Which golf training aid?

Best teaches the late hit.

This is a continuation from part one where you learned which golf training aid to use and how to hold it.

There are a few pictures on this page that demonstrate how a rope can appear as stiff as steel when it is being swung using the fundamentals of this drill.

'Leela' and I have posed for a few of the moves and we show how effective this drill can be. Take a look at the first pose where I am in the address position, using the advised hold, letting the rope just hang from my hands.

This drill should be performed in a continious motion and not as an individual start/stop swing. The rope or club should never come to rest.

As you can see in the pictures, although a rope is not rigid like a golf shaft, it will extend as stiff as iron when it reaches the fast speeds generated by this drill.

In this picture on the left, 'Leela' is pulling the rope towards the hitting area and her wrists are still in a text book, fully cocked position.

You can also see that good speed is already being generated as the rope is quite rigid. There is also a lovely stable and balanced look to her body movement a split second before reaching the hitting area.

It is also very evident that she is generating this power with the large core muscles and the hands and fingers are still locked in the same postion as at address.

In this picture I am swinging the rope again and it is going through the hitting area at a speed of around 100mph.

The rope is still marginally behind my hands at this point, which tells me that I am still pulling the rope through the hitting area.

My wrists have began to release and my forearms are also rolling out nicely.

Have I consciously tried to do these things?

Of course not. I have consciously held the rope in the manner described and set it in motion and my gross motor skills and gravity have taken care of the rest.

I am just trying to get a feel for the part my body is playing.

In this picture you can see 'Leela' a little bit past the hitting area.

It took many takes to get this picture. Not because she kept doing it wrong, just the opposite, she kept doing it correctly. My camera skills were not professional enough to pick it up.

In fact she was getting a little fed up with me but we eventually got there and it was worth the wait.

This is how we all want to swing. Total poetry in motion. It almost looks as if she has been manouvered into this postion with the rope rigidly straight out in front of her.

There is no real vision of great power being generated but the evidence is there. Look closely at the wonderful release of the wrists and the ideal forearm roll that has evolved. Although she has not yet completed the follow thru, you can see she is moving very smoothly into her left side and balance just jumps out of the frame.

I must get her to work a lot more on this drill because she does not move so smoothly into her followthrough on the course.

I would use the rope as a golf training aid, and swing it back and forth like this until I was feeling a satisfactory level of smoothness and I was hearing the rope fizzing through the hitting area just past my left leg.

I would then replace it with a golf club, and later start to hit balls with this drill.

Hit your back button to link to the final part of this drill on the 'beginner golf lesson' page.