Shallow Swing - Lesson by PGA Pros Pete Styles & Matt Fryer
Shallow Swing - Lesson by PGA Pros Pete Styles & Matt Fryer

In this video tip PGA golf professionals Pete Styles and Matt Fryer will talk you through the fundamentals of how to take a low and slow takeaway with your driver. This should encourage a wider and slower golf swing turn which coupled with a drop inside at the top of the down swing should allow a shallower swing direction. If a golfer is also able to hold their back to the target for longer in the transition phase this should also promote a shallower swing to happen and therefore longer straight at golf drives will be the result.

So with the driver one of the moves that we can make in the downswing is that we shallow the shaft out in the downswing to enable us to hit back to a solid longer drive Pete and I think it's one of the things that's quite sought after at the moment. We hear a lot about shallowing the golf club out so what is shallowing the golf ball and how are we going to do it? Well I think we hear a lot about shallowing the club out because a lot of people don't do it. So a lot of people it's pertinent that in a game they should. The classic thing in the address position we might be setting up the ball quite nicely lifting the golf club back on a good plane angle to the top and then a general steepening of the shaft coming down where the golf club is now much more vertical which is going to lead me into an over the top position. Which is for the right handed a golfer is out to in with the swing path pulling the ball down the left side or slicing it down the right side, and because of this is the main problem this shallowing that you talk of this idea of showing the got good behind us is quite pertinent to a lot of golfers. Excellent so if we were going to shallow the shaft if we just we looked at the top of the back swing it up for me it's something now where it comes down here a little bit more you what you're saying. Absolutely we want to see that the angle that the club came up on is one angle let me sort of pointing down at the golf ball would be a good feeling and the concept of shallowing the shaft is actually to drop it behind that plane. We sometimes talk about dropping the club onto the shallower plane rather than picking the club upon that steeper position. OK so if we were going to do that if you could give us say 3 ways to do it what would your first tip be to shallow that shaft on the way down?

I think my first feeling from here is that I don't want to use my shoulders in a rotational sense. OK which you get steeper straight away there? Absolutely we see so many golfers at the top and I swing they are keen to hit that ball the front shoulder for me my left shoulder rotates open and out of the way and I come over the top too much and that's going to cause me some problems. So looking at this camera here from the from the front on I want to feel like I get to the top and I hold my shoulders and start my downswing but I'm still back to target. So if we crystallize that it would be to hold your back to the target for a longer. OK so your not spinning out as you go down. The second point something that I noticed you were doing we doing something with your trail elbow it looked like it might be moving a little bit more down into your side as you were coming in would that be something you'd feel you would do. Absolutely I think it's a conscious point to me is that my my right arm as a right handed golfer my trial elbow as you rightly say. That drops in behind me it doesn't drop down towards a golf ball it doesn't come forward here which is a classic mistake of getting steepen out in front. We drop the trail elbow almost into the right hip pocket it almost feels like it comes in behind you into that pocket at the back of your trousers dropping that elbow in unison with not turning no shoulder that gets the club into a nice position. Excellent an I can see we are on a good route to shallowing out there already and if you could give us on third tip Pete what would it be just to tie all of this together. I think we just got to make sure that the thumbs don't ruin the party. So we gets the thumbs that we really want to go thumbs sideways so we don't go to the top drop the elbow keep the shoulder still point the thumbs at the sky. If the thumbs point at the sky the shaft goes vertical looks like you're trying to get a good T.V. signal up here somewhere.

We don't want that we want that shaft to drop in and shallow behind it so without the club we can take it to the top and point the thumbs down behind us straightaway these thumbs shallow the shaft bring the club on the inside and then allow us to release. Excellent so the moment of truth can we get a shallow shaft on the way down? You want one? Well what ball flight you expect in here? If you're going to shallow it we're going to think we're going to get a bit more of a draw knowing that one of them getting steep we're seeing more of the slice or a pulled one would expect to see more of a right to left thing slightly right to the target in coming back. Your not asking to much then there are you. You wanted a draw you got a draw. Fantastic golf shot there so to summarize that all we've got 3 points we're looking for we're looking that we keep our back to the target as we start our downswing we're looking that we get our trail elbow going back into our right hip pocket or trail hip pocket and also we're getting our thumbs pointing at sideways now as opposed to pointing upwards to the sky. Hopefully if you do this you will start to see that you shallow your driver shaft out and start hitting better drives.

