How to Stop Getting Stuck on the Downswing - Golf (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles
How to Stop Getting Stuck on the Downswing - Golf (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles

Now if you ask most golfers, name a famous golfer, top of the list, Tiger Woods. It always comes out the top of the list for most people's favorite golfer list or famous golfer list. But also Tiger Woods got one of the most famous of the swing flaws and swing faults. We all know that Tiger's pretty capable of hitting the ball all over the golf course when he's not having a good day; he's not timing it well. And that comes from one particular flaw, and his flaw is he sometimes gets stuck on his downswing. You might have heard that said by the announcers, commentators on TV, and not really ever understood what getting stuck actually means. So here's a good understanding of that. We set up to the golf ball so we're looking down the target line here. We're taking the club back on a nice arc and then coming down the right arc, getting stuck in place, the club dropping too far behind you, your upper body getting too far in front of the hands, and then the hands having to play catch up through the impact area. And that relies very, very heavily on timing, and if you're timing isn’t good, your hands don’t control the clubface, you can have a big 2-way miss. You can hit it way right, way left from this bad position. So again that’s up to the top, club dropping behind you, getting out of sync with your shoulders, and then hitting big blocks, or flicking your hands and hitting big hooks.

And here's a good demonstration of how to stop that getting stuck sensation. From the top of the back swing, where you've worked everything you nicely to a good position, you've now got to unwind everything in the correct way as well. When really, to get the club unwound from here, we don’t want to start with the shoulders because the club will stay too far behind your body, get stuck, and then need to flick. What we'd like to do from the top position here, you start with the hips a little bit more, so my shoulder stay where they are, my hips move back to target a little better, and with that, drop the hands in. So the hands are going to move down, and the hips across before the shoulders unwind. Now my hands are nicely in front of my chest, I can turn my chest while my hands stay in front of my body, not behind my body, not getting stuck. So I look at it again from down the line, up to the top, pull the hands in from of the chest, so my hands have come down, my hips have come across, but I haven't overly rotated my shoulders so it’s not there with the shoulders, it’s there. Now when I turn my shoulders, my hands aren't stuck, everything comes down in front of my body. So it’s more of an issue of synchronization, just making sure that your hands can stay in front of your chest, not getting stuck behind the chest.

And then once I've got them down to a good position, nicely synchronized in front of my chest, I can turn through and they stay in front of my chest. Well, if they had been stuck behind, flipped in front, and everything just looks a bit awkward, my timing can be off, I can either have great days or I can have bad days. And we all know that’s Tiger's approach, he either shoots 62 or blows up, loses a couple of balls, and knocked one into the mid-70s. So it's to the top, shift the hips not the shoulders, pull everything down in front of your body, turn it through, don’t get stuck, play better golf.

2013-01-16

Now if you ask most golfers, name a famous golfer, top of the list, Tiger Woods. It always comes out the top of the list for most people's favorite golfer list or famous golfer list. But also Tiger Woods got one of the most famous of the swing flaws and swing faults. We all know that Tiger's pretty capable of hitting the ball all over the golf course when he's not having a good day; he's not timing it well. And that comes from one particular flaw, and his flaw is he sometimes gets stuck on his downswing. You might have heard that said by the announcers, commentators on TV, and not really ever understood what getting stuck actually means. So here's a good understanding of that.
We set up to the golf ball so we're looking down the target line here. We're taking the club back on a nice arc and then coming down the right arc, getting stuck in place, the club dropping too far behind you, your upper body getting too far in front of the hands, and then the hands having to play catch up through the impact area. And that relies very, very heavily on timing, and if you're timing isn’t good, your hands don’t control the clubface, you can have a big 2-way miss. You can hit it way right, way left from this bad position. So again that’s up to the top, club dropping behind you, getting out of sync with your shoulders, and then hitting big blocks, or flicking your hands and hitting big hooks.

And here's a good demonstration of how to stop that getting stuck sensation. From the top of the back swing, where you've worked everything you nicely to a good position, you've now got to unwind everything in the correct way as well. When really, to get the club unwound from here, we don’t want to start with the shoulders because the club will stay too far behind your body, get stuck, and then need to flick. What we'd like to do from the top position here, you start with the hips a little bit more, so my shoulder stay where they are, my hips move back to target a little better, and with that, drop the hands in. So the hands are going to move down, and the hips across before the shoulders unwind. Now my hands are nicely in front of my chest, I can turn my chest while my hands stay in front of my body, not behind my body, not getting stuck. So I look at it again from down the line, up to the top, pull the hands in from of the chest, so my hands have come down, my hips have come across, but I haven't overly rotated my shoulders so it’s not there with the shoulders, it’s there. Now when I turn my shoulders, my hands aren't stuck, everything comes down in front of my body. So it’s more of an issue of synchronization, just making sure that your hands can stay in front of your chest, not getting stuck behind the chest.

And then once I've got them down to a good position, nicely synchronized in front of my chest, I can turn through and they stay in front of my chest. Well, if they had been stuck behind, flipped in front, and everything just looks a bit awkward, my timing can be off, I can either have great days or I can have bad days. And we all know that’s Tiger's approach, he either shoots 62 or blows up, loses a couple of balls, and knocked one into the mid-70s. So it's to the top, shift the hips not the shoulders, pull everything down in front of your body, turn it through, don’t get stuck, play better golf.