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Feeling the One Piece Takeaway

The one piece takeaway is using the body to initiate the takeaway. To use the core to take the club away, your body will need a fixed point. The logical fixed point, backed by some data, is the lead foot. This drill helps you feel where you are triggering the swing from. 

Playlists: Build your one piece takeaway

Tags: Backswing, Member Question, Drill, Beginner

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Stirl is feeling the one piece takeaway. So I've had a number of students who

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almost get kind of parallelized over the ball, trying to think about either

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moving the hands or trying to make it move with the core or the shoulders going

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down. What I'm going to help you do is I'm going to help you feel what I

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normally do in a lesson. So I'm going to help you feel a one piece takeaway and I'm

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going to help you initiate your takeaway with a push of the lead foot as opposed

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to just thinking about the one piece takeaway. For many golfers all they have to

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think about is the hand staying in front and kind of turning the body and the

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arms being a little bit more passive during the takeaway and then using that

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moment some for those arms to start setting the club. That helps them achieve

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enough of a pressure shift while staying centered to get in a good top of

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backswing position which is really all we're trying to do in the takeaway. What I do

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frequently when I'm working with golfers who are struggling with feeling that

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takeaway is I'll have them get in their setup and then all come and stand over

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here and grab the club and I'll have them try and take the club back but I'm

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going to block it. Well I can't do that for you so what you can use is either a

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I've got a golf bag here but you can use a golf cart you can use the edge of

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your sofa pretty much a wall anything that's going to block the club but I would

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block it higher up than just the club head if you start blocking it all the

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way down to the club head there's going to be a strong enough kind of torque

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at the hands that you're probably still going to feel the forearms. That's why when

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I'm doing it I'm blocking up here so I'm going to block it as close to the grip

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as I can. And now what I'm going to do is I'm going to initiate the takeaway and

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I'm just going to feel where in my body was that triggered and what most people

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who struggle with their takeaway is going to feel is they're going to feel it

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either in the forearms elbows or up in the shoulders and neck. Now what I want to

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feel is I want to feel it in the core so my forearms are somewhat relaxed and I'm

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feeling it more from a rotation of my add muscles. Now if I'm really a

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student what I'll feel is that the left foot is going to push on an angle kind of

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that way and have a little bit of a rotation that way so I'm basically taking this front

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foot and I'm pushing it out and having a little rotation like that. It's almost like

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I'm sliding a piece of carpet away from me that way. By pushing that way and having

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a little bit of a rotation that's going to cause my body to rotate the opposite

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direction. So when I grab on the club for my students I'll frequently ask okay

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can you feel that in your core can you feel that all the way in your foot and then they'll

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start to connect and you can see it doesn't take much it's not an exaggerated movement

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unless you've never done it before then you might have to exaggerate but in general it's just a

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subtle movement of kind of anchoring that foot creating a really good fixed point for me to

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then rotate away from it. Now in the lessons what I'll usually do is all grab it and then after

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they've done it a few times I'll let go and they'll feel like the club just kind of floated and

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their arms did nothing. That's the hard part to replicate on your own but if you get far enough

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back you can kind of pump it one pump it to pump it three get it out of the way and try to make that

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same movement. So close to stuff come to figuring out how to replicate it on your own but once you

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have that feeling of that one piece take away then you can try and take you know nine to three

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is or even full shots initiating it there and then just you know kind of letting happen whatever

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is going to happen. One of the hard things is anytime you're working on backswing thoughts

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whether it's take away or setting the club you can't totally use contact and ball flight

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as an indicator of if you're doing it well but you can use the feeling of rhythm so if you

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feel this kind of smooth out your initiation and kind of improve the sequencing in your backswing

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then it's a good thing for you to work on and sometimes take away thoughts make excellent playing

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thoughts. So if you're struggling with what to start with your take away add a little resistance

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feel the foot connecting all the way through the core so the movement is happening from the ground

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pushing all the way up through until my ribcage rotate my arms. When you do that you'll be sure you've

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got a one piece take away. So in demonstrating it's very similar to the turn and grab with the medicine

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ball. In fact the medicine ball makes it hard to just lift for with your arms. Many golfers

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who benefit from this tend to be more they'll either lift more with their arms kind of trigger it

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more like that or they'll tend to shift more laterally kind of like that either way you

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they'll tend to feel it more in their arms. So get kind of that feeling through the leg and then you

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can go ahead and take some easy golf swings. Do that to work on your one piece take away.

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