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Ever wondered how pros like Robert Rock develop such a pure, repeatable golf swing? In this exclusive lesson, the two-time DP World Tour winner shares the drills and principles he used to build his swing over five years. Discover the essential checkpoints to build a swing you can trust.
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00:00Building the perfect golf swing can be quite an overwhelming task, but I think I've got
00:04someone with me who might be well qualified to help you. I've got Mr Robert Rock. Thanks
00:09for joining us Rob. Pleasure. So Rob is well known not only for his successes on the European
00:14Tour, but also for having arguably the most aesthetically pleasing golf swing. What do
00:18you think about that? It's nice of you. Thank you. It's alright. It only took about five
00:22years to build. Well that was going to be my question. Is that something you just get
00:25naturally or is that something you've had to work really hard on? No, hardly any of it was
00:29natural to be honest. My first efforts got me to a certain point, but I knew they weren't
00:33good enough and it didn't feel like the sort of swing I wanted to be able to make. So I
00:37set
00:37about trying to change it and it's a tough old process. Would have been a lot easier with modern
00:42technology. I'll give you that. I'm saying a bit old there, but I enjoyed the process. It was something
00:47that has served me well and maybe create a little bit of a coaching career at the end of it.
00:53Correct.
00:53With all the efforts. So yeah, it's been good. Thank you. Yeah, it seemed to have done all right.
00:57So what we're going to do today is we're going to break down the golf swing into three main parts.
01:00I want to talk about setup, I want to talk about the backswing and I want to talk about the
01:04downswing.
01:04Shall we just get on with it? Yes, get on with it. Go for it. Good man.
01:11What Rob says setup. I hear so many coaches saying it's really difficult to recover from bad setup
01:17positions. How do you go about getting yourself in the right setup position and what can we learn from
01:21that? Yeah, we're all slightly different and we will look slightly different in the setup,
01:26but there's key things that are a must, right? So your grip absolutely has to be sound and within the
01:33boundaries of what it's to be achievable of hitting solid shots reliably and delivering
01:40the club facing within a degree or so of what we're trying to do at high speeds.
01:45So that only allows a little subtle tolerances in how you build the grip. They can be slightly
01:51stronger, very, very fractionally weaker in some cases, but generally a pretty sound neutral grip
01:57is a must before you do anything else. So I notice on that you've got an Align grip from Golf
02:02Pride,
02:02very prominent ridge down the back. So what's your feeling on that? I guess that gets your fingers in
02:07the right place in a consistent manner? Yeah, exactly. I mean, I've always used a
02:12a ridge down the back of a Golf Pride grip in various forms that they've done, but this is more
02:16pronounced now with a firmer material down this ridge to make it more obvious basically, right? So
02:24rather than a round grip where you kind of have to check your clubface, build your grip around the
02:29clubface, kind of looking at everything all at the same time, this is there to fit into that little
02:36little ridge in your knuckles in the right hand and I feel the clubface now through that.
02:44And I'm assuming that's not just a setup, you can get better clubface awareness throughout the swing.
02:47That's referenced throughout. So once you've built a solid grip and you've got the right
02:51pressure points in the grip on mostly I feel in the right hand, but you will get different people may
02:57feel it through the left as well. But I feel it certainly in the right hand and in the forefinger
03:02and in these middle two, that tells me where this clubface is basically at this position,
03:07sticking straight up, right? Now through, I hit a lot of balls and I've hit a lot of balls in
03:1220
03:12years. With a round grip, I might be, I would still probably be able to just about feel it, but
03:17it is much easier with this, right? So I can use this, it kind of gives you a, we're not
03:22allowed
03:22a flat side on a proper grip. But this is as close to a cheat code as you can get,
03:27right? Yeah,
03:27because you've got this edge that gives me a feeling of matching the square side to the grip,
03:34to the clubface, right? So that has to be part of my grip forming procedure.
03:40So talk me through about how you put your hands on the club then. Do you have any reference points
03:43for your fingers, your palm? Yeah, I would always build my grip, not over the ball for a start, right?
