Alton Lesson Part 2

Part 2

---

It looked like you fired your arms a little too soon that time, but let's take a look.

What did you feel that time?

I thought it was pretty damn good.

I mean, just the feel, but I'm still.

Yeah.

That shoulder should have stayed tucked in.

This is a really good impact position from where we started, and the club's coming down under the plane.

Hip rotation's way better, but this is what killed you.

See how far your head's moved during the back swing?

Yeah, sure.

Otherwise, if that wasn't there, you'll be able to rotate so much better, but you're rotating beautifully now compared to where we started.

Night and day difference.

This is almost perfect.

If we didn't have to try and turn from here, we'd be golden.

Okay.

So that's why you eventually.

See how your right arm is fully straightened and your right wrist is fully straightened?

You ran out of right arm to hit with because you didn't have enough rotation.

I've got to get this damn hit.

That's 100% the biggest issue.

The rest of it looks like money now.

There you go.

There.

You say you're able to turn a lot easier?

Yes, sir.

Yes, sir.

All right.

It looks like your arm's fired a little bit there too soon.

Yeah, and you still moved off the ball too much.

That's why your arm's fired.

Stop right there.

See how deep your arm's already?

That's what's pulling off the ball.

Go ahead and set it for me.

Turn back.

Keep this right arm straight.

I'm going to grab something, actually.

I'll be right back.

Sure.

Does this piece of tape look like it's on the left side of your head?

Right there.

Is that close?

If you can move a little bit to adjust, I want you to feel like the left side of your head is on this piece of tape.

So now when you make your back straight, I want you to watch yourself and keep your head on that piece of tape.

There you go.

Better.

There you go.

In the downswing, it will.

Well, let me be clear about this.

So here's what's happening in the swing.

So if I just put a shaft right here, my head's going to stay on it.

It'll move just a tiny, tiny bit.

Yours is moving way too much, right?

It'll move a tiny bit.

As I start down and shift my weight back to the lead side, my head will move in front of that blue tape for just a split second.

Now, as I get ready to release and my right shoulder gets steep, it goes back, right?

So when you're doing it slow and static, if your head moves in front right now because you're not releasing, that's okay.

The big thing is on the back, so you want to keep it there.

There you go.

There you go.

Now fire the hips.

Try to keep this, or keep your arm bent, your elbow bent, and your wrist bent.

So you have to, no, bent, bent, bent, bent, bent, bent.

There you go.

I want you to keep it like this.

Because if you keep turning, you'll get the club there.

But when this fires too soon and your right wrist goes into extension, you start flipping and this breaks down too soon.

But if you learn to maintain the bend there and have to keep turning, then you'll have all that shaft lean and stress on the shaft that you need.

Of course, at some point, we want to release it, but you're just going to practice trying Relax your right hand.

Turn, watch yourself in here.

There you go.

There.

Now move your hips down from there.

Much better.

Get off that right foot.

There you go.

Now you can see that your hips open 20 more degrees there.

Club's way deep, way deep.

There you go.

Good.

Oh, you're getting your arms way too deep still.

Way too deep.

Because you keep swinging the club back with just your left arm.

This needs to take a nap.

Okay.

Well, they both have a job to do.

But if you use your right arm, your club stays in front of you.

If you take your left arm and you push it across your chest, that's when the club gets deep.

Okay.

And watch what happens to your head.

So, feeling that your right arm is helping get that club to go up.

Remember, the right shoulder blade is going back.

There you go.

So, the club's up and it's easy to stay centered.

Yep.

Yeah.

Okay.

Deep.

Use your right arm.

Good, good, good, good.

Keep going.

Load those hips.

Okay, fire them.

Pretty good.

Relax your shoulders and arms.

Remember, it's all about your hips loading.

And fire from there.

Try to keep your right arm and wrist big.

Don't try to go slow this time.

Focus on moving your hips quickly.

And just focus on your right arm in the back swing.

There you go.

If you can move quickly and keep your head on that tape, we're golden.

What did you feel there?

Well, I don't know if I did it right or not, but I felt like it's close to what you want me to do.

No, it's not.

Better then.

I'm still falling.

I'm flat.

You're way steeper, actually.

Your shoulders were, like, perfectly, like, almost in the right position, but you're trying to turn so much with the upper body.

And that's what's pulling you out of position.

So you're actually trying to do too much of a good thing.

But let's see how you did coming down.

Oh, dude, look at this.

Your right elbow's getting into the body.

You've got lag.

Club's coming down right through your forearm on plane, square, boom.

I mean, that's not too shabby.

It's a little tiny.

We're getting close to a flip here because we start to release a little soon.

