Your Golf Swing Should Be a Two Wall Swing
By Dr. T. J. Tomasi, Keiser University College of Golf Senior Faculty and Director of Research
When you make a golf swing, mental images (the pictures you draw in your mind) let your muscles know what needs to be done. In this way, what you see on your mental screen helps you to understand what you’re trying to do.
Horse and Rider
An image I often suggest for my students involves the following: Picture a horse and rider moving away from a wall with one end of a 60-foot coil of rope tied to the saddle and the other end anchored securely to the wall. The horse gains speed, the rope rapidly uncoils until it goes taught in a bone-jarring tug, and the horse stops dead in its tracks. As you can imagine, the rider is flung (released) from the saddle, continuing alone in the direction that the rider and the horse were traveling only a fraction of a second before.
Now reverse the situation so that our horse and rider are approaching a six-foot wall at full gallop, and just as they get to the wall, the horse stops dead. Once again, our helpless rider continues alone as they are thrown over the wall due to momentum.
In the first image, the wall represents your trail leg; in the second, the wall is your lead leg. The rider is your clubhead, and his separation from the horse causes the release of your clubhead through the hitting zone.
Mentally, imagine a player like Dustin Johnson.
Johnson’s legs are in perfect opposition; the right resists the left and vice versa. You could fit a small pony between them, but the gap will quickly close as the back leg releases toward the front wall.
At first, exaggerate the leg move by taking some swings where it feels like your trail heel stays on the ground creating resistance until your weight shift pulls it off.
Two Wall Drill
To generate the start of your downswing, feel as if, for a fraction of a second, you’re sitting on your back heel. This creates the power of opposition which at impact will be translated into clubhead speed.
But there are two things to watch out for:
(1) Take care to keep both knees flexed.
(2) Transfer your weight (pressure) to your front hip.
You want to let your weight empty into your lead hip joint while keeping your trail heel down until the hip switch pulls it up.
This is the post-impact position that is the result of a correct two-wall swing. That is, the butt of the club points at the middle of her pelvis, and both arms are straight, with the toe of the club pointing skyward. She’s run her trailside over a resisting front side, causing a powerful release of the clubhead to the ball.
Learn more!
Want more tips? If you want to take your game to the next level, contact our team at Keiser University’s College of Golf & Sport Management today. With our dedication and experience, together, we can elevate your game to new heights. Give us a call today at 888-355-4465.
