Wayne DeFrancesco | Wayne DeFrancesco Golf Instruction

Online Lesson: Trent Tessler- Pelvic Movement in Transition and Sequence

Hi Wayne, Recently joined your website. I like a lot of your ideas and think you can provide some help for my game. I’m still a scratch player but my best golfing days were about 15 years ago when I was consistently ranked as top player in Northern California. I know my swing decently. I tend to run away from club and have never had a lot of lag. Somehow, I still get hands at or even which I think allows me to play pretty well at times. I’ve never been able to fix the runaway problem and have always wondered if I was able to change that would lag would show up. Biggest part of game that plagues me is driver. If I drove it better, I could still compete at a pretty high level. Any ideas w props or other things would be appreciated to help me with this process. Thanks for taking the time.

Online Lesson: Mike Watson-Great Swing, Weak Impact

By Wayne | Videos: Online Students

You might wonder how a “great” swing can have a weak impact but in Mike’s case he does everything technically correctly except deliver the club to the ball with the hands forward and the shaft forward leaning. His wide release (hands well away from the vertical line up from the ball at P6) leads to a sweeping type strike with a throw release that does not compress the ball that a drive/hold type release would. My go to when I see good players with throwaway is to have them learn to hit a proper punch shot, played with the ball forward in a narrower than normal stance, a backswing that only gets to P3, and a finish that ends with the shaft parallel to the ground in the follow-through. The idea is to hit the ball as low as possible with a 6,7 or 8 iron from that set up. I demonstrate the shot and then show Mike a drill that pre-sets the wrists and lower body before the backswing starts. Much of the ability to get the hands forward at impact when the ball is hit off the ground is having a clear picture of where you want to be at P6 and P7. I find that those who tend to release the club early don’t understand how the club manages to square up when the hands are already moving past the ball when the clubhead is still well up in the air. The attempt to hit a low shot with the ball left of center in the stance encourages a more descending blow, and the lower finish suggests the feeling of the low point of the swing being in front of the ball.

Online Lesson: Guillermo Cepeda- Closed Clubface Affecting Everything

By Wayne | Videos: Online Students

Guillermo sent in his swing with the main complaint of losing his posture and early extending, causing a severe loss of power and shanking. What I saw right away was Guillermo’s hips turning to start the backswing instead of starting with the upper trunk, along with him keeping the clubface extremely closed in the backswing, which completely robbed him of any semblance of wrist cock. Since Guillermo turns his hips so early they are pretty much done by the time he gets to P3, and with his wrists unable to cock at all he finishes his backswing by bending both elbows and pulling his left shoulder behind him, which in turn initiates his downswing by leaning his upper body toward the target. With all this going on it is almost inevitable that he will lose the tilt in his pelvis in transition and drive his legs out from under him. I believe that if he can start his swing by turning his upper trunk and have that pull his hips into play, while at the same time maintaining the cup in his right wrist (he is left handed) and gaining some vertical wrist cock earlier in the backswing, that he can totally change his pattern for the better.

Lesson of the Week: Justin Feldman: Getting Rid of Arm Lift

By Wayne | Videos: Lesson of the Week

Justin plays for the University of Maryland and is a member of my former club. He has struggled recently with his ball striking, especially with the driver, which is a real problem as Justin can fly the ball well over 300 yards. He has always kept the face somewhat closed in the takeaway with his right arm pinched, and when he gets to P3 he rolls his left arm up and bows his wrist, getting to the top with a quite vertical left arm that kicks out as the club flattens behind him. My goal with Justin has always been to free up his right arm by keeping space and flaring it more in the backswing, with the hope that he could then keep his left arm more down and under his chin with his left wrist retaining the same cup that it had at address. He feels more powerful when his swing is longer, so I must convince him that he can still hit it miles from a shorter, more efficient backswing. It is such an advantage to have the length he has in that he can tighten up his action to make it more consistent. Distance doesn’t mean much if you can’t locate the ball.

TP&C: Ozzie Newsome-Overcoming Old Habits

By Wayne | Tour Players and Celebrities

I’ve been working with Ozzie on and off for years but haven’t seen him since 2015 until this month when I returned to Woodholme where he is a member. Most of Ozzie’s issues stem from the way he is built, 6’4” and 250 lbs. of muscle with emphasis on huge shoulders and almost no neck. Ozzie has long legs and fairly short arms, and thus feels like he needs to bend over quite a bit to get down to the ball at address. We are working on standing taller and closer to the ball with the hands higher (that keeps the chest more up), while trying to get his backswing not to get laid off at P3 and P4. I would like him to strengthen his grip and maintain the cup in the back of the left wrist throughout the backswing, and I want the clubhead not to lift so quickly in the takeaway. If he keeps the club outside his hands going back it invariably works sideways as it gets to the top, and from a laid off position he always steepens the shaft and pulls on the grip. Speaking of grips, we are trying to strengthen Ozzie’s so that when he bows his wrist at the top the face gets super shut and he hits it dead left, a nice incentive to keep that wrist cupped. He also need to focus on keeping his right-hand pressure points throughout the backswing and transition. If we can get the shaft more vertical at P3 and continue that to the top where he is more on plane I think his athletic ability will eventually allow him to flatten the shaft, which will give his lower body incentive to open quicker so that he can get his hands forward and achieve more extension through the impact area.

