Why You Need This: Today, you'll discover "Stop Rushing the Downswing | Use the Ground Correctly"

So many golfers aren’t doing the things in the backswing that lead to a good downswing…

...which’ll lead to an over-the-top swing path…

...a flip, early release, and inconsistent ball contact.

The key to solving these issues has to do with when the pressure in your feet shifts.

Today, I’ll show you when you should feel pressure shifts in your backswing and downswing (hint: it’s probably not when you think)...

...you’ll learn how the key to your backswing is all about ground force...

...so that you can correct your sequencing and start smashing the ball consistently!

 

 

 

 

Golf Pros Featured:

Instructors Featured: Quentin Patterson    

Video Duration: 8:33

Video Transcription:

G131. Stop Rushing the Downswing | Use the Ground Correctly

Quentin Patterson: If you’re rushing the downswing, it’s because you’re thinking of the backswing and the downswing as two separate events.

In reality, there’s things that you need to be doing in the backswing to ensure that you are taking a proper downswing. This really comes down to the forces that we’re putting into the ground.

What most people are doing or what people I see that are rushing the downswing, is they are going up to the top of the swing and they’re loading up in their trail foot, and then they’re staying there as they get up to the top, then they start the downswing with all arms.

If you do that, then you just don’t have enough time to get to your lead side. You’re going to tend to come over the top, you’re going to tend to flip, early release. You’re going to tend to hit a lot of thin shots, chunk shots, even top shots at times.

So how do we use our feet correctly to be able to get that proper sequencing and be able to feel like we’re not rushing the downswing, we have that good, effortless power?

Well the good part is, is that they have studied lots of Tour players and they’ve used these pressure mats, and they know how the best players in the world, how they set up and how they do this.

At address, what they’ve found was, on average, your average Tour player, is going to be about 50/50 in their feet.

So the pressure that they’re putting into the ground, the total pressure, is going to be about 50 percent on the trail side, 50 percent on the lead side.

Now those aren’t exactly the numbers, I’m just kind of simplifying this to make it a little bit easier for you, but it was basically 50/50 at address.

A big key here is we want to start shifting pressure into our trail foot right away. It’s a big mistake that I often see, is there’s basically no pressure shift early in the swing, and then they pressure shift later in the swing, and then by that time it’s too late.

What we need to be doing is we need to make sure that we’re shifting pressure right away in the backswing, as soon as that club starts going back, we’re seeing the pressure, we’re feeling the pressure in our trail foot start to load up more.

So they’re putting pressure up right away, and then as they’re getting into this area right here, when the lead arm’s getting close to parallel to the ground, they’re actually starting to recenter the pressure.

As I’m getting to about right here, my pressure in my trail leg, or my trail foot, is maxing out. It’s at about 75 percent where that’s maxing out.

Then as I continue to go up to the top, I’m recentering and I’m back to 50/50 at the top. So 50/50 right here, then I’m 75 percent in the trail foot here, and then I’m recentering, I’m 50/50 as I get up to the top.

Then as I come into impact, I’m going to be about 75 percent pressure in my lead foot at impact. As I come through into the full finish, I’m going to be about 90 percent on my lead foot at that point.

How can we do this? How can we drill this to make this a reality in our own swing? What we’re going to do, is we’re going to set up here just with some practice swings first and we’re going to set up and just feel like we’re very balanced at address, just like we talked about.

Then, what we’re going to do, is we’re going to go up to the lead arm parallel position in the backswing, and we’re going to pause right there.

As we’re doing that, we’re going to make sure, we’re going to feel like we’re loading up as soon possible in our trail foot, and as much as we possibly can to that point, at that lead arm parallel position.

What we don’t want to do here is shift our mass. This is a pressure shift, this is forces that we’re putting into the ground.

It’s not so much a weight shift, a weight shift if I’m taking my center of mass, which you can think of as maybe my belly button, and I’m shifting it over over here. I don’t want to be doing that.

There can be a little bit of it, like a one-inch shift, but we want to put pressure into the ground and then rotate our body as we’re going up to that point.

We’re going to feel that pressure on the inside of our foot here, and then moving into the heel as we’re getting up into this area right here.

If we’re feeling a lot of pressure on the outside of our foot, that means that you’re shifting your weight and you’re not necessarily shifting pressure. Pressure is the force that you’re putting into the ground.