03:49So that has to be in the area where you're pulling the club out of the bag and you're picturing
03:52your shot
03:53and the grip goes on at this point. Now you may have to do loads of work at home to
03:57get to
03:58the place where you can just feel the grip and look at your hands and know what a perfect grip
04:03is supposed to look like, right? Because that's, it's a bit more than just having a couple of can,
04:08a couple of knuckles. You've got to get the view of your hands and what things you can use as
04:13checkpoints
04:13and whether a lot's spoken about the overlapping and interlocking, but for me that doesn't contribute anything.
04:23We see Scheffler in this position a lot, club up in front of him, just diligently checking positions on the
04:28grip.
04:28Because you need that range of motion upwards with your wrists, right? So it's not just we're locking it down
04:35in this position
04:35and then you're not moving. We've got to have a range of motion throughout the swing. So
04:41doing it up here kind of does a couple of things at once, right? You get that
04:46ability to slide the butt end of the club more into the fingers of your left hand at this point
04:52because we've got it's kind of vertical feeling club shaft and you've kind of got the weight of it
04:58at the same time and you can look at how your right hand is covering the left. Now one of
05:03the key parts
05:03I believe is that the right hand should sit quite high up on the left and really close together.
05:09So you don't want your grip spread out and occupying all of this grip. Based on what? If they're too
05:14far
05:14apart they're working opposing rather than together? Yeah, they're working opposing. You've kind of got
05:19the option to use or one can influence over the other depending on which is getting more involved.
05:27You want one connection point to the club. So if you've got it separate, like where do you have the
05:33where's the leverage point, right? So if you've got them both together using them as a fixed unit
05:39with the right hand sitting very much on the side of the grip and on the side of the left
05:45hand. So
05:45if they're this one's driving forward and this one's pushing squarely in behind it
05:50then you're not going to get much twist in the clubface. If I've got this one sitting low it's very
05:55very easy. I mean extreme there but it's very easy to send that through on its own without this one
06:01wanting to know what to do. So it's almost a similar principle to like the prayer grip in
06:05putting. When you move hands dead level to each other it's very difficult to have one influence
06:08to the closer you're getting them. Exactly, you're kind of training them to work together. So if you're
06:12right-handed most people's left hand is a little bit less educated on what to do. So I like to
06:19see no
06:20gaps in the grip at all. So even when I'm looking from this side I don't like to see that
06:24little bit
06:25in there right and I don't you don't want any gaps appearing during the swing either. The grip
06:31can tell you whether you're moving your body properly as we get into further parts of the
06:35backswing. Get to that, calm down Rob. So but the key part of this grip and is why I've always
06:40used a
06:42a grip of this type is I can feel that right because what I want to be able to do
06:46is set this
06:49early so I can forget about that and know that I'm going to get the awareness of the club face
06:55because I've got it through the feeling in my right hand and on the back of the grip. Like you
06:59say
07:00that's not just an address thing that's feeling damage throughout. You need to be able to adjust.
07:05What about pressure? So we hear a lot of people saying strangle the life habit so you can't get
07:09any tighter, hold it like you're cradling a bird. Where do you sit on that scale? I hold it tight
07:14enough so
07:15that the gaps disappear. Yeah. And I can feel whether they may separate during the swing right
07:22because a bit loose has too many spaces already right but if you're too tight you will get tension
07:29up your forearms into your elbows. So the key part in the backswing is how your right arm flexes
07:35and folds because it's really the only joint that's moving significantly right. So if you're gripping
07:40too tight and the tension creeps its way all the way up the right arm to the point where you've
07:46got
07:46a straight right arm it will stay too straight as you go back and then you've got to start to
07:51bend it
07:53later on in the swing. But having it too straight early on will force the elbow to then bend in
07:58a
07:58slightly different direction. So it can lead on to loads of different backswing faults from just grip
08:04pressure. So we might have just struck up on the key secret move of Robert Rock's beautiful golf swing.
08:08You may have yeah. Which we'll talk about in the backswing just now. So that's the grip. Let's have
08:12a chat about the backswing. So on to the backswing and I think a lot of the aesthetic plaudits you
08:22get
08:22come from the positions you hit and how tidy it looks as a golf swing. Show us how you get
08:26there. What
08:27are the key moves? The main purpose of what I've done for my swing is just to try and remove
08:35all
08:36unnecessary bits and keep my body position as simple and as organized and as sort of locked in a
08:45framework as possible. So that the actual route the club flows on kind of gets set on a simple
08:53arc back and through. I think that's what people see visually. Why they like your golfing so much.
