Former Mac O'Grady Student Saves Back Learning DEAD Drill

If you've followed Mac O'Grady or Stack and Tilt at any point, you might relate to this golfer who had back problems before switching to RotarySwing. In this lesson, you'll learn how your setup may be killing your power and making it impossible to have a proper backswing.

Speaker 1:
Yeah, no worries. No worries. So thank you for giving me the notes. Should I lay down on the couch now or later now I'll wait for that. Let's see how far we can get in real world practical terms first. But if you want to start out with some questions, you're welcome to lay them on me. 

Speaker 2:
Well, I mean, just, you know, it's funny, I, a number of years ago, I took lessons with macro grading. Okay. And he totally had a different philosophy about swinging my local pro kind of subscribed to that, you know, keeping your weight centered and moving through. And actually max stayed at my house for a few times and, and he was obviously a great golfer, but like, it really hurt my back, hit down and turn and all of these things. And then I, I found your site and everything you ever said, you know, I've watched all the videos and I do the reps just made sense to me. So I've been trying to sort of, I guess weed out the old stuff and bring out the new stuff. And I guess the big thing, like I have a great practice swing, as I said, and I just want to be able to use it on the course. And sometimes I think when I'm thinking so much, I sort of get lost when I'm on the course of what I should do when I hit a bad shot. I start, you know, the wheels come off, I guess that'd be a good way to say it.

Speaker 1:
Yeah. That's so it's an, obviously if you've gone down the more ad route and TGM and Mac and all that stuff, that pretty easy to get a lot of stuff in your head and miss the forest for the trees with some things. But the cool thing is with the dead drill, that's exactly how you recenter yourself on the course immediately to get back to the focus of the only stuff that really matters in this way. Right? And if your practice swing and your real swings, aren't the same, then it's actually really simple to understand that. And that all comes down to just what muscles are being loaded. And that's the biggest difference between, I mean, I see it all the time, like day in and day out where we guys have these great lists, private swings, great rhythm, great tempo, good positions, and so on. But the reality is when they go to hit the ball, that stuff all goes out the window and it's it's, you can't fake that part. Right. Right. Right.

Speaker 2:
Exactly. So white devil, as you say.

Speaker 1:
Yeah. But it really doesn't have to be, it just comes down to loading the right muscles in the right sequence. And when you have that and you really understand what that really is, then the bullet truly does just get in the way, because you're not really trying to hit it, but I promise you there's a cure for it all.

Speaker 2:
Yeah, no, I'm sure in a, you know, it's like obviously a great honor for me to be with you. It's exciting. I've been really, I mean, I kept testing this all day and then when the volume didn't work, I was like, oh my God.

Speaker 1:
Well, why don't we why don't we dive in? I'd love to see you all. I'm going to screen capture it. So I'm going to video it. I'm going to walk you through it. And then we're going to get a plan here and we're going to attack it.

Speaker 2:
I don't know if I'm getting washed out, but I got a lot of glare looking at you. Oh, sure. Yeah. Go ahead.

Speaker 1:
I'm ready. Whenever you're ready. Yep. Well, you got a lot of great things going on in your swing. Can you make a practice swing face on for me? Sure. Perfect. All right. Let me share my screen with you and let's walk through this. What's your handicap right now? Like a 13. Oh wow. You should be like a four even with doing what you're doing. Okay. So set up wise, first things first at the end of the day, the entire golf swing comes down to how you use your lower body, lower body. What I really mean by that is really just your hips. You know, maybe from, from the top of your belly button down to the middle of your thigh, that's all I really care about. If that stuff works right then the rest of the stuff is a piece of cake, but you have to be set up in such a way. That's going to allow that to work right now. We'll be looking at your set up here. I want you just to forget golf for a second. I know you probably know way too much about the golf swing, but if you were just looking at this guy set up here and you came and tapped him on the chest, what do you think would happen?

