Reflections on 1,600 Golf Lessons

I recently passed a milestone. 1600 golf lessons have been given since May 1, 2024! While every golf swing is different, many golfers have the same issues holding them back. This post details some of those common swing issues that affect a high proportion of the players I work with. Stay tuned for more posts that go in depth on these topics, and much more.

Reverse Pivot

There is a lot of reverse pivoting going on out there… But what is a “reverse pivot”, and how is it detrimental to your swing? What I call a reverse pivot is when a player, at the start of their backswing, has their lead knee move straight out away from their body, and the lead shoulder dives down towards the ball. At this point, the player's upper body and head are much lower than at address, and the bend from their lead foot to the lead shoulder looks like the letter C. Then, on the downswing and follow-through, the player lunges and straightens up their legs and upper body to counter the reverse pivot. Instead of 80% of their pressure on their lead side at impact, they end up 50-50 or even worse, hitting the ball off their trail foot, pulling back and away from the ball. This leads to problems with irons and hitting balls off the ground in general. Because the low point of the swing can be before the ball.

What the lead knee should do in the backswing is drift towards your trail knee instead of straight out and away from your body. This gets 80% of the pressure on your trail side early, so you can shift it to 80% on your lead side early in the downswing. An extreme reverse pivot bungles this timing because a big portion of the pressure is on your lead side for too long early in the backswing. If your lead knee drifts towards your trail knee on the backswing, it will also discourage your lead shoulder from diving down towards the ground too much. Cleaning up a reverse pivot will get you back to those crisp ball-first strikes off the turf.

Over the Top and Extreme Out-to-In Club Path

This issue is common, and anyone who has spent time learning the golf swing knows a lot about this. At the end of the backswing, the players’ hands move out and away from their body, as opposed to dropping back down on the same plane or underneath it. Now the player is forced into a steep out-to-in swing. Casting and early release of the clubhead can also be common as part of “making it work” with this move. During the downswing, we want to see sufficient shallowing of the club where the club is leaning somewhere between your trail shoulder and your trail forearm (down the line view). This is actually a wide range in that you can have a steeper swing and still shallow it sufficiently by impact. This is good news! Also, the phrase over-the-top is viewed as 100% bad, but it’s not. A lot of the best players who ever lived had a slight over-the-top move to begin the downswing. It’s just to the point where it’s not really visible to the naked eye. The extreme over-the-top swing has the hands going so far out in front of them that the only way for the club to get back to the ball is with an extreme out-to-in club path. This is common, and I consider myself to have a very high batting average working with students on this. I’ll get you to what I call “living under 6” meaning we’ll “quiet” your club path so it’s consistently from 0 to -6 degrees out-to-in on Trackman.

Pressure Shift to the Lead Side Happens Too Late

The weight and pressure transfer to the lead side for impact is probably the most important move in the golf swing. If you do this well, you will be a good ball striker who hits the ball first with a negative attack angle, and then your club enters the turf, making a divot after the ball. Good players do this like breathing, and it’s an afterthought for them. But a large portion of players struggle with this. The result is you have a lot of fat, topped, thin, and other what I call “severe mishits” that ruin the fun of playing golf. This is why I believe it’s so important. Hitting the ball first is a crucial first step to having fun on the golf course for a lifetime. When you watch the pros on TV and their swings in super slow motion, you will notice their pressure shift to the lead side actually starts during the end of the backswing. Watch from the hips down. There are many reasons why a player’s pressure shift can be off. Too many to list in this post. But I can say that when a new player comes in with the desire to be more “consistent”, the first thing I want to know when I hear that word is what does that player’s pressure shift look like, and how is it affecting their swing’s low point.

Setup Clean-Up

Some of the best lessons I’ve had where students are most happy at the end, because of the improvements made in just 1 hour, occurred by just doing what I call Setup Clean Up. This can be a wide range of things, but at the core, they have habits at address (before the swing) contributing to subpar shots. This can include poor ball position per club, hands too far forward or back compared to clubface, stance too wide, standing too close to the ball with driver and too far from irons, no lead-foot flare, grip too much in palms rather than fingers, arms bent at address, poor stance posture, and the list goes on. I haven’t even mentioned some of the grips I have seen (Yikes!), Setup clean-up is about identifying the habits that are 100% hurting your shots and changing them immediately.