Playing for Money: Derek Gillespie- Hip Depth and Pelvic Movement in Transition

By Wayne | Videos: Playing For Money

Derek has been somewhat inconsistent in his play on the Latin American Tour this year, and since he has U.S. Open Sectionals at my old club Woodmont in Maryland he stopped by Woodholme for a look. Derek’s issues usually start with a sitting trigger and a shut clubface in the takeaway which winds up having the club across the line at the top, and to help uncross the club in transition he tends to push his lower body out from underneath him. His backswing has improved quite a bit, but I still see some early addition of knee flex without adding any right hip depth. I suggest that we move the ball slightly back in his stance and try to maintain height in the takeaway instead of lowering immediately, while moving the upper right leg back so that the leg movement is more balanced and not moving out into the left hip as he gets to the top. He accomplishes this nicely with the iron, but with the 3-wood he still wants to drive both knees toward the ball in transition. When we see that we talk about trying to increase pelvic tilt in transition by twisting the right hip more inward and driving the upper leg what feels to be behind the left leg. He has a good chance to do this now that his right leg is deeper, and the club is not crossed at the top, and when he manages to keep his pelvis deeper while staying out over the ball he achieves more space for his right arm and more right lateral side bend on his approach, which affects his path and makes it less of a swipe across the ball. We go back to check the iron, which looks and feels good, then end with a few more 3-woods which also look and feel better.

Lateral Hip Movement in Transition: All the Great Players Have It

By Wayne | Videos: Swing Analysis

The idea that the forward swing should start with the hips squatting and that the pelvis shouldn’t slide (I would call that “Squat and Spin”) is gaining some traction with the popularity of California instructor George Gankas. I will do a video where he explains his ideas and has a “model” student hit balls on Trackman, but here my purpose is to ask why in the world would you want to do that when none of the greatest players in the history of the game have demonstrated that technique? Therefore, I have gone through my bank of model swings and taken the major champions of whom I have stable face on views to prove that in transition, with an iron or a driver, the pelvis slides forward as it changes direction from clockwise to counterclockwise, what Lee Trevino aptly called the “slide/turn”. To simplify the complex movement of the hips and pelvis for my students I have for years asked them to view the hip movement as driving 45 degrees left of the target as the swing changes direction. In reality the right side pelvic rotator muscles start the movement, but many players sense the left knee or hip initiating. It really doesn’t matter how you think about it, as long as the hips gain depth, open and move to the left, pulling the left arm against the chest as the chest stays relatively still. The movement should feel continuous, like a “hula” motion (I wasn’t very good at hula hoops), and the amount of lateral will be determined by the set -up position and the amount of pressure you want on the left side at impact.

Lesson of the Week: Joe Shull- Posture, Setup, Routine, and Takeaway

By Wayne | Videos: Lesson of the Week

Joe came to the lesson with a specific wish: he wanted to fix his backswing, which he knew was putting him into poor position at the top and making the downswing difficult to manage. I first suggest a less slumped posture with the hands a bit higher and looking at him face on I wanted both his weight and his hands more centered. Joe’s grip had gotten quite strong, but he couldn’t see it because his hands were so forward at address, and even more forward after squeezing the grip and forward pressing. Getting into this setup position is crucial for Joe to be able to get the club up on plane and the face less closed in the first part of the backswing, as he needs to maintain the bend in the back of his left wrist from address to the top of the swing. Joe’s overly closed clubface and low to the ground takeaway cause his right shoulder to eventually crunch up and get stuck at the top, and there is no way the right arm is going to work properly from there. We also go over a routine that will get him into the proper setup each time, an important item many players disregard even though the prospect of changing their swing for the better depends on it.

Wayne D’s Swing: May 2018

By Wayne | Videos: Swing Analysis

I’m still at it, this time getting ready for the 2018 competitive season by trying to improve my ball striking and hopefully pick up some distance off the tee. I played fairly well in the Middle Atlantic Match Play tournament, finishing T-10 in the qualifier (this is against all the section guys, not just the seniors) and then won two matches before losing on the 18th to a very good player I have taught in the past. Here I go back to some of the things that I still see in my 2001 victory at the National Club Pro, namely a brisker overall pace for the swing, especially the backswing, an earlier engagement of the hands and wrists in the takeaway, and a harder “catch” at the top to flatten the shaft more and more aggressively. I have also incorporated one of Hogan’s setup ideas, as I’m squeezing my knees toward each other at address to try to alleviate some of the problem I have with not being able to clear my left leg quickly enough in the forward swing. It’s an interesting feeling having my knees pressed toward each other (which gets me to the insides of both feet) while my elbows are bent away from each other (helping me flare my right arm so that it does not pinch in front of me in the backswing.

Lesson of the Week: Paul Tibolla 2- Still Working on Right Arm Pullback in Transition

By Wayne | Videos: Lesson of the Week

Paul is a great example (he would rather not be) of an intractable swing issue grooved in for years into his neuromuscular pathways. Paul’s swing is notable for the pullback of his right shoulder in transition, and his upper right arm simply cannot advance far enough forward once the scapula is pulled back at the same moment he is starting his lower body forward. He has seen this over and over and knows what he would rather be doing, but the timing of his swing is dependent on the time it takes at the top for the right shoulder to feel fully turned. We have tried just about everything to change this pattern, and to his credit Paul has made some progress and hits the ball much better than he used to, although not nearly as good as he would like to. In this lesson I decide that we need to eliminate the part of the backswing that pulls the shoulder backwards by getting the lower body starting forward sooner. I had Paul visualize that his backswing ended at P3 (left arm parallel) and that he would “catch” his backswing while his hands and arms felt like they were still moving away from his head. If we can make this timing change (no easy task) then I believe it will be possible to keep the upper right arm in front of the chest and to flatten the shaft while the right elbow moves forward instead of down and back.

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