So again, we’re 50/50 at address here, then we’re going to go up to lead arm parallel and we’re going to feel that pressure on the inside of our foot and we’re loading up as soon as possible and as much as possible to this lead arm parallel position.

Then from here, we’re going to continue to the top and we’re going to recenter. There’s going to be a little bit of a lateral shift here, there’s going to be a little bit of a center of mass shift, weight shift, with that pressure shift, but we’re going to recenter as we go up to the top.

So we’re going up to the top and we’re recentering our body. Now I’m back to 50/50, and then I’m going to push into the ground here with my lead leg, and I’m going to swing all the way through into the full finish.

I’m going to do 10 good ones of those getting that proper feeling. Again, loading up right away to lead arm parallel, recentering, then pushing through with that lead leg coming all the way through into the full finish.

Now let’s progress this to the next step after we’ve got 10 good ones. After 10 good ones, we’re going to do that first part of the drill, but we’re not going to pause at the top.

We’re just going to continue to go into the full finish. So again, we’re going to start in our address position, 50/50. We’re going to go 75 percent pressure in the trail foot loading up right away to lead arm parallel.

Then in one motion, one fluid motion, we’re going to from this position lead arm parallel to the backswing, to the full finish.

We need to from here, recenter as we’re going up to the top, and then continuing to put increased pressure into our lead foot.

Feel like you’re getting as much pressure into the ground as you can as you’re coming into contact, and then into the full finish.

So again, that rep’s going to look like this. We’re going to go here, and then we’re going to go all the way around into the full finish.

Hit the ground when you do that. Try to brush the turf as you’re doing that, so that way you can get a sense of the turf. Now get 10 good ones of that, getting that same feeling of what you’re doing.

The next progression where you’re going to put it all together, just do like a 50 percent swing where you’re taking the pause out, but you’re feeling balanced at addressed, loading up early to this point, recentering at the top, and then swinging down all the way into the full finish and a nice, fluid swing.

So that’s going to look something like this. Load up right away, get to the lead side, come all the way around into a full finish.

Go about 50 percent speed at first. Get 10 good ones. Then slowly increase the speed little by little by little, until you get up to full speed with it.

Once you’re at full speed with it, now you’re at time to hit a golf ball, it’s time to put this to the test and see if we have a much better flow and rhythm to this swing.

I’m going to tell you, once you do this drill, and you’ve got this down, it’s going to be a lot easier to get that effortless power. It’s going to be a lot easier to get that ball-first contact.

You’re not going to be hanging back anymore. You may find that your over the top is gone and now you’re hitting draws and things like that, just because you’re sequencing and using the ground much, much better.

Let me give this a try here, and see if I can get a good one. I’ve got a 6 iron here, let’s see if I can get a good one where I use the ground properly and start the downswing in the correct way.

All right, so that’s a nice little draw there. It’s a pretty good 6 iron for me. Now there’s still an issue that I see that some people have when they start getting the ground forces correct.

They start getting the club to shallow out a little more naturally here, but they’ll still tend to have the face too open.

What can happen is, they’ll come into contact and if they’re using the ground forces in the right way, the face will just be wide open. They’re not using the proper wrist angles to get that face nice and squared up at contact.

Or, what generally, usually happens, is they’ll get the ground forces going initially correctly but then they’ll have that face too open, and then they’ll kind of hang back and stand up and flip at the ball, because that’s what they’re used to doing.

That’s the motor pattern that they have currently, to be able to square up that face.

We have to learn how to use the wrist properly, and the arms properly, and the forearms properly, to be able to stay in our posture and turn through that ball to be able to get that forward shaft lean compression now that we’re getting the good ground forces.

This is what we talk about in The Move course at Top Speed Golf. So if you want to check that out, check out The Move.

This is where Clay talks about how to get those proper wrist angles, get those forearms shallowing out the club, so that way you can stay in your posture and hit really, really great golf shots time after time.

To get to The Move course, click the Instruction tab, and then click the Top Speed Golf System, and then click The Move. Get started on the drills, work through the first drill 1.1, just getting accompanied with it.

Then once you get to that 1.3, the Tennis Racket Drill, that’s going to be a really great drill to start getting you to use those wrist angles properly.

Play well, and I’ll talk to you soon.