How Bradley Hughes Fixed Brendon Todd's Driver Yips

[North Texas]

His miss was 40 yards right and he had him open the clubface in the backswing. Very interesting.https://www.golf.com/instruction/driving/2020/01/11/brendan-todd-golf-coach-brad-hughes/

[Golfbeat]

Bradley has a video of Brendon using Bradley's drills on his website. Very interesting. Basically, hitting into an impact bag, leg work, laying down the shaft in transition and speeding up the follow through.

[airjammer]

What he has done with Todd is remarkable but his idea of accelerating into and after impact has caused many of arguments on this site in the past..because it does against every 3d measurement of tour players acceleration and deceleration profile.

[TexasTurf]

If you aren't accelerating into impac and after impact then you're clubhead will flip over before you hit the ball. No bueno.

[TexasTurf]

Sorry your ***

[Hawkeye77]

No right-o. Accelerating what after impact? LOL.

[Coy M]

Anyone have any feedback on how to stop closing the club face on the back swing? I've had this issue for years and can't quite seem to fix it. The same happens to me as it did to Todd, I feel like I have to guide the ball through impact opposed to being able accelerate through impact.

[gators78]

Certainly interesting as it's a bit on the opposite side of the spectrum from what Gankas/Kelvin/Brandel talk about, but hey that's all good, whatever works.

I think the best part of Brendan's work with Bradley is how they created a routine to remove stress from his hands and arms before he hits the ball, anyone can benefit from something like that. Brendan talks about it in detail on the NoLayingUp podcast episode.

[PostandGhost]

I battle this issue at the moment and my teacher has me more toe up at P2. Typically, my face points towards the ground at P2. Getting it toe up has the face pointing more away from my body, towards the direction I'm facing. From there, the face stays pretty stable until I start to close it on the downswing.

[pusb365]

I listened to Todd's interview on the NLU podcast and it was very interesting. To go from almost quitting golf to winning back to back on the PGA Tour is quite something, and really got me interested in Hughes' teaching methods. I haven't followed up on it or tried any of his drills but his theories are interesting. Also says he doesn't work on getting players into certain positions on camera, instead he just gives them feelings and movements.

 

I had this problem and have recently weakened my grip. I was quite surprised when the coach told me this as every other pro has been telling me for years to strengthen my grip and I thought that was necessary to hit the ball solid. But I've weakened it and the clubface is now more neutral through the whole swing, when it was very shut before, and has allowed me to work on picot and rotation.

[tthomasgolfer605]

Best thing I did for my game was take an online lesson from Bradley.

[ChrisSP]

Bradley Hughes' video about hand path, which I saw for the first time about three months ago, has completely changed my game. I've always been a pretty good player but I have also always played from a stuck position with a club path that is too much in to out. I could stand on the range and hit 50 7-irons and afterward you would have hardly known anyone was there.

But the concept in the video I'm talking about that down is in and out is down with the hands at the start of the downswing has completely changed how I deliver the club at impact. I compress the ball now with my irons and actually take a freakin' divot. And I'm no longer resigned to hitting only blocks, draws, and hooks.

Anyway, big Bradley Hughes fan and it's nice to see him getting some recognition.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chWxPdZL-Cs

 

 

[iceman1118]

I fought the closed club face on my backswing ever since I started trying to learn the swing when I wanted to get better. Stronger grip, keep the face square, minimize forearm rotation, use your body, open up at impact, etc ,etc was just an absolute killer for me. I did nothing but fight early extension and hit hard pulls off the heel due to an extreme outside in path. No matter what I did I could not be consistent and I never hit the ball from the inside. Plus the back and hip pain from trying to rotate open was just killer. But that is what everyone says you have to do so I gave it my best. But being 34 with two young kids I don't need that in my life. I started doing some real research on grip, hand path, some causes and effects of outcome of ball flight and came across Bradley Hughes. I purchased his e book and it was eye opening. I started experimenting with a super neutral grip (thumbs basically down the shaft, and much less in my fingers) and trying very hard to get the toe up at 9 o'clock on the backswing and the toe up again at 3 o'clock on the downswing. I found the only way I could do this was swing the club back with my hands and swing it forward with my arms. Forearm rotation took care of itself and my body just reacted to my arms. Basically I have transitioned to a total tail wags the dog scenario. The results have been scary. I am hitting the ball harder, further and straighter than I ever have. Overall ball flight has come down as well which is awesome. I used to hover around 108-110 driver speed and my last Trackman session last week was 118-120 club head speed. And I am finding my heavy hits with irons are a thing of the past. Watching the video of my swing on TM it almost seems like I have zero body movement at all. And my back is thanking me for it. I highly recommend Bradley. His YT and subscription service is filled with some awesome information.

