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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.

Playlists: Fix Your Early Extension, Fix Your Flip, Understand Your Swing Plane/Path, Fix Your Hook

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

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This drill is training left-ward hand path with a pool noodle.

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So I've got the pool noodle attached to a tripod and the purpose of this drill is to help

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break the pattern of through the ball having the hands and the club go too much out to the

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right. So if you're slicing them all, this is probably not your pattern, but a lot of

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golfers who hook the ball will tend to have this look where the grip and the club goes way out

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to the right as the club turns over through the release just like that. So what I've done here

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is I've set up a physical barrier with a pool noodle. You just stick it on the little end of the tripod

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and that allows you to pretty much create a soft barrier so that your brain can help calibrate

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where the club needs to go. What I've done is from the down the line. I've taken so if I

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sold a club and I put this, I gave myself a bout an inch between where that club would be or that

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swing plane would be and where this pool noodle is and I put it roughly in line or just in line with

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the outside of my foot, roughly. Whenever you're doing these trainings with a pool noodle or

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spatial alignment, you can either use a T so that you're always in the same place or you can just be a

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little bit more tolerant and understand that you're going to have to reset up the station or hit

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out of divots. So you might have to move the station around every five to ten balls. So now I can

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neither do nine to three training, which I highly recommend or elder eye, tend to two style or full swings.

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But basically what I'm going to do here is I'm going to make some swings and make sure

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that the club finishes to the left of this pool noodle or in front of my body instead of

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coming through like that where it's going too much into out. Now if you are a slicer,

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you are probably swinging way inside of this and this is not the right drill for you.

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One more of caution, you do have to have this close enough, especially if you're doing like a

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driver because it's possible that you could hit this with more of the club head and as opposed to

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the grip end of the shaft. So then what I'll nine to three shot shouldn't be much of a problem.

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Again, I gave myself a little bit of wiggle room, but what you'll see is if you tend to swing more

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with an early extension pattern or more of a flip pattern, it was pretty close there. I'll see if

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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

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is that I'll make contact with this as I come through with that pattern. So you can adjust the difficulty

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if like right now that inch may be a little bit too easy. So I'm going to move this a little bit more

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inside so that hopefully from the down the line. Now this is pretty close to in line.

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So that's a little bit tougher and requires that my hand path be even better if I was to have

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just a little bit of going out. You can see that I would make contact with the club from the

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or the pool middle from the down the line. Once I've done this with some nine to three,

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I can challenge myself a little bit and go after more of a full swing.

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So