Jim McLean Golf Teacher - Driving golfers through the corridors of success, (Video) - by Pete Styles
Jim McLean Golf Teacher - Driving golfers through the corridors of success, (Video) - by Pete Styles

If you look at a golf coach called Jim McLean, a lot of people would accuse McLean of having maybe a theory and a rigid system to adhere to. He denies that. He says, “You can say what you like.” His teaching is successful, whatever you would call it.

Now, in the backswing, McLean likes to see a big X factor. He actually calling the expression X factor, he’s not going to use throughout the world of golf teaching where we’re turning the upper body as much as we possibly can and resisting the lower body. We can measure that angle.

So, whatever the shoulders do this way, we try and resist with the hips this way. If you can create a bigger shoulder turn without letting your hips follow, the bigger the X factor or the X angle there, the more power for the more turn through, generating more distance on your shots. If you’re struggling with distance, consider Jim McLean’s teaching of creating a bigger X angle to then hit through the golf ball.

Another really nice tip that I like and I use of Jim McLean’s is what he calls the slap release. He’s setting up to the golf ball here. We know that a lot of golfers struggle to get release through the golf ball. McLean likes this idea of taking the right hand for the right-handed golfer back. Leave the left hand where it is. Then bring the right hand down, slap the left hand. Let the left hand just roll over. The importance is that the left hand does roll over. The budge on the glove comes down to the floor, knuckles point down, palm points up.

So, from this angle, right hand comes back, left hand comes through. The left hand does not go up to the sky this way. This would cause the golf club face that hasn’t released, to probably going to slice down the right hand side. It’s right hand back, left hand over.

If you can practice that over and over again, you’ll feel how that left hand wants to consistently release. The hope then is that when you take your normal grip stance and set up release the left hand over, it gets through to that same position that Jim McLean talks about. Releasing the left hand over, releasing the club head over, stop slicing the ball, and stop drawing the golf ball.

 2013-01-21

If you look at a golf coach called Jim McLean, a lot of people would accuse McLean of having maybe a theory and a rigid system to adhere to. He denies that. He says, “You can say what you like.” His teaching is successful, whatever you would call it.

Now, in the backswing, McLean likes to see a big X factor. He actually calling the expression X factor, he’s not going to use throughout the world of golf teaching where we’re turning the upper body as much as we possibly can and resisting the lower body. We can measure that angle.

So, whatever the shoulders do this way, we try and resist with the hips this way. If you can create a bigger shoulder turn without letting your hips follow, the bigger the X factor or the X angle there, the more power for the more turn through, generating more distance on your shots. If you’re struggling with distance, consider Jim McLean’s teaching of creating a bigger X angle to then hit through the golf ball.

Another really nice tip that I like and I use of Jim McLean’s is what he calls the slap release. He’s setting up to the golf ball here. We know that a lot of golfers struggle to get release through the golf ball. McLean likes this idea of taking the right hand for the right-handed golfer back. Leave the left hand where it is. Then bring the right hand down, slap the left hand. Let the left hand just roll over. The importance is that the left hand does roll over. The budge on the glove comes down to the floor, knuckles point down, palm points up.

So, from this angle, right hand comes back, left hand comes through. The left hand does not go up to the sky this way. This would cause the golf club face that hasn’t released, to probably going to slice down the right hand side. It’s right hand back, left hand over.

If you can practice that over and over again, you’ll feel how that left hand wants to consistently release. The hope then is that when you take your normal grip stance and set up release the left hand over, it gets through to that same position that Jim McLean talks about. Releasing the left hand over, releasing the club head over, stop slicing the ball, and stop drawing the golf ball.