AXIOM Short Game & Distance Control
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The AXIOM isn't just for your full swing! Learn how you can combine the rhythm and flowy feel of the AXIOM with your approach shots and short game to save more shots!
The Axiom is a pretty amazing, right? It does so many amazing things in your swing, helping with rhythm and tempo, but I've got two more special surprises for you today that these benefits will actually do more to help shave strokes off your game than perhaps anything else. And they have to do with the scoring clubs. And we were talking about that, not just talking about your wedges, but I'm talking about all of these clubs that you're hitting into the green, where you really need to be precise with distance. And a lot of times that means taking a little bit off or perhaps getting a little bit more out of that seven iron eight iron nine iron than you normally would on your stock shot. Now for most golfers, this is a struggle. And so if you feel that you have a really hard time controlling distance or getting just a little bit more taking some off, don't feel bad because what I'm going to share with you today is a quick learning hack that will help you dramatically increase your, your control over the distance that you hit these clubs, and you're not quite hitting them full, or you need to add just a little bit more, and I'm going to tie into an existing movement pattern that you have already that works deliberately with the Axiom to make sure that your distance control becomes automatic without you having to think about it at all.
Now, if you're like most golfers, perhaps what you've learned is the old school way of thinking. Okay. If I want to take a little bit off my 60 degree wedge here, I'm going to go back to nine o'clock and perhaps that's not quite my, my full speed and that's going to hit it perhaps instead of 95 yards, it's going to go 75 yards, or if I want to go back to eight 30 or what have you, but I don't know if you're like me, but I tend to struggle thinking about backswing thoughts, because what I really want to be doing is thinking about striking the ball and sending it toward my target. So thinking about anything going on back here tends to be a struggle. And most golfers that I've worked with over the years have found that to be the case. So instead of thinking about what's going on back here behind you, what you need is a feel that allows you to kind of focus all of your effort and energy into what you're actually trying to do with that ball and how hard you want to hit it.
So instead of thinking about going back to eight o'clock nine o'clock or what have you, and having these mechanical thoughts in the backswing, I'd like to give you a field-based way of doing it. And this is also a really cool learning hack because it ties into a movement pattern that you already have, which is one of my favorite things to do, and try to figure out what I'm teaching students is, what existing movement pattern do you already have that I can tie into that will speed up the learning process dramatically. So if you've watched some of my YouTube videos where I'm working with professional athletes, like NFL quarterbacks or baseball players, I will typically try to tie into a movement pattern that they use all the time, because it's very well developed. It's a movement pattern in their brain that they can recall anytime they don't have to think about it.
So if you're used to throwing with your right hand, like a football quarterback or a baseball pitcher, I will tend to try to tie into that movement pattern so we can speed up the learning process and leverage the assets that you already have. The same thing is true when it comes to any other part of the game. So for instance, with distance control, a simple learning hack is the Axiom. The Axiom is actually a deliberate hack on something that you've probably been doing for many, many years, and that is driving. If you've ever driven a car. And I'm certain, most of you have, if not all of you and spent a lot of time driving, you've learned to refine the control and sensitivity and speed input of your right foot. And so for right-handed golfer, which is the majority of players, you've been developing this skill as an asset for years, you just never knew how to take advantage of it.
And that's what I'm going to show you today is how can you take advantage of this very refined skill set to help you with your distance control? And then in a moment, I'm going to talk about how it ties into you never chunking a chip or scolding a pit shot around the green ever again, but that we're going to talk about in just a moment for right now. What I want you to think about is when you're driving a car and you learn to squeeze the throttle and back off the throttle, you don't just jump off the pedal or Florida every time you're always taking just little finite increments of how much throttle that you give the car. And the same thing is true. When you break, if you're breaking with your right foot, you squeeze the brake pedal, and then you slowly let off, you don't just pounce off the pedals.
That's a skill, that's something that you have refined and you probably weren't very good at it when you first started out, especially if you learned like I did how to drive a manual transmission and you're learning how to dry slipping out that clutch and giving it just the right amount of gas. That is a skill. And that's something that took time to develop, but you now own that skill because you've done it thousands and thousands of times, and you can tie that into your distance control. How so? Well think of it this way with the Axiom, we're talking about this clockwise pressure shift around the, the right foot. And as we're doing this, we start to get this butterfly effect. As you remember from the video, how everything starts to flow and have rhythm and sync to it. But it also has a pace and this inherent pace you are in the driver's seat of.
So for instance, if you want to take a little bit off your 60 degree wedge, instead of thinking about, okay, instead of going all the way back, I'm going to stop at nine o'clock. That's such a hard, mechanical thing to think about while you're also trying to feel what you're trying to do. Those typically don't work real well together as you've probably experienced, but if you can focus on all feel, then all of a sudden your brain is clear to focus on the target and the objective, instead of having to think all these mechanical things. So think instead, or feel instead how quickly you move that pressure in that clockwise circle to control your distance instead of where your arms go in the backswing. So for instance, if I wanted to think about, or feel taking this 60 degree wedge and taking 20 yards off of it, I can use my senses.
I can use my feel and my eyesight to get a perception of where that target is, and then start to feel how quickly I move that pressure shift around my foot. And what's cool about this is that it keeps you from being very armsy with your wedges. If you tend to take really deep divot with your wedges, this is even more important for you because when that happens, your lower body tends to stall out. And so you're starting to just kind of swing all arms and shoulders like this. And I'm certain, you've probably felt yourself kind of swinging wedges like this. And it leads to a really steep divot when you're using your lower body as especially a little talk about more on these chip shots and pitch shots, you start to naturally get your weight off your trail side. It starts to naturally flow into the lead leg and you don't have to think about it.
