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Anti-Slide Drill With Chair

Players that struggle with a slide in the downswing can face a number of consistency issues; a "flip" release will often accompany this less than efficient lower-body pattern. Thankfully, with a little know-how and a folding chair in the proper setup, players can rebalance their linear/rotary movements and troubleshoot any release related compensations that may also be present. Ultimately, this should allow for improved contact and low-point control.

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

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This is the anti-slide drill with a folding chair.

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So oftentimes, golfers who are coming from more of a slide-flip pattern will benefit from

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redefining the space or getting used to where they need to be.

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Oftentimes, these golfers will feel like in order to look right and stay in place.

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There's no Jackson 5, there's no slide or bump whatsoever.

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They feel like they're just turning.

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Instead of guessing what they're going to feel like, I like to help them figure out the space.

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So what we're going to do, I've got a folding chair here.

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I want you to get set up so that the folding chair is about even with your hip.

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One common problem I see is that golfers will put a stick in the ground basically even with the toes.

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And what you'll see is from the down the line, if I were to do that,

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basically my hands would make contact with the chair if I made a good swing.

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So oftentimes golfers will start kind of like throwing the club too much in the out

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and they'll get too much shallowness happening from that arm release instead of, you know,

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from a proper owner deviation and extension movement.

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So we're going to make sure that this is even with our hip more like this.

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And now when I take my practice swing, if I'm doing this with an iron,

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I want to basically have my upper body or my left shoulder as well as the hip even with this left foot.

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And when I come through, when I make contact, I want my hands to basically be even with that as well.

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So it can be helpful for working on low point control with the iron.

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It's a little trickier with the driver because you are going to while your hips are over the foot just like so.

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You want to make sure that your upper body is about a hands width or so behind or your head is about four to six inches

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behind the golf wall kind of like that. So since I've got a iron here, we'll do more the iron version,

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which is making sure that I finish a little bit more stacked up. And when I when I start my downswing,

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it's going to feel like more of a rotation or that's at least what it's going to feel like to me.

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You're just going to make sure that you don't make contact with the chair.

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Oftentimes it's helpful to put something on it so that it's a little bit more stable.

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Because some golfers will kind of like just hit the chair and not actually feel it.

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They'll they'll they'll I'll ask them after we're at hey, did you hit the chair on that one?

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They'll say no and I'll show them on video that they did. So just make sure that you are not going into that space.

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Now this will also help you. I don't want your foot to be dead square like this.

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And you don't want the chair touching the heel because that would actually prevent you from getting

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the normal amount of of lateral shift. So you basically want it out on the edge of your pinky toe

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kind of like that. So I've got the line there so I can figure it out. And I recommend

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putting some tees in the ground just to help you have a consistent ball position. I see some golfers

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put the chair and then they're moving around a few inches each time. So the chair is really only

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useful for a couple of those shots not all. So that's the basic setup and then I'm going to go ahead

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and do some 9 to 3 or some 10 to 2. If when I put this chair here I tend to let's get that a

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little bit better. Good. If when I put this chair here I tend to bottom out. Then that is a sign that

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my arms are more behind and I'm lacking some of this white movement. So this can be a good combo

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drill for feeling like my arms. I make sure that my arms get in front of my body and I'm getting

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the low point forward more with my upper body rotation and with the arm movement. So the white

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movement as opposed to doing it with that lower body slide. This is really common for a lot of juniors

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and female golfers who tend to use more of that lower body slide as a way to move the low point

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forward. Okay so now we've got the golf ball in place kind of like so and we're going to start

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with just the real simple little 9 to 3. So bringing you back and then making sure that I kind

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of triangle drill it keep those arms straight and make sure that I finish in a pretty good solid

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position. That's pretty good. So then next little progression we'll move up to is a 10 to 2.

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But obviously you would do a number of those until you felt comfortable with it. Got that

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in line with the pinky toe and then we'll do the 10 to 2. Kind of like that. I don't think I hit

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the chair but only the video table is showing me for sure and then lastly we'll do a full swing.

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So get my pinky toe up against and make sure the ball position is still pretty good and then

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rehearse getting into that impact position without too much slide. If you feel too much

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slide you can start to identify as it more of that left foot kind of knee diving forward or as it

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more of a too strong of a push laterally off that trail foot instead of a rotation. There should be a

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little bit of bump but if you are striking the chair then you're doing it excessively and pretty much

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with all of these movements too much of a good thing can become a bad thing. So that's why we like to

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use video so that we can monitor you know if we're falling too far outside of the range.

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All right so now full swing trying to make good contact.

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I don't like that. And if you one possible thing that you will start to notice is if you are one

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of these golfers who struggle with more of a slide then by staying more centered either the face is

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going to get more left open and you'll hit kind of a push or the path is going to get little

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steeper and you'll hit more of a fade. That tells you that the slide is kind of helping you

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get the path into out and create some more space so you can throw the club a little bit and close

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the face. So this can be a good little diagnostic tool it can be a good little spatial awareness tool

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just for helping dial in how much lower body movement you have especially if you struggle with the

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classic contact issues that are associated with having too much lateral lower body movement or if

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you're sliding towards the target during the downswing.