Two Transformative Swing Drills

Regular readers know that one of the drums I beat is to have your hands leading the clubhead going into the ball. Let me give you two drills to help you learn how to do that.

1. Take your sand wedge and hit chips with only your right hand on the club.

If your habit is to bend your right wrist backward through impact, you’ll learn very quickly that you can’t hit a good shot when you chip like that with the right hand alone.

You’ll have to keep your right wrist straight as you bring the club thorough the ball, and the easiest way to do that is for the right hand to lead the clubhead.

There’s no need to take a very big backswing. Maybe take your hand back to hip height at most. Make it a slow swing. It’s a chip. No need to belt the ball.

Your only concern is to get your right hand to the ball before the clubhead gets there.

After a few months of practice that have led you to mastery of this drill, you’re ready for drill number two.

2. Hit 75-yard pitches, over and over. Hit a bucket of nothing but that shot each time you go to the range. As before, work on the feeling of your right hand getting to the ball before the clubhead does.

You’re holding on with both hands now, but your mind is still on your what your left hand is doing.

And don’t abandon drill number 1, either. Use it to warm up for drill number 2.

Once you get really good at this drill, you are only inches away from making full swings in which your hands get to the ball before the clubhead does.

Along the way, there’s the bonus of learning how to hit those longer pitch shots really well. Most recreational golfers I play with hit this shot poorly.

You will also learn a few things about striking the ball on the center of the clubface, which never hurt anybody.

Practice these two drills patiently until you have mastered them. I would give you a year of continual practice before these drills, working together, make the hands-first strike a normal part of your swing, instead of something you have to think about.

When that transition has been made, look out!