Address

1. Address • Posture Drill • Here is a good way to develop perfect posture: • Stand up straight, and using your right hand, hold a club so it lines up vertically along your body and goes over your nose, ending at about your forehead. • Bend your knees just enough to get your weight onto the balls of your feet. • Keeping your left arm down straight, bend over until your left hand rests on your leg just above your knee. I have flipped Tiger over to lefty for a better comparison. As you can see, his knees are slightly less bent than yours, not by much though. His back is also slightly more bent over as well, however, by bending your knees slightly less, you will naturally have to bend over slightly more. The line I drew goes through the balls of his feet, tips of his knees, and his shoulder. Your posture looks pretty good here. Basically, with perfect posture, that line I drew should go through the balls of your feet, the tips of your knees, and your shoulder. If anything, I would say maybe have slightly less bend in your knees, but overall your posture is good here.

2. Takeaway How to fix this There are a few ways to help correct this problem. For the first 18 inches or so of the swing, try to keep the triangle formed by your shoulders and arms intact. As you bring the club back, do not lift it with your hands. Simply rotating your shoulders without lifting them at all should start you on the correct plane. When practicing, try and keep the clubhead close the ground for the first 18 inches. Low and slow is a common term used for this. Do not let this be your focus when playing for real however. Too many thoughts are not good. A Drill that should help A good drill for this is to place something such as a block of wood behind your clubhead at address. As you start the club back…push the wood back…keeping the clubhead on the wood until it is too far away to do so. This should help you start your swing correctly. Club picked up – starts above plane very early. Notice how his club is directly on the plane at this point in the swing.

3. Halfway to top Another thing I noticed here is it seems as though your weight may be moving slightly forward rather than backwards. This will show up more noticeably later on in the swing, where I will address it with more detail. How to Fix The swing plane problem in this frame is a direct result of your picking the club up on the takeaway. Once you begin taking the club back correctly and on plane, your club should remain on plane to this point. At this point in your swing, the club has moved significantly above the swing plane. This is where the picking up with the hands at the beginning really shows through. Here, Tiger is directly on plane. His left arm is much straighter than yours at this point. Picking up the club is the main reason this is the case. He has kept the triangle made by his arms and shoulders up to this point.

4. Top How to Fix One thing that is extremely important is to keep your back leg bent. As I mentioned, you have straightened it, which means most of your weight has shifted forward, rather than back. At the top of your swing, your back leg should be bent with most of your weight on the inside of your back foot. This correction will also put the club in a better position. Another thing to note: you may want to try cocking your wrists slightly more. You don’t seem to have a problem of over swinging at all, and more wrist cock may ultimately lead to more distance for you. Helpful Drill Simply by keeping your back leg bent, you should find it much easier to shift your weight back correctly. Here is a drill to aid you further in doing so: Address the ball as if you were going to hit a normal shot. As you take the club back, step back with your right foot so when you reach the top of your swing your two feet are touching. During the downswing, place your right foot back to its correct position. This should give you the feeling of moving your weight backwards on your backswing and forwards on the downswing. Here it is easy to tell your weight has shifted forward rather than back. A major indicator of this is that your back leg has straightened. It should remain bent to this point. Your head has also moved forward and down slightly. It should remain stationary throughout the swing, if anything moving slightly away from the target. It is hard to tell with the long pants, but Tiger’s back leg has remained bent. This indicates he has correctly shifted his weight back. You can also see that his head has moved neither up or down.

5. Downswing While Tiger is on plane in this photo, your club is well above plane and too steep. However, your downswing move is not too bad. This poor position is mainly a result of the mistakes you make earlier in your swing. This position says basically the same thing as the last, just showing a comparison a little farther along in the swing. Once again, Tiger’s club is directly on plane, whereas yours remains well above it. Another thing I notice here is it seems you may have released your wrists too much at this point, which if you hit some shots fat, this could be the reason. A good indicator at this point in the swing is making sure the club shaft is pretty much over your left forearm, as is the case in Tigers swing. Downswing Drills on Next Page

6. Downswing Drill • Once you correct your backswing, here is a drill that should help you start the club down on the correct plane: • Stop your swing at the top. • From here, simply unbend your left arm until it is straight, keeping the club out in front of you. This is sometimes called the pump down drill, because it should give you a feeling of “pumping” the club down in front of you. Your hands should move straight down, not towards the ball at all. Think of your arms as moving separate from your shoulders. Although your shoulders may rotate slightly while doing this, keep your arms going straight down. If you let them rotate with your shoulders the result will be coming over the top. Be sure to not release your wrist cock while unbending your arm. • From the position this puts you in, the only possible way to approach the ball is coming from the inside and on plane. You would be amazed to watch this drill live on camera with the swing plane up while you swing. The clubhead literally traces the plane on the way down.

7. Impact Your impact position is not too bad. You are still above the plane and steep, however. This will result in a loss of power and accuracy. After making fixes in your swing this position should improve. You do a good job of keeping your head focused on the ball. Tiger’s clubhead is once again directly on plane. It’s no wonder he’s the #1 player in the world.

8. Follow-Through It seems in this video of Tiger he is hitting somewhat of a punch or three-quarter shot, which would explain his shorter follow-through. However, the principles are the same. Your belt buckle should be facing the target. In your follow-through, it would probably be beneficial to finish with your back a bit straighter and taller. Also, notice your left foot compared to Tiger’s left foot. Full rotation of your left leg would be beneficial to you as well.