Do you sometimes struggle doing your swing? Problems with consistency? It might be caused by imperfections in your swing movement and posture. These 3 simple drills will help you make efforstless consistent swings and increase your flexibility.

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Top of Golf Swing Drill #1 

This simple drill will show you if your shoulders are turning correctly through to the completion of the backswing. A nice, full shoulder turn will help you to generate power. What this drill can also highlight is the action of your legs…

Golfers that lack flexibility, particularly in their lower and upper backs, struggle to turn their shoulders to 90 degrees. To compensate (so they can still like they’re getting a full turn), they allow too much hip turn and/or a lot of knee action.  But as you can see in this video, a lot of hip rotation and knee action during the back swing results in a huge loss of power and tremendous instability for the downswing.  Try the drill below and if you find that either your shoulders aren’t turning close to 90 degrees, or they are but with the help of a lots of hip turn and leg action, consider seeing the golf flexibility section of site.

• Take your normal set up and then place a club across your shoulders so that the butt end of the club points towards your intended target.
• Now start to make your normal backswing. Feel your shoulders reach a 90 degree turn. This now points the butt end of the club towards the ball.
• Your hips should turn by less than 20 degrees and your legs should remain stable. A weight shift should take place allowing for 60 percent of your body weight to move in to the instep of your right foot. Too much leg action will cause instability and a poor weight transfer.

Top of Golf Swing Drill #2

This second drill is more of a checkpoint to help you to assess your swing plane and path during the backswing. It’s a great way to make sure you’re not swinging the club on too flat a plane or too steep a plane.

If you’re in too flat or too steep a position at the top, you’ll have to work hard during the downswing to deliver the club correctly into the ball. You’ll find it difficult to achieve any real consistency.

A good position on at the top on the other hand, gives you a much greater chance of producing a good downswing – which allows you to strike the ball solidly and towards your intended target.

Watch the short video here.

• Take a normal backswing and hold the position at the top.
• From this top position, allow the club to drop and notice where it lands.
• If it lands towards the edge of your shoulder bone, that tells you that you’re swinging the club on a nice plane and path up to the top of the backswing.
• If the club misses your shoulder all together as you let it drop, that tells you that you’re swinging the club on too flat a plane – too much around your body. The position of the club at the top is in what we call a ‘laid off’ position.
• If the club hits you towards the top of your right shoulder – near your neck – you are swinging the club on too steep a path.

Top of Golf Swing Drill #3

This drill will help you to achieve the correct position at the top of the backswing by focusing on your left thumb…

You may have heard golf coaches and players talk about being ‘across the line’ in golf…

This simply means that, for the right-handed golfer, the club is pointing to the right of the target at the top of the backswing (assuming you’re looking down-the-line, in the position the camera would be).

Ideally, we want the club to point straight down the line at your intended target at the top. From this position, it will be much easier to consistently control the path of your downswing and hence the accuracy of your shots.

Because you can’t see the club at the top, it’s difficult to know exactly where it’s pointing. A good way to gauge this is to focus on yout left thumb as this video.