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Tyler Ferrell is the only person in the world named to Golf Digest's list of Best Young Teachers in America AND its list of Best Golf Fitness Professionals in America. Meet your new instructor.

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Tai-Chi Downswing Sequence

Many golfers struggle to maintain the proper downswing sequence when adding speed & power. This is not surprising though, considering its dynamic nature. For students who struggle with this pattern, I will usually offer this drill as one of my "go-tos"; tai-chi downswings are excellent for not only exposing "disconnects" between the release & pivot, but more importantly, they allow for golfers to "connect the dots" in transition. With practice, players should be able to build momentum, while maintaining mechanics & sequencing, until they eventually arrive at their "stock" full-swing.

Playlists: Pivot Drills, Keys To Transition, Find Your Best Swing Quickly

Tags: Transition, Drill, Intermediate

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The cereal is Tai Chi down swing sequence.

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So again, many golfers struggle with getting the sequence right when they take a full

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length backswing.

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So it's much easier in these nine to three when the club is kind of even with the height

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of my hands or my my shoulders haven't been fully loaded.

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It's much easier to initiate that swing with my body.

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But when I start to get my shoulders more towards maximum stretch up at the top of the swing,

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sometimes it's a little bit harder to have the patience or the sequencing of using the

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lower body first.

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So the two main sequence drills that I use are versions of pump drills where I'm rhythmically

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kind of going back and forth to trick my brain into using more my core because when I pump

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back and forth, it's very hard to do it aggressively and it's very hard to do it in a way

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that would compliment a heavy arm pull.

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So the two main compliments would be more of a upper body lunge or more of an early extension

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and it's really hard to pump back and forth with either of those two body movements.

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But some golfers aren't real comfortable doing pump drills.

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So the other common sequence training drill that I'll do is more of a Tai Chi or slow

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motion swing.

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So we'll go up to the top of the swing and now I'm going to ask you to take at least three

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seconds to make your downswing.

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So we're going to go 1,000, 1,000, 1,000, 2, 1,000, 3.

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And I want you to make contact with the ground and with the ball.

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It's only going to go a few feet so you can actually hopefully do this in the comfort of

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your living room or off to the side.

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So if I'm doing these slow motion swings, oftentimes what'll happen is some golfers will

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do these slow motion swings and they'll be up above the golf ball kind of like so.

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And I'll tell them you haven't solved the equation yet because you haven't connected in

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your mind where you're how you're going to get the club down the golf ball.

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So if I'm here the easiest way to get it down to the golf ball is to go a little bit

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earlier with my arms.

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And so what then happens is they do these nice looking sequence drills and then when they

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go to actually hit the ball because they haven't solved the equation they go earlier

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and earlier with the arms.

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So oftentimes just by doing 5 or 10 of these slow motion swings where I'm going to try

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and do all the movements that I'm hoping to train and that was actually a little bit quick.

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You can see I hit that a little too far.

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By doing all these movements in slow motion it will help your body and your brain coordinate

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the sequencing and the timing of how these movements fit together.

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So we'll do one more good one hopefully kind of thinking about it a little bit more.

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So shallowing as I turn that was a pretty good one finishing where I wanted to in that

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release position.

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Went a little bit further than I wanted but the sequencing was there.

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Let's see if I can slow it down even more before I then try to add a little bit of speed

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to it.

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So if I go up to the top.

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That was pretty good.

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Now that I have this feeling of the sequence of what my arms are going to do while my body

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is initiating that downswing.

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Now I can try and add a little bit more speed.

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Usually I'll say now do one it about 50% 60% and then 80% and then we're pretty much back

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up to full swing tempo.

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So now this will be a little slow closer to kind of a 50% so that one worked out pretty

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well.

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Work up close to full speed after doing the half speed drill.

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So now we've got kind of a good rhythm going for the movements that we were training.

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As we put in more speed maybe a feel will emerge or maybe we'll figure out a tempo

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that will serve as our playing feel when we go to the course tomorrow.

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