Stuart Clark from the Steve Dresser Golf Academy at True Blue Golf Club in Pawleys Island, S.C. shows us one of his favorite drills that helps prevent, among other things, taking the club too far outside on your backswing and coming over the top on your downswing.
Stuart Clark:
Hi guys. How are you doing? My name’s Stuart Clark. I’m one of the instructors here at the Steve Dresser Golf Academy here at True Blue and Caledonia. Today we’re going to do the rope drill. As you can see, I’ve got a rope set up here. It’s roughly a couple feet off the ground. And what it’s for is to allow me to make sure A, when I’m taking a back swing, I’m not taking it too far outside. B, I’m not coming over the top. Or C, when I get to the top, I’m not early extending and swinging out. A lot of times when I have my clients out here, and they want to shallow the club, they end up tending to shallow the club by tilting back, and the club getting behind them and swinging out, which leads to blocks, shanks, or hooks.
So if you can set something up like this around your backyard, you don’t necessarily have to hit golf balls. But what it will do, it will help you understand wrist angles in the backswing. And you’ll have to understand how to pressure and pivot down to the ball and exit left. And notice how I’m staying and covering the ball, and not basically pushing my pressure, and pushing my pelvis up and under it.
So if you want to, I’m not saying you want to do this, but you can actually hit golf balls. You can set up there. And as you can tell, I’m going to feel the club shallowing out, keeping this wrist angle. I’m going to pivot to impact. And biggest thing is missed that stick right there. We’re golden. And guys, that right there is the rope drill!