The 9 to 3 Drill is the key to working on the Rotary Swing Tour while on the range actually hitting balls.
While it is much quicker to create new movement patterns without the distraction of hitting a ball and swinging a club, at some point you must begin transitioning to the real world — and this is THE drill to guide you through that transition. Whether you reinforce it with a free AI swing analysis or groove it on the range, mastering this drill changes everything about your ball-striking.
At address, note the red line drawn up from the center of the ankle.
At the "9 o'clock" position, you can observe that the hips have shifted slightly away from the target and the body has turned away from the ball.
The crux of the golf swing that should be mastered during this drill is getting the lead hip back into neutral joint alignment so the hip can rotate properly through impact.
At impact, the shoulder, elbow, wrist, hip, ankle, and knee on the lead side align into neutral joint position.
You can see this position demonstrated by an elite tour model above.
At the follow-through position, the club has fully released, yet the arms remain in front of the chest throughout.
"I love this drill and it will now be part of my pre game warm up - a great way to get striking and weight shifting warmed up."
-James H. | Oct 8, 2012 | Nassau
Video Transcription: Golf Biomechanics - 9 to 3 Drill
The 9 to 3 Drill has been something that we've discussed extensively on the website, in the forums, and especially at clinics. Students who have attended the clinics have spent significant time learning how to execute this drill correctly — because it is 90 percent of the golf swing.
If you can perform the 9 to 3 Drill correctly, the rest of the swing is just small details that have minimal impact relative to this core motion on your overall golf game and ball-striking quality.
Long story short, it is very much worth your time to pay close attention and understand what you're about to learn and how to do this drill correctly, because this is how you want to practice and how you want to warm up until you have fully mastered it. As stated, it is 90 percent of the golf swing.
The 9 to 3 Drill is essentially taking the club to the point where it is parallel to the ground — or, if you're picturing a clock face, it moves from the 9 o'clock position to the 3 o'clock position on the other side — and doing everything correctly in between, particularly in terms of the body movements being trained.
The fundamental structure is Move 1 and Move 3.
The first piece involves doing the takeaway correctly, and there are three checkpoints here. First, pulling your trail shoulder back — focusing on that trail shoulder blade to create rotation so the upper body turns while the hips remain anchored. Second, pushing your trail heel into the ground to activate the trail glute. Third, keeping your arms in front of your body throughout. That third point is best seen from down the line — hands should stay in front of the chest, not drifting behind it or getting way out in front.
If you simply keep your arms quiet, that is all you are trying to accomplish in Move 1, or the first half of the 9 to 3 Drill.
The second half is where most golfers struggle. This is the crux of the golf swing: learning how to properly shift your weight back to your lead side and initiate the early phase of downswing acceleration.
Once you are loaded into that trail-side position, you will use your lead side to shift your weight — specifically your lead hip and lead glute — getting your weight back over your lead ankle. As you begin to turn from the lead oblique and hip area, that rotation will pull your hands down into impact, and then you release to approximately 3 o'clock.
The ball is not going to travel very far at first, and that is intentional. You are trying to control the movement pattern, not maximize distance. The sequence is: 9 o'clock, shift, impact, 3 o'clock.
That is all you are doing. At first, you may only hit the ball 10 yards. Starting with short chip-shot length swings is strongly recommended so you can learn how to execute the movement correctly — because returning your weight to the lead side while keeping your head behind the ball and arriving in a proper impact position is genuinely challenging at first. If you want to see how your current impact position measures up, try a free AI swing analysis to get instant feedback on your mechanics.
Let's take a look at the drill in action — first a short version, then the 9 to 3 Drill with wrist hinge added.
After a couple of practice strokes focusing on the correct positions — follow-through, arms in front, wrists releasing naturally with the momentum — you can begin to feel some flow in the motion. The further you hit the ball, you will pass 3 o'clock slightly, and that is fine.
If you can learn to control the finish so that your arms arrive at the 3 o'clock position, that is where you want to begin.
From there, it becomes a lead-side movement — releasing downward, finding some flow, and letting the swing develop naturally. Now go ahead and hit one.
It is a short shot. Releasing through slightly past 3 o'clock is acceptable as long as all the other movements are correct — just a small amount of momentum to allow the club to release fully is perfectly fine.
The next progression is adding a small amount of wrist hinge. The movement is identical, except you will cock your wrists going back and allow them to release through to the other side. This simply allows you to generate more clubhead speed.
That is the entire purpose of the wrist-hinge variation — this drill will start to feel repetitive after a while, but it is critically important that you invest the time in it. Once you want to start hitting it farther, by adding wrist hinge and getting properly coiled while still executing the 9 to 3 Drill correctly, you should be able to hit the ball approximately 70 to 80 percent of your normal distance. If you want to compare your drill progress to a proven movement model, the GOAT Drill video lesson is the perfect complement to this practice routine.
The same sequence applies — 9 o'clock, wrist hinge, release through.
Everything is identical, just letting the full release happen — 9 to 3 Drill, same fundamental movements throughout.
The key checkpoints to verify when reviewing your own swing on video: make sure you are loaded into the trail side with the hips staying relatively quiet in the backswing; more importantly, confirm you are getting your weight back to the lead side, arriving in a solid impact position through the hitting zone, and keeping your arms in front of your body from start to finish.
If you can execute this drill correctly, you will learn to compress the golf ball in a way you never have before, and it will make a tremendous, lasting difference in the quality of your ball-striking.
Watch part 2 now to see how you're moving your body in the opposite direction of the pros!
9 to 3 Drill
Hands are in front of the chest
Weight shift
Try to finish here
Wrist hinge
