Tried a Drill to Swing More in to Out That Actually Helped!

[ZANDER1994]

I mostly play as a single during the on-season here in Minneapolis. I'd reckon each year I probably golf with well over 200 people I've never met before. It's seriously boosted my confidence playing in front of strangers, and I've rarely ever had a bad experience. As a side note, I think if you are a young professional like me, golf is still an excellent hobby to pick up in 2022. I've found it immensely beneficial to gaining comfortability in talking to people who are much older than you and building connections with them. It's a great skill to take to the office and something I think more 20-somethings should focus on.

Anyway, near the end of the 21' season I had a great connection with an older gentleman and at the end of the round the guy stuffed a brand new Ping G425 Crossover 2-Iron into my bag. He mumbled something about not being able to hit the damn thing anyway, smiled and shook my hand before heading off to the parking lot. It was definitely the nicest thing a complete stranger has done for me in a long time. It turns out the club already had an extra stiff shaft in it (how about that!).

So today I was practicing with this club, and as I usually experience with my longer irons, I was struggling losing the ball to the right. My stock shot is a slight pull, which starts to fade as I get into my longer clubs. I've tried so many things to shallow out my swing, and come less over the top but have had little success. In my frustration today, I decided to stop and search for some drills to swing more in to out, as I have done many times in the past.

I stumbled across Clay Ballard's video below. At the 3:48 mark he talks a bit about setup, and suggests a drill that involves starting your swing with your hips open and bumped slightly towards the target, to promote an in to out path. I had never tried this drill before. I hit a few balls doing this, and all I can say is I had wow moment. For the first time in my life, I started hitting high draws with a long iron (a 2 iron no less!). I applied this drill to various clubs throughout my bag and the result was the same. 

Now some of this may be due as well to changes I recently made to my grip - up until this Fall I had played with an ultra strong grip. But through lessons during the off-season this year I have been making a conscious effort to weaken it. I think weakening my grip has allowed me to learn a different release, whilst this tip from Clay has finally helped me hit more in to out. I understand my swing still has many technical problems and is far from perfect, but I will take the small win of getting the ball to curve left. I still intend to play a fade on the course, but this is another tool in the bag to get out of tough spots that require a hook. I've posted a video of me doing the drill below for folks to ridicule and will end this meandering story on swing thoughts here 🙂 

 

 

 

Edited January 6, 2022 by ZANDER1994

[iacas]

15 minutes ago, ZANDER1994 said:

I stumbled across Clay Ballard's video below. At the 3:48 mark he talks a bit about setup, and suggests a drill that involves starting your swing with your hips open and bumped slightly towards the target, to promote an in to out path.

That's "closed." He even says "if my hips go this way, that's open…" when he shows his hips turned the other direction.

I don't love how much tilt he adds there. Of course you can hit out a bit more from there, but at what cost (having your sternum notch by your trail foot)?

I'll take the rest to your Member Swing topic.

[ZANDER1994]

7 minutes ago, iacas said:

That's "closed." He even says "if my hips go this way, that's open…" when he shows his hips turned the other direction.

I don't love how much tilt he adds there. Of course you can hit out a bit more from there, but at what cost (having your sternum notch by your trail foot)?

I'll take the rest to your Member Swing topic.

Ah, yes I meant closed not open, thanks. I will say, hitting a few shots doing this for me mostly confirmed the feeling of hitting in to out. Flightscope was confirming the path was in to out as well. For me, I feel that was so valuable to feel, as a golfer who has only ever swung out to in. When I went back to setting up more neutral, I was able to continue achieving in-to-out readings on the sim. 

[Zippo]

I can't help you with your swing, but I did want to make a couple of comments on your post. First, I really enjoyed your first paragraph. What a great attitude! I also played a lot the past season with people I'd never met before. I've got 40 something years on you and I thought that my days of being too worried about what others might think of me were well in the past but, to my surprise, I too found it a challenge to get used to playing almost every round with someone new. Like you I grew more comfortable each time I did so and eventually realized that the others were more concerned with how well they golfed than they were about how well I golfed. Kudos to you for recognizing it and seeing it as a positive event in your life.

I'll also note that along with the 40 something years I have on you, I also have 3,393,492,507 more golfing AhHa! moments than you do. I do hope this moment lasts longer for you than mine did but, if it doesn't, please don't let that discourage you from looking forward to your next one.