Lou Guzzi Golf Academy

Award Winning Instruction

Focus on what you need to do

By Lou Guzzi
A Philadelphia Section
PGA "Teacher of the Year"

With winter upon us, now is a great time to evaluate your golf swing and look to simplify some key fundamentals. Over the years in the golf business as an instructor I have noticed one common comment made by my students about the tour players. “Their swings look so simple and effortless. How can they make it look that easy?” Their observation is easy to explain. The best golf swings have been reduced to as few moving parts as possible, allowing them to repeat time and time again even under pressure. Most amateurs make swings that are to big with their arms swinging away from their body. The result is a swing loaded with a tremendous amount of motion and effort but very little speed. In the beginning it is hard for students to feel a swing that is more compact with their arms staying closer to the body. In an article this summer, David Duval, one of the best players on tour made this statement, “What I think is a nice three-quarter swing today is, in reality, a full swing”.

Imagine taking a string with a rock attached to the end. Holding the free end of the string, start swinging the rock with your entire arm from your shoulder. You will find that a lot of motion is being used to produce very little speed. Now take your elbow and connect it to your side and start swinging your forearm and your wrist. You will gain an incredible amount of speed at the end of the string with much less motion. It’s real simple. Less motion, more speed.

Here are some simple drills that you can do to help you feel this in the swing. In the beginning you will feel very restricted but as you get comfortable with the drill you will start to feel where the real power and consistency comes from.

Towel Drill

Take a bath towel and roll it up. Put it across your upper chest and under both arms. Start swinging back and through without dropping the towel. Don’t try to make a full swing. Make a swing that feels 75% or less in size. The key is feeling the connection between your arms and your bodies’ rotation as they work together. Hit balls with the towel using short irons only. Your goal is to build a swing that feels shorter and connected. Remember, this drill is not about hitting for distance, it is to get the body and the arms to work together.

Elbows Drill

The great Ben Hogan use to do this exercise for approximately twenty minuets when hitting balls. Address the golf ball with your clubface square to the target. Keep your elbows against your sides and start moving your body back so the club reaches waste high in the backswing with the toe of the club pointing up. Now rotate and transfer weight to the follow through so that the club is waste high in the follow through again with the toe pointing up. Remember to keep your elbows right against your side the whole time while keeping as much tension out of your hands as possible. You should feel the body working the club back and through without any minulipition from your arms or hands. If the toe of the club is up back and through you have achieved a square clubface throughout the swing and therefore, the ball has no choice but to go to your intended target.

Sponge Drill

This drill is very demanding but well worth the effort. You will need to use a sponge that is shaped like a peanut. They are automotive sponges used for washing cars and can be purchased at any Pep Boys, K-Mart etc. Take the sponge and place it between your forearms just above your hands. To keep the sponge from falling out you will need to apply pressure to the sponge from both forearms. This is not as easy as it sounds since most golfers have had the freedom to separate their elbows during the swing. Swing the club back and through again, approx. 75% in size. The purpose of the sponge is to keep your elbows closer together throughout the swing. You will notice that as you make your backswing your right elbow will be pointing towards the ground and as you make your follow through your left elbow will be pointing down.

My objective with this article is to try and show you how to build a golf swing that is much easier to execute and repeat on a daily basis. When performing the drills try to observe how simple the backswing and follow through really is. You should start to see how the backswing and follow through are simply mirror images of each other. In the backswing the body rotates and the right elbow folds, in the follow through the body rotates and the left elbow folds. Keeping your head steady throughout the backswing and just past impact while folding you elbows properly during the rotation eliminates problems that otherwise would be happening in the swing. I tell all of my students, focus on what you know you need to do and not on what you are doing wrong. The rats are not the problem. It’s the trash. Eliminate the trash and you will eliminate the rats. If you want to learn more about the fundamentals stop by our indoor academy and enjoy a wonderful winter working on your swing.

Back to media page