But that's really good.

I've never seen it before.

I've never seen it before.

Really good.

We just have to kill this.

Right?

So that's the big issue.

And it's because you're really trying to make a big upper body turn.

When you think about your backswing, don't think about, well, it's not about not thinking about something.

It's about understanding something.

Before, the way that you swung like this, this does give you power.

You've got to have some movement in your swing to have power.

So if I move a lot this way and I move a lot this way, as long as I can do that with some speed, I'm going to have something to hit with.

Of course, it's not ideal.

So you're still used to thinking about motoring your swing with your upper torso.

And I think you can leave that alone and make this work.

Exactly right.

So instead of thinking, how far can I turn my shoulders?

How far can I move my body and my arms?

I'm going to turn my hips as far as I can.

And if I do that, watch as I do this.

If I try to get a lot of tension up here, I'm going to move off.

But if I think about getting tension in my hips, I just stay perfectly centered.

And I feel no tension up here.

Yeah, exactly.

So your head's staying perfectly centered.

So I think about making a big hip turn, because think about what I just said.

If you make a big shoulder turn, you can hit with your shoulders.

If you make a big hip turn, you can hit with your hips.

Does that make sense?

Yes, sir.

So a lot of times when you make a practice swing or you're going really slow, your hips kind of get frozen.

But now you're making a perfect hip turn and your head's staying perfectly centered.

I want to see that.

That's perfect.

Do you want to watch yourself?

And just focus on turning your hips like you were there.

There you go.

There you're centered.

Perfect.

But see, when you go to make a real swing, instead of moving from here, you move from up top.

Move from your hips and then fire your hips.

No, not your arms.

Move from your hips.

Move your hips quickly in the back swing.

There.

Load them.

Turn them.

Turn your hips.

Now fire them.

You didn't turn your hip in the back swing at all.

In your practice swing, you did.

Here's what your practice swing looked like.

And in your real swing, you went all upper body.

Turn your hips as far as you can in the back swing.

Turn them, turn them, turn them there.

Didn't turn.

Didn't turn.

No?

Because then, as soon as you go to swing, you just take the club back, all arms.

Move the arms down here and turn.

Load your hips.

Don't watch it.

Better.

There you go, right there.

Now fire from there.

Perfect.

Turn, turn, turn, turn.

Good.

Now fire.

There we go.

Okay, okay.

How'd that feel?

If I didn't do it again, I'll say good.

Okay.

Focus on turning your right hip.

Turn your hip as far as you can in the back swing is what it's going to feel like to you.

Yes.

Good.

Now see how your right arm's more bent?

Your right wrist is more bent back because it's easier for you to turn in the down swing when you actually turn in the back swing.

The trick is, in the back swing, what you're doing is you stop turning your hips and you just use your arms and shoulders.

There, you actually turned your hips.

Concentrate on turning your hips as far as you can in the back swing.

Yep.

And then fire them.

Boom.

Way better.

All right.

All right.

Do one more for me and I'll capture this next one.

Really concentrate on turning your hips in the back swing.

Good.

Looked like you fired the arms a little soon, but we'll see.

We've still got off here.

A little bit.

It's better.

Yes, better.

You're a lot steeper.

But your right hip doesn't look very loaded there, but you're turning so much better.

Look at your hips leading.

And that's what shallows out the club for you.

Before, you were trying to set all these things up to be able to shallow out the club.

Now, look at the angle here.

You need a little bit more rotation, that's all.

See, your rotation stalls out right about here.

It stalls out too soon.

And that's when you're firing the arms too soon.

And that's why you're losing a little bit of right wrist angle.

It's perfectly fine.

There's a lot of PGA Tour players that look exactly like that.

But to get maximum power, we need more rotation.

I want to get just exactly how you're asking me to do it.

If I can do that, I'll be a happy camper.

There you go.

Your hips moved really well there.

Yeah, I don't feel like I have a restriction on the hips.

I think it's in the head.

Yeah, no, your hips move great.

It's just you're trying to muscle it with your upper body still, not loading that right hip in the back swing.

You want to stop right there.

So if your right leg's fully high, it breaks in.

When you feel more load, go right here.

Now straighten that and you feel how it lengthens.

It's not that you need to make squat down, but you need to maintain a little bit of flex in here so that that glute can be engaged.

Otherwise, you can't fire You're trying to swing way too much with your upper body still.

Turn your hips, don't turn your shoulders.

Just let them kind of go.

Turn your hips, turn your hips.

But what you try to do is turn your shoulders as far as you can.

That's not what we do.

In the golf swing, watch this.

I'm not going to try and turn my shoulders.

