“If the footwork and core move properly, one can train the downswing as a natural reaction.” – David Lee
All golfers are concerned about finding their ideal plane and being able to train the downswing into an inside path. One-armed golf drills, which have been discussed at length in the various articles and videos above, significantly help a player to identify the plane that is ideal for their own personal body structure, and them alone.
Controlling what the arms do in the downswing is obviously of utmost importance, but what is not so obvious, is that getting the arms to do their job perfectly is determined by what your footwork and core do in the swing. In a proper downswing, the arms are simply dropped from the top of the backswing at the change of direction, and the rotation of the body (that is controlled by the core, legs, and footwork) holds the arms and club in a perfect plane coming through impact with the ball.
Training Your Downswing To Create Kinetic Energy
When you are studying how to train the downswing, the core, feet, and legs must get the body properly into the counter-fall at the completion of the backswing. The counterfall begins by allowing your body to fall towards your target while still opening up in the backswing and the power for the downswing comes from the ground up. The brain will instantly sense that the body is not in a position to release with effortless rotation, and the shoulders and arms will take over to provide the power, which will make the path vulnerable to unwanted change.
Remember that the brain will always find a power source that will enable the player to reach the intended target, and it doesn’t care where the power comes from within the body. Getting the arms to “behave” and function purely as “riders” in the swing, is totally dependant on having an alternative power source.
Study our Cross-footed and Transfer drills to properly train your core and legs, and your arms and hands will be free to provide feel, not power.
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