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How do we gather the club at the top of the golf swing? and what on earth does this mean? Keep reading and you’ll find out.
A big difference between most amateurs golf swings and Pros is the ability to swing the club in a patient manner. This means without any force or jerky hand action at the top of the golf swing.
Most amateurs want to hit the ball from the top of the swing with a fast transition. This generally leads to a shaft plane that’s too steep coming down and results in some club head throwaway before the club head reaches the ball.
The answer comes from learning to hang out at the top of the golf swing for a while. We all fight the urge to come down and hit the ball. But as a general rule, the guys who commit to pausing at the top make a better transition into the downswing. Which leads to a shallowing out of the shaft plane and the club attacking the ball more from the inside.
There’s a few important pieces of information you need to understand to achieve this. Firstly, you have to load the club in the first place.
What is Loading?
Loading simply means a full wrist cocking during the backswing, as well as a full pivoting action with the body and a full arm swing. If one of these things isn’t loaded properly it will affect the top of the swing position and in turn will affect the transition and downswing.
An important note on Loading..
Many older guys and girls sometimes complain during the course of a lesson that they are unable to fully load going back because of their physical condition. In my experience this is simply an unwillingness to commit to the new move. The brain gets in the way and says “this is different and mildly uncomfortable” so they become anxious about performing the move.
The whole idea behind a Modern Golf Swing is that it’s largely for everyone. There’s no more trying to keep your right knee flexed and load weight into your right thigh. The pressure should be in the left thigh, under both feet, with a gradual counterbalancing action under the left foot. Your right hip moves back behind you and your tailbone moves closer to the target. This is a much easier way to move the body, fully load up and give yourself the best chance of making a great downswing.
Now, back to gathering the club at the top. Loading the club is essential, but so is a patient transition!
have you noticed the amount of players on tour nowadays who have a slightly steeper shaft angle going back than they do coming down? This is deliberate.
During the backswing, The hands should be dragged back on the inside. If the right arm is attached to the torso it will also start to fold. It’s this folding action that actually cocks the left wrist. This, as well as the counterbalancing into the left leg and the side tilting of the spine toward the target, keep the club head outside the hands during the takeaway and produces a slightly steeper shaft plane during the backswing.
Providing your hands are placed on the club in an effective manner, by the time you reach the top of the swing the weight of the club head will produce pressure in the first joint of your right hand trigger finger. This is called pressure point #3 (pp#3).
From here, you’re going to want to feel as though you are hanging out for a little while before you unwind your body and sustain the lag all the way down through impact.
This also goes hand in hand with producing great rhythm in your swing.
A good golf swing isn’t simply an backswing (up) and a downswing (down).
It’s more along the lines of:
Up (fast)
Top of the swing (slow)
Downswing (fast)
Finish (slow)
So program your mind to start visualizing the swing in that manner – fast-slow———-fast, slow.
Check out the video below where I point out the gathering at the top of swing by some of the best in the business, and also talk more about the fast, slow—fast, slow drill to help with rhythm. Feel free to comment below.
To sustaining the LAG,
JP
Great video. So what is the difference between this type of pivot and that of a stack and tilt?
Cheers Dustin. There’s no difference. Charlie Wi has worked with Mike Bennett and Andy Plummer for years. Try and think of drawing a figure of “8” with your clubhead. It stays outside your hands going back and inside your hands coming down. Hope that helps.
[…] plane going back and a lighter club. And then, allowing the clubhead to drop at the top the swing (click here to watch a video on gathering the club at the top), shallowing the plane out and feeling a much heavier club coming […]
Thanks James for all this valuable information. I’m 30 years older than one of the pros at the course I play at and I out drive him by 5 to 10 yards. Using the S&T I aim 10 yards left of my target and take the club straight back and then swing out at the inside of the ball. The ball goes down the right side of the fairway and then gently turns to the left. Fairway metals go pretty much straight but when I use my irons I swing the way you teach. I still have to aim 10 yards left or more and end up with a push. I guess this is just the way my brain see’s the shot or maybe my body shape. I’m 5’6″ and only have arms 26″long. It works so I’m not complaining. Thanks, Ray
Thanks for the comment Ray. Are you a lefty (as you aim down the left) or are you playing a fade? Also, are you checking your alignment (through video) with some sticks or clubs on the ground and checking your clubface aim? Remember, what we feel, most of time aint real.. Video bridges that gap between feel and real.
