Subscribe now to watch the full video.

Windmill Drill - Body Pivot

Whether you are a novice or high-level player, it can be useful to refine some of the fundamentals involved in making a reliable & powerful pivot. As this motion requires coordination from multiple segments of the body and both mobile/stable actions, it doesn't take much for things to get out of whack. With that said, this is a great way to recalibrate this movement as it relies on just one external cue and it can be performed at home or on the range.

Tags: Fundamentals, Early Extension, Standing Up, Sway, Follow Through, Backswing, Drill, Intermediate

00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,000
Stirl is the windmill drill for your body pivot.

00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:10,000
So often times golfers, whether novice or if you've been playing for a while, you can

00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:14,000
lose the identity or you can lose the direction of your pivot.

00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:18,000
So what we're going to do here is we're going to work on the body motion without a club.

00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:22,000
So I'm going to put a golf ball in my normal ball position and then I'm going to drop

00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:27,000
my club and I'm going to bring my arms out to my sides just like this.

00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:34,000
Now the windmill in this case is going to involve my body pivoting so that my arms when

00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:38,000
they stay out to my sides, my left arm is going to point at the golf ball and then my

00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:41,000
right arm is going to point at the golf ball.

00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:45,000
And if you, if you were to look at the keys here, the keys here are that my arms stay

00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:47,000
in line with my body.

00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:49,000
So I'm not just going like this.

00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:51,000
This would be just moving my shoulders.

00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:56,000
I want my shoulders to kind of get locked in place and then I'm going to use the angle

00:00:56,000 --> 00:01:01,000
of my pivot so that my shoulder and hand are pointing down to the golf ball and then my

00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:04,000
shoulder and hand are pointing down at the golf ball.

00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:08,000
Just like if I was going like this up here, but I'm going to be angled down at the golf

00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:09,000
ball.

00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:15,000
And because I'm angled down at the golf ball, the magic of how to do this correctly is I'm

00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:19,000
not just going to rotate a lot of golfers rotate around.

00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:23,000
Even though you get bent over into a good position, a lot of golfers rotate around a vertical

00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:24,000
axis.

00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:30,000
So that looks like if I had my arms out to my sides and I rotate around a vertical axis,

00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:36,000
you'll see that my belt stays parallel to the ground and my body is actually moving a

00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:40,000
lot off the ball and then a lot through the ball on the way through.

00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:43,000
So there's a lot of upper body variability.

00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:46,000
That's going to give me contact issues and take away some power.

00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:54,000
Instead, if I do this correctly, when I make a backswing, the right hip is going to come

00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:55,000
up.

00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:56,000
The right shoulder is going to come up.

00:01:56,000 --> 00:01:58,000
The left shoulder and left hip are going to go down.

00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:03,000
So I'm basically turning around this angle just like so.

00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:08,000
And then I can get used to the rhythm of it, of feeling like the hips, lead the arms

00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:11,000
and kind of make the arms swing.

00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:16,000
So working on the backswing, right hip goes up, right shoulder goes up, working on the

00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:22,000
way through, left hip goes up, left shoulder goes up, right hip goes down, right shoulder goes

00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:23,000
down.

00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:28,000
Just me into this really good follow through position where it looks like I just turned

00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:30,000
right around my spine angle.

00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:35,000
So this is a great drill for dialing in your body pivot or working on kind of simplifying

00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:37,000
your body pivot at home.

00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:43,000
Once you have a good idea of this feeling of a body pivot, then I want you to try and apply

00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:45,000
that to a 93.

00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:49,000
So now I'm just going to make a triangle with my arms where they're connected on my chest.

00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:54,000
Now I'm going to raise my right hip and right shoulder in the backswing and then on the

00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:58,000
way through, I'm going to raise my left hip and left shoulder.

00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:01,000
Now that one I hit a little bit thin.

00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:02,000
I could feel on the way through.

00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:07,000
I didn't quite get that right shoulder down and that left hip up.

00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:10,000
So I'm going to do my windmill again.

00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:13,000
That was a little bit better follow through.

00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:17,000
If I drop the club and put the arms outside, that's pretty close to pointing at the

00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:18,000
golf ball.

00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:23,000
Anywhere between pointing at the golf ball and let's say one to two feet out for mid-iron,

00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:26,000
that's a pretty good model.

00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:31,000
Just make sure if you change clubs that you get set up so that as the clubs get longer,

00:03:31,000 --> 00:03:33,000
this windmill gets just a little bit flatter.

00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:37,000
So for the driver, it might look like this and with your wedge, it might look like that.

00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:42,000
But overall, this is going to help you train that centered pivot in an easy way at home.

Subscribe now for full access to our video library.