“Combining these modes will remove a great deal of tension from your body.” – Daniel Lee
The initial purpose of this drill is to shrink the safety-envelope. The safety-envelope is a circle or ellipse through which we can move laterally in any direction, without falling or bending, when standing upright. When the feet are spread in a normal golf stance, the safety envelope is broader and allows the body to move in an elliptical manner. A spread footed stance also gives the brain a perceived sense of stability and encourages
the use of muscle in the downswing in a distance greedy individual – not you, right? Crossing your feet, shrinks the safety envelope to a very tight circle, and puts your body in a balance threatened position that will allow you to feel if there is any prolonged tension in the heave going back, or any muscular pull in the down-swing coming into impact.
Incorporating the front-route motion instead of a normal backswing will allow you to feel that your golf move should be powered through a core-sling rather than a hit. Start by crossing your right-foot over your left foot and make certain to keep your left knee bent with your weight on the back or hamstrings of your left leg. It is very important that the left knee remain bent throughout the swing or you will not be able to fall backwards into your counter-fall and free your mass to rotate properly through impact to sling the arms and club.
Begin the drill with the club back at about 8 o’clock or about two feet behind the ball. Swing the club over the top of the ball and over your head with your core, without your arms moving independently or at a faster speed than your core. As your shoulders turn back and reach the same point that they would be at the top of your normal backswing, you want to then drop your arms in a complete dead-fall. As they begin to fall, allow your counter-fall and turn to sling your arms and club through impact to the completion of the swing. If you fail to counter-fall and rotate through with your lower-body, the arms will drop and the club will hit the ground behind the ball. The softness of the arms starting down, and the lack of resisting arm tension, enables the player to move all the body mass effortlessly through impact.
Because of the balance demands of this drill, it is easy to feel how the core and even the feet are controlling the swing. The more you feel the motion of the swing coming from the feet and core turn, the easier it will be to let the shoulders and arms remain quiet. When practicing in this mode, you can hit some of the purest shots imaginable, and achieve about 90% of the power of a normal swing. This is one of the best drills possible for learning to apply power correctly in a pure “Gravity” golf swing.