Speaker 1:
Tapped him on the trust. Just kinda pushed him on the chest a little bit, because thought backwards at all. Oh yeah, exactly. So you are set up, you can see me on the top screen there you're so far back on your heels. Then if I just came up and tapped you on your chest, you'd fall right on your. You need to set up in a way that if I came and pushed you from your back, your front, your side to you, wouldn't fall over one way easier than the other. Palin's on your heels like this. It becomes much more difficult to move at politically and use your hips properly because you're off balance. And so as you let your weight come forward and your hips come more underneath you, instead of being more outstretched, I'm exaggerating this obvious a little bit, but to get you to see the idea that you're not going to be able to move powerfully, to engage your legs properly in the swing.

Speaker 1:
So that's the first thing that we got to change is just to get you set up more athletic again and let your whole body come forward a little, because this will throw everything else off. When you're way back on your heels like this, your spine angles, and tend to be a little bit more upright. We got a little bit of curvature in your lower back, a little bit of hunch up here, but it's not bad, but it will flatten out the swing plane. And you'll tend to correct that with your arms, but let's go back. Let's keep going through here. So first thing you starting to straighten that right leg a little bit, and this may be some more ad hangover in here. Yeah. So big space between the, you know, the two legs here, right? And this little gap here. Part of that, it really comes down to district setup, but we don't want to see a big gap through their subjective thing, but just a really easy marker to know when somebody is going to tend to over rotate their hips a little bit flashlight. I never heard that, but, well,

Speaker 2:
I mean, you said like you always want your right knee kind of towards the target. 

Speaker 1:
God the laser beam me drill. So say you might, that's a little bit different. That's talking more about your hips over rotating, but we'll see that more from face on if you're talking about your right knee, then yes, it's okay for it to rotate a little bit. But this is more about over rotation of the hips and straighten the right leg. Right? As I mentioned, because you're, you know, you're set up a little bit too far back on your heels that makes that much easier to fall into, and then it tends to make your swing flat. And so now you're a little bit flat with clubs going a little bit inside. There's a little bit of left arm roll here. If, if you imagined it to take Hogan's analogy, but playing a glass, but forget about it going through your neck and shoulders.

Speaker 1:
Imagine a plane of glass on your forms right here. I don't know if you can see my mouse cursor moving. Okay, cool. So just imagine that there's a plane of glass right there during the backswing. You can't break that, but you'll see how your arms go outside of that. And then my forum rules and they go hand in hand. Exactly. Yeah. So these two work together. So I'm going to talk about that in just a moment, but so now we're a little bit flat, a little bit deep and then the lower body you're gonna, I'm certain you're gonna look. Yeah. So see how your, your tush line is actually off the screen here. And then notice that it, before it back, you moved probably four or five inches you've stood up. Right? Right. So obviously, you know, now your spine angles change, but your spine angle now is actually closer to where it should have been at the beginning. Right? Because had you set up properly, not so far back on your heels, it's about where your hips are, would naturally be. So this isn't that bad. Right. And release some play. At first, they released an impact stuff. Looks really good against, you're struggling with balance a little bit here just because of the setup and the turn. Now let's take a look at a face on stuff.

Speaker 1:
Hold on one sec.

Speaker 2:
Is that your launch monitor? Yeah. You know, I, I hit a little lunch monitor and it's connected to a screen, but then I, when I couldn't hear you, I was going to try and use my phone and you know, technology.

Speaker 1:
No, no worries. So set up stuff looks fine here. Pretty strong left-hand grip, but nothing. That's going to be too devastating here right now. A little bit of left side push, but not bad. Well

Speaker 2:
I tend to get like a little sway too at the top.

Speaker 1:
Yeah. Your hips are sliding to the right. So you, you're not coiling on your right hip. You're straightening it up. And this is, again, this is, you know, this is stack until type stuff. Not exactly. You have more weight to the right because you, but you've let your hips slide to the right coil on that right. Hip. And that's where that straightening of the right leg is happening. We want to change that little flat here, as I mentioned. So your arm say your right elbow really, really low, visible underneath your left arm is just flat swing. But again, it comes down to set up how you're loading the right hip and what you're doing with your hips going back and the arm roll. So, all right. So let me walk you through these things. So first things first set up when you're set up way back like this, it's going to be impossible to make anything right.

