. The clubface can still be oriented to send the ball toward the target.

2. Make a small to medium backswing. Start with a shorter motion at first. You do not need a full swing to learn the pattern.

3. Keep your arms from flying away in transition. As you start down, feel that your arms stay close to your torso rather than being thrown outward. This is the opposite of a cast.

4. Let the lower body be open while the upper body stays quieter. Your hips can continue to rotate open, but your chest and shoulders should feel less open than your pelvis. Avoid the sensation of the shoulders spinning immediately from the top.

5. Swing the club down the target line. Even though your body is aimed left, your job is to deliver the club so the ball launches on your intended line. This forces a more inside approach.

6. Hit soft shots first. Start with half-speed shots so you can organize the movement. The goal is not power; it is learning the geometry of impact.

7. Return to a normal setup. Once you have the feel, set up normally and try to recreate the same impact relationship: hips open, shoulders less open, arms working in close.

What You Should Feel

The best drills give you sensations that are easy to recognize, and this one does exactly that. When you do it correctly, you should notice a few key feelings.

Arms staying connected

Your arms should feel as if they are dropping and staying close to your body instead of being thrown out toward the ball. This helps shallow the delivery and prevents the club from cutting across the shot.

Hips open, chest quieter

At impact, your pelvis should feel clearly open, while your shoulders feel more square than you might expect. This is a valuable checkpoint for golfers who normally spin everything open at once.

The club approaching from the inside

You should sense that the club is traveling more along the target line rather than immediately moving left. That is a sign that your body and arms are working together better.

Less throw from the top

If you are used to casting, this drill should make you feel as though you are being more patient in transition. The club is not being dumped early; it is being delivered later and more efficiently.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Making a full-speed swing too soon. Start small so you can actually feel the correct sequence.
• Spinning the shoulders open from the top. This is the exact pattern the drill is meant to fix.
• Throwing the arms away from the body. If the arms move outward early, the club will still work left.
• Leaving the face wide open to compensate. Some golfers try to save the shot with an open face and a soft, glancing strike instead of fixing the path.
• Confusing open hips with open everything. The lower body can be open at impact without the chest racing open too early.
• Trying to manufacture the shot with the hands alone. The drill is about improving body-arm alignments, not flipping the club into place.

How This Fits Your Swing

The Trevino Drill is not just a specialty exercise. It gives you a clear picture of what a stronger impact should look and feel like in your normal swing. If you struggle with a cast, an arm pull-down pattern, or a motion where the upper body takes over, this drill helps you reorganize the downswing from the ground up.

In a good motion, your body does not simply spin and drag the club across the ball. Nor do your arms independently throw the club from the top. Instead, the swing works best when the lower body begins to open, the upper body stays more controlled, and the arms fall into a connected delivery position. That is what allows the club to approach from the inside with better shaft lean, better strike, and more predictable direction.

Use this drill as a bridge between practice and play. First, exaggerate the open setup and learn the feel. Then return to your normal address and recreate the same impact alignments without the exaggerated stance. Over time, you will start to replace a steep, thrown-out downswing with a delivery that is more efficient, more inside, and much more reliable through impact.