Adjusting To Your New Golf Swing Without A Block (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles
Adjusting To Your New Golf Swing Without A Block (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles

If you’ve been going through a process of blocking the ball so the shot that goes straight but down the right-hand side for the right-hand golfer, and now you’ve improved your technique. You’re now hitting the ball better; you’re now hitting the ball straighter. We have to consider what else might we see on the golf course as you’re getting used to this new and improved technique. One of the first considerations might be how your swing had adapted to your old block shot in the past. You might have actually changed your alignment. So if you’ve been playing with a, let’s say, a 20 yard block shot, so you’ve been hitting the ball 20 yards right of your intended target for a while, what you might’ve done inadvertently is actually start aiming down the left-hand side. So your body might have actually adjusted itself in terms of where the feet are aligned, to where the body is aligned to aim more to the left. And then effectively the block shot was going pretty straight down the middle of the fairway, but it could’ve been caused by bad alignment.

If you’ve now improved your block shot, you’re no longer hitting the block shot, you’re hitting the ball straighter, but you’re still using the old alignment of aiming down the left-hand side, suddenly you’re hitting rockets, dead straight bombers but left, because that’s where you’re aiming. So we’ve got to consider that if the old fault caused the problem with the alignment, now we don’t have the old fault. We’ve now got to correct the alignment as well. So if you’ve been blocking the ball now let’s make sure that your feet are aiming dead straight, your club and your swing path are trying to head dead straight down the middle. And we’re hitting straight shots up the middle rather than block shots to the right that had an adjusted alignment that were kind of working out for you. Other areas that you might see with a different ball flight where you’re now hitting the ball straighter is you might actually gain a bit more distance on your shots. Generally speaking, that ball that goes out to the right-hand side with the path coming from the inside and the face that’s square to the path, probably hitting the ball quite high, little cutty out to that right-hand side to losing a little bit of power. You might now feel that if you’re aiming straighter and you’re able to hit the ball down the middle or potentially have a little bit of drawl shape on it as well, the ball flight will go further with driver and also all the way through your irons. So you might consider that not only do you need to change your alignment to these new shots, but actually you need to change your club selection as well. So when you have a fault, be it a block or a push or anything else in your game, the body is often quite smart and find compensations. So, then as we make the corrections we now need to lose those compensations. So work better on your alignment, work better on your distance control, and then that new improved I’m-not-blocking-anymore-to-the-right swing should really start to pay dividends on the golf course. 2016-10-14

If you’ve been going through a process of blocking the ball so the shot that goes straight but down the right-hand side for the right-hand golfer, and now you’ve improved your technique. You’re now hitting the ball better; you’re now hitting the ball straighter. We have to consider what else might we see on the golf course as you’re getting used to this new and improved technique. One of the first considerations might be how your swing had adapted to your old block shot in the past. You might have actually changed your alignment. So if you’ve been playing with a, let’s say, a 20 yard block shot, so you’ve been hitting the ball 20 yards right of your intended target for a while, what you might’ve done inadvertently is actually start aiming down the left-hand side. So your body might have actually adjusted itself in terms of where the feet are aligned, to where the body is aligned to aim more to the left. And then effectively the block shot was going pretty straight down the middle of the fairway, but it could’ve been caused by bad alignment.

If you’ve now improved your block shot, you’re no longer hitting the block shot, you’re hitting the ball straighter, but you’re still using the old alignment of aiming down the left-hand side, suddenly you’re hitting rockets, dead straight bombers but left, because that’s where you’re aiming. So we’ve got to consider that if the old fault caused the problem with the alignment, now we don’t have the old fault. We’ve now got to correct the alignment as well. So if you’ve been blocking the ball now let’s make sure that your feet are aiming dead straight, your club and your swing path are trying to head dead straight down the middle. And we’re hitting straight shots up the middle rather than block shots to the right that had an adjusted alignment that were kind of working out for you.

Other areas that you might see with a different ball flight where you’re now hitting the ball straighter is you might actually gain a bit more distance on your shots. Generally speaking, that ball that goes out to the right-hand side with the path coming from the inside and the face that’s square to the path, probably hitting the ball quite high, little cutty out to that right-hand side to losing a little bit of power. You might now feel that if you’re aiming straighter and you’re able to hit the ball down the middle or potentially have a little bit of drawl shape on it as well, the ball flight will go further with driver and also all the way through your irons. So you might consider that not only do you need to change your alignment to these new shots, but actually you need to change your club selection as well.

So when you have a fault, be it a block or a push or anything else in your game, the body is often quite smart and find compensations. So, then as we make the corrections we now need to lose those compensations. So work better on your alignment, work better on your distance control, and then that new improved I’m-not-blocking-anymore-to-the-right swing should really start to pay dividends on the golf course.