2018-11-13

In this video tip PGA golf professionals Pete Styles and Matt Fryer will talk you through the fundamentals of how to take a low and slow takeaway with your driver. This should encourage a wider and slower golf swing turn which coupled with a drop inside at the top of the down swing should allow a shallower swing direction. If a golfer is also able to hold their back to the target for longer in the transition phase this should also promote a shallower swing to happen and therefore longer straight at golf drives will be the result.

So with the driver one of the moves that we can make in the downswing is that we shallow the shaft out in the downswing to enable us to hit back to a solid longer drive Pete and I think it's one of the things that's quite sought after at the moment. We hear a lot about shallowing the golf club out so what is shallowing the golf ball and how are we going to do it? Well I think we hear a lot about shallowing the club out because a lot of people don't do it. So a lot of people it's pertinent that in a game they should. The classic thing in the address position we might be setting up the ball quite nicely lifting the golf club back on a good plane angle to the top and then a general steepening of the shaft coming down where the golf club is now much more vertical which is going to lead me into an over the top position. Which is for the right handed a golfer is out to in with the swing path pulling the ball down the left side or slicing it down the right side, and because of this is the main problem this shallowing that you talk of this idea of showing the got good behind us is quite pertinent to a lot of golfers. Excellent so if we were going to shallow the shaft if we just we looked at the top of the back swing it up for me it's something now where it comes down here a little bit more you what you're saying. Absolutely we want to see that the angle that the club came up on is one angle let me sort of pointing down at the golf ball would be a good feeling and the concept of shallowing the shaft is actually to drop it behind that plane. We sometimes talk about dropping the club onto the shallower plane rather than picking the club upon that steeper position. OK so if we were going to do that if you could give us say 3 ways to do it what would your first tip be to shallow that shaft on the way down?

I think my first feeling from here is that I don't want to use my shoulders in a rotational sense. OK which you get steeper straight away there? Absolutely we see so many golfers at the top and I swing they are keen to hit that ball the front shoulder for me my left shoulder rotates open and out of the way and I come over the top too much and that's going to cause me some problems. So looking at this camera here from the from the front on I want to feel like I get to the top and I hold my shoulders and start my downswing but I'm still back to target. So if we crystallize that it would be to hold your back to the target for a longer. OK so your not spinning out as you go down. The second point something that I noticed you were doing we doing something with your trail elbow it looked like it might be moving a little bit more down into your side as you were coming in would that be something you'd feel you would do. Absolutely I think it's a conscious point to me is that my my right arm as a right handed golfer my trial elbow as you rightly say. That drops in behind me it doesn't drop down towards a golf ball it doesn't come forward here which is a classic mistake of getting steepen out in front. We drop the trail elbow almost into the right hip pocket it almost feels like it comes in behind you into that pocket at the back of your trousers dropping that elbow in unison with not turning no shoulder that gets the club into a nice position. Excellent an I can see we are on a good route to shallowing out there already and if you could give us on third tip Pete what would it be just to tie all of this together. I think we just got to make sure that the thumbs don't ruin the party. So we gets the thumbs that we really want to go thumbs sideways so we don't go to the top drop the elbow keep the shoulder still point the thumbs at the sky. If the thumbs point at the sky the shaft goes vertical looks like you're trying to get a good T.V. signal up here somewhere.

We don't want that we want that shaft to drop in and shallow behind it so without the club we can take it to the top and point the thumbs down behind us straightaway these thumbs shallow the shaft bring the club on the inside and then allow us to release. Excellent so the moment of truth can we get a shallow shaft on the way down? You want one? Well what ball flight you expect in here? If you're going to shallow it we're going to think we're going to get a bit more of a draw knowing that one of them getting steep we're seeing more of the slice or a pulled one would expect to see more of a right to left thing slightly right to the target in coming back. Your not asking to much then there are you. You wanted a draw you got a draw. Fantastic golf shot there so to summarize that all we've got 3 points we're looking for we're looking that we keep our back to the target as we start our downswing we're looking that we get our trail elbow going back into our right hip pocket or trail hip pocket and also we're getting our thumbs pointing at sideways now as opposed to pointing upwards to the sky. Hopefully if you do this you will start to see that you shallow your driver shaft out and start hitting better drives.