Subscribe now to watch the full video.
Playing hockey can train some great things in your golf swing. Most hockey players that I have tested have great sequencing, and usually have good hip speed. But there are a few major things that hockey players struggle with. As Liam Mucklow said recently, "hockey players love to get 'steep and deep'". This is because it is a very helpful condition for hitting a good slap shot, but it's not helpful for hitting a golf ball correctly. The three issues I see that ex-hockey players face are typically.
- Sway
- Excessively closed clubface (especially in takeaway)
- Forward lunge
This package of swing faults can be frustrating because often times it results in fairly solid mid irons, but struggles with both the wedges and driver swings.
Tags: Intermediate
WEBVTT
00:00:01.040 --> 00:00:03.280
this insight is adjusting from a life of
00:00:03.280 --> 00:00:05.839
hockey so as i've been in colorado here
00:00:05.839 --> 00:00:07.759
for a while i've been working with more
00:00:07.759 --> 00:00:10.160
and more hockey players
00:00:10.160 --> 00:00:11.920
they tend to have a pattern just like
00:00:11.920 --> 00:00:13.280
those tennis players just like those
00:00:13.280 --> 00:00:15.040
baseball players tend to have a pattern
00:00:15.040 --> 00:00:17.920
so there's three major things that i see
00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:20.080
consistently with hockey players doesn't
00:00:20.080 --> 00:00:21.039
mean that you're going to see them with
00:00:21.039 --> 00:00:22.480
everyone but if
00:00:22.480 --> 00:00:24.400
you're a x hockey player and you
00:00:24.400 --> 00:00:26.000
struggle with these issues hopefully
00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:28.160
this will help you understand why and
00:00:28.160 --> 00:00:30.240
give you some strategies to work on them
00:00:30.240 --> 00:00:32.079
so the three major things that hockey
00:00:32.079 --> 00:00:33.520
players are going to do with the golf
00:00:33.520 --> 00:00:36.000
club is they're going to tend to
00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:37.840
sway a little bit off of the ball
00:00:37.840 --> 00:00:39.680
they're going to tend to keep the club
00:00:39.680 --> 00:00:42.480
face closed or restrict forearm rotation
00:00:42.480 --> 00:00:44.000
during the backswing and they're going
00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:46.079
to tend to have a forward lunge of the
00:00:46.079 --> 00:00:48.320
upper body so these are three big
00:00:48.320 --> 00:00:49.920
movements that are helpful when i'm
00:00:49.920 --> 00:00:52.559
hitting a slap shot but problematic when
00:00:52.559 --> 00:00:55.520
i'm swinging a golf club so the the sway
00:00:55.520 --> 00:00:57.520
is essentially going to be this lateral
00:00:57.520 --> 00:01:00.559
movement and typically their initiation
00:01:00.559 --> 00:01:03.199
which would be good with a hockey stick
00:01:03.199 --> 00:01:06.080
is going to be that closed-faced um and
00:01:06.080 --> 00:01:07.280
they will have some of the most
00:01:07.280 --> 00:01:09.200
closed-faced of anybody who i've ever
00:01:09.200 --> 00:01:10.799
measured on 3d
00:01:10.799 --> 00:01:12.320
but they'll tend to have closed face
00:01:12.320 --> 00:01:14.080
with a little bit of a sway
00:01:14.080 --> 00:01:17.759
as opposed to rotating and kind of
00:01:17.759 --> 00:01:19.920
letting my upper body turn into my trail
00:01:19.920 --> 00:01:22.640
side they tend to stay a little bit more
00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:24.479
lead side bent
00:01:24.479 --> 00:01:26.720
which by itself can make it uh
00:01:26.720 --> 00:01:28.880
problematic for hitting the driver um
00:01:28.880 --> 00:01:31.280
unless i have this major jump on the way
00:01:31.280 --> 00:01:33.920
down which a lot of them tend to do
00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:36.400
the other one that i've seen more and
00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:38.400
more and from talking to one of my
00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:39.840
ex-hockey players he says that this is
00:01:39.840 --> 00:01:41.920
actually encouraged in hockey
00:01:41.920 --> 00:01:43.600
of the sports this is one of the few
00:01:43.600 --> 00:01:46.159
that i never really played but
00:01:46.159 --> 00:01:47.840
during the hockey slap shot you're going
00:01:47.840 --> 00:01:50.880
to want to have your upper body drifting
00:01:50.880 --> 00:01:52.479