I'm not going to do any of this that you're doing.

All I'm going to do is turn my hips as far as I can.

Look at that.

I made a full shoulder turn.

I didn't turn my shoulders at all.

Look, did you make a full shoulder turn right there?

I did.

But you turned your hips to get there.

Do you feel the difference?

It's night and day.

Let's see what this monkey down here is.

Turn your hips.

There.

There you go.

Turn your hips.

And I'll turn them on the way down.

There you go.

We're not going to get our upper body.

So your chest is turned here.

Remember, we don't want to make this too complicated, but you never turn your upper body.

Think about it this way.

If you're trying to make the golf swing really, really simple, a lot of times people try and turn their upper body, twist their spine in an incorrect way to try and move.

But as I just showed you, if I just go turn my hips, my shoulders turn.

I didn't turn them.

Now, in the downswing, the same thing is true.

I'm not going to turn my shoulders, but I'm going to turn my hips.

And now you're putting a lot of pitch on them.

Exactly.

That's why when you go back, you want to get your arms and shoulders tight.

So now just focus on turning your hips.

Forget about your shoulders.

Forget about your arms.

Just load that right hip.

Say your arms are relaxed now.

Now turn your hips in the downswing.

Now look.

How about that?

See, don't turn your shoulders.

And look how good.

Now you've got something to hit with.

So your shoulder's high, but if you turn, you get flat.

You want that left shoulder to remain protracted and this one to maintain back.

And then this can stay like this in this power package.

Boom.

So think again.

Don't turn your shoulders.

Just turn your hips.

Turn your hips.

Lift your hips.

Lift your hips.

Say you don't feel like your arms have to swing way behind you now.

Now turn your hips going down.

I want you to keep now.

Bend, bend, bend, bend, bend.

Just relax and relax.

Keep it right there.

If you were going to hit me, you wouldn't do this.

You would turn and your arm would be connected.

That right scapula needs to be back.

That's really good.

So no shoulder turns is what you're going to feel.

Now I'm trying to turn your shoulders and swing your arms.

Feel more load in your hips now?

Don't turn your shoulders.

Don't turn your shoulders, remember?

Good.

Turn your hips.

Good.

Let your right arm just kind of swing up.

Turn your hips.

I've tried to muscle this and the way you did it that time I did.

Okay.

So when I do this right here, when I get here, I can go up.

Because all you care about is loading your hips, not your arms and shoulders.

You don't need any muscle right here right now to be super tight.

You need these to be engaged.

And then you fire those quick.

Yeah.

There you go.

There you go.

So your shoulders are turned quite a bit there because you moved off the ball Load the hips.

Arms are going to be out here in front.

There you go.

Now turn.

There.

So the club just falls down into position.

You don't have to do anything.

Let me get this backswing down.

I can go.

That's right.

It's all loading your hips, turning your hips.

There you go.

Good.

Good.

Yep.

Right up.

Arm with.

Good.

Perfect.

Perfect.

You feel now is going this way, they feel like they're going this way.

If I can duplicate that, it is so much easier a bunch of damn strength trying to get back there.

Yeah.

It should be really relaxed.

Remember, we've got to move quick.

Move the hips quick.

Up with the right arm.

Fire the hips.

There you go.

Good.

Feel better?

Yes, sir.

Remember our posture to dress.

We're going to be feel more upright.

Good.

Load the hips.

Good.

Good.

Way better.

Way better.

All right.

All right.

All right.

So the thing that clicked for you is not trying to turn your shoulders at all because that gets you flat.

But if you think about loading your hips, then your arms just swing right up.

Yeah.

I've got to get this damn clip way better.

No, no, no, no.

We don't want that.

Yeah.

Way better.

So much easier.

Thank you, sir.

Absolutely.

Man.

Well, I didn't catch the takeaway, but I was really.

This only captures two seconds.

You're staying much more.

You're still off a little, but you're way better.

And see, your arms are way deep and all strained.

And part of this is because we need to go quick.

You wouldn't be able to keep turning and turning and turning your hips.

Like what's happening, when you turn your hips, you stop, and then you're going slow and then trying to figure out where to get your arms going.

Now we need to start doing this with momentum and speed because once your hips get here, they don't stop.

They get ready to go the other way.

This one here, this is the last one.

This is the last one.

So I'm still off of it.

But it's because you're stopping.

Okay.

Your muscles just can't maintain that kind of lengthening and tension at this point.

Like, I wish I had the frames before, but you would already, your hips would already be halfway into the downswing.

But instead, we're stopping trying to get our arms to go.

That's why we've got to start doing this with pace and not having these chunks into it.