Speaker 1:
But as I mentioned, you know, you'd probably lose four inches of touchline and impact, but that's your body getting into the position that it's naturally trying to be in it. It's not like you're doing this where you're stood up. You still have spine angle and a proper amount, but you're starting from here. So once we change that and just let everything come forward and get your weight more over the center of your feet, you know, I like to use res between the ankle and the the ball of the foot in between there, the middle of your foot. Is it anywhere in that range is going to be fine, but your way back. So now as we move your weight forward and get your hits more underneath you, your hips can now pivot properly, but right, your hips are doing this where the legs straightening.

Speaker 1:
That's why you see the big gap here and straightens. Here's the whole problem with that. This glute disengages, that's exactly what you would do in order to disengage that glue, right? If this isn't loaded, then you lose the whole automatic part of the transition. If this is the straightened up and this isn't working, then you're going to have to try and figure it out. Something to manufacturer a downswing that isn't all arms dependent and you're too good of a golfer to just Huck your arms at it. But you're still having to use your arms a little bit. That's why you feel that necessary. The idea to roll this left arm, going back. Cause you're just trying to get some power out of your swing because a lot of your trunk out of it, does that make sense? So what we're going to do, and then as I mentioned, you know, you have a little bit of this where you can just slide in a little bit and again, it's, that looks fine.

Speaker 1:
That looks really bad. When I see you do that, I'm exactly a little bit. It's not that bad. I promise it's subtle, but it's fair enough. So once we get rid of this and this and the setup, what you're going to start to feel is the stuff that you already know how to do. You're going to be able to do it a lot better, a lot easier without having to try and fabricate it. So what I want to do first is get you feeling what it actually feels like to load your right hip, your hip. I'm talking about everything here. There's all the stabilizer muscles, the glute itself, the hamstring attaches in here. You're really gonna feel loading on this hip a lot, way different than what you're used to right now. And once you feel that load, then using your lower body, which you already do really well, given the position that you're in becomes instinctive. It becomes natural. You're just going to be able to shift back over there because this is so loaded up, but it wants to do nothing other than unload, right? So that's the good thing is you really have no business being a 13. So being a 13 is really kind of an insult to how well you swing the club. And obviously you understand a lot about the golf swing, but when you're missing these core pieces, right, there's compensations

Speaker 2:
The whole way through right.

Speaker 1:
Whole way. So, you know, again, like, and part it's all tied together. Like when you're set up like this and your arms outstretched, it's almost impossible not to roll your arm and break that imaginary plane line. But as I get my arms, my hips more forward in my arms, underneath my torso, instead of being I'm exaggerating again, but being like this now, as I go back, my arms will have no problem. Just moving back with my body and not breaking that plane line. So they're all tied together. Perfect. I'm going to first, we're going to get you set up differently enough that hip. So I want to see you based on, but you don't need a club for the moment. I want to just get your body working right first. So first I actually let me turn it down the line. Let's just get you set up first. Okay. So take your normal setup.

Speaker 1:
Okay. Now let your whole body come forward right there. Exactly. So actually let me do this go back to your normal setup. I want to record this. Okay. So that's the normal setup. Now let your whole body come forward. Keep going. Yeah. Can you go and move your hips with it more towards the target? There you go. You can hinge forward from the hip socket a little bit more. You still been forward more, but your hips need to come there right there. I'm getting there. All right. So now let me just show you that real quick. Cause I know that feels insane to you. Feels

Speaker 2:
Like I'm on my like almost onto my toes. Not quite.

Speaker 1:
Yeah. And we'll work through the weight. That's all just posture instructional stuff. All right. So that's your setup right now? So you can see like the lower part of your leg is almost like vertical and then it just starts going back and then as we move you forward, what does that look like to you just looks like a normal setup, right? Right. So when you compare the two, you can't,

Speaker 2:
That's like, I'm almost, I'm literally trying to sit on that

Speaker 1:
Stool. Yeah, exactly. You took Hogan's advice here. Right?

Speaker 2:
So that's that's my problem is I exaggerate. I keep doing a little is good. A lot better.