Trail Side Sway and Trail Foot Tip-Over on Backswing

This one could be filed under the late pressure shift to the lead side because that is the result. But it is so common, and it happens so early in the swing, I thought it deserved its own mention. In this scenario, the players start their backswing and their hips sway away from the target as they should, but instead of stopping what should be a slight initial sway and starting their hip and shoulder turn, they keep swaying away from the target with very little turn. This forces all their pressure onto the outside of their trail foot, and their trail foot shoe literally tips over on its side. This destroys the rest of the swing, and the result is fat and topped shots. This is something that must change immediately. This too, is something that is very fixable once we slow down and discuss it and do the appropriate drills. I’ll get you loading on the inside of your trail foot for the start of the downswing so your shoe stays connected to the ground and you can then properly use and generate ground force. If your trail foot is tipping over during the backswing… look out!

Constant Open Club Face

This issue comes up frequently with experienced players, and it surprises me. In terms of how prevalent it is. Experienced players who leave the clubface open at impact on most shots. Frequently, these players describe before a lesson a slice they want to address. But after a bunch of swings, Trackman tells us the player’s club path is fine in that it’s consistently a low number on either side of zero. Swings that, if the face angle were zero, would be a slight fade or draw. But the face angle is open 5 to 10 degrees more often than not. More good news here! This is also an easy fix. In fact, I would go as far as saying that by just making an experienced player aware of this, the fact that they are leaving the face way open or closed is enough for them to clean it up during the session largely on their own. Small tweaks to the grip on each hand, stopping the twist of the hands during take-away, or a better release of the hands and clubhead for impact, are all part of the drills and fixes I have for this. In fact, I love taking 10 minutes during a lesson to play what I call “the club face game” with students. You’ll have to take a lesson and find out. Clubface control is arguably the most important skill in golf.

swing Too Shallow

Is it possible to have a swing that is too shallow? Yes, it can be too much of a good thing. I will write a longer post dedicated to this interesting issue that has brought good players to me. To boil it down simply, having a swing too in-to-out can mean low point problems, hands and arms stuck problems, hand and clubhead release problems, low and wild duck hooks, and other not-so-good stuff to make you just want to go home.

Swing Ending at the Ball

This common problem is several issues rolled into one catch-all category. Approaching the golf swing as if it ends at the ball, as opposed to keeping the club going fast past the ball with a powerful finish and follow-through post-impact. Players swing like they are smacking a mosquito on the wall, where nothing matters but the initial impact. I want to be clear, this is a concept and more of a mental item rather than something technical in the swing. These players aren’t trying to, but subconsciously, they are playing a “hit the ball” game instead of an “advance the ball game”. I would even say club speed might be slowing down by impact. This can show up in your swing as chicken-wing arms post -impact, very rushed swing tempo, casting or early release of the clubhead before impact, open club face, and low-point consistently before the ball. I have several drills for this that emphasize the swing after impact and will get you moving towards someone who “swings the club” rather than someone who “hits the ball”.

Loss of Lead-Arm Extension

We’ve all been told to keep our lead arm extended during the backswing. But so many lose that extension during the second half of their backswing. It’s easy to keep it extended early, but then when the hands get to your ribs and above, players lose the extension and their hand unit moves close to their head. While you can hit OK shots like this, you will be forced to be very handsy in the impact zone. Whereas with an extended lead arm, the path to impact is more reliable, with more power, and a much simpler club head release is possible with less flipping of the hands. Again, like the other issue, there are several causes for this. One is a total lack of hip and shoulder turn. Another is an inside take-away where the lead arm goes flat across your body during the backswing. Another is some hip turn, but very little accompanying chest and shoulder turn.

These are but a drop in the bucket in terms of the possible swing issues and opportunities we may address during a golf lesson. I would like to thank all my students and players who made it possible for me to reach 1,600 lessons in the past 18 months. I’ve enjoyed every second!