Stop Sliding Drill ~ Cure your Push

You reach a short par 5, you’re playing well but could really use another birdie. You address the ball and swing a little harder than normal, thinking about reaching the green in two.  You make your swing, you finish, and watch your tee-shot sail way into the trees on the right. Sound familiar? It does …

Sliding drills pushing golfSliding drills pushing golf

You reach a short par 5, you’re playing well but could really use another birdie. You address the ball and swing a little harder than normal, thinking about reaching the green in two.  You make your swing, you finish, and watch your tee-shot sail way into the trees on the right. Sound familiar? It does for me, especially when I was a junior golfer. I had the tendency to slide my hips into impact in attempts to get more distance. This fault lead to an in to out swing path, resulting in my blocked shot.

This was one of the drills I have used to help force my hips to stay stationary and turn instead of sliding to get those extra yards. You can clearly see in these two pictures that this student’s hips are moving horizontally. Timing the motions of the hands and sliding hips to create solid contact is nearly impossible with this swing problem. To help maximize consistency a player would ideally, want his hips to turn rather than slide.  This drill will help you reduce your hips from sliding.

 

Sliding hips drillThe Drill:

Place a shaft or stick into the ground just off your lead heel, much like the image shown here (it should be about 3-4 inches from your lead hip). Focus on turning your hips while swinging. If you slide your hips during your swing, you will hit the shaft. Remember that there is some horizontal movement in the golf swing (comes from the weight-shift), but the 3-4 inches leeway should be plenty for you to perform a solid swing without making contact with the shaft.

Think, Turn! ~ This is very important in creating power, and sequencing your swing properly.

Just another note, many players have difficulty “feeling” that they are sliding into impact.  If you often hit wild blocks, it’s a good bet that you are occasionally – work on this drill to fix it.