Drills – Constantly Work On Your Legs

By | on September 6, 2018 | 36 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+

36 Responses to “Drills – Constantly Work On Your Legs”

  1. June 2, 2013

    Steven D

    Paul:
    The video looks great and only stalled once. I paused it for about 20 seconds and then it played the second half of the video without stalling. The tip is quite timely as well – I was at the range this morning and was thinking afterward how I should be doing the lower body rotation drills at home. Thanks.

  2. Hi Paul,
    This is the exact thing I was working on at the course today.
    I am hitting the ball pretty well but my misses are almost always
    left. I will hit two or three nices drives and then pull or smother one.
    Iron misses are to the left also but not as bad.
    Many thoughts ?

    Your tips have really helped my game.

    Brien

  3. This is such a wonderful way to practice!! We need that lower body movement and now I understand what is meant by fast, that a golfer must be fast to start the lower body because then it keeps rotating anyway. no need to keep going fast, but just fast the start. I can do that very well but thought it was not enough. Now I know I am doing it correctly. If it’s the hip I use then I move the right hip to the left as fast as I can. Please correct me if I am wrong. Thank you. Michelle

    • Michelle,

      Exactly the initial move needs to get ahead of the arms coming down. The lower body moves slower than the arms in life. If you are not trying to move them right away how are they going to move? You can use any trigger you want just so long as it gets the hips ahead of the arms/club. I thin you get it now.

  4. Paul, I also pull the ball in all my iron shots. I concentrate on using my body, but the ball still goes to the left. I can’t figure out whether I’m going over the top or not in these shots. If I weaken my grip, then the ball goes straight.

    • Ken,

      You are most likely shifting your weight immediately to the left. In doing so you are leaning left. Keep in mind it is your body tilt that is determining the direction. Tilt left and you will hit it left. So tilt right. This should be occurring when you fire the lower body but if you want to help it along then manually tilt right until you get used to it.

      Watch:

      Body Tilt

  5. The best exercise I know to improve the hip turn or lower body rotation is to train with a rubber band around your waist the loose part of the rubber band being fixed to closed Door .
    In n

    • Raymond,

      Glad you are seeing alternate uses for this device. I will be doing a tip on this shortly.

  6. Paul,

    I’m a beginner golfer and after a year of frustration and multiple golf lessons, I found your website a few months ago. I have learned so much here. After three months of practice at the range, I am finally starting to see results using your techniques. I have slowed my swing down significantly and can even pause at the top of the swing now. More importantly I am starting to feel an effortless swing. I finished reviewing the videos on proper weight shift. Lately, I have been working on hip rotation. I have reviewed all the appropriate videos, but this one really helped for hip rotation.

    Today, I tried something to help me get the proper feel of a good hip turn. I did the practice drills you recommended, then did some practice swings. Next, I lined up for my golf shot…and closed my eyes. I did the whole swing with my eyes closed. I didn’t open my eyes until I felt my knees touch and the club at the back of my head parallel to my ears. I noticed some interesting results. First, I can hit the ball about the same with my eyes closed. Second, I could tell where my ball was going before I opened my eyes because I could feel when my weight was shifting too soon or my hip rotation wasn’t correct. I could also feel my wrists releasing (or not). My swing became even more effortless and my confidence got a good boost as well. I kept my eyes closed for only a couple of swings, but the feedback to my brain was tremendous.

    It’s probably just a technique for me, but closing my eyes during the swing helped me feel a more correct hip rotation.

    Thanks again for all the great instruction on this site and in your book. I finally feel like I am taking positive steps to learn how to play golf.

    Joe

    • Joe,

      Glad you are learning a lot and slowing your swing down. I appreciate the feedback.

      Turning your arms off is whole new way to swing and you are seeing that it does work. You just have to keep doing it and keep getting used to it.

      Closing your eyes is a good way for some people to feel the right moves. If it is working for you keep doing it until you get used to the move.

  7. Hi Paul:

    These drills provided additional progress. Thanks!

    I enjoyed a breakthrough that extended far beyond the intended point of your drills. I have been struggling with the problem of being able to employ your methods in a practice swing but I struggled with allowing it to flow when a ball was present. This was producing exasperating inconsistency.

    Employing the drill in which you demonstrated firing the hips and legs at the top of the swing I inadvertently let the club head travel a bit further and saw that it returned naturally to the point of address. I repeated this partial swing a number of times and was amazed by the repeatability. I put a ball in place and tried the drill only to the point of contact and each time the hits were on target and with distance was surprising given the abbreviated swing. My confidence in the swing received a huge boost.

