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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.

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.