08:57There's no superfluous motion that looks wasted. It just looks efficient. That's what I see anyway.
09:05Yeah I think efficiency and reliability and having certain bits kind of hang your confidence on that
09:13right if I do this I'm going to guarantee this and if I keep building the swing up this line
09:19my path's
09:20not going to shift off too much one way or another. So that was the whole point for it and
09:23to
09:24to build my iron play better was to guarantee the low point and strike right and reliability of
09:31clubface to get shot shape. A key part of hitting iron shots close is hitting them on the same
09:36trajectory and flight so they go the right length because hitting them straight is the easy bit.
09:41Yeah. Which doesn't appear that way but it actually is. Hitting it straight that looks like straight
09:47like many times you hit a shot that goes down the flag but it comes up on the front of
09:50the green or
09:51the back of the green it's no use to it. You hear that a lot about Scheffler. Montgomery back in
09:54the day was always pin high wasn't he? Tiger was great. Pin high is everything and that comes from
10:00reliability of strike. Take me through then show me how you build that backswing. So
10:03taking that the setup's given right and we've got the awareness of what we need the clubface to help
10:08build a proper setup. We want a simple turn right and the turn needs to be angled down at the
10:18ball
10:19and we don't want to be moving our centres too far off from how we start up. Define centres,
10:27head, sternum, everything? Head, sternum, hips yeah basically. So I'm going to have a definite setup
10:33position. I don't want to move too much from that and I don't want my posture to change from this
10:38view
10:39so my because my actual radius from the ball is going to change. Yeah. Difficult to find that
10:45that strike that we're after because the strike's key. So the turn needs to be angled down at the ball
10:51like in this sort of manner. So this again is a relatively simple bit to do. You're turning,
10:55you're moving your left knee down and inwards towards the ball. That allows your left
11:00hip to go down which allows the left shoulder to go down. So I've got a turn now. If all
11:05this goes
11:05down, this side goes equally upwards, I'm going to stay pretty level. Problems arise if you allow
11:12yourself to shift off too much to the right. This bit isn't then moving inwards or down. So
11:18if you practice the angled turn of your shoulders and your hips and your knees, that keeps the
11:24backswing pretty consistent as far as the turn's concerned. So we're going to try and stay
11:27centered and we're going to try and stay in that posture. You're allowed a little bit of movement.
11:30Okay. Because we're, the club is working on a circle that goes away from us and then back
11:36towards this way. So there will be a little bit of flow of sort of momentum and shift but not
11:41loads,
11:42only like a tiny little bit. But you're staying in your angles. But you're staying in this angle so
11:46that when I unwind the turn, I want to come straight back down the same plane. We hear a lot
11:52about turn,
11:53people talking about the turn and moving like that. What do you feel actually turns? So your takeaway,
11:58what's it led by? Is it hand led? Is it club head led? Is it torso? Is it shoulders? Do
12:01you think
12:02about that at all? Yeah. My takeaway has been a huge factor in building a decent backswing. Okay.
12:07Because I wanted it to flow up a nice simple path. And if I didn't get the takeaway right,
12:13I could tell there was a little bit of deviation from a smooth line. I was watching your hit balls
12:18earlier and a couple of times you took it away and then stopped yourself. I can feel when it does
12:23have
12:23that little track off. When it flows back smoothly and up this ideal line, I can just feel the balance
12:31of it going up. So there's no shift in one way or another. And plus, if the club head goes
12:36drastically
12:37offline, it will make moving, keeping the turn angle more difficult. So the more I go in and behind,
12:44the more this shoulder will want to track up. And similarly, if the club goes too far out early on,
12:51now it's got to go back. So it now will flatten me off later. So I want the club head
12:56momentum in the
12:57club. That's the key part in the takeaways, building this momentum. So the club head goes up the ideal
13:03line and then you will follow it more likely. But in real basic terms, what are you moving there?
13:08Just moving club head. So let's say we've got this backswing turn angled as a given,
13:13because you can just practice that. You can practice that as long as you like.