I think for me, as we all have personal feels, the biggest thing is the acceleration post impact which Bradley talks a lot about. I always believed the swing has to be a 1 - 1 ratio, meaning backswing speed has to match downswing speed. Now I don't believe that at all. Instead of trying to place my backswing to get the look, I let my hands take the club to where they have to go and when my arms take over on the downswing, they go faster due to my intent to trying to accelerate the club through the ball. It's a great feeling.

[PreppySlapCut]

I’ve been through the same journey, and it’s terrifying. Really happy to see Brendon get his game back, and kudos to Bradley for his efforts!

[BB28403]

experiment with diff wrist angles at the top.

[Coy M]

Gotcha, on the back swing when the trail arm folds I'm having he feeling of externally rotating shoulder and slightly supinating my hand. This seems to help with the shut club face at the top.

[BB28403]

I wouldn’t feel too bad if I were you. Adam young in his book Practice Manual, states that club face controls the shot by 75% but it’s really really hard to control perfectly every time . So he suggests working on face to path changes. Meaning your swing path of the club. So in his mind you need to change how you are swinging it.

pick up his book, it’s super enlightening .

[Coy M]

Gotcha, I'm working on path right now as well. Just posted in my swing thread about working on shallowing the shaft in transition. Along with club face control the path isn't easy to fix either :P ... Golf's just hard

[iceman1118]

Great advice. Really hard to control a club head that is moving at such a fast speed. Much easier to swing and control the entire club however.

[GA_Golfer]

What has always helped me with any swing flaw is to exaggerate the opposite of what I'm currently doing, and then bring it back to neutral. So if you are struggling with a closed clubface (I've had this issue in the past), I wouldn't worry about trying to get square per se, but I would focus on trying to fan the thing open...in reality, "feel and real" aren't the same thing for most golfers, so this extreme exaggeration could bring you right back to where you actually need to be. Hope this helps!

[pusb365]

Has anyone purchased and followed Bradley's drill series?

[Dave D]

I bought his drill 3, tbh it's not really any more info that what he already has discussed in other youtube and instagram posts, make an impact position in an impact bag or cushion etc, then really pivot hard and focus on maximum clubhead speed up above shoulder height.

[J Bez]

Me and a buddy did a day with him this past summer. He took us through all of his drills. You don't get a lot more of "what to do" than you do via YouTube, but you get a ton more of "why" you do it, what to watch for, ways to correct, etc. Guy flat out know the swing. I would recommend a lesson with him- online or in person- over the drill series

[pusb365]

 

I got an online lesson from him last week actually.

 

There wasn't much in the way of detail in terms of breaking down my swing, just 60 seconds on DTL and 60 seconds on caddie view, then a 5 or so minute video talking through a few things I need to do.

 

He then sent me drill 1 and 3 of his series and told me to work on them.

 

Very unusual for an online lesson, completely different to what I've had in the past (not saying that's bad thing by any means).

[Atrayn]

I've been a big Bradley Hughes fan for 10 years. It began when I started investigating the Advanced Ball-Striking website of John Erickson. Bradley was a major contributor.

Their concepts were eye-opening to me as I even started working the modules. I found something early on in the first couple modules that really helped an issue I had in my swing. I stopped there but continued to follow both until this day.

Fast forward to 2012 when I moved to Phoenix and booked a lesson with Martin Chuck. Martin really helped me with buttoning up and validating the last part of the proper wrist motion thru the swing and I never looked back. I had the "knowledge" early on back in '09 on what to do, but it took a hands on lesson to really understand the "feel" I needed to actually make it work.

[crapula]

That's the same tip I give myself when I start blocking drives. Open the face going back, then the opposite happens coming down, sometimes I have to feel as though I open the face and then keep it open as long as possible. I struggle with a shut face coming back. A reminder I use is point my right palm in front of me, like 90 degrees parallel to the ground. When the face is shut my right palm will be pointing down at like 45 degrees.

[PJ1120]

Can you elaborate on the proper wrist motion thru the swing?

[Atrayn]

"proper" is relative to the individual. Personally, I had several things I needed to correct in my swing. The one Martin detected was a lack of enough ulnar deviation thru impact. He predicted it would also help my short game and he was correct on both accounts.

What I consider "proper" wrist action is a combination of the three elements in this instructional piece on this site.

I also liked a lot of Kelvin Miyahira's work on the different release styles: 2013-06 : What's Your Release Style? Part 3 - The Fixes

[ronnbee]

musta worked

[phil75070]

I know I have a big issue with a huge "push" at times with the driver and when I try to set up with the clubface closed to compensate I often end up not squaring it and hitting a pull hook. At times I have used the AJ Bonar technique with my irons, as I also tend to push those but slightly, whereby I set up with the clubface square, then open it 10-15° without altering my grip, and let my swing naturally square up the clubface during the swing. What I have not tried is doing that with the driver. Maybe I'll have to give it a shot!