Favorite footwork drills? (especially for transition)

[hoselpalooza]

context: what i'm trying to accomplish is a slight lateral shift toward the target in early transition and then immediately "externally rotating" both hips as i begin the downswing. this works really well for me in slow motion or when i stop at the top of the backswing, pause for a few seconds, and then go, but sometimes i get out of sync at full speed. e.g. when i miss i tend to either keep my weight/pressure moving forward without digging into the ground with the trail heel and hit it thin, or i hang back for too long and chunk it.

 

i've improved slowly through trial and error and am wondering if there are footwork drills you could recommend to help speed up the process.

 

thanks!

 

p.s. i think "externally rotating" the hips is the technical term for the sam sneed-like squat move, though based on my experience i think squat is a misnomer. i could track down a good explanation somewhere online if you're curious or if it adds to this post.

[airjammer]

 

The exercise bands will help with the external rotation part

[hoselpalooza]

> @airjammer said:

>

>

> The exercise bands will help with the external rotation part

 

very interesting, thanks for sharing. do you have additional info for how/why that drill helps with the external rotation part?

[airjammer]

The band is trying to pull your legs internal to resist that you have to externally rotate them. Not sure if guy was trying to expand the band in transition but that is what you should try to do to get the “snead” squat look.

[hoselpalooza]

> @airjammer said:

> The band is trying to pull your legs internal to resist that you have to externally rotate them. Not sure if guy was trying to expand the band in transition but that is what you should try to do to get the “snead” squat look.

 

thanks for the additional comments. thinking about this feeling is helpful.

 

guilty admission: i've been terrible with training aids. for some reason i feel they distract me instead of helping ingrain new movements/feels. i know a lot of people benefit from these things and i don't wish to argue their usefulness; clearly they are useful to a lot of people. just speaking from personal experience, i think i've had the most success with swing changes when the focus has been on feeling and understanding what my body's doing (and why) and not an external device, if that makes sense.

[Millbrook]

The thing that helped me the most was watching Russel Heritage on Youtube. He says keep centred and internally rotate into the trail leg. Keep the trail knee flexed and start the rotatation of the lead hip backwards whilst the pressure is still on the trail side.

[hoselpalooza]

> @Millbrook said:

> ... and start the rotatation of the lead hip backwards whilst the pressure is still on the trail side.

 

thanks for your comments. could you elaborate? it's not clear to me what you mean by this, particularly the bit about rotating the lead hip backwards.

[Millbrook]

Sorry for the slow response, just seen your post. Found a drill which explains it;

[https://youtube.com/watch?v=eUIW0rYsqok]

[Paddy_2_Iron]

Your trail foot looks like it's pointing outward. All my instructors insist on the trail foot being straight to build up tork in the hip and promote a straight pivot around that leg. The lead they don't mind if it's slightly open.....

[airjammer]

That’s not me in the video but it depends on how much flexibility you have and how you want the knee to behave in transition.

The right hip with “torqued” knee with straight toe has a tendency to move toward the ball line earlier than a flared foot with a less flexed trail leg. If you have enough hip depth in transition either should be ok. If you don’t have enough depth in the hips in transition you will be holding a block party on the regular.

[airjammer]

Here is a drill I just started working on...so far it as worked better than anything else I have tried in the past 10 years I have been working on my swing.

This is Tiger demonstrating how he wants his legs and hips to work.

stumbled across how Bryson works on it and I use a pool noodle over a alignment rod behind my calf. You can even do it on the trail leg as well if you want to get your back hip deeper at the top.

lot of the all time greats had their lead leg significantly behind them at impact. So much so that their leg wouldn’t be straight up and down it has a significant angle to it.

[Tanner25]

Isn't Rickie F taking a similar drill to the course now?

[Lefthook]

That's a great-looking drill and a great demonstration.

Also, OP, take note of his finishing position: He has been swinging "inside his feet" and is keeping his "chi line" as Kelvin Miyahira used to put it. He doesn't allow his lead hip and body to drift over his lead foot.

 

My personal key to the external hip rotation is "leave the trail knee behind for a split second".

IMO it is a good idea, while drilling this, to flare both feet and both knees out at address. It may not be the best way during actual play, but flaring out the trail foot and knee will make it very difficult to cheat.

The Hogan type of forward foot / kicked-in knee may be the best way during play, depending on flexibility and shot at hand, but it can disguise an incorrect use of hips and trail leg.

[Scottbox]

I like this one quite a bit:

[Zitlow]

Like a walking in place motion; left heel down, right heel up.

[Lefthook]

Eggcactly!

[gsrjc]

Any good hints how to make this motion natural?

[Lefthook]

It will become "natural" if you put in enough reps - that is reps where you use your hips and legs correctly. Easiest way to start, IMO is to put a club across your shoulders and focus 100% on the lower body.

[Scottbox]

GSRC: unfortunately, there's nothing natural about this game. I will say that this is something I struggle with. My practice swing is to feel like I'm bringing my hands out to the ball with my lead shoulder down. My elbow straightens very quickly from its already wide position. My teacher (the one in the vid link) calls it "front loading." This will keep your lead shoulder from popping up, causing you to get narrow and "trapped." This also help you move your mass to the front foot. You'll feel like your lead shoulder stays down and stacked over your hips (like in the video), rather than falling back behind your hips into premature second axis tilt. The trick (and again, I struggle with this) is to feel wide coming down with no help from your shoulders. Don't try to pull the club down, let your hands "fall" towards the target line.

Anyway, this is me working on it. As you can see, I have a little bit of narrowing coming down, though it's much better than it used to be!

http://youtu.be/a8rnhfcxkZY

 

[Scottbox]