Johnny Miller Golf, What Is The Nine Ball Test Drill (Video) - by Peter Finch
Johnny Miller Golf, What Is The Nine Ball Test Drill (Video) - by Peter Finch

What is the nine ball test and can it help me improve? Now the nine ball test was devised by Johnny Miller it’s just a way that you can actually start to shape the golf ball and you can actually get a lot more feeling in the hands and a lot more kind of notion of where your swing path is and how the club face relates to different swing paths as well. Now the nine ball drill is just to basically take you through the whole kind of range of shots that you can hit, so from a straight shot, a fade, a draw, a push, a pull a pull hook a push slice a hook and a slice all the different kind of variations of shots that you can hit you can do within a nine ball drill. And basically what you need to do you need a nine ball so a driving range on a relatively calm day because it is a big kind of cross swing blow in a cross it will kind of start to affect the results. So if you’ve got a nice calm day it is a little better.

But you just work through the different shots and make sure that you hit and try and hit a different shot each time now. We are going to try and talk you through this as we go. Now the first shot that we’re going to start to hit is a straight shot, so for a straight shot we need a slightly inside path to square to slide the inside with the club face square to the target line of impact now with this I’m going to setup parallel to my target line and try and hit a nice straight shot. Now the second shot I’m going to hit is a fade, now with the fade I’m going to start to open my stance and my shoulder slightly cut slightly from out to in across the target line, keep the club face open to my path but still slightly close to my target line and if I can do that I’ll produce a fade. Now from that I’m going to switch rather to a draw which is the opposite, which is my feet and my shoulder slightly are close to the target line the club moving in just keeping the club face slightly close to my path but slightly open to my target line and that’s going to produce a little bit of a draw. Now from there we start to move on to some of the shots that you don’t actually generally want to see mainly a slice and a hook. Now with the slices and over exaggeration of the fade so I’m more open with my feet, more open with my body, but rather than keeping the club open to my path and slightly close to my target line, I’m going to keep the club face open to my path but also open to my target line and that’s going to produce a lot of movement on the ball and a big, big slice down the driver range. I’m using seven nine here maybe you can use kind of any club that you want, now it’s the same as the opposite with a hook so I’m moving my body more close and I’m closing my club face to both the path and the target line then it should start out to the right and have a massive right to left movement on it mirroring the slice on the other side. Again also a movement there through the air and these all have been pretty successful so far which I’m pleased about. Now I’m going to move on to a couple of the tougher shots here which is mainly a push and a pull. Now the push and the pull with the push especially make sure that the club is traveling slightly into out and now that club face is square to the path. And if that club face is square to the path the ball is going fly off to the right hand side and stay nice and straight, it’s not actually going to have much movements at all. I’m going to try and do this with a square stance; you can do this with a slightly kind of closed stance to make it a little bit easier but I’m going to try and do with a square stance just to try and get the feeling. Not too bad I’m going to do the same on the opposite side with a pull which is slightly out to in with the club face square to that path as well, not too bad. Now the last two are exaggerations of those two mainly a pull hook and a push slice. Now with the pull hook again is that path moving from out to in where we’re still getting the club face close to that path. So this ball is going to start off to the left hand side and its going to move more to the left hand side through the air and its exactly opposite with the push slice coming very much from the inside but keeping the club face open to that path. Now if you can go through those nine different shots and hit those nine different shapes when you get out to the course and you're faced with the shot, say that very last one a push slice where you need to move a long away from left to right in the air so you are over some trees or over a dog leg you can remember what it was like on the driving range recall it and go that’s the shot that I need to hit. And it’s the same with a little draw a little fade anything that you need to hit, if you practice this nine ball drill also most of times on the driving range when you get out onto that course hopefully if you face with one of those shots you can adjust the path, adjust the face angle and hit any shape that you want. [playerProfile url="https://golf-info-guide.com/pga-players/johnny-miller/"][/playerProfile] 2014-11-17

What is the nine ball test and can it help me improve? Now the nine ball test was devised by Johnny Miller it’s just a way that you can actually start to shape the golf ball and you can actually get a lot more feeling in the hands and a lot more kind of notion of where your swing path is and how the club face relates to different swing paths as well. Now the nine ball drill is just to basically take you through the whole kind of range of shots that you can hit, so from a straight shot, a fade, a draw, a push, a pull a pull hook a push slice a hook and a slice all the different kind of variations of shots that you can hit you can do within a nine ball drill. And basically what you need to do you need a nine ball so a driving range on a relatively calm day because it is a big kind of cross swing blow in a cross it will kind of start to affect the results. So if you’ve got a nice calm day it is a little better.

But you just work through the different shots and make sure that you hit and try and hit a different shot each time now. We are going to try and talk you through this as we go. Now the first shot that we’re going to start to hit is a straight shot, so for a straight shot we need a slightly inside path to square to slide the inside with the club face square to the target line of impact now with this I’m going to setup parallel to my target line and try and hit a nice straight shot. Now the second shot I’m going to hit is a fade, now with the fade I’m going to start to open my stance and my shoulder slightly cut slightly from out to in across the target line, keep the club face open to my path but still slightly close to my target line and if I can do that I’ll produce a fade.

Now from that I’m going to switch rather to a draw which is the opposite, which is my feet and my shoulder slightly are close to the target line the club moving in just keeping the club face slightly close to my path but slightly open to my target line and that’s going to produce a little bit of a draw. Now from there we start to move on to some of the shots that you don’t actually generally want to see mainly a slice and a hook. Now with the slices and over exaggeration of the fade so I’m more open with my feet, more open with my body, but rather than keeping the club open to my path and slightly close to my target line, I’m going to keep the club face open to my path but also open to my target line and that’s going to produce a lot of movement on the ball and a big, big slice down the driver range.

I’m using seven nine here maybe you can use kind of any club that you want, now it’s the same as the opposite with a hook so I’m moving my body more close and I’m closing my club face to both the path and the target line then it should start out to the right and have a massive right to left movement on it mirroring the slice on the other side. Again also a movement there through the air and these all have been pretty successful so far which I’m pleased about. Now I’m going to move on to a couple of the tougher shots here which is mainly a push and a pull. Now the push and the pull with the push especially make sure that the club is traveling slightly into out and now that club face is square to the path. And if that club face is square to the path the ball is going fly off to the right hand side and stay nice and straight, it’s not actually going to have much movements at all.

I’m going to try and do this with a square stance; you can do this with a slightly kind of closed stance to make it a little bit easier but I’m going to try and do with a square stance just to try and get the feeling. Not too bad I’m going to do the same on the opposite side with a pull which is slightly out to in with the club face square to that path as well, not too bad. Now the last two are exaggerations of those two mainly a pull hook and a push slice. Now with the pull hook again is that path moving from out to in where we’re still getting the club face close to that path. So this ball is going to start off to the left hand side and its going to move more to the left hand side through the air and its exactly opposite with the push slice coming very much from the inside but keeping the club face open to that path.

Now if you can go through those nine different shots and hit those nine different shapes when you get out to the course and you're faced with the shot, say that very last one a push slice where you need to move a long away from left to right in the air so you are over some trees or over a dog leg you can remember what it was like on the driving range recall it and go that’s the shot that I need to hit. And it’s the same with a little draw a little fade anything that you need to hit, if you practice this nine ball drill also most of times on the driving range when you get out onto that course hopefully if you face with one of those shots you can adjust the path, adjust the face angle and hit any shape that you want.

Player Profile