So I want you to turn and then go.

And then your arms won't be able to go any further.

Now you've got your arms deep.

Don't load your arms.

Don't turn your shoulders.

Turn your hips and go.

That's all you can think about.

Turning your hips and go.

There you go.

Your arms went a little quick.

So when you pick up the pace, you're going to try to swing your arms too fast.

That's okay.

Yeah, you got really flat there.

Way better.

What did you feel that time?

I felt like I could push some power.

Let's do one more like that.

Your hips didn't load that well in the backswing that time.

Let's focus on loading that right hip, turning that right hip.

I don't think it was good.

You're turning better there.

Now, again, part of the.

You're still moving off a little bit because, this is just it's too static.

But, I mean, in terms of where we are now, you can play golf from here.

The biggest thing that's holding you back is getting that right hip loaded in the backswing.

So your right leg's straight, though.

Feel the difference?

Boom.

Let's do one more like that.

Okay.

How was that one?

How'd that feel?

I think I'm there.

I like to see the picture Now I'm moving off of the ball.

Because you're not focusing on your hips.

You start focusing on the club and your arms and your shoulders, right?

So then you're right, watch your right hip.

You stand up.

Yep.

Yep.

This is because your upper body's pulling everything out of position.

I'll stay down.

So all you have to do is not focus, well, not focus, that's not the right word.

You have to focus on loading your hips, but instead you're loading your body.

And when I load my body, my hips are going to go into extension early, right?

Remember, in the back swing, we're trying to get deeper into flexion.

remember we worked on the first day going deeper.

Yours is now going forward.

Yeah.

So load that right hip, feel that right glute engage.

Okay.

Okay.

There you go.

So then, as that's loading in the back swing, remember you're trying to turn.

So if you're doing this slow, and remember, I want you to be careful about going slow with this because it gets too static and then everything gets out of position.

But if you were doing this slow, here's exactly what would happen.

I'm turning back and you'll see my foot, and I'm going to exaggerate this a little bit, my foot is twisting into the ground.

Because I'm really turning my hips right?

So I'm twisting that foot into the ground.

There you go.

So feel your foot, twist your foot into the ground.

mine is on the outside.

Yours is on the inside.

Well, I'm doing it with my right.

So if you want to watch from this way, so my right foot, I'm twisting it into the ground.

That's how much I'm loading into this right hip.

to where you're twisting the shoe this way.

That's how much you're loading into that right hip.

Straighten this.

There.

Better.

There he goes.

Your right hip's deeper now.

Feel the difference?

If we do that, then the rest of it's working really well.

Okay.

So that's all arm lift.

I'll go to set up again.

Part of your, part of your issue is that address here.

Okay.

I want you to feel that you can engage this muscle in your right hip, in your right glute.

Now, do you feel a difference there?

There you go.

That's turning that hip.

your belt line tilts down.

do you feel when I tilt your belt, what that does is it engages these muscles in your butt.

Do you feel that?

Is this supposed to go up or down?

In the back swing?

this hip goes down.

Stop for just a second.

Here's what I want to do.

you're not feeling this right glute in your back swing.

You're doing really good in the down swing, but it's not working in the back swing.

So, put the club down for a second and just stand up.

can you get into a position like this?

With your right foot forward.

Yeah, there you go.

Get your knee over your ankle.

There you go.

And now, just concentrating right here on your glute.

I want you to try and push your heel into the ground and push up and feel this muscle.

and try to feel this muscle engage.

Flip your feet around so the right foot's forward.

what's happening in the back swing, this right glute's not engaging.

now, you hold that club you don't have to go all the way up.

Just do a little tiny up to get your knee off the ground and feel this muscle.

You feel that?

Okay.

That is the muscle you need to focus on in the back swing.

There you go.

Really good.

Really good.

You feel it?

Okay.

So, that muscle's a little weak and it probably hasn't been ingrained Right?

So, now, here's, yeah, take a breather for a second.

So, when you understand, when you're making and you go this way, you go into extension, right?

What I had you just feel was flexion, that right glute.

In the back swing, I'm loading that same muscle.

Yeah.

Because that's going to help me in the down swing.

I'm just damn sure Yeah.

That's why doing that just helps you wake it up and make that mental connection, that mind-muscle connection again.

That's even too much.

We don't need to go back that far.

It's just a, it's a small, quick move, but if you don't feel that muscle engage at all, you'll move into extension.

to go.

Do you see how your head's not moving anymore?

Because you're moving from here.

If you had to put a center of the golf swing where everything else is moving away from, it's your pelvis.

Pelvis and your lower back, your lower spine.

