Accelerate through the ball??

We had a dew write in about being told to not decelerating….should they accelerate through the ball.
We certainly don’t want decel however we need to be careful when thinking of accelerating through through the ball.
Normally I find that when the club is decelerating it is a result of pivot stall.
We don't want to try and make the club go faster however to fix this. When most golfers do this the result is that they accelerate the club with their hands and begin to move the club with their hands and arms rather than their body.

If you struggle with decelerating the club when you are pitching or chipping the ball think of this concept and see if you don't overcome your decel problem.

Try and make the club go back and through at the same or constant speed. This will help you learn to no decel and to learn to finish your pivot and improve your contact.

Speed Control in Putting

Students come out all the time and want to work on their ball striking. After analyzing their statistics we learn they hit a fair number of greens but have way too many three putts! The following tip and practice technique will help you reduce your number of putts per round and lower your scores.
There are two primary aspects of putting: line and speed.
The line portion is taken care of once we line up the ball and putter during address. Most players spend way too much time worrying about and thinking over the putt about the line and not near enough time thinking about and visualizing speed. Just as if you picked up a ball, looked at me and tossed it to me, you should use your eyes to tell you how hard to hit your putts. Take practice strokes while looking at the hole to allow your eyes to tell your brain how hard you need to stroke the putt.
Practice speed.
Here is a great drill I use all the time with my students. Go to the practice green and work just on speed. Drop 3 golf balls in the middle of the green and roll putts at the fringe. The object is to get each ball closer to the fringe than the previous ball without touching the fringe. Spending time focusing on just speed without any worry of line will help you learn to develop more feel and better control over your lag putts.

Trouble Leaving Ball to Right

I recently had a very good student of mine who was struggling with leaving the ball out to the right. His club was swinging off the plane to the right and he was becoming slightly disconnected coming through t he ball. His left or lead arms was leaving his chest and his arms were taking over the driving force of the club rather than his pivot.
The result when we looked at the video was a slight buckle in the left elbow and the beginning of a chicken wing. Try this tip and see if you don't connect your left or lead arm back with your pivot
The fix was a simple one. We tucked a golf glove up under his left armpit and began with pitch shots. The goal was to hit shots without the glove falling out. This was difficult at first but in a few minutes his left arms was against his chest through impact the club was more on plane and the contact was in the middle of the face again. When we video the swing again the buckle or chicken wing of the left arms was disappearing as well.
Try this simple drill next time and see if you don’t Hit the ball more solid and get rid of the buckle in your left arm.

Quit Lifting the Club!

We recently had a question from a dewsweeper who was driving home from playing in a member guest and they were frustrated because they could eliminate the problem of how to quit lifting the club with their arms during the takeaway did I have any suggestions.
Well this problem is a direct result of someone who gets disconnected right from the get go.
Remember we always tell you here on the dewsweepers that it is the pivot or your turn that must move the club not your arms.
Here are a few suggestions:
First visualize that the club, your hands and your chest all start back at the same time and together. Matching up this motion will help get you more connected.
Second my favorite drill is to get more connected by learning to pitch the ball with a towel under your arms. This drill makes it impossible to start your takeaway with the lifting of your arms.
Moving into the full swing is suggest using the training aid the perfect connexion. It is a great way to link your arms and your pivot together.

Score Better on Par 5's

How many times do you get to the end of the round and look at your card and realize that you really messed up a few of the par 5s? Even more frustrating is when you realize that most of the time when you had to take a big number on a par 5, you had started the hole right from the middle of the fairway with a beautiful drive. Use the following guidelines for par 5 play and you will soon see less big numbers and more birdies on your par 5s and your score card will look better.
Most big numbers begin when a player hits a nice drive and then tries to go for the green in two. Remember that the landing areas are narrower close to the green on par 5s. This is the penalty for taking an aggressive play at the green for your second shot. Players too often feel that they have to take their 3 wood and hit the ball as far down and close to the green as they can for their second shot. What this does is give you a smaller landing area and brings into play more trouble and the possibility of a very difficult third shot.
Use this rule: If you can not reach the center of the green with your second shot on the fly then the best shot for you is to hit your second shot to a yardage which leaves you your favorite wedge shot into the green. If you can hit your wedge 100 yards try laying all of your second shots back at the 100 yard marker. Most of the time you will find that you will get a a full 100 yard wedge closer to the hole with a better birdie opportunity that you will from trouble and the difficult shot that is left for you from an offline fairway wood second shot.
Use this little bit of course management to lower your scores next time you tee it up!