Lesson 2: Scooping is for ice-cream

After my first lesson, I have really worked hard to engage my lower body. I’ve been doing my at-home drills and trying to apply them when I play on the course, in the sim, or on the range. It felt good that three weeks after my first lesson my instructor saw me and called it out right away noticing a difference. So, the effort paid off on some level.

It was time to look at the next part of the swing, my takeaway, and follow-through. My takeaway in my golf swing is actually pretty good, well except for one thing, I don’t load my wrist and when I swing the club this causes me to scoop at the ball. Basically, I am flipping my wrist instead of firing it through. By firing the wrist through the swing, it would lead to a proper follow-through, the scoop leads my arms coming in closer to my body which leads to among other things the clubface coming through in an inconsistent fashion. We did a handshake drill without the club where I cocked my right wrist and followed through the swing where at the end I was in a “handshake” position.

Along with the handshake drill we worked out keeping the lead arm extended and not basically having alligator arms coming through. The big takeaway was the “handshake” follow-through.

I was also given the ruler drill to do at home. Which I have been doing in between calls and while watching tv.

The legs and wrist, when both properly executed, negate my slice and give me a great ball flight. My contact becomes more consistent and when using a sim I can see my “side spin” greatly reduced.

Have you done the ruler drill at all?