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Clubface is KING
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You want to become a ballstriking machine? Then know that Clubface is King and this drill is how you learn to control it.
When you look back at Tiger's career, there's one thing that absolutely defined him more than anything else, and that was control.
That guy had control over that golf ball, and that is for one reason, and one reason only, clubface.
The clubface control that Tiger had was second to none, and he was able to hit shots that just seemed virtually impossible, and that's because he understood the founding principle of what the goat code is really all about, and that is clubface is king.
Everything else is queen.
Nothing is important as controlling the clubface, And the entire GOAT Code program is built around the idea of teaching you how to have absolute control over that clubface.
In this video, What I'm going to show you is how to get a true understanding and a visual that you can practice and take with you to the course.
To understand what you're doing with that clubface on, not just short game shots that you're working on now, but every single swing in the bag all the way to the driver.
So all you need is a club.
I've got a shaft here.
If you've got, you know, it's a club, you lay on the ground.
You can have a two-by-four or a piece of tape.
Any straight edge is all you need to really start to understand how to take complete control over that clubface.
And what you want to understand about the movement that you're working on in this chipping stroke is that through the hitting area, What we're trying to create is a clubface that is absolutely dead, square or perpendicular to the shaft and moving straight toward the target as long as possible, within reason.
Now, of course, the club is working on an arc.
It's being swung on an arc.
So you can't keep it four feet straight down the line.
But what we're trying to create is as close to that as we possibly can without giving up any speed.
So what you're going to find is, as you're working on this drill, that you're going to have that Clubface square as long as possible.
And I'm going to teach you a couple little tricks that are going to help you do this very consistently.
So all you're going to do at first is set up to the shaft with your clubface perfectly square.
So perpendicular to the shaft.
And as you start making little chipping strokes, What you're going to find is that if you swing your shoulders flat, or you turn and rotate your chest like this, the club is going to want to close in relationship to that shaft.
And it's going to work to the left.
If you hang back off your right foot, it's going to want to work out to the right a little bit.
And the clubface is going to open.
So what we're looking for is that perfect sweet spot in the middle.
So with my weight stacked over the lead side, 60, 70% on the lead side, as I work the club back in my stroke, I'm going to imagine that it's going straight down that line.
Now, of course, it's going to go to the inside a little bit, but I'm going to imagine that it's going straight back on that line.
And then as I come through, this is where it really matters.
As I start working the club back through the strike, I want to make sure that that clubface is dead perpendicular, dead square to that shaft.
And then I'm going to work it down that line as long as possible.
Now, what you're going to see in order for me to do that, what do I have to do?
I have to have side bend.
My spine has to be tilting this way.
The more side bend I create, the lower I get my right shoulder as I'm working through the strike, the longer I can keep that clubface square.
So if I just start from impact and work my right shoulder, my right hand, my right arm, you can see that the club is going to stay on that shaft for a long time.
The moment I turn flat, the clubface rotates and comes across.
The moment I hang back, it does the opposite.
So what you're trying to feel is, How do you have to move your body in order to keep that clubface working straight down that line as long as possible.
Now, again, there's no need to exaggerate this with, you know, a four foot straight club path.
That's not the idea.
We really only need a really small section, but the more you practice this, the longer that you can keep it square, the easier every shot in the bag is going to be.
And as you're working towards the skills assessment challenge for chipping, what you're going to find is that in order to be able to pass that test, you've got to have that clubface and path working the exact same way every single time.
And that's the whole point of this, because as you move from, you know, A chipping stroke stroke to a pitching stroke, where you have more wrist hinge, to a little wedge swing, to a closer to full swing, I am visualizing the exact same thing.
I'm working that club down, creating that side bend and getting my right hand to my palm, basically facing the target for as long as humanly possible.
And as I do this, the clubface rotation is minimal.
Now we're going to have some, of course, and as we add speed, you're going to have more, but while we're practicing at slow speeds with these chipping shots, We can really work on holding that face square and keeping it working down that line as long as possible.
And one key thing I want you to work on when you're doing this drill is holding your follow through, holding your release.
When you're doing this, if you're just doing this and your arms are flipped over, you have no idea what you did and you can't check yourself.
So make a stroke and stop right here like this.
And you'll see that my club shaft has barely even reached vertical at this point.
My right wrist is still hinged back and I'm working that club down the line and holding it behind my hands.
I don't want to release it yet.
This is how you're going to keep that Clubface square as long as possible and working down that straight line path as long as possible.
Once you can do this, the ball is going to come out the exact same way.
It's going to come to do this.
And to remind you, this is the exact same motion you make with the driver.
It's all exactly the same.
Now, one key to doing this drill correctly and getting that club to travel down that, as I mentioned, was the side bend, but it's really part of how you move your hips and your core.
All of this stuff is connected through the fascia and it's all working together.