towards the net
00:01:52.479 --> 00:01:54.159
during the entire time you're not going
00:01:54.159 --> 00:01:57.360
to want to post up and go like so um
00:01:57.360 --> 00:01:59.280
because you have the tendency to fan or
00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:01.680
swing over top of the puck this upper
00:02:01.680 --> 00:02:04.320
body covering movement like so tends to
00:02:04.320 --> 00:02:07.920
let you hit behind it and then keep the
00:02:07.920 --> 00:02:09.759
blade close to the ice as it goes
00:02:09.759 --> 00:02:11.599
through the puck but when it comes to
00:02:11.599 --> 00:02:14.319
golf this can cause big time angle of
00:02:14.319 --> 00:02:17.599
attack issues as well as forcing you to
00:02:17.599 --> 00:02:19.200
cast both to
00:02:19.200 --> 00:02:21.680
hold off some of this face rotation
00:02:21.680 --> 00:02:23.440
and to shallow out the club from this
00:02:23.440 --> 00:02:26.160
steep upper body movement so they tend
00:02:26.160 --> 00:02:27.680
to struggle with what i think are some
00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:28.800
of the more
00:02:28.800 --> 00:02:31.760
annoying problems one of which being
00:02:31.760 --> 00:02:33.200
fat wedges
00:02:33.200 --> 00:02:35.440
because i'm taking it away closed and
00:02:35.440 --> 00:02:37.760
i'm forward lunging kind of like so i'll
00:02:37.760 --> 00:02:39.760
tend to fall into this early extension
00:02:39.760 --> 00:02:41.120
pattern late
00:02:41.120 --> 00:02:42.800
and get the path coming too much from
00:02:42.800 --> 00:02:44.080
the inside
00:02:44.080 --> 00:02:46.000
now with a hockey slap shot i can hit
00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:47.920
behind it and
00:02:47.920 --> 00:02:50.319
that actually helps with a slap shot but
00:02:50.319 --> 00:02:52.560
the problem is with a golf club if i'm
00:02:52.560 --> 00:02:54.800
if i do that if i come from the inside
00:02:54.800 --> 00:02:56.400
and have the club bottom out behind it
00:02:56.400 --> 00:02:58.239
i'll typically get leading edge strikes
00:02:58.239 --> 00:02:59.920
so i'm going to get
00:02:59.920 --> 00:03:02.080
laying sod or i'm going to pull my arms
00:03:02.080 --> 00:03:05.120
in i'm going to blade it so if you're
00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:08.239
working on getting out of hockey
00:03:08.239 --> 00:03:10.239
and becoming more of a golfer one of the
00:03:10.239 --> 00:03:11.599
things that i would recommend is working
00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:13.760
on this stable pivot which we teach
00:03:13.760 --> 00:03:15.360
during the backswing in the transition
00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:16.319
section
00:03:16.319 --> 00:03:19.200
and then working on having a little bit
00:03:19.200 --> 00:03:22.159
more forearm rotation
00:03:22.159 --> 00:03:24.959
on the way back
00:03:24.959 --> 00:03:27.440
by letting it open up kind of like so
00:03:27.440 --> 00:03:30.080
it'll allow you to
00:03:30.080 --> 00:03:31.519
square it um
00:03:31.519 --> 00:03:34.159
without using that forward lunge and
00:03:34.159 --> 00:03:36.239
that forward lunge
00:03:36.239 --> 00:03:37.760
can be great for
00:03:37.760 --> 00:03:40.080
iron play it can be great for a few
00:03:40.080 --> 00:03:41.519
specific shots
00:03:41.519 --> 00:03:42.480
but
00:03:42.480 --> 00:03:44.000
typically hurts your wedges typically
00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:45.360
hurts your driver and so i think it's
00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:46.640
kind of one of those problems you want
00:03:46.640 --> 00:03:48.239
to get out of so if you're coming from
00:03:48.239 --> 00:03:49.920
hockey you got to learn to let the club
00:03:49.920 --> 00:03:52.000
face rotate a little bit more you've got
00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:54.400
to learn to stabilize your pivot
00:03:54.400 --> 00:03:56.319
and usually you'll have to work on a
00:03:56.319 --> 00:03:57.760
little bit of this early extension
00:03:57.760 --> 00:04:00.080
pattern but if you do i promise you can
00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:03.040
find that this game is just as fun and a
00:04:03.040 --> 00:04:04.799
lot less dangerous
00:04:04.799 --> 00:04:06.640
something that you can do well into your
00:04:06.640 --> 00:04:08.879
older years so good luck adjusting from
00:04:08.879 --> 00:04:13.640
a life of hockey into a life of golf