    There is an obvious danger to this if repeated too much – placing emphasis on point of contact – however, it made a huge impact on my mindset – namely: I don’t need to control the contact – apply the technique and that will happen on its own. Suddenly, my swings with a ball in place are far more like my practice swings. This has helped me break through what has been a very frustrating plateau.

    Thanks!

    • Bruce,

      Glad you are getting it. As I keep saying, forget impact. You should be thinking of swinging through to the follow through positions. Whatever you did got you to forget impact. Now you that you know you should be swinging through it never, ever go back to thinking of hitting.

  8. January 23, 2016

    RYDGJR

    I like all these drills and, except for the “favorite drill”, they can easily be done inside with limited space with no fear of taking out a ceiling fan or worse. Very good drills to work on when the weather keeps makes it difficult to be outside.

    • January 24, 2016

      Paul Wilson

      Gary,

      Pick up a short club and do swing that way. You can get one at any golf store. Just go to the kids section. Where there’s a will there’s a way.

  9. January 24, 2016

    michaelkonowitz

    The faster the hip turn = the faster the club head speed= the greater the distance for the same club—correct? But I have been equating the faster hip turn with the faster weight transfer. This is wrong—right?

    • January 24, 2016

      Paul Wilson

      Michael,

      Distance can be affected by many factors but in simple terms yes if the wrists are loose. The lower body action is a turn and shift. If you are just thinking shift you are not thinking turn. If you get to my touch the legs position you would shift on your own without thinking about it. This is why I want people thinking turn. If you are thinking shift and sliding too much you will not gain more power and you will hit pushes and push fades. So think about doing my touch the legs position. Then think about doing it faster.

      Power: How I Got Power In My Swing: https://ignitiongolf.com/power-dig-foot-in/

      Exactly How To Do Touch The Legs Position: https://ignitiongolf.com/how-to-touch-the-legs-position/

  10. Avatar photo

    January 24, 2016

    Bri

    Joe’s comment on closing his eyes while practicing the, hip turn first move, at the top, turned out to be a good one for me. (I don’t do this with a ball though.) Just taking the eyes out of the equation, somehow makes feeling and concentrating on the move more intense. I feel it more. The open eyes appear to be taking away from the feeling, for a practice drill. Too much stimuli, for practice anyway,

  11. January 24, 2016

    Tom

    Please tell me what I should be checking. Assuming that my leg drive is proper as well as my posture, grip and alignment, when I try and work the legs hard and fast it “feels” as if my right shoulder is pulled forward (toward the ball) by the increased centrifugal force. My swing path appears to drift to the outside and it “feels” that the club head is making contact not at the back or inside of the ball but more towards the outside. If I release the club the tendency is to close the face resulting in a duck hook or a pull. If I don’t, its a pull fade.

    Again, even though my arms “feel” powerless the right shoulder on occasion “feels” ill-timed as if it is spinning to the left of my target line (across the line) before reaching the impact zone.

    Top teaching professionals have suggested that I keep the right shoulder “in” or back as long as possible as opposed to opening it up during the down swing, but the turning of the lower body on the down swing while trying to keep my right shoulder from flying out really puts the strain on the back from the increased resistance and torque created by the legs.

    I just don’t know what I should concentrate on so as to limit the unpleasant feeling of this shoulder “coming over the top” and the ball starting left when leg drive is increased. Frustration is mounting. Thanks for any help you may offer.

    Sincerely, Tom White

  12. January 25, 2016

    olivierteissier

    Hello Paul,

    First thank you for all the videos.
    I have got a question about the triggers for starting the downswing. When i use the straitgthening of the left it was fantastic . But if you want to increase the speed of your hips rotation do you have to straitghten the leg
    quickly or do you have to turn yours hips. Is the straigthening of the leg is just a trigger and then you have to turn your hips consciously .
    Thanks and sorry for my bad english.

  13. January 25, 2016

    BruceJespersen

    I also have some pain issues trying to keep the head behind the ball at impact. However, my pain is front and back on my left leg right above where the femur (leg) joins the hip. Not sure if I have a slight slide or trying to rotate the waist to high rather than circular. Ball flight seems to be a slight pull hook. Then I started powering the legs and hips more which did straighten the ball flight out but the pain has developed a lot in the hip area do you have any thoughts or suggestions

  14. February 7, 2016

    KenJohnson

    HI Paul
    Had my first round since starting with the method… disaster! Came back to this when I got home and will still keep trying as it makes pure sense. In my old way of playing I had to break the wrists early for the set and I think this is the problem as I am still trying to do this (even if only subconsciously)… have gone over and over again and hope I have worked out what to do so am asking this… so far as I cam work out with your method you do not set the wrists at all and the just set naturally with the momentum of going back? am I correct??