You don't have to think about shallowing out your angle of attack. It happens as a by-product when you use this pressure shift of the Axiom. So instead of thinking arms back so far, you just start to feel, what is it going to take to get this distance to go this way? Do I need to move a little bit faster or do I need to move a little bit slower? If I want to add a little five yards to my wedge shot, instead of taking five yards off, I focus on moving this pressure shift a little bit more assertively. It gives me a field-based way to control distance. And here's the ironic thing, even though I know most amateurs have probably at one point or another, been taught this idea of swing back to a certain point on a clock face or what have you. And that certainly can work.
I've done it myself out of all the dozens of tour pros that I've ever worked with. Not a single one has ever told me that they've used that technique for short game, for distance control, not one tiger woods from anybody else that you've ever heard. Talk about it, who are the highest level of the game. They always talk about feel and feel is such an important part of the game when it comes to scoring. So when you understand that the Axiom is all about teaching you that field, while also helping you with learn proper fundamentals of the dead drill program, then you're learning how to control the ball and control your distance, just like the pros. So take this note, go out and practice and feel what you could do with your pressure shift, how quickly you can do it, how slowly you can do it and how that affects your distance based on feel rather than a mechanical thought.
Now, let's talk about how the Axiom is going to help you never, ever hit a crappy chunky chip shot or blade a shot across the green again. So now that you have a field-based way to get a distance control in your game and learn how to add a little bit to that shot, or take a little bit off, let's talk about how the Axiom can help you with your short game, because this is the quickest way to save a lot of strokes, really, really fast, most golfers, just like how they were taught distance control through this mechanical structured thing. A lot of times they're taught chipping and pitching the same way. So let me ask you if you've ever been taught that you should do this, or perhaps you do it now, you play the ball way back in your stance, get the shaft forward-leaning and then you just chop down on it like this. Well, that obviously leads to a very steep angle of attack. And that is detrimental, especially if you don't have the greatest field in the world for the shot, because what's going to happen more often than not is. You're just gonna lay the sod over the ball because you're leading with the leading edge, which is very sharp at once to dig into the ground. And so now all of a sudden you've got to clip that ball
Just perfect
In order to hit a decent chip shot. So that of course creates tension. That creates fear. We're putting so much pressure on ourselves because the margin of error for mistake is so small with the way that I teach chipping and pitching is very, very different. And it works directly with the Axiom. And it's also exactly how every single tour pro that I've ever, ever worked with has done the same thing. Never have I ever worked with a tour pro who chips like this. I've never seen it. And perhaps I just haven't worked with the ones who do, but out of the dozens that I have worked with, most of them all chip in a very different way than way. The amp typical amateur is taught to chip. We actually moved the ball up in our stance and get the shaft more vertical and have the ball more forward with a narrower stance, because this allows us to use our hips and our knees to create some fluidity in the movement, which helps shallow out the angle of attack.
As we move our pressure forward a little bit, versus just staying here, getting way on your left foot and then just chopping down on it. It doesn't make any sense to do that because that's just going to create, again, a very, very small margin of error. Whereas if I'm chipping with the club more upright and I'm going to be able to use effectively the bounce so that the club won't dig, but it will just glide through the turf. And so now what I can do is I use my little Axiom movement. I feel the same thing I do in the real swing. And this is another little learning hack for you in an ideal world. Our chipping stroke, our little half wedge shot. Our full wedge shot are all the way up to the driver would have the same basic underlying mechanics. And that's, what's cool about the Axiom and the dead drill program is they work together to give you a simple set of fundamentals that you carry through every club in the bag and every shot in the bag.
Because the last thing you want to do is have to master five different golf strokes. You got to putting stroke and a shipping stroke, and then a pitching stroke and then a half shot and all this stuff. That's crazy. It's just way too much work. Let's try to get them all to be the same, because if we have the same underlying fundamentals, when we're working on our short game, we're actually improving our drivers swing because the same movement that we're going to use, this Axiom pressure shift, this flow of movement and energy throughout the swing is going to be practiced on the short game and will apply directly to every shot in the bag. So we're learning the same thing. We're continuing to reinforce this movement pattern so that it flows throughout every club and with shipping, it's no different. I actually take a pretty square stance and I'm going to use that little pressure shift.
I'm just focusing on my foot movement as I do this, I'm going to exaggerate it. So it's kind of easier to see, but as I'm doing this, I've got rhythm. I've got a little flow to my chip stroke instead of just this, which doesn't look natural at all because it's not, but you watch me hit a little pitch shot. My hands can stay soft because my energy for the stroke is coming from the Axiom movement of my pressure shift and my foot, which has this butterfly effect that gets my whole lower body moving. So all of a sudden, my whole body's in rhythm and sync rather than just holding my body rigid and just chopping down on it with my arms. So instead feel the feet, the same Axiom movement with your chipping stroke. Of course, it's going to be much more subtle. I'm exaggerating it.
A normal chip shot would be like that. It didn't look like a lot, but I still felt the same pressure shift that gave me rhythm and tempo for my chipping game and my pitching game. And of course, we go way more in depth on the chipping and pitching and the dead drill program. But what I want you to understand is I want you to start to feel and practice this even in your backyard, just go out, grab a wedge and just feel if, what would happen to your chipping stroke, if you added a little pressure shift and it's very subtle, it's very small and it's very feel-based. But as you do this, you'll see how all of a sudden you're chipping stroke becomes to build into your half stroke to your three quarter swing to your full iron shot, all the way up to the driver. You're continually reinforcing the same movement patterns,
And the more reps you get, the more competent you're going to be at it.
Michael
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Michael
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Jim
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Scott
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Peter
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Martin
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Chuck
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Marcel
Chuck (Certified RST Instructor)
Kenneth
Chuck (Certified RST Instructor)