And so what I want to give you now is a little tip on how to move your hips in order to work with this side bend.
So that you can see how long you can keep that club tracing down that line.
And the key to this again is your weight, your pressure.
It has to be on the lead side.
Most of the time when I'm working with students and they kind of are hitting fat and the club face, they don't have any control and they're flipping the face over, their pressure is way too much on the trail leg.
And so what you've got to find is that you've got to get your pressure over your lead side to where you can keep your right foot basically almost elevated in the air.
And a great way to practice this is to put all of your weight on your lead foot and then pull your right foot back, get it back out of the way.
And this will help make room for your arm and help you understand that.
This side bend that I'm creating and my hip pelvic shift back to the lead side are directly related.
So as I want to move my arm down into that GDP position, my hip has to shift to the left.
And as I do that, you'll note that my pelvis is beginning to rotate a little bit.
Now this is key.
And this is why I want you to pull this trail foot back is because a lot of times, again, when you're, If you find that you're hitting them left and you're finishing like this with your chest kind of out over your toes, it's almost always because you're pushing incorrectly off this trail foot.
And as you start pushing hard off this foot, your right shoulder is going to go flat.
You're going to start smothering the ball and everything's going left.
It's not this motion.
It's this motion.
Notice as my hip moves laterally and it's going to begin to rotate, and I'm not pushing off my right foot at all.
I've got it out of the way here.
I'm pivoting on this left hip.
And so now my hip is well out past my foot.
The center of my hip socket is in neutral joint alignment right over the center of my ankle.
But that a lot of times people don't realize it's your hip socket is further in than, you know, the outside of your hip outside of your leg.
So you've got to get this hip further over to the left.
And that makes it easy to pivot and also makes it easy for you to get into side bend, which allows you to move into GDP without side bend and this hip moving out of the way, your arm has no room.
And so what I see all the time is people start kind of pushing off the right foot.
They start shifting their hips backwards like this instead of laterally forward toward the target.
And then their arm has no room because their hip is in the way.
So the club has to begin to close because your arm has to internally rotate to get the club back to the ball.
As soon as you do this, you're done.
You'll never pass a skills challenge.
You'll never move on from this because you can't control the face.
You'll hit the ball left.
You hit the ball right.
You'll just be timing everything with your hands.
But as soon as I go lateral and make room for my hip or my elbow, and I get into side bend, watch how long I can keep that club face.
And the more I keep introducing the side bend and keeping that right shoulder working down, the longer I can maintain this goat arm, This GDP position with my palm and fingers facing the target and my elbow pit facing out away from me.
And that's what allows me to keep that club face so quiet for so long.
And that's what allowed Tiger to become such a phenomenal ball striker and hit the ball exactly where he was aiming on every single shot.
More often than not.
And more often than anybody else for sure, because he wasn't timing this.
This is so hard to time consistently.
So again, it comes back to practicing on your lead side, pull your right foot back, work into that GDP position, get your right shoulder to your trail shoulder to go down, to work that club down that shaft or whatever you're using, a piece of tape or what have you, and then holding off this release.
And when you finish your weight, if you're doing it with just a normal setup, it's got to be more on the lead side, you're going to hold this club face back behind your wrist.
And to do that, you need to grip the club relatively firmly, like I talk about in the chipping drills, because if you're just holding it soft, the club's going to take over your hands and you're no longer in control of that golf club.
So make sure you get this hip to pivot out of the way.
And a good way of thinking about that, if you're not pushing off the right, which will drive your right hip forward, your trail hip forward, the way that you want to feel this is again, standing on your lead foot, pull your trail foot back and begin to pivot with making sure your hip is out past your foot.
Now, of course, you don't want to be out like this.
This is off balance.
You want basically a simple checkpoint as your first belt loop, give or take a little bit, should be dropped down right over the center of your ankle, give or take a little bit, that's where you want to be.
And that's what's going to give you the ability to pivot very easily and freely.
And the quicker that you can pivot, the faster everything else can work down to the ball and through the strike.
So make sure you're not pushing off the trail foot, but you're actually using the internal muscles on your thigh, your adductors to pull yourself around and your glutes or pull yourself around.
Of course, your core is firing to help rotate it.
All of this stuff is working together.
But what you don't want to see is that you're pushing this right hip forward, your trail hip forward, and that's going to get you close in the club face.
So work on this drill, start hitting some shots where you're working that club down that line.
You can see that I'm just, my wrists are not really doing anything at this point.
And in the chipping stroke, That's the primary difference between a chipping stroke and a pitching shot is that you just don't really have very much wrist set in a chip shot.
In a pitch shot, you have much more.
So we're working this motion and I'm just working it down that line as long as I can, by getting my hip out of the way.
And it's working in conjunction with side bend and the goat arm.
And that will give you complete control over that face.
And you'll get the ball to come out the same way every single time.
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