Getting juniors to swing around themselves

[Skeeter]

I coach a middle school golf team and usually my players are pure beginners.

 

One issue I fight with them is they just want to pick the club straight up instead of around an it causes lots of thin shots.

 

Any easy drills for this?

[Golfjack]

Easy just do it like some of Gankas' star students do. Pick it up steep and then shallow. It's all about matchups! oh and also it's not just arms pick up you gotta move the body too.

[3eagles18]

Baseball drill. Swing like ball is on a tee ball perch. Gradually lower and continue swings. Then swing through ball on a tee.

[BB28403]

Watch This, it may help you a little as to why they do that.

 

http://

 

That is the 3rd best coach in the world arguably btw.

[alfriday]

Most beginners are focused on the ball. They pick the club up because it is the most natural way to hit the ball on the ground at their feet. Before getting too much into mechanics, shift their emphasis: make sure they understand that they are swinging to a target. Establish a connection between the club, ball and body movement to a target.

 

Start by having the students do baseball swings looking at " the pitcher's mound." Let them feel the swing. Then lower down, but keeping focus on a target. Then move on to the really fun part: have the students throw clubs at a target. (You'll need an old set of clubs for this.)

 

Check out Fred Shoemaker's Extraordinary Golf, Chapter 5 and the exercises in back of the book, pp. 196 and following where he goes through the full club throwing drill, and how it prowesses from a chip throw to full swing throw.

 

This passage seem particularly apropos, from p. 80 of the book (discussing before club tossing videos with after club tossing videos):

 

"As the videos clearly show, the body behaves according to a target--the point of view--that we give it. If the target is the ball, the body will often lift up on the backswing, since the most efficient windup turns away form the target, and up, in this case, is away from the target which is on the ground...When the target is changed to the flagstick, the same instincts hold true, and the body's actions change naturally."