Speaker 1:
Exactly. So now you can see how easy it would be for me to come up and tap you on the chest and knock you over. Right? Right. And then you look at, as you start adjusting, you're like, okay, this feels funky. But as you look at it, you look really balanced. You look really natural and athletic. And even though you may feel that you're way out on your toes, it's going to be just a little bit of a mind adjustment because you obviously do not look like you're set out on your toes at all. Right? So that's the first thing that's going to allow you to move correctly because you're no longer way back on your heels. And once you keep comparing and contrast this and this it's going to start to feel really different. But once you feel that you're more over the center of your feet, you're going to feel how it's easy to move your weight when you're already starting on.

Speaker 1:
I'm sure. Matt probably explained this to you in some way or another your weight, the way it moves in the golf swing is not linear, right? It's not like you move laterally this way and lateral, this way it moves kind of in a figure eight pattern, right? Wherever you start, let's just say you start on your heel on the middle of your feet, the weight as you go back, goes to the left ball of the foot and back to the right ankle and the downswing. That's kind of reversed, right? If you're already back on your heels, where else can you go? Well, you can go onto your toes. That would feel really terrible. You're too good to do that. Or you can go further back on your heels, but in your case, if you're already there, what has to happen to your leg, it has to straight forward to go.

Speaker 1:
So that's why this is such a simple but critical fix for you. So now you have someplace to go and you can load and move into your legs instead of just feeling like you're just trying to get out of the way, right? So you've got to get used to the setup thing. And you're probably going to start out, setting up like this and just kind of relating everything wrong for it. And you'll notice, as I mentioned, when you tend to set up too far back on your heels, it tends to make your spine more uprise. So now as you start moving forward, your spine, you can hinge forward a little bit more, and that will bring your arms more into a vertical plane instead of a stretched out away from you, which helps address that tendency to want to roll the flatter. Your arms are like, if you were swinging on a completely horizontal flame, your arms would roll a lot, right? Completely vertical plane, your arms won't roll at all. The more that you sit back on your heels in, the more upright your spine is and the more your arms are out more, you're going to want to roll. Makes sense. Absolutely. So let's get you set up again properly, and then I'm going to start getting you to feel your heels or feel your weight.

Speaker 2:
So really for me, I got almost feel like I'm coming forward like

Speaker 1:
This, right? The whole body is coming forward. Yeah, no, no, no. I'm sorry. Move your hips toward the ball. There you go. Get your hips underneath you and then yeah. And then you can hinge for, there you go. Good. So that'll put your arms a little bit more underneath your shoulders instead of so outstretched, there you go.

Speaker 2:
Right. Cause now, now it's hard to roll

Speaker 1:
Them. Bingo. Right? That's why these little fundamental pieces are so important. You don't. I

Speaker 2:
Told my wife, I was like, you know, I got to get the setup because if you're not set up correctly then right from the get-go you're

Speaker 1:
Off it literally. I mean, it's, it's devastating to just make such a simple little mistake or take something too far. And then all of a sudden you're chasing your tail in circles for years when it's really just one stupid little thing, right? I mean, almost, I'd say 90%, 80, 90% of the work I did with tour pros when I was still working with a lot of guys on tour was all stupid, simple little fundamentals, lapses. Your shoulders are 20 degrees closed your feet or 20 degrees open, just stupid little stuff like that. That's what stuff really starts to fall off set up. Same thing. Oh, you're too far back on your heels. We, we start falling into these little traps because our body feels different every day. And that's why you can't rely on what you feel. You have to feel by what you see in these days. Now with cameras, high speed. Everybody's got a two and 40 frames per second, you know, super camera on their phone now. So we have no excuses not to check for stuff, but exactly. So let's get you set up and now I want to, I want you to feel, so I'm going to have you go down the line again and I'm going to have you start to turn and we're going to keep that right leg flex. How narrow

Speaker 2:
Do you like to see the, I know, is there a

Speaker 1:
That's perfect right here. When it comes to, when it comes to set up, it's kind of like peas and pores. So obviously from a mechanical standpoint, what we really talk about is a couple inches outside of neutral, right? Understand? Like with the driver, you stand a little bit wider because you can shallow out the angle of attack. You don't want to stand too wide with irons because it's really hard to get back to the left side, but with the driver specialty club. Right. Right. But you don't want to be too narrow where you can't feel power from your legs. So right there is perfect.

