Imagine a volleyball..

[Maverick]

I had an instructor tell me to put a ball down and then imagine hitting a volleyball instead..or about 4" before my golf ball. It has really helped my impact. I thought I had to concentrate on trying to hit the back of the golf ball, but he told me start my downswing as if I was going to hit this "volleyball" instead. I couldn't have had better impact and flight.

Anyone else hear of this drill? and had success with it?

[kurtbayne]

never heard of it, but any drill that makes you think of hitting the ball farther back than where the ball actually is will be helpful to a lot of people volleyball I guess works as well as anything

[Wisco-Kid]

I dont get it? Why would you want to hit the ball further back? Wouldnt you just end up taking a divot before the ball?

[Socrates]

I've always focused on hitting a spot in front of my ball as I want to hit through my ball, not at it. Maybe I'm not understanding the concept fully; did he give you a goal with this drill? Hitting on the upswing?

[JKilgore44]

Need more explination, that sounds like he's teaching you to hit every shot really fat.

I've heard of a drill to help with posture where you put a volleyball between your legs and squeeze it throughout your swing. It helps to maintain your leg position and quite your lower body movement. Personally, I don't like the drill, but it works for some people.

[MPS67]

I dont get it? Why would you want to hit the ball further back? Wouldnt you just end up taking a divot before the ball?

I look at it this way. Since a volley ball is much larger, where would you want your club to contact it? Maybe around the equator, which is about 5" off the ground. So perhaps this drill helps the student learn to contact the ground further forward and ahead of the golf ball as the club descends from the equator of the volley ball.

I'm open to trying this drill to see if it helps. I like the drill where you tee up a second golf ball about four inches forward of the one at address. Then remove the ball at address and hit the forward one. I think this promotes forward weight shift. Regards, Mark

[Wisco-Kid]

The volleyball image just doesnt make sense to me but oh well not every drill works for everyone.

[$2 Nassau]

I look at it this way. Since a volley ball is much larger, where would you want your club to contact it? Maybe around the equator, which is about 5" off the ground. So perhaps this drill helps the student learn to contact the ground further forward and ahead of the golf ball as the club descends from the equator of the volley ball.

It was a little tough for me to picture but this helps. I think it's meant to create more of a downward blow on the ball.

[Maverick]

Well, to be honest it wasn't volleyball but the image is still the same. The instructor placed a golf ball 5"-6" behind and another in front. He told me to imagine I was going to hit the one that was behind, but obviously still hit the center ball with all my swings mechanics being the same.

It really helped me hit the ball much more consistently and flush. I think it teaches you when to start coming down to impact much more consistently than trying to hit that one spot on the ball.

[kurtbayne]

I'm new to posting golf advice - I didn't think this concept would be so hard to explain.

In my view, the "volleyball" or "ball behind the ball" drill I think has two purposes: (1) to flatten out the clubhead path at the bottom of the swing, and (2) to help better your release at impact.

I could go FOREVER about these two topics, especially "release" but I'll try to give just enough about what I think this type of drill would work.

BTW another way to do the drill would be to go to some short-ish rough or alley grass with, say, a mid-iron or fairway wood, and try to make the longest swish thru the grass you can without taking a divot. In other words, how long a trail of grass can you disturb without digging any out? Experiment with ball position and clubhead path. Start disturbing the grass about where your ball would be, then see how much forward you can disturb the grass without unduly contorting your body. Then try it the other way, start disturbing the grass as far back as possible and then leave the grass about where your ball would be. Then try halfway between the two. Then experiment with an outside-to-in swing path and an inside-to-out swing path, and then a square swing path. Can you make any discoveries about your swing?

If you're at a range, sometimes you have the mats where you can poke the rubber tees thru the hole in the mat. If you see two holes 8-16 inches apart, you can steal someone else's tee and put the extra rubber tee in the adjacent hole. Then you try to hit both tees. Probably should use a 3-wood for this, as range management will probably not be thrilled about you pounding slashes into their tees with irons.

Or you can just put two wooden tees a few inches apart in the grass. That's a lot of work fetching them, tho.