13:17I'm moving the club head primarily, first of all, to let it move just slightly up an angle plane,
13:25as if there's another seven iron there. I want the club head just to track up that line. It doesn't
13:31have to be all wrists. It's not going drastically like that. From that view, it can be over here,
13:38but it can be a bit of width to it. There is obviously leeway in what we're doing and loads
13:43of
13:43pros have got different styles. But the key folding element is the right arm, right? Because
13:48my left arm's straight at the start and by the time I get to the top, it should still be
13:52quick
13:52straight. All other than that is turn my body and move this in. So nothing really is moving
13:59significantly, I don't think, other than how this right arm folds. Talk to me about the right arm then,
14:04because I've seen your TRS slider, which is a great bit of kit. We'll put the links in the
14:08description down below because that's a really worthwhile bit of kit. Talk to me about how that
14:12helps and what you like to see with the right arm then. I did that for me just to add
14:17a couple of
14:18little, call it like an anchor point if you like, but I didn't like pinning my arms to my body
14:24with a
14:24glove or a towel because I don't think they stay there, right? But I don't want them also strapped so
14:31tightly to my body that there's no freedom of movement for build-up of sort of width and power
14:36and length of swing. So that particular thing just gives my right arm a boundary of a little bit of
14:40movement where the right arm slides around your rib cage basically to the top, but it doesn't go
14:45super high, right? And it stops it folding back in that manner. So it just
14:51allows the right arm to fold. And it was another variable that I managed to sort of
14:57fix through doing that. So if I can ensure that this only moves in that sort of circle around my
15:03rib cage at the top, then all I've got to worry about is how I very slightly hinge my right
15:07wrist
15:08and how the forearm moves because this now is fixed in a certain little slot. It's interesting all the
15:13thought process and the little moves that go into making something look as simple as you make it.
15:17So there's a good talk about the backswing, staying centered, keeping those low points,
15:21stay in our angles, right arm function, what moves straight off the ball. There's a key point for the top
15:25of the backswing to
15:26so obviously we're saying this is the bit that does all the folding and bending. Now we don't want
15:31the arm to bend loads and we don't want the wrist to bend loads because we end up too close,
15:34right?
15:35And that's when we start to end up with positions where the grip separates, right?
15:39Yeah.
15:39So if the arm folds incorrectly, you'll get separation in the grip. So feeling this position of the right
15:48location of the grip on your right hand and right forefinger, getting that to sit in that little slot
15:53at the top there, whilst the grip doesn't separate at all, gives us another anchor point of reliability.
16:03As soon as this arm goes out of position, I'll get some gaps. So this is a telltale sign for
16:09me that
16:11if the grip unit is staying intact all the way to the top and I can feel this slot at
16:17the top there,
16:18that's where my backswing should end. And with the boundaries of allowing the right arm just to
16:23slide around, that's basically my top of my backswing. And that's when you feel ready to make that
16:27transition. That's when I've got the weight of the club, as it's going back towards a target,
16:31I've got it loaded onto that knuckle there. That's when your lag starts to kick in because it's acting
16:36on that point of your right hand. Cool. So that should all put us up, all those points.
16:40That's now square clubface with a rounded grip, can't quite feel that same.
16:45So you've got that checkpoint, you've got that reference points in your hand that you've created
16:48with all the moves we're talking there. We're in a good top of the backswing position,
16:51that's loads of information. Should we see how we get down and hit it?
16:54Yeah, the next bit's the R bit. Cool. Let's see it.
17:00Right, so that's interesting. We've got in a nice top of the backswing, nice and neat and tidy,
17:03I think so. We've got enough information there. So I've had loads of contradictory advice,
17:08rather, on the downswing from people like Sergio Garcia, who've said, don't even think about it,
17:13just done all the work on the backswing, let it happen. Some people have a few more thoughts about
17:18clearing and all sorts of things. Where do you stand on it? Conscious or unconscious?
17:22Completely conscious. But it depends. If you've got a naturally good downswing,
17:27don't think about it. Because it's complicated and it's hard. But if your downswing isn't right,
17:39the ball really only knows how it's being hit, coming down. It doesn't go anywhere on the way
17:45back. And in theory, yes, a nice build up to the backswing can make this downswing more
17:51likely. But that wasn't the case for me. I had a pretty decent backswing and my downswing really
17:56knocked me off playing, affected my low point, couldn't get the sort of compression and strike
18:03quality that I do now. So I had to rejig the whole of the downswing to make it line back
18:07up.
