Why You Need This:

In today’s video, “How to Increase Club Head Speed | Whip the Club Like a Clothes Hanger!”, I want to show you an awesome power move to help increase your driver distance…

Do you feel like your lower body is passive?

Do your legs stay bent and slide forward through contact?

This can really hurt your speed.

Don’t Worry…

I’ve got you covered with this video.

You’ll find out how to increase club head speed with the entire body.

As you use the lower body efficiently, the left leg will straighten up and raise the hands through contact.

This changes the direction of the club and allows it to whip through contact with massive speed.

You’re about to discover how Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson, and Sam Snead all use this power move to boom their drives.

Check out the video now so you can start doing this using the new drill you’re going to learn!

What's Covered: Instruction and tips on the compression line and the role of the lead leg in the golf swing. How to create a giant "whip" out of the golf club, just like spinning a hanger on your finger. Watch how Woods, Mcilroy, Snead, Scott, Mickelson, Johnson, and Els demonstrate this motion.

Golf Pros Featured: Dustin Johnson    Ernie Els    Phil Mickelson    Rory McIlroy    Sam Snead    Tiger Woods    

Instructors Featured: Clay Ballard    

Video Duration: 11:28

Video Transcription:

Hi guys, and welcome back. Clay Ballard here, and today we’re going to take a look at how the lead leg provides some power and how that ties in with the compression line.

What we’re going to be doing with the lead side of our body, and how that can help you to whip the club through contact. So we’re going to take a look at several pros from different angles, really focusing in on that lead leg.

I think that this is going to be a big key for you guys. I had a student the other day that was keeping a bent leg and sliding too far forward. This is going to help for people who may also have that problem.

All right, so the first thing we’re going to do here is take a look at Rory McIlroy, and let’s talk about how we want the club to whip through contact.

So in a previous video I talked about how as his club is coming down, it’s going to get to a low point. So we’ll go a few more frames ahead, and this is about as low as the hands are going to get.

So the butt end of the club is here, and then as he comes through contact, that club is going to work back up vertically. So the hands are going to do something like this as he’s coming through contact.

So if we go frame by frame, just watch the hands, see how they work vertically, and then that club is whipped through there because we have an angle of lag with the hands and forearms.

That club is lagging back behind, and then as it comes on through and the hands raise up, we’ve released all that lag now into the straight line release and the club is dead straight with the forearms and all that’s whipped on through.

It’s this vertical motion with the hands that allowed this to happen, and it’s like turning a coat hanger on your finger, I think we’ve all done that, spun a coat hanger around on your finger.

It’s that turning, that changing direction with your finger that allows the coat hanger to whip through there.

Let’s take a look at this and pair that up with the left leg and the compression line. If you go a little bit back here we’re going to see as he goes into the downswing he’s shifting his weight a little bit to the left.

Notice how the left hip and the left shoulder never bumps out in front of the left ankle, and as he gets closer and closer to contact, that left leg is going to straighten up.

So we’re going to focus in on when does this left leg really straighten up in the golf swing. Let’s go ahead and slow this down here.

As he’s coming into the straight line release, that leg is going to be straightening more, and more, and more.

So there the leg is starting to straighten a little bit more. Now it’s starting to go a little more, a little more, and then you’re going to notice that the leg fully straightens out, only fully straightens out, about when he gets in his straight line release position here.

There it was bent, and now we can see that was the halfway down point, and now we can see that it’s straightened out.

What that does is that applies some pressure so that he can drive the left hip and the left shoulder up and back, and that allows the golf club to have some opposite force moving down and away.

So Newton’s third law, I use this a lot, but it’s every action has an equal and opposite reaction, so we have to have a force going the opposite way to allow us to release that club with a lot of speed.

That allows us to turn the corner and whip that club through there.

If we go over this one more time before we go on to look at some other players, and watch this in a variety of situations, let’s take a look at this at a little bit of a slower speed and take a look at how first watch the hands how they whip up, and the club releases.

Just like turning a coat hanger on your finger, and now let’s watch the left hip as the left leg bends and then the left hip is going to move up and back.

Then we’ll watch the left shoulder, because it’s rotating around your spine, it’s going to be moving up and back. That’s going to allow that club to move down and away from the body.

Now let’s go ahead and go through a few different pros, look for some different angles, and see exactly how they straighten the left leg, and how that allows them to whip through and get into the straight line release.

All right, so here we’ve got Tiger Woods, and we’re going to take a look at the exact same thing.

If we focus in on that left leg we’re going to see as he starts the downswing, it’s going to bend, it never goes in front of the left hip, and then from here it’s going to start to straighten up.

Left leg, left hip, left shoulder straightening up, and then it’s fully straightened up as he gets into the straight line release position.

You can also take a look at the hands, see how those hands start to work up, and then how that club loses all of its lag and whips through there and gets into the straight line as he gets into the straight line release position that we talk about with all the pros.

So great example here with Tiger Woods.

Here we have a video or Ernie Els, and we’re going to see how that left leg straightens out and it’s just kind of fully extends or gets to its maximum straightening as he’s releasing this club out and in front.

This is a shorter iron, so he’s going to release a little bit early, he’s not quite to 45, but again we can see how really good job here of having the left ankle, left hip, left shoulder all straightened out in that compression line and slightly angled away, and in that left leg straightening up as he gets into that compression line.

So here we’re going to look again, halfway down, straightening that out as he comes through contact. So great job there with Ernie Els too.