When you think about these things and feel those, then everything else moves in response to that.

That's too much So now swing, what I want you to feel is that muscle engaging.

Good.

There you go.

Boom.

There you go.

if I can do it with no speed.

Now you went into extension there.

Remember we were doing this yesterday?

If you just kind of feel your right hip touch that a little bit in the back swing.

Straighten that.

so right there.

There you go.

I'm ready to grow up from here.

Exactly.

A little bit of extension.

You moved away from the chair.

I know what I'm supposed to be doing.

Same thing.

You get a little quick with the arms and that pulls your hip away instead of focusing on moving your hip back quickly.

It's close there.

to work.

Stop for just a second.

I want you to exaggerate something for me.

You have this.

Interior tilt.

I want you to take your hips and stick your butt out by arching your back.

There you go.

Arch your lower back here.

Do you feel any more engagement in your glutes there?

Now tuck it under so you feel the difference.

There you go.

So when you set up to the ball, if you're set up rounded in your lower back like this, you disengage these glutes.

but as soon as you tilt your pelvis, tilt your belt buckle down toward the ball, you should be able to feel it a little bit better.

There you go.

Good.

Turn those hips.

That was good in the backswing Keep that tilt.

Feel your glutes Yeah, way better.

Now use your hips on the way down.

Got a little lifty there with the arms.

swing, right?

No, because you moved away from that, the chair.

Don't watch Turn your hips.

There you go.

just going to lift right to here.

There you go.

Now, just keep your arms alone.

Leave them alone.

Keep turning your hips until you That's where we're getting.

Okay.

Turn your hips, not your shoulders and arms.

Turn your hips.

There you go.

I'm back.

does this make sense now, what you need to feel?

Let's try, just for fun, let's hit a couple before we wrap up here.

I want you just to focus on your hips, nothing else.

that's right.

You felt it though?

So, that's when your head's moving off the ball.

You've got to concentrate on that right hip in the back so you get that right hip loaded.

slow it down and do what let the hip move.

Still getting your head moving off the ball because you're trying to power it with your upper body.

Focus just on your lower body.

Turn your hips back.

Better.

I feel like they're pretty close maybe.

We're in the ballpark.

We can at least golf with that.

There you go.

Turn it There you go.

How'd that feel?

I think I got it.

I think I got it You get the head to stay a little quieter or not?

It's quieter, but you're still going to focus more on the lower body, more on your hips.

You still want to get really flat with your shoulders still.

that didn't do it.

Load that hip and you feel your glutes engage.

Wasn't bad.

Didn't feel bad.

So when you go home to practice, going to focus on is feeling your hips.

When you make a bad swing, we know what you do.

You go off flat, right?

The more you keep focusing on turning your hips back and through, the less your upper body is going to have to do.

Right now, when you watch yourself under do that, your head doesn't move at all.

And your shoulders go on the proper plane.

perfect.

So you can do this movement 110%.

When you get the club, you want to go back and motor it with your upper body.

So you're just going to have to keep feeling your glutes as the primary focal point of your entire swing.

And if you feel your hips moving and you feel them loaded in the back swing so that they can fire in the down swing, then your upper body will do less and less and less.

couldn't exactly.

And then you can see when you move right, there's no problem figuring out where your arms are supposed to go.

Can you give me a slow doing what we're doing?

I've got a I'll do it face on in front of the camera here so that you can see both send you this recording.

Okay, good.

So if you have an impact bag at home store here?

Yeah.

Send me one.

Okay, I'll to send you I guess I could pick it up.

We'll send you one.

So actually I think I've got one sitting in here.

I'll give you that.

you're going back it's not this It's turning my hips and that turns my shoulders.

Now again your shoulders are moving a little bit but you're going to feel this.

Yeah, there you go.

So now the big thing is, as I do this, loading my hip as I start down, I'm trying to not do anything with my arms or shoulders.

I'm using my hips to get into this position.

long as I keep turning maintain this.

Now again in the real world we're going to release it a little bit.

You don't want to be releasing too soon.

So your right shoulder has got to go down to be able to maintain this going to be maintained through turning.

So that's really the biggest thing is that you have to have enough rotation to keep moving that line.

Same thing I'm loading this right hip and now I'm coming down and turning what's driving the club.

So there's no flipping with my.

I'm not trying to with my.

I just keep rotating until both butt cheeks are visible.

That's what drives the club.

know I didn't get we both I have got more and knowledge I'm trying to do ever had.

Perfect.

well worth it.

I'm glad to hear it.

I feel good want to in Houston I can get a picture of the two of us leave.

Of course.

Of course.

Here's your got an extra impact bag here I'll just give you.