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Fix Your Early Extension

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Alignment Stick Loading - Low to High Release

A common pattern for lower handicap players is an aggressive tug of the arms in transition. This can lead to pulls and even severe hooks. If you pay close attention, you will notice that in this pattern, the hands are working down (and not up) through the majority of the release. A great way to combat this though, is by training some low-to-high releases where the hands are working up (and not down) through impact; adding the alignment stick to start will also tie together the larger muscles in transition and the release, which should further help to eliminate the left miss. 

Tags: Poor Contact, Not Straight Enough, Impact, Follow Through, Release, Drill, Intermediate

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Stirl is a line-man-stick loading for the load of hydrorelease.

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A common good player problem, so typically this shows up in golfers who are in the load

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amid single-digit handicap, is that because they tend to get a little bit early with

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their arms and a little bit more of a cast coming down into the golf ball, they tend

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to have a fair amount of the club passing the grip.

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If you're a student at what you're looking at, you'll tend to see that the grip is working

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down during the release instead of working from a low position up more to high position.

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This tends to cause more of a pull or overdraw pattern, so more of a left miss and you might

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struggle with fat and thin shots.

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So having a load of high release is one of the best ways for good players to work out of hook

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pattern.

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So what we're going to do is I'm going to use an alignment stick to exaggerate this load

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of high release pattern.

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So now the lowest point of your hands is typically around right thigh somewhere along

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like that.

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And the shaft has a fixed length.

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So here I've got a stick that has a fixed length.

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We're going to bring it to where it is here where it would be an impact.

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Now I'm going to bring it lower than where it was the impact.

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What I'm going to do is I'm going to flex this alignment stick.

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So I'm going to put it in line with my hands and line with my right thigh and I'm going

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to flex that alignment stick and then I'm basically going to use body rotation to bring

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my hands away from where this stick is loading.

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So I'm loading it down there and then I'm going to feel the club basically drag through

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as it's going up and around.

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So I get this feeling of being down and this feeling of releasing the energy more at the

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target instead of if I try to release it at the golf ball I can't really do anything.

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It's kind of already it's too far in the ground and I can't let it kick out.

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The only way I'm going to let it kick out is by pulling up and around and away from the

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ground and that's only going to happen if I've got my hands low enough to begin with.

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Now the lowering of the hands isn't going to come from throwing my hands that's going to

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come from a proper lower body core driven transition kind of getting down into this good delivery

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and then that will set me up for having the hands work a little bit more up because the hands

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working up is just going to be a natural reaction to the hands following the rotation inside

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bend of my left shoulder and upper body through the release like so.

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So then once you have that feeling with the alignment stick golf club is going to feel very heavy

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but I'm going to get down into that same position just like it was up against the ground.

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Now here if I released like a stall, scooper I'm going to tend to hit it fat unless I stood up.

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So what I'm going to have to do is I'm going to get down into that position and then I'm

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going to have to feel my arms and hands working more up around and through in order to avoid

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hitting it fat. As I said, getting the hands going a little bit more up around and through

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causes a delayed release. The combination of those two is one of the best ways for good players to

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eliminate a big left over draw or hook pull hook pattern. So get pretty solid at being able to do

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the 9 to 3 version and then you can start to go into more of a 3 quarter pattern. So you're

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going to bring in here drop it down low and then keep it going around on the way through.

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Once you can do it in kind of a step-by-step fashion then you can add a little bit more tempo or

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continuity to your shots. So now we're going to try a little bit more continuity.

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And by having the hands come up through there you'll still be able to get it to draw but you should

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avoid the big pulls and the big overdraw patterns which is a common good player miss.

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