Let’s take a look at Phil Mickelson here, and we can see as he goes to the top of the backswing, got a fairway wood here, but he actually lifts the lead leg, the lead heel.

So you can see how his front heel is starting to come off the ground a little bit, this lead leg, his right leg, for you righties out there it would be your left leg, is bending quite a bit.

This is going to allow him to drive into the ground even more. So as he starts into the downswing the same thing’s happening with him.

He’s letting that left leg stay bent, or that lead leg stay bent, and then as he starts to make the downswing, as he’s about halfway down, now he’s going to start to drive this lead leg down into the ground.

Just one second there, there we go. Now he’s going to start to drive this lead leg down into the ground and that’s going to provide some force that’s going to move this hip back up and to the right for him.

Then also his shoulder’s going to move up and back, so we if we watch that…let’s go ahead and get rid of those lines so we can see it a little bit better.

We watch that as he plants into the ground, now he’s going to put pressure, the lead leg is straightening out the most as he’s getting into the straight line release position.

We kind of missed it, we’re between frames, there we go. Into that straight line release, and now he can whip that club through there really, really well.

So he uses a lot of leg action, not everybody needs to use this much action in their legs, but it’s a great example of how to use the lead leg, how to use the ground to get that club to whip through there.

Here’s a great video that I found, this is of Sam Snead from the back view. You can really see the same thing happening.

Again, he lifts his left leg, the lead leg, kind of similar to what we saw with Phil Mickelson, get a little bit extra bend.

This used to be popular in the older style swings. Then as he starts his downswing, watch the lead hip and watch what happens with the leg driving into the ground.

So again, if we’re going to pause here in his compression line, there we go. See how that really straightened up?

We can draw a line here, bring this back to full screen. We can draw a line on here and we’re going to see that lead ankle, lead hip, lead shoulder all stacked up slightly away from the target.

This would be kind of in a straight line release. He had a little bit of an earlier straight line release, got a little bit more wristy than what we’d see in a lot of the current swings.

But if you watch that lead leg you can really see it driving down into the ground, straightening up as he gets into the straight line release, and that’s going to allow him again to whip through there.

We can see how the hands are much lower which would be at this point, the hands are working down lower, and then they’re working back up as he’s coming through contact to allow that club to whip through.

So great example there from one of the best ball strikers of all time.

All right so we’re going to finish up here with two really long, really powerful hitters. We’re going to look at Rory McIlroy first on the left again.

You’ll see as he starts down, look at the bend in the lead leg. Then from here has he starts into the downswing about halfway down now he’s going to start putting pressure into the ground, and watch how that lead leg straightens up.

Now he’s driving into the ground, and then it’s fully going to straighten up as he gets into that straight line release position out in front.

If we transfer over to the right side of the screen, take a look at Dustin Johnson. Let me go ahead and scroll this over so we can see him a little bit better.

Take a look at Dustin Johnson now, now we’re going to watch that lead leg. We’re going to see how he does the exact same motion, lets it bend, and then when he’s about halfway down now he’s going to start straightening that lead leg back up and it’s going to fully straighten out as he gets into the straight line release.

You can see there, very flexible guy, pretty open with the hips and shoulders, not everybody’s going to be able to do that, but we can definitely recreate how he’s using that lead leg to provide some force and allow the club to whip on through.

So good luck to you guys, what I would recommend doing for those of you who want to work on this, let me actually pull up the video of Rory from the first view again.

What I’d like for you guys to do as you’re working on this, if you’re in your living room, let’s go to the halfway in the downswing, you’re going to pause when your hands are about waist high.

This is when your hands are starting to get to the low point, and then from here, you’re going to have some bend in this lead leg.

We can see how the lead leg is bent. I want to make sure as I’m in this first position that my hands are working down about hip high, my lead leg is bent, and I don’t want my knee or my hip in front of my lead ankle.

Then from here, as we work into the second position, we’re going to go into the lower, where the hands get the lowest here. They’re going to go just below waist high.

Then at this point your lead leg is going to be starting to straighten up. So position number two you’re going to be pausing.

Then in position number three as you go into the straight line release, we’re going to work on here, now our left leg is fully straightened up, the lead hip and the lead shoulder have been working back up a little bit, and now we’ve released all this angle of lag.

Again, to go over those three positions. Position number one we’re going to be about waist high, we’re going to have a good amount of leg, and the leg is going to be bent.

As we go into position number two, our lowest point, this is when our left leg, our lead leg is going to start to straighten up a little bit, but our hands are still at their lowest. We have a lot of lag here too, the club is going to be about parallel with the ground as you can see with what Rory is doing here.

As we go into position number three we’re going to let go of all that lag, and then have the left leg completely straightened up.
What we’re getting a feel of here, is making sure we’re synchronizing releasing the club with straightening the left leg and getting through that compression line.

I want to make sure that my left hip and my left shoulder don’t bump out toward the target. So if you’re looking on camera, I don’t want that left hip bumped out here, and that line between the left ankle, left hip, and left shoulder to look like that where it’s bowed out.

It should be one nice straight line as you’re doing this.

So good luck to you guys, work through those pausing about 100 reps pausing in those three positions. 100 reps going through it as one fluid motion, and then go out to the course, get 100 reps on the driving range, hitting some balls and making some practice swings between every single shot.

So good luck to you guys, work hard, work on that lower body, it’s always going to help to move the body correctly, and I’ll see you guys soon.