Hey James,
I have to say that I think there is certainly a difference between this type of pivot and a stack and tilt. I would say this is much more of a centered pivot, with the weight still transferring into the right side on the backswing and firing through into impact without tilting back. I think this is a much better move. Mike Bennet and Andy Plummer have their weight moving more into their left side in the backswing, and then reverse it slightly on the downswing.
What you are onto is a much better pivot, and the exact one I am currently working on. More of a centered pivot that allows you to transfer the weight without the head moving towards the target, and then rotate and release through the shot without tilting back. I would say it’s more of a “stack, rotate, and fire” type of pivot. I completely disagree with the idea of driving the weight forward to start the downswing like Foley talks about. Every good player I’ve ever watched has a very subtle bump towards the target to initiate the downswing, followed by the rotation of the hips and upper body. Not a drive of the left leg towards the target like Foley talks about. I believe that it is imperative to continue rotating the hips through the shot on a level plane. Where there is no rearward tilt or forward slide, but simply turning, compressing, and firing.
Which is exactly what I see you describing in the videos. I agree 100%
Hi Dustin, thanks for the comment. It doesn’t matter if the weight is moving (a little) into the back foot or not, the spine still has to tilt to keep the head centered.
You mentioned a couple of times above, that you are trying to NOT tilt back on your follow through. If the head stays still and the hips shift laterally toward the target coming down the upper body (spine) will tilt away from the target. This is something Mike Bennett and Andy Plummer talk about a lot. The idea that the spine tilt is continuously changing throughout the swing. What’s your handicap?
I am currently a scratch golfer. I went to college on a golf scholarship, and at that time I was working with Ed Ibarguen over at Duke University and my handicap was around a +2.5. I took 3 and a half years off golf due to a back injury and other issues. I started back last january and I’m working with a new instructor who teaches a lot of the same principles that you do.
My take on all of it is this…First off POSTURE. I work on my posture for at least 30 minutes every single day in front of a mirror. Swing wise, I like a lot of the stuff you talk about. If you keep the left arm connected (HUGE) and then move everything away in a “one piece” takeaway with the right arm folding, shoulders turning and tilting, and the hips rotating…then the left shoulder will instinctively pitch down as you begin the backswing. It has to. This is how the club head stays outside the hands as they work in and up on a steeper plane.
At first this was difficult for me to grasp, because I have always had a problem with coming down way too much from the inside. So I was like “wait…what!?”, and as you can probably guess, I began to fire the hips, tilt the spine back, and drop the club further down to the inside during the transition. That was due to my body planes not working correctly and not committing fully to the move. Which also explains why I cannot feel that my body is really “tilting” away from the target during the downswing. For me, I know this will naturally happen in the transition, but “feel” wise I try not to focus on it. It is now getting much better by the day.
With this swing, I have actually found that most of the moves necessary to complete the backswing (in particular), can be trained best off the golf course. Simply because this swing is compact, efficient, and controlled by the large mass of the body. I do a lot of work with a medicine ball. I will get into my 7 iron posture, put a straw in my mouth, wrap a towel across my chest and under my armpits, and then simply stay connected as my shoulders and hips tilt/turn and my head remains centered. I will do about 100 reps of this exercise, stopping when the left arm is parallel the the ground and returning to the address position
That’s awesome mate, and thanks for the kind words. I agree with your assessment, and what I’ve also found over the years, coaching good players – is that a lot of the time firing the hips to start down and getting on the left side is no problem at all. In fact for many good players they actually fire the hips too soon and rotate too early at the start of the downswing. This gets the club “stuck” behind them. So “timing” the move successfully to allow the arms to come down in front of the body are the kind of things we work on. Gradual acceleration – I think that’s a great thing to work on if you’re a good player. Not going “all out” and getting “caught out”..
I love the enthusiasm with the “training” off the course! good job! You’ve got to train to ingrain. Keep it up, and please feel free to comment on my blogs in the future..
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