Subscribe now to watch the full video.

Leftward Hand Path - Pool Noodle

I will often use this drill & setup with students that have a tendency to hook the ball. In doing so, our goal is to break the pattern of the hands and club moving severely in-to-out through impact. For many of these players, this pattern can be so ingrained that having a soft barrier, such as a pool noodle, is one of the only ways to re-calibrate and create a more neutral release. On the other hand, if you are a strong slicer of the golf ball, you may want to avoid this drill altogether as it may further exaggerate your out-to-in path.

Tags: Poor Contact, Not Straight Enough, Early Extension, Release, Drill, Intermediate

00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,000
This drill is training left-ward hand path with a pool noodle.

00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:12,000
So I've got the pool noodle attached to a tripod and the purpose of this drill is to help

00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:18,000
break the pattern of through the ball having the hands and the club go too much out to the

00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:25,000
right. So if you're slicing them all, this is probably not your pattern, but a lot of

00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:31,000
golfers who hook the ball will tend to have this look where the grip and the club goes way out

00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:37,000
to the right as the club turns over through the release just like that. So what I've done here

00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:44,000
is I've set up a physical barrier with a pool noodle. You just stick it on the little end of the tripod

00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:50,000
and that allows you to pretty much create a soft barrier so that your brain can help calibrate

00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:57,000
where the club needs to go. What I've done is from the down the line. I've taken so if I

00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:04,000
sold a club and I put this, I gave myself a bout an inch between where that club would be or that

00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:11,000
swing plane would be and where this pool noodle is and I put it roughly in line or just in line with

00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:19,000
the outside of my foot, roughly. Whenever you're doing these trainings with a pool noodle or

00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:24,000
spatial alignment, you can either use a T so that you're always in the same place or you can just be a

00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:30,000
little bit more tolerant and understand that you're going to have to reset up the station or hit

00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:36,000
out of divots. So you might have to move the station around every five to ten balls. So now I can

00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:45,000
neither do nine to three training, which I highly recommend or elder eye, tend to two style or full swings.

00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:51,000
But basically what I'm going to do here is I'm going to make some swings and make sure

00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:58,000
that the club finishes to the left of this pool noodle or in front of my body instead of

00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:04,000
coming through like that where it's going too much into out. Now if you are a slicer,

00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:09,000
you are probably swinging way inside of this and this is not the right drill for you.

00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:14,000
One more of caution, you do have to have this close enough, especially if you're doing like a

00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:19,000
driver because it's possible that you could hit this with more of the club head and as opposed to

00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:27,000
the grip end of the shaft. So then what I'll nine to three shot shouldn't be much of a problem.

00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:35,000
Again, I gave myself a little bit of wiggle room, but what you'll see is if you tend to swing more

00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:41,000
with an early extension pattern or more of a flip pattern, it was pretty close there. I'll see if

00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:48,000
I can get it to go even more into out. So I'll try to get the grip to go more that way and what you'll see

00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:57,000
is that I'll make contact with this as I come through with that pattern. So you can adjust the difficulty

00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:04,000
if like right now that inch may be a little bit too easy. So I'm going to move this a little bit more

00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:09,000
inside so that hopefully from the down the line. Now this is pretty close to in line.

00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:17,000
So that's a little bit tougher and requires that my hand path be even better if I was to have

00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:24,000
just a little bit of going out. You can see that I would make contact with the club from the

00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:29,000
or the pool middle from the down the line. Once I've done this with some nine to three,

00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:33,000
I can challenge myself a little bit and go after more of a full swing.

00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:36,000
So