Camilo Villegas's Tip on Impact

Thursday, January 2, 2014

When Camilo Villegas was a little kid, he had a golf teacher. When Camilo is not playing well on tour, he still recalls what his teacher taught him. One of those things his teacher taught him was to keep his left wrist flat when he strikes the ball.

 

If your wrist is bent toward the back of your left hand at impact, that means you flipped your hands at impact or unhinged your wrist too early. You will hit a weak slice to the right from this position or pull it left. So try to keep your left wrist flat through impact, this will help you keep your clubface square.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/golfswing/camilo-villegas.htm

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How to Turn Your Hands Over through Impact

Slicers fail to turn their hands over through impact. That's why they leave the clubface open at impact and hit a weak slice to the right. To fix this problem and hit a straight shot a little draw, you need to turn your hands over through impact. One of the causes why they fail to do is grip. Another cause is in the head movement during the golf swing.

 

Stand up straight and hold your club in front of you. Next, swing your club horizontally. Make sure to stand up straight. You don't need to bend your upper body for now. When I ask slicers to do this exercise, most players will successfully turn their hands over on the follow through. When your arms or the club passes your body or your head on the follow through, your hands will automatically turn over. If you feel like you can't turn your hands over, your body or your head might be moving forward through impact area.  That's why you find it hard to turn your hands over.

 

How to Stop Your Head from Moving Forward

The reverse point can cause your body to move forward on the downswing. Your grip or posture can be the cause as well. If you look up at impact, your head will move forward and cause you to hit the slice. You can also focus on the clubface at impact to stop your head from moving forward. If you can focus on your clubface or clubface angle at impact or through impact, your head will stay back as you strike the ball.

 

Because the clubhead is moving at a fast speed, you won't be able to see the ball at impact. But if you focus your mind on the clubface, you will naturally keep your head back at impact. But if you focus your mind on the clubface, you will naturally keep your head back at impact. This is how you can keep your head behind the ball.

 

So forget about follow through and focus on the clubface. When you see great putters, almost all of them try hard to focus on the putter face angle at impact. You don't have to try hard to turn your hands over. It just happens if you keep your head back.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/golfswing/how-to-turn-hands-over.htm

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The Position of Your Hands at Address and Impact

There was the research done to see the difference in the positions of the hands at address and impact. Researchers analyzed 4 of the top tour pros in Japan to see the difference. By analyzing data researchers found that pros' hands at impact were closer to the target than they were at address. They found the same results in all four players. In other words, the hands' position at address at impact was not the same. They also found out that the pros' hands were about 4 inches higher at impact that they were at address.

 

Because of the centrifugal force, you will  be forced to uncock your wrist through impact. That's why hands were 4 inches higher at impact. And this is why you will see the toe down effect in golf swing.

 

Anyway, because the toe of the clubhead drops at impact (toe down effect), you want the toe to be little off the ground at address to catch the ball solid.

 

Fixing Push Slice

The push slice often happens with longer clubs such as a driver. I see golfers trying to swing the club so that the clubhead will beat their hands at impact. They are trying to fix or avoid push slice. But like we talked about, pros have their hands closer to the target than they were at address. If your clubhead wins the race against your hands, you won't put a lot of power on the ball, or you will tend to pull the shot.

 

To fix your push slice with a driver, you want your hands to be little forward of the ball and feel like the palm of your right hand is facing towards the ground at impact. When you see your shots going to the right and curving even more to the right, I understand that you want to position your ball more forward in your stance.

 

But you will pull every shot by positioning your ball too far forward. So you will aim right in order to hit it straight. Your shot might go straight, but it's really a pull because you are aiming right. The problem with this shot is that it gives you hard time hitting a draw that goes long off the tee.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/golfswing/position-of-your-hands.htm

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The Best Impact Drills

Whatever you do to change your golf swing, you have to understand what it does to the face angle at impact. Here are impact drills to help you hit more solid shots with your irons and woods.

1. Stop at Impact Drill

This is the drill that was used by Johnny Miller who won the U.S Open in 1972 and The Open Championship in 1976. He said that this is the best drill that he knows for improving your golf swing. Here is how you can try his drill. You don't need to hit a ball with this drill.

• Swing back to the top using your 7 iron
• Start your downswing and stop at impact
• You don't need to take a follow through

When you stop at impact, try to 1) close the clubface a bit, 2) open your clubface a bit, 3) make it square at impact on purpose. If you are slicer, try to close your clubface a bit impact when you do this drill. If you hit lots of hooks, try to open your clubface at impact and stop there.

If you can get good at this impact drill, it might become hard to hit a bad shot. There are lots of drills and golf tips out there, but they don't always help your game. When you feel like you don't know which drill or golf tip will help your game, try Johnny Miller's impact drill.

2. Impact Bag

Another good impact drill is to use the impact bag. You can purchase one of those impact bags at the golf shop. When you practice with your impact bag, try to hit the impact bag and stop there. You don't need to take any follow through at all. You just hit the bag and stop there. This drill will teach you to keep your head back at impact. If your head moves forward, you won't be able to put all your power into the bag. If you have an old tire that you don't use anymore in your garage, you can use it as well.

