00:00The fat, the thin and the top, the most destructive shots in golf.
00:04Jed, please, help us fix these.
00:07Um, they all live in the same house, they all come from the same issue,
00:12and that issue is not being able to control where the lowest point of the golf swing is.
00:18So, sometimes you might hear the term low point, it's the bottom of the arc of the swing,
00:23and if that is either in a real variable place or it's just way too far back from the golf ball,
00:32you're always going to struggle.
00:34And then, from there, that's where we start to sort of cast, release, scoop.
00:39All those sort of knock-on effects all come from golfers who struggle to control where the low
00:45point is. So, the low point, where should it be? Well, I mean, I've got a six iron in my hands
00:52here, but even if I had a driver in my hands, there is still a bottom to the circle, and it
00:58would be over here, it would be forward. As a reference point, you could think about it as being
01:05not a million miles away from being in line with your front heel, yeah? Because when we're making
01:13our downswing, we are moving the pressure of the body towards our target, so that is shifting where
01:19the bottom of the circle is going to be, so that's going to move it over here. So, if we think about
01:25those golfers who hit fats and thins, a lot of them keep the pressure on their trail side,
01:30so we can career into the ground back here, or we keep the club moving away from the ground to
01:36avoid that, and that's where the thins and the tops come into it. So, the bottom of the circle
01:40of the golf swing is back here, where the club wants to meet the ground. We want to shift it and
01:44move it more towards the target, so it's more on this side over here, and as you can see, as I keep
01:50doing that and brushing and hitting that part of the ground, it is on the target side of the golf club.
01:56So, a little drill that you can do to practice it is, if you're on a grass range like we are here,
02:02just get two tee pegs to create a gate and put the golf ball right in the middle. Your task is to hit
02:06the golf ball and the ground on the left-hand side of the gate. If you're on a normal driving range
02:11where you're on a mat, get some chalk, just chalk a line and then put the golf ball behind it, so that
02:18if you move the golf ball, nice strike, brush the chalk away, then you'll have the chalk dust on the
02:23bottom of the golf club. So, you're getting constant feedback on whether or not you are or are not
02:28controlling where the low point of your swing is. Jed, if you mind, let's have a look at this
02:34drill in action. So, taking your normal setup and then we just want to focus, and you can, rather
02:41than looking at the golf ball, keep your focus on the ground that's over here. So, all you've got to
02:47make sure you do is, when you get to the top of the backswing, is you are moving the pressure of the
02:51body towards the target. Some people will start to do that and then they'll sort of back themselves
02:57up. Some people will just be way over on this side. Just try and keep that focus on moving towards
03:02your target and strike your shot. And as you can see there, the divot starts right where the gate
03:11of T's are and that's where the low point, the bottom of my circle is. So, there we go. An easy fix for the
03:18top, you're thin and you're fat. No excuses now to go out and hit that perfect golf shot. And finally,
03:25we're going to be looking at probably the most expensive destructive golf shot and that is the
03:30sky. Skying your driver. Now, can you tell us why this happens and how we can go about fixing that?
03:38It's painful to watch. It's one of those where you cringe when you see it happen. You know
03:43the dread that the golfer is going to have to look down on forever until he can afford to buy a new
03:48one. It's a sort of two-pronged attack of what's happening. When we get the club traveling down
03:57too much and it can travel down too much from both in to out as well as out to in, a lot of people
04:06think it's just going to travel down steeply and then come down and across and we get this sort of
04:10contact here. Well, there are golfers who travel too much from the inside but they've got too much
04:17forward handle. So, the clubhead is still traveling down at the point of contact and the face is now
04:25this way so it's exposing the top of the golf club. But yes, down being the big key. If we're hitting
04:32down on it then the club has not reached the bottom of its circle before it's made contact.
04:39And with the driver, ideally for most of you, you need to be hitting up. And hitting up on the ball,
04:44is there any drills or anything we can do that you can take home to your driving range to help fix?
04:50There is. I've got a head cover here. You could use an empty box of balls. You buy your box of
04:57balls, take the sleeves out, use the empty box that it comes in. And really all you want to do,
05:02depending on how much down and how quickly it pops up into the air, you could probably look,
05:08I mean, if I was to put my foot here, I would say, well, if you were to put your head cover,
05:15your driver, about there, so it's probably about then 18 inches in front of the golf ball,
05:23then you just want both golf ball and club head to avoid hitting the head cover. Anyone who's
05:31hitting down, the ball will go up, but the head of the driver will just career into whatever you've
05:39got there. So if it's the empty box, it'll just obliterate the box. If it's the head cover,
05:42it'll just move the head cover out of the way. It won't damage the club, but you'll get your feedback
05:47on whereabouts your contact is. So what we want to be thinking of is when we're making our swing
05:54here, we want the club head to feel like it passes the hands a little bit more and it travels a
06:00little bit more on the up as we go through the shot. So the whole focus is not so much on trying
06:07to hit your fairway, stop your slice. It's about making sure that you avoid the object that you've
06:11put in front of the golf ball. So nice visual representation. Yeah. So hopefully it should
06:19look like this. So ball's been hit on the up and as you can see, head cover is still in place,
06:29missed by both ball and clubface. Perfect. A nice easy drill for you to take back to your driving
06:35range.
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