  15. Still working on speeding up the hip turn. Your tips are spot on. Hitting the ball well, but distance not coming on driver as much as irons.

    Oh, when I measure using radar gizmo, can I get an accurate reading swinging off the ground without a ball doing “your favorite drill”?

    Thanks!
    John

  16. September 6, 2018

    JamesGoodson

    Great tips. These drills help 100%. Im am so much more accurate with irons and driver when I activate the hips and legs vs using the arms. Love it

    • Avatar photo

      September 7, 2018

      Paul Wilson

      James,

      Good stuff. Keep feeling the legs and hips. This is the power source to the swing.

  17. September 6, 2018

    EricMatthews

    Hi Paul,

    This is an excellent tip. One I have watched many times. About a month ago I actually started to really put this into practice (along with a great tip on lag from Christina Ricci). For the first time in my 5 year golf odyssey I truly understand what the release is all about.

    Since I now swing with truly powerless arms (as opposed to some degree of powerless arms) I am hitting my drives 230 to 250 carry. Not bad for a 60 year old man. I am swinging the club about 99 to 103 mph (trackman numbers, my swing speed radar registers 102 to 108 but I think it is a tad high).

    I typically would play from tees that were around 6000 yards and still had to hit a lot of hybrids to get on in reg (or at least close). I recently played from tees that were 6300 yards and the longest club I had to get home in reg was a 5 iron. And, that was only because I hit a lousy tee shot. Mostly I was hitting wedges to get home. Man, the game of golf really changes when you our hitting wedges and short irons to get home in regulation.

    Of course now I need to put some more quality time in on my short game where the real scoring reduction opportunities are (ps – love your tips on chipping ratios. You are the only one I have found teaching ratios. This technique also produces amazing results).

    I have a really good local swing coach, and I watch a lot of really good tips online from various instructors. I would have to say though that it is your instruction that has helped me to improve the most. The quest for a “repeatable swing” is a lifelong journey. Again many thanks for your great instruction. Five years ago I was a double-bogey+ golfer that only hit my driver 170 yards (not counting the 60 yard slice :-}) Today I am a single digit handicapper that actually believes I can improve to be a scratch golfer one day (if my old body hold up).

    • Avatar photo

      September 7, 2018

      Paul Wilson

      Eric,

      Very good. Yes, you are doing great for 60.

      Glad you understand the release. Without this, you wouldn’t have posted this comment.

      Definitely makes the game a lot easier hitting it longer that’s for sure.

      Short game is going to get you to a whole new level. This is a big part of the game and I make it so simple. A couple of weeks of practice and should should be pretty good. Then into the future it gets even better. Low scores coming soon.

      Be careful when you see a tip that is not in line with what I am teaching. I don’t want you lose it now.

      Great goal and it is doable but that short game has to be great. No double bogeys. Make 3-4 bogeys and get it up and down 3-4 times and you are there. So into the future if you hit a poor shot instantly switch to bogey mode where that is the worst you are going to make on a hole. You can recover from bogey. Doubles are tough. So start see it differently. Any trouble and switch to this thinking. Then short game.

  18. September 7, 2018

    DanKuebler

    Couple days ago on our #17, par 3, 137 yards, 8 iron choked a little, hips turn to target trigger, flushed, yep, bottom of hole “with a stroke”!!! Zeros don’t add up to fast…

    Also, yesterday using same trigger, however, also using a quote from you couple tips back: “turn the hips and just let the club go”… Wow…, now that was effortless shots for nine holes (greens being punched). on 7 of 9 greens in regulation and one birdie and one bogie.

    Please just keep your great tips coming – you’re making the game so much easier for me!!

    • Avatar photo

      September 7, 2018

      Paul Wilson

      Dan,

      NICE!!!! I love hearing it. Great feeling.

      I’m racking my brains to do more tips. I think of new things all of the time. Sometimes it takes me just saying it a different way or showing it a different way and it all comes together. That happens and it is game changing.

      Keep up the good work.

  19. September 8, 2018

    MichaelBarrett

    Paul,

    My question is in regard to the Dashboard dissolution announcement. I always select “Watch on Ignition Golf” rather than the Dashboard. Will my favorites be saved or do I need to make a record of them?

    BTW, your tips are all so good I am amassing a huge “Favorites” list. Seems like they all are!

    Mike

    • Avatar photo

      September 8, 2018

      Paul Wilson

      Mike,

      I am going to see if they can be saved. Scroll down and take a picture of them in case they cannot be saved. This way you can look them back up once the new to do list is ready.

      Yes, there are tons of tips on the site that I feel are really good ones. Keep finding them. I have racked my brain for over 5 years trying to think of everything.

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