You can put your tire on the ground and try to hit it with your 7 iron. When you strike the tire, try not to hit it hard so that you don't hurt yourself. Instead, you should do it in slow motion and stop as you touch the tire with your 7 iron.

3. Hit it and Stop at Impact

After practicing with your impact for a while, try hitting some balls. As you hit your balls, try to hit the ball and stop as soon as you hit your ball. This is similar to the Johnny Miller's impact drill, but since you actually hit the ball, it is more like a practical-type of drill that you can work on. You won't be able to stop at impact completely, but that's ok. Try to limit your folloe through. This is a good way to prevent you from looking up too early. Especially if you are hitting a weak slice to the right or hitting push-slice, this drill will help you hit a straighter shot.

 

4. Push Something Heavy

You can also try to push something heavy with your iron. You can try pushing your golf bag using your 7 iron. When you are on the golf course, you can use the tire of the golf cart. Push the tire with the clubface of your 7 iron. This drill will teach you the ideal position of your hands, arms and other parts of your body at impact so that you can put all your power into the ball.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/golfswing/impact-drills.htm

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Stop Reverse C Finish

Sunday, December 29, 2013

When I started playing golf, lots of golfers had a reverse c finish because Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and other great players had reverse c finish. But nowadays, with the new technology in golf clubs, you don't really need to finish in a reverse c position. This type of finish may hurt back also. SO at the finish, try to move more than 90% of your weight to the front and make sure to raise your back foot so that your right foot will expose all parts of the shoe sole.

 

This will prevent you from finishing in a reverse c position. At this position, your right shoulder should be little lower than left. If you fade the ball, your right shoulder should be little lower than that. If you draw it, it should be little higher than normal.

 

Raise Your Right Heel

On the downswing, your right heel starts to rise as you swing down. If you try to keep it on the ground through impact, it might force you to block the shot to the right. At the finish, your right foot should be on its toe showing tthe shoe sole. This is a sign of complete weight transfer.

 

Follow through is just the result of what happened

Your follow through is a result of what has happened before. So I really don't ask golfer to check solutions in finish unless I think it's necessary for some reason. Some teachers might tell you how you should position your arms, legs, clubs and so on. But I don't recommend you to do that.

 

Like I said, follow through is just the result of what happened during the swing. So even if you fix your positions at the finish, you won't solve the real problem. The follow through positions will only tell you that you might have problems in either address, backswing or downswing. On the golf course, I don't care wether you have a pretty finish or not as long as you are hitting it well.

 

When I started golf, I read books that explained golf swing positions. I tried to copy those positions. As a result, I lost lots of distance which used to be my strength. By trying to copy positions, I lost all my power during the golf swing. Often times, positions are just the outcome. Your root problem or cause is somewhere else. It took more than 5 years for me to figure out. I don't want you to waste your time like me.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/golfswing/reverse-c.htm

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How to Fold Your Left Arm during the Follow Through

Lots of teachers will tell you to fold your left arm after impact. It's important to fold your left arm to increase clubhead speed. If you can't fold your left arm, that means you are leaving the clubface open during the impact. The root cause for this problem might be in your grip, ball position or posture. If you can't fix it even if you change your grip or ball position, you might be using your lower body too much during the swing.

 

If you feel like you have too much foot work, that might be the cause. Too much foot work will restrict the free movement of your arms. It also decreases the clubhead speed and makes it harder to turn the face over through impact.

 

Here is a simple drill to fix that problem. Grab a 7 iron. Take a wider stance than usual. The stance width for this drill should be more than a shoulder width. The wider stance will restrict your lower body movement during the swing. Now, take lots of practice swings in this stance. This drill will teach you to swing your arms. It will also give you the feeling of folding the left arm after impact.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/golfswing/fold-left-arm.htm

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How to Fix the Golf Swing Plane

There are lots of theories for swing plane. One plane, two plane, flat, upright and so on. I sued to have very glat swing plane on the half way of the backswing. At that time, I was struggling with a slice. So I had to swing more upright going back. I tried to do that for more than 1 year but never was able to do so. The more I tried to fix my swing plane, the more distance I lost with all clubs in my bag. So I finally quit trying yo fix my swing plane. But today, I think I have the correct swing plane that's described by most teachers.

 

The first thing I did was to change my ggrip. I had a neutral grip because I copied tour players grip. But I was slicing it. So the neutral grip was too weak for me. I changed it to a stronger grip with 3 knuckles of my left hand showing when I looke down at address. I rotated my right hand to match my left hand as well. I used to my position ball too far forward. So I moved it back in my stance.

 

Then I tried to face the palm of my right hand toward the ground at impact. All these changes made me to draw the ball instead of a weak slice. At that time, I still had errors in my swing plane, but I didn't try to fix the position itself. Instead, I check my alignment. I was aligning too far right. So I tried to keep my shoulders, waist knees and feet all parallel to the target line.

 

By the time I noticed, my swing plane was naturally fixed. This is a proof that the swing plane is just the outcome of your address positions such as grip, ball position, posture and alignment. Try not to fix your swing plane itself. But try to find what's causing you to have wrong swing plane. Every effect has its cause.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/golfswing/how-to-fix-swing-plane.htm

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