Improve Your Contact

Tips and Drills for Better Contact

Golf Swing drills to help you get unstuck in your downswing

Do you struggle making solid contact? The problem might come down to getting 'stuck' in your golf swing. VP of Instruction, Nick Clearwater, defines what 'getting stuck' really means and the different ways this can impact golfers- from the pro-level to amateurs. Nick also shares a couple of drills to improve your downswing which will help you avoid getting stuck and improve your overall contact.

Better iron contact equals a better golf game

Picture this: You just hit a perfect baby draw off the tee. The ball lands in the middle of the short stuff, 150 yards from the green. The hole location is dead-center, so you have plenty of room for error with your approach. But unfortunately you chunk your shot and the divot flies farther than the ball. If this sounds familiar, we dive into how proper hip sway can improve your iron contact while sharing how you can add it into your own swing.

3 tips to help you make better contact

There are a lot of frustrations in golf. Three putting a green and slicing your ball into the water- to name a couple. In 15 years and 20,000+ lessons, I’ve taught the king of all frustrations that seems to discourage golfers more than anything else and that’s when they can’t make basic contact to move the ball around the course. It’s a humbling moment when the divot goes farther than the ball.

At a basic level, it must be understood that the ball should be struck before the ground. Most golfers probably are aware of this but aren’t quite sure how to go about accomplishing it. The way you’ll do this throughout the entire swing is to ensure you keep your low point forward. Click here to see the rest of the article.

Tip 1- Set up with your weight towards the target

The first thing you want to do is set up with your weight towards the target. You can accomplish this by taking a setup that is a 50/50 weight distribution. From there, shift that ratio to be more on your lead leg. For a right-handed golfer, your left leg. It doesn’t have to be an exact 60/40 as long as there’s more weight on the target side than the trail. This will promote keeping the low point forward and making it easier to strike the ground after the ball.

Tip 2- Make a full and centered turn

The next thing you’ll want to do is make a full and centered turn. When the contact goes wrong, I usually see a golfer make a “turn” in their backswing that resembles them lifting their arms but not actually making any shoulder rotation. The problem here is when using your arms to make a “turn” the upper body (think from the belt line and up) moves away from the target. This makes it much easier in the downswing to strike the ground before the ball- which is the opposite of what you want.

Tip 3- Push your hips to the target

Lastly, to keep your low point forward, you’ll want to push your hips to the target all the way to the finish. A great visual here is to imagine a glass wall straight up to the sky off of your lead foot (left foot for right-handed golfers). Your goal at impact is to break the glass wall with your hips, not shoulders through impact. If you’re doing that, you’ll be positioning your hips towards the target enough to hit the ground after the ball and also keep your angle of attack shallow enough by not breaking the glass wall with your shoulders.