Speaker 2:
There you go. It's funny. Cause like, I definitely, it was this now. Like

Speaker 1:
Yeah, you have a little bit of lordosis, a little bit of extra curvature in your lower back the way you were set up before. So you're again, I'm going to exaggerate, but you were kind of like this, right? I'm surprised you didn't have some back issues kind of hurting your lower back if you didn't. I

Speaker 2:
Mean, I definitely feel it at times and I'm an ophthalmologist. Okay. So I'm leaning over. So that's why like my thoracic spine has a little curvature over the years.

Speaker 1:
Well, you actually, as soon as you set up, right, pretty much went away where you get that upper thoracic curvature. When this is Laura, does Laura, when you're bending this, this tends to go like this and then you still got to get to the ball. So you end up with the old hall. Right.

Speaker 2:
So I want to sort of feel like a little Ben and then I'm just leaning over.

Speaker 1:
Right? Yep. That's it. That sounds great. Now go to the top of your swing without a club, just like that. And let's see what happens with your legs. Okay. We'll do that a couple of times. I just want you to feel it. Cause it's gonna feel very different. This is a big adjustment.

Speaker 2:
No, all those muscles you talk about the 20 pounds or 30 pounds of muscle. Yeah. I feel it right now.

Speaker 1:
Well, I'm going to show you why. Okay. You couldn't feel them before because you couldn't engage them. So take a look at your screen. I remember we had that big old gap between your knees that flipper could jump through. That's your top of the backswing. I can't even believe how high it is now. Yeah. Remember I said your arms were going to tend to be a little flat with what you were doing. Yeah. I get your spine angle is the primary dictator, a swing plane. Right? So when you've got a lot of courage, your horse forward and the lower back, and then the upper back has to get a little bit more mid thoracic has to get a little bit more upright that more dictates the arm plane. And so when you're kind of like this, then it's real easy to do this. And then as you come forward and get your weight more in front.

Speaker 1:
Now, as you turn back, you feel your glutes engaged because before you couldn't, you were so far back on your heel and straightening this leg, you had to disengage the glute to allow that to even happen. And that created the gap. And that's why you didn't feel these muscles. Now your arms are going up instead of just around. And so these little setup changes have changed. As you can see everything in your smile. That's crazy. Just simple fundamentals. At least my fundamentals. I like your fundamentals. So yeah, this looks awesome. Way better than there. You're probably I could have you come forward just a hair more. Let your knees come forward just a little bit more. Bring your pelvis forward a little bit more, but this is totally workable. You're right?

Speaker 1:
No longer having to make big compensations arms during the takeaway that left arm should be vertical or slightly to the inside. Give or take a little bit. It's a little bit on the outside there, but we're definitely in the ballpark and we can go from there. So now the big things that I want you to focus on are going to be getting comfortable with your setup change. I don't want you to fill out on your toes obviously here with what you're feeling. Right. I had a guy swear to me that true balance for him forever and a golf clinic I did many years ago was on his toes. No, it's not. And I kept having to go through this exercise and I'm like, I can push you forward. I just come over and tap on the shoulder and you fall forward. But no that's balanced for me.

Speaker 1:
It's different for me. Right? He had been a ski instructor for like 25 years. And so he spent his whole life telling people to put their shins into the front of their boots. And so he would stand up to the golf ball. This was normal for him. You are balanced. So you're going to have to just get comfortable with the feeling and just make tiny little adjustments as your knees come forward. And your pelvis tilts forward. You're going to find that balance. And again, the range is center to the angle, to the back of the ball of the foot. The middle of the foot is about where that weight needs to be, et cetera. That's going to allow you to move, right? It has to shift that has to go back on the right foot and forward on the front foot during the back swing and then switch that. But if you're already back, you've got nowhere to go. So

Speaker 2:
If I were to set up against the wall, how far away from the wall should my heels be? That I could still get? I think like sometimes I do, then I must have a foot, you know? Cause I'm so

