The secret to hitting a powerful draw is in this picture. Actually there are two secrets in this picture. Can you see them?
My standard question at the beginning of every golf lesson is to ask the student “How may I help you?” It’s all about you the student. All the pressure is on me and I Love it! What I believe is of no consequence if it does not match up to what the student wants to accomplish.
Mike came to me for a golf lesson looking to stop his slice and add more power to his golf shots. I always ask a lot of questions in the beginning of every lesson. An example of this is where is your ball flight going? Mike told me his ball flight was high, short and to the right with every club in his bag. Occasionally, he was able to hit it straight but he felt there was a lot of work involved when he saw his friends swinging effortless and hitting the ball so much farther.
In almost every golf lesson, I will draw a shaft plane line for reference and guidance for me and the student during the lesson. To hit a powerful draw one of the keys I look for is the club head and shaft are under the shaft line on the downswing. I am a huge believer in exaggerations when it comes to changing a golf swing and ball flight. You can see in the before picture (on the bottom) Mike’s shaft is way above the shaft line and over his right shoulder. This means the path is going to be significantly to the left.
The second part of the equation is the club face. Mike’s club face is significantly open in the bottom picture. A club face that is 60 degrees open and a path that is 12 degrees or more to the left equals a weak shot to the right. He is turning the 6 iron into a 60 degree wedge. We needed to fix this:)
There are many ways to attack fixing a slice. The majority of the time I will fix the club face first to immediately change a ball flight. However, Mike’s golf swing was so dramatically to the left that if I closed the face and didn’t fix the path he would drive the ball right into the ground. So we focused on changing his swing plane and path.
My golf lessons are always going to work to the players strengths. To my shock Mike’s golf grip was ok. He just had the completely wrong idea about hitting a draw. That’s ok!
Using a couple of alignment sticks on the ground a some coaching Mike changed his swing path almost 40 degrees to the better. Mike was now swinging the golf club more out to the right and under the swing plane. His club face changed without any manipulation in his hands and wrists. In the above picture (after), the club face was closed to the swing path. With a new understanding of his golf swing his path changed and club face changed to the better. He immediately changed his ball flight to a high powerful draw with both his irons and driver! Very exciting!
The goal in every golf lesson with me is to make the student happy and give the student what he or she wants. It’s different every time. Each and every case is unique to the student. To me the most important keys are solid contact and ball flight. My belief is if the student leaves our session hitting the ball better they will be happy! And so will I!