SHALLOW ANGLE

OK, back to purpose. One purpose of the drill is to help you be able to sweep the club along the ground like a low-flying plane, as opposed to hammering down on the ball like a kamakaze pilot. (this is not to say that you NEVER hammer down on the ball, but you need to learn both a steep and shallow angle of attack).

My experience is that most high-handicappers in general come down too steep onto the ball. I also think that many of these golfers don't realize just how steep they come down on the ball. Maybe it's sort of an optical illusion. Or maybe they think that since their arms aren't coming down steep onto the ball, then the club isn't.

The main problem with a steep angle of attack is that you have less margin of error to contact the ball. I saw an old lady a couple of days ago with a driver or 3-wood. She was coming down at a 60-degree angle. At that angle, it seems that she has MAYBE a half-inch to work with. 1/2 inch too early, and she slams the driver into the dirt and it bounces back up to the ball, which actually sort of works if the ground is solid. 1/2 inch too late, and she tops the ball and squirts along the ground. An absolutely perfect hit will give the ball a low shot with a lot of backspin, similar to snapping down a ping pong paddle on a ping pong ball to elevate it.

Unless you're God, you're gonna want more than a 1/2 inch play on your drives. Something in the 3-4" range would be nice. You can get away with a steeper angle on shorter irons, but long irons and most woods need a shallower angle. If a person says that he can't hit long irons or fairway woods, this would be a logical thing to check on for his swing

With more margin of error, there's a better chance of hitting a ball solid. Actually maybe that's not really the case, but your misses (which most golf shots are, frankly) will have better results.

How you produce this flatter angle of attack I think sorta depends on how you swing, but in general I think you want to think of a bigger arc in your swing, a swing that is more of a big swoosh using more of an extended body/legs/arms, rather than throwing/extending your arms directly at the ball and then snapping your wrist/club at the ball at the last microsecond

RELEASE

The other purpose of the drill I can see is to teach you more about the concept of release. As I said before, I could talk forever on it.

I think most people don't really release at impact, at least what I call release. It's a hard concept to understand truly what I mean by release. Maybe look at it this way. Imagine a similar drill with 2 tees. The first tee is where you ball normally sits. The 2nd tee is 15 to 20 degrees farther along past the normal ball position, well into your follow-thru. The tee is probably a foot tall at this point. As you contact this 2nd ball, most people are done accelerating the ball with their hands/arms, or to say it another way, they are no longer "adding on" torque to accelerate the club and "compress" it into the ball. And they are no longer using the hands/arms to steer the club or work the club to the proper position at impact. By this I mean that most golfers don't have their body work done correctly, so they need to make an adjustment with their arms/hands to produce some sort of acceptable result.

Now that the normal/first ball has been hit, it's sorta like the pressure is off, and the swing moves freely without acceleration, as, you might say, the job is already done and we're just coasting now. This free movement of the club and arms and body is kinda of the feeling of "release" that I think golfers should be more acquainted with. If a golfer hits the 2nd ball just right at this point of the follow-thru, the ball would likely shoot up at a 45-degree angle with a big hook. AND it will take off like a rocket. AND it will feel like you've hit a soap bubble, not the rock of a golf ball that you usually hit. AND it will feel WOOOOONDERFUL, better than sex. And you'll say, wait a minute, I wasn't even trying, wasn't the club decelerating? Wasn't the clubhead in front of my hand in the "non-power" position? What the hell just happened?

SOOO, if you go back to the "volleyball" drill and contort your body so that you hit the volleyball with your normal torque-y/compress-y hit and then coast on to the second ball, which is where you ball normally is, you may someday be just relaxed enough and non-controlling enough and lucky enough to get a truly released hit.

Done for now

[RyderSim]

!!!wow!!!

[MPS67]

Done for now

!!!wow!!!

I second your !!!WOW!!!

Thanks for your post Kurtbayne. I can't wait for your next one

[Maverick]

I see what you mean by having a shallower (sic) angle(compared to steep angle). He saw it also and was the first thing he told me which has helped me out tons. I see how you would have a much greater margin to hit a better shot by increasing the length of your impact zone.

[Wisco-Kid]

Um Ok. I guess it can't be explained any clearer then that.
Thanks