Speaker 1:
There's no hard and fast number four because it's based on your anatomy. Like I have shorter legs and a longer torso. Rhodes means the more hinge I put into my swing, the more weight I'm actually moving forward. So for me, I may be back a little bit more than somebody who has really long legs and short torso, but I would give you a range of really no more than like four or five inches. That's getting pretty extreme. If you're a foot, then we know you're way out of whack. Right, right. I'm just

Speaker 2:
Thinking about a way to practice and kind of get used to

Speaker 1:
Yeah. Use that as a range, you know, no more than four or five inches, it'd be really pretty extreme. You got to have a specific build for that to be truly balanced. Right. They shoot for, you know, three or four inches is fine next time, but I really don't really want to change a lot else in what you're doing and your swing right now, because I want you to, just to get comfortable with this time already. But I want you to focus on when you're practicing this, I want you to really start to feel that you're loading into this right leg so that you're not no longer straightening this leg, but you're feeling that this leg, this glute and hamstring is really exaggerated right now, really engaged going. Right. Okay. So that you, it's going to feel so foreign to you, but I want you just to try and feel that as you're going back and then as you transition over to the left, that feeling of the glute, how loaded it is, it transfers to the left and belts because now you're dynamically moving and trying to create downforce, literally trying to push that leg into the ground and then driving up off of it for the postman.

Speaker 1:
But really once you, once you, once I just got you set up, right, you started moving in the right way. I'm probably not going to tell you to do those things, but that would be where I'd tell you to focus your practice on the feel on your lower body. That sounds awesome. I know you have a bunch of questions, any questions you want me to run through before we wrap up here? 

Speaker 2:
Just so when I'm, so now I'm going to be a little bit more upright, but now I'm just forward and I'm here. So really just feel this engage and then just and then post, right?

Speaker 1:
That's it that's that drill right now that that drill is going to make a lot more sense to you. Cause you're going to feel those muscles. I'm talking about a video. All right.

Speaker 2:
And then are you planning on doing some more of these zoom for

Speaker 1:
A while? Yeah. I'm trying to open up spots at the beginning of each week, just based on my schedule so that the timing has changed a little bit, but I'll probably either today or tomorrow open up more spots for the upcoming week. And I'm just doing it week by week. Yeah, it makes sense. Yeah. Just a little, little crazy busy right now. So

Speaker 2:
This is a good thing. You have a great model. I was a friend of mine. He's attendance. You should check out this site and replicate it for tenants.

Speaker 1:
Yeah. Yeah. We've got a lot of people contact us about stuff like that. It's a lot of work.

Speaker 2:
Oh yeah. No, it's that? I think it's nice that you're able to connect with some of the followers and users and offer these lessons because you know, it's one thing to watch yourself and I've been videotaped myself, but you know, you have a train that you've seen thousands of people over the years. So for you, it's like, oh, you're set up. I was like, most of my setup, that's like my key, you know, because you just get used to seeing it. And for you, it was like very easily like, and not taking a gazillion lessons. Yeah. Everyone has their feeling, but I like, I'm really committed to keep working through the process. So I look forward to connecting with you again.

Speaker 1:
Awesome. If you haven't already jump on that. If you're on Facebook, join the Facebook group because you can post your swing up in there. And if I don't get to it or one of our instructors doesn't get to it, there's a lot of super knowledgeable people in there who are also learning together. So there's like dozens of swings posted every single day, even just drill as people just checking, you know, something simple. So that's always a quick way to get free instant, you know, really, really quick help on there. I mean, sometimes somebody posts, there's probably 20 or 30 comments on there, so

Speaker 2:
Right. Well, I'll look forward to kind of doing my digital now and cause I've been getting pretty good with it. And you know, now with the new kind of positioning, I would look forward to seeing how that translates.

Speaker 1:
It'll be a big difference for sure.

Speaker 2:
And then our next one, I need to work a little bit on my chipping.

Speaker 1:
All right. No problem. That's easy stuff. Those are, those are short swings, right? This is, we gotta get that. This is the hard one and we get this out of the way. And then it's the rest of the piece of cake.

Speaker 2:
It sounds great. Well, enjoy the rest of your week and I really appreciate your time.

Speaker 1:
You bet. Thanks so much. Thank you. Bye bye.