Tip Tuesday: Increasing Body Rotation

You see how the tour players do it, so how can you? Steve Dresser of the Steve Dresser Golf Academy at True Blue Golf Club in Pawleys Island, S.C. demonstrates the difference between how professional golfers and amateurs rotate their bodies through impact, and show some exercises to help you do it more like the pros.

 

 

So one of the biggest differences between tour players and the players that we teach here at our golf schools is the way the tour players rotate. We get so many players who return to the ball looking pretty much like they did at address. It just doesn’t look dynamic at all at impact. Whereas a tour player, you can tell if you stop them right down here at the bottom that they are indeed trying to project the ball forward. So, you don’t have to go out to the range and beat a bunch of balls all the time, but just do some things at home or outside if you want to.

These are very simple. These are some things I like to show people just to help them engage their body a little more, especially the lower body. If you take your club and just press it against your legs a little bit above the knee, just rotate to your left if you’re righthanded and the shaft should actually stay on both legs. The tendency is for people to go like this and it comes off the right leg. You can even see that from down the line. They go this way and not this way. And you can see footwork plays a major role in that. This right foot has to roll up. Your ankles are important. You’ve got to be able to roll that ankle and get up onto the toes of the foot and then your entire body faces in that direction.

A couple of other things you can do, just put the club into your stomach, the butt end. You can put it right in your belly button if you want to. Hold down here on the shaft and then simply turn back, turn through. Believe it or not, I’m not moving my arms right now and you probably think, well, of course you are. Yes, they’re moving, but they’re moving in response to my body rotating. They’re not going off and doing their own thing. If I did, I’d wear a hole out in my shirt. And then maybe even try to do that with a little more speed and this is just helps everything work in sync. Everything comes through together.

And then last, this is my driver. It doesn’t have to be a driver, but being the longest shaft in the bag works pretty well for this. You can just hold it down here on the neck clear of your left side and just rotate through. The tendency, I don’t know how many times a day we say, hang back and flip. People hang back their right side and then try to flip the club through and you can see that comes back and whacks me right in the ribs. So this again helps you get the feel for not relying on your hands so much and get your body turning through. If you want, you can even just put this right up against the bottom of your rib cage and just keep it there the whole time. Now we’re seeing a cooperative effort between hands, arms, and body, and not just a handsy swing.