Online Lesson: Chip Zabatta- Lower Body Instability Leads to Faulty Backswing
By Wayne | Videos: Online Students
Chip is a good player (we played a round together with Tony Romo at his other club, Wykagyl) who is a member at and regularly plays one of the hardest courses in world, Winged Foot, which puts extra demands on his ball striking. Chip’s main tendencies are to lose his right leg brace in the backswing and turn his shoulders too flat, get his right arm and shoulder behind him at the top while he loses depth in his right hip and lets both knees flex toward the ball, then approach impact with his right arm in a push or punch position and his legs out from under him, all of which leads to a weaker impact than he would like. To correct some of these issues I want him to concentrate on his backswing first by widening his stance a bit and making sure to brace his right foot to the inside and to load his pelvis more to the center instead of letting his right knee rotate outward and his hips slide to the right. At the same time, I want him to try to widen his backswing (which would probably shorten it) by using right arm extensor action to keep his left arm straighter and to keep his right arm more in front of him at the top while increasing the pitch angle of his shoulder turn. At the same time, (I know this seems like a lot, but he can pick and choose what to concentrate on) he needs to make sure he does not let his knees drift toward the ball as he gets from P3 to P4. Using the shaft between his feet will help remind him to stay deep with his hips and to finish in the box. The idea behind these technique changes is to put his right arm in a better position at the top and at the same time help create space in downswing so he can take advantage and eventually have his upper right arm more in front of his chest and his hands more forward approaching impact.
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