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. Um, and then from there, that's where we start to sort of
00:37cast, release, scoop, all those sort of knock-on effects all come from golfers who
00:43struggle to control where the low point is. So, the low point, where should it be?
00:49Well, I mean, I've got a six iron in my hands here, but even if I had a driver in my hands,
00:55um, there is still a bottom to the circle, and it would be over here, it would be forward.
01:03As a reference point, you could think about it as being not a million miles away from being in line
01:09with your front heel, yeah? Because when we're making our downswing, we are moving the pressure
01:16of the body towards our target, so that is shifting where the bottom of the circle is going
01:21to be, so that's going to move it over here. So, if we think about those golfers who hit fats and
01:26thins, a lot of them keep the pressure on their trail side, so we can career into the ground back
01:32here, or we keep the club moving away from the ground to avoid that, and that's where the thins
01:37and the tops come into it. So, the bottom of the circle of the golf swing is back here, where the
01:41club wants to meet the ground. We want to shift it and move it more towards the target, so it's
01:46more on this side over here, and as you can see, as I keep doing that and brushing and hitting that
01:52part of the ground, it is on the target side of the golf club. So, a little drill that you can do
01:57to practice it is, if you're on a grass range like we are here, just get two tee pegs to create a
02:03gate and put the golf ball right in the middle. Your task is to hit the golf ball and the ground
02:08on the left-hand side of the gate. If you're on a normal driving range where you're on a mat,
02:13get some chalk, just chalk a line, and then put the golf ball behind it, so that if you
02:18move the golf ball, nice strike, brush the chalk away, then you'll have the chalk dust on the bottom
02:23of 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
02:51the body towards the target. Some people will start to do that, and then they'll sort of back
02:57themselves up. Some people will just be way over on this side. Just try and keep that focus on
03:02moving towards your target, and strike your shot. And as you can see there, the divot starts
03:10right where the gate of tees are, and that's where the low point, the bottom of my circle is.
03:16So, there we go. An easy fix for the top, you're thin and you're fat. No excuses now to go out and hit
03:22that perfect golf shot. And finally, we're going to be looking at probably the most expensive,
03:27destructive golf shot, and that is the sky. Skying your driver. Now, can you tell us why this happens,
03:35and how we can go about fixing that? It's painful to watch. It's one of those when you cringe,
03:40when you see it happen, you know the dread that the golfer's going to have to look down on
03:46forever until he can afford to buy a new one. It's a sort of two-pronged attack of what's
03:53happening. When we get the club traveling down too much, and it can travel down too much
04:01from both in to out, as well as out to in. A lot of people think it's just going to travel down
04:07steeply, and then come down and across, and we get this sort of contact here. But there are golfers
04:13who travel too much from the inside, but they've got too much forward handle. So, the club head
04:21is still traveling down at the point of contact, and the face is now this way, so it's exposing the
04:27top of the golf club. But yes, down being the big key. If we're hitting down on it, then the club
04:34has not reached the bottom of its circle before it's made contact. And with the driver, ideally
04:40for most of you, you need to be hitting up. And hitting up on the ball, is there any drills or
04:46anything we can do, that you can take home to your driving range, to help fix? There is, I've got a
04:51head cover here. You could use, you know, an empty box of balls. You buy your box of balls, take the
04:58sleeves out, use the empty box that it comes in. And really, all you want to do, depending on how
05:03much down, and how quickly it pops up into the air. You could probably look, I mean, if I was to put my
05:09foot here, I would say, well, if you were to put your head cover, your driver, about there. So,
05:18it's probably about then 18 inches in front of the golf ball. Then, you just want both golf ball,
05:25and club head, to avoid hitting the head cover. Anyone who's hitting down, the ball will go up,
05:35but the head of the driver, will just career into whatever you've got there. So, if it's the empty
05:40box, it'll just obliterate the box. If it's the head cover, it'll just move the head cover out
05:43the way. It won't damage the club, but you'll get your feedback on whereabouts your contact is. So,
05:50what we want to be thinking of, is when we're making our swing here, we want the club head,
05:57to feel like it passes the hands a little bit more. And it travels a little bit more on the up,
06:02as we go through the shot. So, the whole focus is not so much on trying to hit your fairway,
06:08stop your slice. It's about making sure that you avoid the object that you've put in front
06:12of the golf ball. So, nice visual representation. Yeah. So, hopefully, it should look like this.
06:24So, ball's been hit on the up, and as you can see, head cover is still in place, missed by both
06:30ball and club face. Perfect. A nice, easy drill for you to take back to your driving range.
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