18:07So how did you go about that then?
18:08So body position is the key part. So we talked about in the backswing that learning this slightly
18:15angled turn going back, but you've got to learn how to unwind that. And it's not just as simple as
18:20just spin your hips coming down or shift your weight forwards, because people translate that
18:25in different ways. Right now, in my particular instance, I got a decent backswing, tried to shift
18:31my weight and unwind my body, but I would just do it sliding my hips forwards and dropping my upper
18:37body
18:37back. So now I'm in a totally different tilted body position compared to what I built going back.
18:44So it couldn't realistically hit the same point every time. So it's like starting off with a setup
18:49that's like this and then go, right, actually, I'm just going to set up like that. Now you're bringing
18:54the ground into play before the ball. And I used to bend my left arm coming down to avoid hitting
18:59this
18:59ground here, but it meant I delivered into the ground too sharp too late.
19:03Okay. Well, stop telling us what went wrong. Tell us how to do it right.
19:07So learning how to keep your body position
19:11constant and keep that angled turn continuing coming down and through is the key part, in my
19:17opinion. Now, if you're lucky enough to have a nicely organized downswing, you're one of the lucky
19:24few, right? And carry on doing it, enjoy it. But for me, I had to learn how to stop shifting
19:29the lower
19:29body forward so much. Try and get, and I'm still, still doing this on a daily basis, trying to unwind
19:35my shoulders early enough so that they kept pace with everything else. Because you want to be in a
19:41position where your arms have got a nice bit of clearance through this zone so they can swing past
19:46your hips and get this nice leaning shaft position that gets your strike location forwards,
19:55it keeps your low point consistent. If you're backing up as you're trying to hit down, it brings a few
20:01different strike points into play and different path issues and also clubface variations, right?
20:07So if you've got the... In terms of dynamic loft that you present?
20:09Yes, hitting it the right length is then difficult. Your one shot that you feel like you strike good and
20:14start straight might come off with all different spin numbers and not go the right length. So you're
20:20looking at it, I think it's a great sharp, it comes up short. It doesn't go the yard as you
20:23think it
20:24should. So unwinding properly was what I had to learn to do. So it meant holding my legs still a
20:30little bit more and I think Nick Valdo did this back in the day, but it's learning, it's understanding
20:36what you do on the way down. What do you instinctively do and what actually should you add in to
20:42make it
20:42more balanced? So I guess that's a point we need to make is you sort of selling the videos,
20:46building the perfect swing, but everyone's perfect swing is going to be a little bit different.
20:49It's not the same start down for everyone. I guess that's what everyone's asking, right?
20:53How do you start down? In an ideal world, we all start down and unwind the body
21:00in a nice order on the right angle so it doesn't tilt with the actual head position or shoulder
21:07position. So if that can unwind and you can get the right shoulder back to where it started from
21:15pretty early on because being aware of impact is actually the most important bit, knowing where
21:21you're trying to deliver the club to from a position. So if we're starting here, a lot of people would
21:27assume trying to get back to impact is maybe just a bit weight a bit forwards but similar,
21:31but it's kind of, it's there, right? Now that is more open shoulders, right arm connected,
21:40pressure with your legs and feet shifting across on a more sideways motion than it is forwards or
21:47spinny. It's more that way. Trying to put some force on the side of the shaft so you can actually
21:51get
21:52some bend and load into the shaft that, again, I feel on this knuckle here, right? So you're pushing
21:58there, this is your flat surface that you're trying to have a reliable square impact thing. Like,
22:05if I was hitting a square object, I'd want this to come in and meet it solidly, wouldn't I? Like,
22:13this is obviously a round ball, it's different, but you can treat the ground as that flush object that
22:18you're trying to hit there. I saw you're doing some stuff with Ben, who you work with, Ben Boren
22:21before, where you're just putting pressure on a flat surface. Yes, so if you use something like this,
22:26the edge of there or the side of this, I'm trying to put that pressure there, and you wouldn't just
22:31do it like that with your arms, right? You would connect it to the body and use your body to
22:36just
22:37more powerful, right? That's what gives you the stability of the club face going through, and
22:41obviously that's where your good grip and the location is right hand being not up like that,
22:46because then that, when you push through, it's going to twist. It's got to be on the side,
22:49it's got to be pushing forwards, so then the talked about bit is sort of exiting left,
22:55right, which is nonsense. That's the headline, Robert Rocks has exit left, it's nonsense.
