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Gate drills work for helping refine your swing path at the bottom. Dialing in your path is useful for hitting the ball straight. This is extremely helpful for golfers who slice or hook. Here's how you set up the gate to create a visual of a correct path.
To fix a slice:
- put one headcover six inches behind the ball and 6 inches OUTSIDE the target line
- put a second headcover six inches in front of the ball and 6 inches INSIDE the target line
- you can adjust these numbers depending on the size of the barrier or the club
To fix a hook:
- put one headcover six inches behind the ball and 6 inches INSIDE the target line
- put a second headcover six inches in front of the ball and 6 inches OUTSIDE the target line
- you can adjust these numbers depending on the size of the barrier or the club
Tags: Not Straight Enough, Draw vs Fade, Drill
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In this video, we're going to cover gate drills for path improvement.
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So gate drills are kind of like a 3D way to get your body connected to where your club
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is swinging.
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Oftentimes I recommend these when you're struggling with a path that's either too much
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outside in or a path that's too much out and you're having a hard time correcting it
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just with visual sticks on the ground.
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So by making the path more 3D, whether with pool noodles or in this case gates, that
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can help the brain kind of calibrate where we are in space.
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So essentially what we're going to do is we're going to set our ball position and then
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we're going to establish a gate that prevents us from doing one path or the other.
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So first one will battle is the outside in which is the more common path issue for
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slicers.
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This path is coming from out here.
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So we're going to put an object in this case ahead cover about a foot backward and about
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three to four inches outside the target line kind of like this.
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You can be as strict or as generous as you want with these gates.
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So now we're going to do the opposite on the forward side.
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So we're going to put it about a foot in front of the ball and then a good three to four
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inches inside kind of like so.
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So this will be easiest to see from either the down line or the overhead, but basically
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I'm creating a gate this way where if I was to come over the top, I would hit one of
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these two head covers.
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If I do it early, I'll probably hit this head cover.
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If I do it and it's more of a scoop kind of late, I'll probably hit the second head cover.
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But now I have a visual.
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I can work on my nine to threes and I can work on my 10 to twos and I can work on doing
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some pumps and some spatial awareness, little back and forth.
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Just my brain is not going to fight that these gates are in the right position.
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And so I'm going to my brain will work the puzzle and try to solve how do I get the club
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to miss these gates.
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What you may find is the first few times you do this.
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If you hit it way off to the right or you shank it, it could be that your path trouble
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is really a compensation for the face being wide open.
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So this is the common gate set up.
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So this is the traditional gate set up for working on a slice.
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The reverse gate is basically we're going to do the opposite.
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This is for golfers who tend to have a lot of early extension and come way from the inside
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tend to get feeling of stuck and then kind of flip at the bottom.
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But often have a path that's way in the out and hide or sorry, low to high in the
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follow through.
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So now I'm going to reverse this.
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I'm going to put this gate on the inside and I'm going to put this gate on the outside.
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So I'm still keeping them about a foot away from the golf ball.
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And again, you can get as strict or as generous.
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Now when I do my rehearsals on this one, it's going to feel like I'm I have to turn a little bit more.
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And it might feel like I have to stay in my posture in order to create the space for my hands to finish a little bit more low left.
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So if I miss the gate in this sense, I'm going to tend to have more of a steeper angle of attack.
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Where the other way you noticed I kind of picked the ball.
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It was a little bit sweepier.
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But this gets more of a left or sorry outside in ball path or more of a left finish.
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That can be really helpful if you're used to early extending and battle more of the block hook combination.
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So I recommend going through nine to three, tend to choose full swings with the gates.
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And when you do this, you should have an alignment stick.
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So you kind of know where you're setting up the gates in reference to a target.
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Once you solve the puzzle, you're not hitting the gates.
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Then you can work on trying to duplicate the same ball flight without the gates there.
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That's where doing more of one of the visual drills like the tried end or something like that makes a little bit more sense.
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So if you're really starting with the path, these 3D objects help you dial it in.
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But then you want to challenge yourself to get to ween yourself off of the 3D path and more on to a visual.
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And ultimately down to a feel because ultimately it's your ability to visualize the path and have the correct feel that is going to hold up one more on the golf course.
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So that's ultimately what we're trying to train with these gate drills.
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Okay, just for fun, I'm going to go super open grip outside in to try to hit this straight.
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And you'll see that we hit one.
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I was above that gate but hit the second one like I said, I prefer using soft objects but you can always use teas or golf balls.
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You just need something to help your brain figure out or make you aware if you move the club on the wrong path.
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Thank you.
