This week, we would like to share a Swing-U student putting one of our drills to use with great success. Will has been struggling coming over-the-top of his swing plane with longer clubs, especially the driver. His path needed some work.
During our last session, I shared with him a simple, but very effective drill — The Right Foot Back Drill. This is effective because it puts the golfer’s lower body in such a position that the takeaway will set the player up to come into impact slightly more from the inside.
Here is Will at address.
We can see that by dropping his right foot back slightly his feet are now closed to the target. This is okay, and we kept his shoulders and clubface parallel and on target, respectively, so his impact would not produce a hook.
Now at the top of the backswing, the adjusted foot position allowed the hips the turn back freely, which then put the club on a better path. Furthermore, freeing up the hip turn allowed Will to pivot more efficiently and gain distance.
This is the key move to look for with this drill.
You will know you are correctly swinging when your upper and lower body rotation into impact bring the club from the inside. It is very difficult to override the predetermined path that is set when we drop our right foot back, making this a drill a go-to for quick path and ball flight improvement.
Following the green arrow, we see the action into impact is from the inside, a great correction after being over the top and outside-to-in.
The payoff is a powerful draw with the driver. We can see the ball started on the line dictated by his feet and the slight right-to-left ball flight produced with this club path and face position resulted in a tee ball that landed right on the initial target line set by the clubface and shoulders.
Give this drill a try to rehearse and feel body motion that produces an inside-to-out path. The more you drop the right foot back, the more severe the path will be, so adjust accordingly.
One great benefit that also comes from this drill is the stabilization of the lead side. Try this simple drill that uncomplicates the ever-complicated quest for better shots.
