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Tim is a low single digit handicap player who I saw for a lesson some years ago and has come back to see why he is hitting the ball so poorly. Tim’s main bad shot is weak right, with the club glancing across the ball and the impact feeling flippy. At regular speed Tim’s swing is like most good players, smooth and rhythmical, with no obviously apparent flaws, although someone with a good eye for the swing might pick out Tim’s posture as an issue. After slowing it down, however, I saw right away that Tim was backing well away from the ball in his downswing, which I attributed to first his posture at address and then to his loss of control of the pelvic, lower back, and abdominal muscles, especially during the transition and all the way through impact. We discussed and worked on the feeling of setting up taller with more pelvic tilt and the weight out toward the balls of the feet, then during the swing the idea was to feel the lower abdominal muscles engage to support and maintain the tilt of the pelvis, which we wanted to increase in transition rather than leveling out. Tim’s proclivity to pull his head back as his pelvis drove under him needed some hands -on help to get him to feel what it was like to stay out over the ball, and it was no surprise that this felt radical and exaggerated. It’s easy to tell someone that it’s a good idea to stay out over the ball so that they can maintain or increase their posture, but if they don’t get the idea of just how different they must feel the change will never take.
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