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Train Your Release
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Trail side pass is one of James Sieckmann's favorite drills for wedges and it is one of the best I've used for working on timing of rotation in the downswing. The rate of deceleration for a good wedge swing is different than that of a full swing. In the full swing, we want a solid brace as the arms release. In the wedge swing, you want your body to continue rotating through impact. Trail side pass is a way to feel the body continuing to move through impact.
Tags: Pitch, Drill, Intermediate
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This distance wedge drill is trail side pass. So as most you know, I'm a big fan of
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James Seekman. This is one of the ones that I've seen him use more commonly with
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helping golfers who are struggling with contact with their distance wedges.
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The distance wedge is kind of a hybrid between your stock swing and your finesse wing.
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It has much more elements of the stock swing than it does of the finesse wing.
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It tends to have a little bit more of that centered pivot where the upper body tends to shift
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just slightly towards the target lower body shifts just slightly towards the target during the back swing.
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Before you then have a good little body rotation sequencing, little Jackson 5 during the downswing.
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But one of the big differences is with the distance wedge swing, you're going to tend to see that upper body kind of
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kind of continue rotating with the club. We're in the stock full swing. You're going to get more into that
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bracing position and really let the club pass. So one of the drills that can help you feel this
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continued body rotation is trail side pass. So basically what you're going to do is you're going to
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take your left hand and we're either going to put it on your your hip or if you have any shoulder
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issues you can put it on the opposite hip. So basically you're going to take some swings
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and you're going to as after you've just started down after you've had that little little kind of bump
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you're then going to make sure that this hip gets fully around and facing the target.
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Or again if you have any shoulder issues you can grab onto the opposite hip and you're just going to make sure that that hip
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is getting all the way facing the target. Instead of having a real pronounced release with the hands.
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It's going to give you a good little sensation of what I describe as being more of a upper body hit
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because everything's going to be kind of moving and flowing together. You're not going to have a really
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pronounced lower body movement the way that you might in the stock full swing. So once you get a good feeling of the club
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brushing the grass doing this you can put both hands on and try to get into that same tempo
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that same kind of finish position.
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So if you're struggling with having your your body kind of stall and struggling with contact or distance control
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work on this trail side pass to feel that fluidity of the body rotating all the way into that finish position
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that will tend to power the swing more with your upper body and help you with consistent contact.