23:01Well, if you just push down the line, if you see how the shaft keeps pointing on that red,
23:05pretty much on an extension of that red line, I'm not trying to go left, I'm just pushing forwards,
23:09maintaining that pressure in the back of the right wrist, and I'm carrying on my turn on the angled
23:15turn, so the right shoulder keeps coming forwards and down. It goes around the corner to the end,
23:20the right around to the left, but it's certainly not a come in and then go, right,
23:23I've got to go this way. It's not manipulated, it's happening naturally.
23:25You're pulling the middle of the face away from the ball, so it gets glancy, and again,
23:29you don't hit the right length. Right, so there's a lot of information there for a lot of people,
23:32and there's a lot of people very smart out there who will be following exactly what they're saying.
23:35For people like me, tell me exactly what Robert Rock thinks from the top of the backswing,
23:39how many thoughts do you have? How many thoughts can you have in that period of time?
23:43What are you thinking? Top of the backswing, how am I going to strike this? Clear?
23:46I've generally only got one coming down, because it's too quick.
23:49Good. I like this. I will have a few going back sometimes when I'm practicing, especially
23:53when I'm on hearing balls. I'll have maybe whatever I'm working in my setup, I'll certainly
23:57have something in the takeaway area to make that momentum of the club flow up to the top so I
24:04can
24:04feel my position at the top easier, because as soon as I can feel that I'm going to get to
24:08a good
24:08top of the backswing, the earlier I can feel that, the better, because then I can start shifting
24:13my focus on what I want to do on the way down. That's so interesting to hear you thinking,
24:16I can feel this is good. If your backswing is too quick, you'll lose that and then you'll panic on
24:22the way down because you're not organized and that's where, for me, that's where rhythm comes from.
24:27Right, two more questions on this. I promise then I'm going to let you go.
24:29That's all right.
24:29So we've got, I just want a total clarity on what that one thought is from you
24:34and then I'm going to think of the other one while you're telling me that.
24:35Okay, so for me, it's once I'm building up to this top of the backswing position, I'm trying to get
24:42my
24:43shoulders to come back open enough without the arms getting thrown and the club getting thrown over.
24:51There's a big difference between that because some might view opening the shoulders back up as chucking
24:55it over the top and it's not. What I want is my shoulders to unwind on the same axis to
25:01there,
25:01right, but my arms can still be in here, which has the delivery from, still from the inside.
25:09So my shoulders have opened up but the club is clearly still coming down and will fall down,
25:16hopefully down this playing line, squarely into the back of the ball leading the shaft forwards.
25:20So for me, all I think about is unwinding the shoulders, allowing the lag to happen and for me,
25:30because of my previous faults, I like to feel like the stretch it makes on my left arm.
25:34Okay.
25:34Right, so the left arm doesn't pull down too quick because if it separates from my chest,
25:38it will bend. So as I'm unwinding, the gap is closing back up.
25:45Cool.
25:45That stops me coming over the top, basically. So I get into this impact position where I feel
25:51like my right shoulder is going to back me up as I go through.
25:55Well, I've kept you talking for a while. I want to see one.
25:57Oh, I can't do it. Let's just talk about it.
25:59You can hear. You talked a good game. Let's flush one. Let's see it.
26:02Okay. Right. So, let's try and do it properly.
26:05Oh, full routine. Yes, I like it.
26:06Full routine, Robert.
26:20That's the sound we're looking for, isn't it? That was...
26:22Yeah, that was all right, actually. Yeah.
26:23It was all right, was it? It was all right.
26:24Maybe a little bit late, but decent. Robert, that was fascinating stuff.
26:28Thank you so much. You're welcome.
26:29And that's how you swing it like Robert Rock.
26:30Thank you, guys.