Break The Chain – Stop Pushing Immediately

By | on January 10, 2013 | 16 Comments | Array


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Paul Wilson is the creator of Swing Machine Golf and founder of Ignition Golf. Paul's golf swing technique is based on the Iron Byron swing machine. YouTube Channels: Paul Wilson Golf and Ignition Golf Tips. Please Join me on Google+

16 Responses to “Break The Chain – Stop Pushing Immediately”

  1. January 10, 2013

    RonCalabrese

    Hi Paul. For many years, I’ve noticed that some of my longest drives occur when my down swing gets well ahead of my arms, and the “trapped” situation pushes the shot way right, but surprisingly far. After studying your methods, my guess is these pushed shots were closer to the correct technique, with more relaxed arms, and a faster hip rotation to the ball. If so, correcting the timing so the arms are synchronized with the down swing rotation, should yield longer straight shots. Would you agree?

    Thanks, Ron.

    • January 11, 2013

      Paul Wilson

      Ron,

      The pushes are indicating you are driving the lower body hard which is a good thing but you are becoming disconnected under the left armpit in the downswing. This is causing the pushed shots. Keep driving hard like that (within reason) but work on staying a little more connected.

      Watch:

      Connection: https://ignitiongolf.com/drill-head-cover-armpit

  2. January 11, 2013

    BryanRhoades

    Hey Paul…due to work and weather I hadn’t been to the range or course in about 3 weeks. When I tried to hit driver today I had completely lost it and I was flabbergasted (given how much I improved over last year). My drivers were ugly pulls with very poor trajectory that went out about 100 yds….pulled left and just nosedived. Man they looked gawd awful. Help please 🙂

    • January 11, 2013

      Paul Wilson

      Bryan,

      Anytime you take a break you will always start off by hitting with your arms when you come back to it. This is evident by the pulls. First, you should have been doing practice swings at home at night so you did not lose your swing. Next, anytime this happens just do the roll over drill a few times just to get your wrists unlocked and the club releasing. Then hold the club in the air at about knee high and start doing practice swings off the ground. This will get you feeling the legs and hips again powering the swing. Once you get the feeling you then try to hit a ball. Once you do, watch it. If the ball goes left you need more legs. If you blow it right you need to roll it more.

      Start off at about 50% speed then gradually speed up only the leg drive for more power. I think you started at top speed trying to replicate how you were hitting it previously and got the arms activated.

      Give this a try and if you still have a problem let me know what the ball is doing.

      Also, start doing the practice swings tonight.

      • January 12, 2013

        BryanRhoades

        Fantastic reminders…it’s so easy to think you’ve finally got it (and you quit practicing your swings at home). This was a stark reminder that those arms can be a tough habit to get rid of. Thanks for the help!!

        • January 14, 2013

          Paul Wilson

          Bryan,

          Never say you’ve got it. Have you ever heard Tiger say this even when he blew away the filed by 10 shots. No. Even then he said he could have hit it better.

  3. January 11, 2013

    JoseCarceller

    I completely agree with Ron. After starting with your method, there is a huge improvement in distance but a new type of error: the push. I’m trying to fix it with an instruction tip that you posted couple of weeks (maybe months) ago where you recommend to slow the hip rotation until mastering the timing of it.
    With this tip I wonder if the pushes come from having too much tilt or because of turning too fast. Which one do you believe is the most probable one? Unfortunately I’m not able to record my swing and see it, but I’m almost sure that I’m not that tilted and the flaw is produced by turning too fast. Does it make sense?

    • January 11, 2013

      Paul Wilson

      Jose,

      You may be tilting to much right as well. I would think you are disconnecting under the left armpit. Just do the rollover drill for a few minutes and get the ball hooking. Once you can do this start to feel the legs again to straighten it out. By rolling it, you will speed up the arms which will connect them to the body. Give it a try.

  4. February 20, 2013

    WadeThames

    Paul,
    I am making good progress but I think I am at the point were things get worst before they get better. I am fight a push or a push fade. I practice swinging by my patio window almost most everyday and go to the range two or three time a week.

    I notice recently my hips feeling loser after I work on my swing a bit. Several times my hips were a bit sore so I stop swinging for a day or two days and was OK. I am thinking the soreness is a good thing!

    Now I notice my hips move very easy and when I walk my stride is longer. Anyway I went to the range two or three times with my driver and I am fight a push or a push fade. Most of the time the ball goes somewhat to the right and a little less than 200 yards and the goes even more right about 10 or 20 yards. I thought it was my grip so tried to close the face bit but it was doing the same thing just bit more left.

    I had my speed radar on the last time and I have seen an increase in swing speed. I was normally in the low 90’s (mph) with my driver. I usually start out 88 or 89 and averaging 93 with peaks of 96 mph. This last visit to the range I was starting at 96 or 97 mph averaging about 102 mph. I had some weird spikes of 121 and 136 mph several times in a row but I am not sure if this was glitch by the radar. Those shots did not go a far as expected because they were pushed.

    It also seems like my over all tempo has quicken a bit and may not be in sync. (SRTT used to read approximately 1.2 most of the time now it is approximately .9 the last few weeks.

    Please advise and thanks!

    • February 20, 2013

      Paul Wilson

      Wade,

      If you are pushing or push fading the face is open. If you have not really done this before it is ocurring because you are driving your legs too hard when you swing. To remedy this you can slow down or you can manually roll the wrists and get the ball hooking. Once you hook a bunch of shots you forget the rolling wrists and focus back on driving the lower body to straighten it back out.

      Watch:

      Manually Square the Clubface: https://ignitiongolf.com/impact-squaring-clubface

      Manually Square the Clubface (Follow Up): https://ignitiongolf.com/impact-squaring-face-follow-up

      The soreness is a good thing but this is proof you are driving them a lot harder than you are used to. Again, gradually increase this speed and be careful not to drive them too hard until you are good at it.

      Those weird spikes with the SSR are miss reads. Just ignore them.

      I like the 1.2 tempo. Slow down the backswing. This will keep your arms relaxed and get you over 1 second.

  5. February 22, 2013

    WadeThames

    Paul,
    OK, I slowed down a bit and paid more attention to the rotation, follow thru and generally staying loose. I hit a lot of very good shots and some bad ones but most the bad ones were hooks. I had a few push fades toward the end but I knew my concentration was going and it was time to stop. In general the ball striking was much better and I had many straight shots.

    My tempo and swing speed average was about 1.1 at about 96 mph. Right now I happy with that and I hope to repeat this to develop some consistency and improve slowly. Thanks!

    • February 22, 2013

      Paul Wilson

      Wade,

      That’s great news. I like the fact that the bad ones were mostly hooks. This is telling you that you are releasing the club well. You just need to initiate the downswing with the legs (but not too hard). If you do you will be hitting it dead straight. It’s about timing now.

  6. Hi Paul ,
    I have been using your online tips for several months and my friends have noticed an overall improvement in all aspects of my game , particularly my short game
    I am currently 24 handicap and regularly recently play to about 16-18 which is a big improvement .
    I still have some very annoying issues in my game however
    1/ blocking or pushing my drives ( sometimes irons )particularly when I attempt a full swing my 3/4 swing is usually online and in play ( these wayward shots can occur 4-5 times or more and ruin a score )

    2/ I am inconsistent with fairway / hybrid shots , I can top 1/3 of these shots
    3/ Finally a horrible shank can appear out of nowhere on short pitch shots a couple of times in a round
    In summary I feel your advice is great but what do you think I should continue to focus on in terms of cures , practice and drills ,Thanks for any assistance
    Richard

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