Connected Golf Swing (Video) - by Pete Styles
Connected Golf Swing (Video) - by Pete Styles

Now, whenever you watch any good play on the TV and you're listening to the commentators, they'll often talk about how someone who's really connected. Particularly when they're playing well, they talk about a connected golf swing and maybe vice versa when they're playing badly, "Oh, he got a bit disconnected there." What does that all mean to you as a golfer around the golf course?

Well, a connected golf swing is where all the components of a swing are working in harmony and unison together. So everything turns nicely on the back swing and the down swing is a nice, big movement, everything turning together rather than the hands going one way, the hips go in another way, and then the body trying to catch up and overtake, and your body weight shift in the wrong direction. So, a nice connected golf swing is those days when you feel really powerful and really consistent and it almost feels like the golf swing becomes easier for you. So here's a great drill to help you get connected in your golf swing.

I'd like to start off by taking your normal golf towel and stick one end underneath one armpit another end underneath the other armpit and just feel like it's trapped and against your body. And now, make a few little dummy swings even without a club, hands in front of you, turn back and turn through. And you feel how my hands stay in front of my chest for the whole time, turn back, and turn through. Any feeling of my hands working out on their own had I start to drop the towel away from it too much. So, again, position the towel under your armpits nice and high, turn back and turn through.

Once you've got the hang of that as a practice swing, maybe just on the driving range you could pick up a short club and just start chipping the ball away, felling like you're nice and connected with that action. If you start taking up to your bigger clubs, you may feel that at the top of a full swing your right arm wants to work away from your body. And that's okay because that would create some whiff.

I don't want to get too narrow with this exercise. We don't want to show you this sort of thing at the top of the swing; that's too narrow. We would see some whiff here, but notice how my hands are still in front of my chest; they're still connected even though they're wide. It's all about turning everything in one unit to the top, one unit back through again, keeping a nice connection in your swing. And hopefully with the towel underneath your armpits, that drill will really help you get more connected more often on the golf course.

 2012-03-20

Now, whenever you watch any good play on the TV and you're listening to the commentators, they'll often talk about how someone who's really connected. Particularly when they're playing well, they talk about a connected golf swing and maybe vice versa when they're playing badly, “Oh, he got a bit disconnected there.” What does that all mean to you as a golfer around the golf course?

Well, a connected golf swing is where all the components of a swing are working in harmony and unison together. So everything turns nicely on the back swing and the down swing is a nice, big movement, everything turning together rather than the hands going one way, the hips go in another way, and then the body trying to catch up and overtake, and your body weight shift in the wrong direction. So, a nice connected golf swing is those days when you feel really powerful and really consistent and it almost feels like the golf swing becomes easier for you. So here's a great drill to help you get connected in your golf swing.

I'd like to start off by taking your normal golf towel and stick one end underneath one armpit another end underneath the other armpit and just feel like it's trapped and against your body. And now, make a few little dummy swings even without a club, hands in front of you, turn back and turn through. And you feel how my hands stay in front of my chest for the whole time, turn back, and turn through. Any feeling of my hands working out on their own had I start to drop the towel away from it too much. So, again, position the towel under your armpits nice and high, turn back and turn through.

Once you've got the hang of that as a practice swing, maybe just on the driving range you could pick up a short club and just start chipping the ball away, felling like you're nice and connected with that action. If you start taking up to your bigger clubs, you may feel that at the top of a full swing your right arm wants to work away from your body. And that's okay because that would create some whiff.

I don't want to get too narrow with this exercise. We don't want to show you this sort of thing at the top of the swing; that's too narrow. We would see some whiff here, but notice how my hands are still in front of my chest; they're still connected even though they're wide. It's all about turning everything in one unit to the top, one unit back through again, keeping a nice connection in your swing. And hopefully with the towel underneath your armpits, that drill will really help you get more connected more often on the golf course.