Ultimate At-Home Golf Drill For Your Swing

There are no golf clubs required for today’s drill. We’re going to use two alignment sticks, or practice rods, to show you how to correctly move your body through the golf swing. You can pick these up at any golf store or you can simply make something similar out of a piece of dowel.

This is a great drill for those of you who might be stuck indoors with no access to a golf club. The first rod will be placed to indicate the movements of your pelvis and the second will indicate the movements of your shoulders.

There will be two distinct stages to this drill; the backswing and the follow-through.

To carry out this drill, follow these simple steps for the backswing:

1. Place the first alignment rod through your belt loops. This is going to indicate the movements of your pelvis when you perform this motion.

2. Place the second rod across your chest ensuring that it’s across the top of your shoulders and not too low. It’s important that these rods are in the correct position because they will indicate that you’ve performed this motion correctly. So, now we have a hip turn rod and a shoulder turn rod.

3. Now assume the address position. You can see that both rods are pointing down towards the target line. If you perform this practice routine correctly there will be audible feedback from the two sticks hitting each other. When they do, it will demonstrate that you’ve turned, tilted, and correctly extended your body. These are very important movements to hit longer, more consistent golf shots.

4. Swing to the top and stop in this position. We’re looking for a couple of things:

i. The shoulder rod should be at about 90 degrees. This indicates that you have completed your backswing turn with your shoulders.

ii. The hip rod should be about half of the shoulder turn, at about 45 degrees. You will notice the shoulder rod has moved out in front of you, effectively behind where the ball would be on the ground.

The backswing component of this drill is something relatively simple to get used to, essentially removing the element of holding the golf club in the hands and just swinging the arms. It’s very easy and it’s a simple drill to get a feeling of how the body should move in the backswing.

 
The follow-through

The follow-through is the real kicker in this drill. What we’re looking for in the follow-through is some audible feedback from the shoulder stick hitting the back side of the hip stick. What this will indicate is that your hips have rotated enough and you’ve also tilted your body sufficiently to get the shoulder stick to hit the back of the hip stick.

Follow these simple steps for the follow-through:

1. Make sure you rotate the hips enough and tilt your body on the way through to ensure some angle to your shoulders. This is one of the most important moves in the golf swing.

Note: For those of you who feel like you stand up through the shot, with your weight on the back foot, (often resulting in topping the ball), there’s a good chance that your shoulders are coming through very level and you’re unable to effectively complete your turn.

2. Ensure you’re getting quality impact down on the golf ball by making a big turn (shoulders turning 90° and hips turning 45°).

3. You should feel some downward pressure as you transfer weight onto your lead foot. Then you should feel your hips moving forward, and your belt buckle going up as your right shoulder goes down. As the right shoulder goes down, the shoulder stick should make contact with the hip stick, confirming you’ve moved through the swing correctly.

To recap the follow-through: visualise a face-on view. From the top of the swing, shift your weight onto your lead foot, pushing down into the ground. As the hips are moving forward, rotate the lower body. The upper body is then moving in such a way that you maintain the tilt of the spine, resulting in contact between the two sticks.

So, there’s a great little drill to get the feeling of how to correctly tilt and move your body through impact with the golf ball. If you can practice enough of these reps away from the golf course, it will make it far easier to implement when you get back out onto the driving range.

Watch the full video here: