I'd basically have a one hundred percent success rate, Like no one gets worse, they all get better. Talking about your boat, I had a seventy I think he's seventy two years old when I started working with him, and he thought, you know, he loved golf, but he thought, this is it. I'm sixteen handicapped, I've lost it. I'm never going to get good again. Within eight months, he would back down to a seven. And it wasn't from
any magic stuff. It was providing the forces on the ball that the golf ball likes.
So today I'm talking to Bradley Hughes about Bun Hogan, Sam Snead and teaching a different way of teaching the golf swing. Bradley, thank you for taking the time to do this. I'm glad you're here.
Yep, You're welcome. Looking forward to it.
So I just read an article that you wrote. I know you wrote a book about Hogan, but talking about people trying to swing like Hogan, can you just talk a little bit about you know, Hogan swing and why it is so incredibly difficult for I think you said like nobody is really actually capable of doing it, at least you know an amateurs talk a little bit about that, and you know, tell us, you know your impressions of people trying to use Hogan swing.
Well, I think it's possible.
But you've got to understand that when people diagnose Hogan's swing, there's some footage, you know, probably not great footage of his swing. You know, in action, there's a little bit around, certainly not high definition, certainly not slowed down enough that you can really pinpoint a lot of things. So most Hogan swing thoughts are based off still photographs.
Pictures of Hogan. Now you've got to remember.
That a picture is just a spot in the swing. There's something that came before it, and there's something that's going to come after. So when you see a picture, a lot of people try and pose that picture. They try and get in that position. And whereas that position is something, like I said, that's already happened and something that is going to happen.
So you can kind of.
Put it down to still photographs or a moment in time, and they're not just a moment, they're not just what you see. I think a lot of people, you know, Hogan had the big angle coming down a.
Lot of lag as he would call it.
There is a jury out some He talked about having a cup wrist, and a lot of people try and say that he had a bow risk. But again that relates back to the still photo because basically, when you are coming down with a cupped wrists and you're releasing your forearms like he I believe he did, he puts force in and that cup now starts to flat.
Now that becomes more of a bow, but.
It's more of a achieved by force rather than achieved by trying to do it.
So that's why a lot of people have trouble.
You know, obviously he has a he had this big long back swing whether his hands, you know, the club was way down his back and everything.
People try and do that.
And there's there's you've got to remember, you know, even though there's you know, he talked about in the one of those Golf Life magazine I think it was, he came out with his secret, as he.
Called it, right, multiple secrets for it.
Last time I checked, he had like twenty five different secrets and they all blend in together. You know, he had an extra spike in his right shoe. He he talked about the you know, the way he fell in transition, he went into a straight or right leg, and as he pushed into that leg, he kind of fell laterally. Now people are teaching that, but they're not teaching it the way he did it. They're basically doing a bent right leg and then trying to get everyone to get
over there like he did. So there's a lot of formation, not without good intention. You know, you can only he can only teach what you know.
And I did a.
Big study after I stopped playing golf in two thousand and eight. And I will say that in my golf career, even though I didn't win as many tournaments, I would have liked my short game one and as great as it could have been. But I was always recognized as a good ball striker, and so I had the inside information. Maybe I didn't know what I was doing at the time to be able to do it, to be able to say what I was doing. But when I started teaching, I went deep dive into a lot of different swings
my swing. Obviously Hogan swings sneed swing, but I also went into swings that weren't popular, like an Arnold Palmer swing or there was a guy in Australia called Peter senior used to win every second or third tournament. He
had an ungainly looking swing. So I kind of tried to look at what these not so good swings or not revered swings, what they were doing that made them so good, And the similarities were pretty much as there was certain components that they did in their swing that even though they all look different and we should look different because they're all different sizes and shapes and builds
strengths in different areas. You know, I base stance with off my shouldered with for different clubs, so my shoulders might be bigger than someone else's. We're all going to look different. So I think that's one of the good things I've never done is if you get a lesson off me, you're never going to see me.
Put Adam Scott on the.
Other side of the screen and say, now look, Adam Scott's here and you're doing this. You should Well, you can't do that because everyone's different. But basically think I I'm not sure where it is on one of my websites, but I do have a comparison of myself and Ben Hogan, and it's almost identical, Like it's really really close to identical. Now, having said that, it's from the top of the swing
to the finish, it's not my back swing. My back swing was very different to his, but we did almost the identical same weight shit, the load of the club, that the arm release, the body overtaken, all these different things.
So from that standpoint, I think.
I have a pretty good grasp on what he did because I'm not guessing. I'm actually basing it off something I can do, and I've taught people how to not hundred percent again look like Hogan, but create the dynamics that he did. It's the important thing because the golf ball doesn't really care what your swing looks like. It cares about the dynamics that are put on the ball because the ball can't make.
Up it's mine.
Say hey, Josh, I'm just going to hit it over there because you're hitting the ball. You can't do that.
It's got to do what you tell it to do.
So how you know, are you obviously like you know you're playing, I mean, you were a terrific ball striker. How did you develop you know your swing? Did you have a teacher or did you were you kind of self taught or how did you you know? Kind of come about your swing.
I was very much self taught, but I was a good imitator. So I was very very good at Australian rules football. If anyone's ever watched that game, I got signed to play that when I was fifteen, I got signed to play pro. In that I could play cricket, I could do the beanbag toss like I can do most sports. And it's not because I'm more talented than someone. I think I was very observant, Like I could see.
I could see things that were happening, Like even to this day, if I kicked the football up in the air, you know, twenty yards in the air, I could tell within ten foot of it touch in the ground or hitting the ground which way it was going to bounce, because I could tell by the spiral of I can
see kind of the things behind what you're seeing. And I think that's what really helped me with a golf swing, in that I could see things that were happening, but I wasn't putting that down to what I was actually seeing. I could base both sides of that story or that photograph what was going on. And I also did have the tremendous opportunity when I was very young, like twelve years old. I first met Greg Norman and he'd let
me walk around practice rounds with him. So I would walk around the practice round with him, watch him, him and his caddy and me, Like there was no one else watching because it was early and no one. No one went to practice rounds back in that day. They just went to view the tournament. So I walk around, I would watch him, I would ask him questions. I would you know, get some observations off him, what he felt, what he thought he was doing.
And then at the end of the day, I'd.
Go back to my golf club and I'd go to the range and I'd work on all these things. So technically I based my swing off Greg Norman because he was aussy god at that time when I.
Was growing up and getting.
And it just worked, you know, I had I had the right foot slide like Norman had.
Now, I didn't mean to do it.
It just happened based on me swinging a golf club and using some of the logics that I.
Kind of saw he had talked to me about.
So that's how my swing was back. So I didn't have instruction, but we had a coach for our state team, but they didn't do a lot. They kind of just kept an eye on things and kind of told you how good you were and just said, all right, let's go win and things like that. As far as swing philosophies, I really had none. I just had Greg Norman. But Greg Norman copied off Jack Nicholas, so it was a pretty good pedigree, right. And then I also would mess around.
I'd have a Sevy Bellisteros swing, and I had a curt a strange swing and a kind of feel of different players. But my home built swing was definitely based off Greg Norman. And he was obviously phenomenal golfer and striker of the ball. People still talking or about how well he drove the ball.
Oh yeah, no, he was. I mean I remember when he was, you know, on top and he was unbelievable to watch, I mean, you know, and then hit the
ball just unbelievably. Now and now I know you you'd mentioned somewhere that you know, you you'd kind of and you just talked about it, you know, like his footwork talk a little bit, you know, just quickly about you know what about Norman's you know, we're the things that you know, you kind of copy it or that you picked up and what was it about, you know, his footwork that you thought was you know me, It's all great, so.
Anyone can go back and watch this. But I'm talking. You know Norman in the eighties, probably up to mid nineties, he changed his swing a little bit after that he got shorter and round her and when he worked with Butch haarm and Butch Harmon actually wanted to take that footwork away and he kind of succeeded. But now today we have Scottie Chefser doing it right. Gary Play used to do it, Ben Ogan did it. You know there
was this, so it's not it's not. And I actually laugh at watching people on social media or YouTube trying to do the foot slide move because again they're actually trying to do it, whereas when I did it, I didn't try to it. I didn't even know I did it right. He was just a pressure force. I'll tell you how it works. I would watch Greg Norman, like I said, you watch him back in the He's in the early nineties before he took the club away.
You could physically.
See himself push himself into the ground, so he was building a pressure into the ground, which I think helped him coordinate this wide takeaway. So that's what happened to me. So when you create a wide takeaway, you created a lot of download and you have to really use your feet to use that download. You know, most people angles are great, but if you can't get rid of them properly, they're worthless. You know, they're not worth it. So this
is what Hogan did as well. They physically pushed themselves into the ground. So when the transition came and they want to push, because remember if I'm throwing or jumping or shooting a basketball, I'm going to push into the ground to do that action, so that there is an
automatic push in the ground. But what people do is they don't build enough to start so when that push comes, their body sort of jumps up and down, so they get the early extension because they've basically gone from no pressure to a lot of pressure that the body can't handle. So what he did was he set it to begin with, and then when he added to it, his brain said, don't give that up, like, keep using it, and then
what happens is when you push into the ground. The other thing that I asked him about was how do you get that high finish? Because his arms would fly almost vertical to the end. He goes, I am on the way through, I am pulling my left side. And he was adamant that it was his left side. It was not his hip, and it was not his shoulder. It was his abs and obliques. He was pulling that
away from impact. And what happened is the extra foot pressure, the pushing, pushing, pushing, and never giving that up provided the resistance that his left side could pull on the through scring. Now, if you think about it, if you're still pushing into the ground hard and not jumping away yet pushing down push, push, push, so you're not just going vertical, you're actually going horizontal as well. Because your
feet are pushing towards one another. That would be the knees getting closer and all that that provides a resistance for this left side to pull. Now, if you think about it, when the left side's pulling, which direction is it pulling?
B side?
Okay, so the left side is pulling go ahead.
Way away and behind you? Yes? Yes, correct?
So which direction does his right foot go away and behind him?
Okay?
So he is pulling that foot out of the traction in the direction that that pivot.
Is pulling, So it's a it's a full pressurized reaction.
It's not trying to do it. So I think I saw Patrick Harrington trying to do any fell over and miss the ball. I think because he didn't he didn't
know the pressures. People are just trying to slide their foot when it's actually not And if you think about cheflets day, his key component is he never hits the ball left because his body, his left side, he's pulling harder than his hands or arms can do on the through swing, so he never crosses the club over, so he always hits it straight or cuts it, and that means he's pulling hard on his left side to create that,
and that's why his foot also goes. So it's actually very simple to understand, but very hard for people to do it. If they don't know that, they're just trying to do it rather than it be a reaction like the the vapor coming out of a plane, like that's just the reaction to all the engines going on the air coming in them so forth. So a lot of the golf swing is reaction by force. It's not actually trying to do something, and that's the way I teach.
I teach people to understand pressures, force, and a couple of main important things like the path four thirty path I call it.
I think that's what all these great players did.
They had the the club behind them, wristcock, arms rotated and the shaft would kind of cut them right across the middle of their body. So when they released their arms, the club went, the body went with the club and the arms, and there was a kind of no flipping.
Noticed.
Most of those players all hated missing left. I teach one of Arnold Palmer's grandsons, and he came to see me because his granddad had hated hitting the left, and he talked to him about a lot of things and everything that I talk about Arnie told him, so he went. He started coming to see me about four or five years ago and is playing fantastically well. But he understands it because his grandpa actually instilled it in him. So that makes me quite happy. That I never met Ben Hogan,
I never met Sam Snead. Obviously I met Greg Norman, but Arnold Palmer had one of the great after impact body motions of all time. It was really fun is how quickly he spun his left side away from the ball after he hit it because he hated going left. So obviously he did hit a few left like an Olympic when he lost, but he didn't like hitting the left, and he was doing everything to hit it hard.
But not hit it left. And that's kind of.
I think what all these great players achieve that they managed to take one side of the course out of play, but not from fear or from guiding or from being careful about it. They were still very aggressive, and that's built out of strong release foot pressure and then the left side, Paul.
For the average golfer, I'm guessing who comes to see you who's not Arnold Palmer's grandson, but who's somebody like me who's like a twelve right? Our problem is hitting it to the right, correct? I mean, are both people?
So it's not always, but yes, most most times? Yes?
Right? I mean that's that's you know, because it's the one hitting it. You know, hitting it left is the curse of the really good, of the really good golfer, and the hitting it right as the curse of the average golfer. So what do you you know for somebody who when they mishit are hitting it right all the time?
What you know? What's you know?
What do you do with somebody like that to help them?
So I have Once I stopped playing and I started teaching. I was not very good at teaching when I started. And I say that because I had no real philosophy. I didn't really know what I did growing up. Had ideas, but I basically taught. And I didn't have golf lessons until I was twenty six or so, and I'd already, you know, won of Master's and I'd played on the President's Cup and all this cool stuff really before it
had lessons. And there any reason I had a lesson or had some lessons was I was going to move to America, So I wanted to understand my swing better because I was not going to be able to go back to my home turf in Melbourne and practice and be in a familiar place and familiar company and do my routine. I was going to get out of my routine by moving to America, where I really didn't know hardly anyone. So I wanted to understand my swing. But no one could explain my swing because I had the
very wide backswing like Greg Norman. I had this massive angle down, I had the foot sliding, I had the high finish. I had all these crazy things going on that no one could explain because at that point in time, mid nineties were talking ledbetter. He was the man because he had Nick Price and he had Nick Feldo. So everyone was teaching their methods. Set the club, early, turned the shoulders, use the big muscles, all this stuff, and
that was totally different to what I was doing. So my swing got changed, not because I wanted to its because no one could explain what I was doing. So I got sort of poached into the method of the day. So that's where with my teaching, I've had people come and they have this great download, like this unbelievable angle coming down. One of the guys from Austraya I taught, he was he won the British Amateur in twenty ten.
I think Bridon mcphersony.
He came in saw me and he goes, I've had all these coaches they want to get rid of this angle. I go, dude, don't get rid of the angle. I'm just going to teach you how to use that angle. I want that angle.
There because it's actually a big bonus for you.
So now getting back to why you know people slice, the first drill that I teach them is I teach him to learn to release what I call the four thirty path. And to explain that, I always teach from the golfer's view. I don't teach from a camera view or my view. I always teach it from their perspective, so they've got to see down below and understand it from their eyes, not from the eyes.
Of a camera.
So the four thirty path is, if there was a big clock on the ground down in front of them, the golfer, the ball would be the middle of the clock, and their feet would be at six o'clock and the target line would extend from three o'clock to nine o'clock, so that three o'clock would be behind them to the right, and four thirty would kind of dissect the target line and their feet.
And that's kind of an inside approach, right, That's where all the the good players came from.
So amazingly enough, when I teach people that first drill, and it's not just hitting balls to get them to get a big impact bag, and they hit the bag, they do it one handed and they do it left handed, they do it right handed, they do it two handed. They get used to releasing the club from that point. So just about everyone I've ever done that with on a range, you know, just with a little bit of
drill of stuff, starts hooking the ball. So that's the thing that you want, right if you're a slicer, I teach you how to hook it, and then what I do is the post impact stuff, which is drill three that makes the body move faster on the way through, like we discussed earlier, and that's kind of like a fade, So you kind of hook it into impact and you fade it out of impact. And so well, let's call the hook in the plus and the fade out a negative a plus and a negative equal zero.
So you start actually getting straight ball flights. But a slicer comes negative to negative. Correct.
They would come from across the three o'clock line and exit over there at eight o'clock or seven point thirty, and someone that hooks it would basically shift the club off way to the right of target line and shut the face over and put hookspin on it.
So there's an opposite Remember I talked.
About opposite force is an opposite force in that you come from the inside, which is your plus sign, you exit to the inside, which is your minor sign, and they cancel one another out and they go straight. So that's why it's so effective, because you've got to turn a slicer into a hooker first, and then you breed them out of that and get it back to straight. And it's very simple. It's work. Obviously, bar who doesn't
want to get better? If you want to get better, I kind of jest with people, but not really in that out of thousands and thousands of lessons, by now, i'd basically have a one hundred percent success rate, like no one gets worse, they.
All get better.
Talking about your boat, I had a seventy I think he's seventy two years old when I started working with it, and he thought, you know, he loved golf, but he thought, this is it. I'm sixteen handicapped, I've lost it. I'm never going to get good again. Within eight months he was back down to a seven. And it wasn't from any magic stuff. It was providing the forces on the ball that the golf ball likes. And one of the big issues with golf instruction is too many people are
worried about what's behind them. They're all tinkering with their backs when they're all trying to come in from a certain spot or whatever. And then once they hit the ball, they think that's it, all right, the ball's gone off the club face, nothing matters. But the after impact has a huge effect on the ball because the ball doesn't just spit out of a force into entry. It spits
out of two forces, the entry and the exit. And if you can get that to be a plus and a minus, probably hopefully at the same speed.
Because most people are going to.
Swing harder at a golf ball than harder throw a golf ball, I'm teaching them to swing hard in both directions so that that ball spits out perfectly straight, and if anything, it may have a fade bias because the post impact is hopefully stronger than the entry, so they don't hit at the ball. And that really makes sense to me. That's something that I always did, because when I'm setting up to a golf ball, I'm looking down once, you know, like the clock, I'm looking straight down at
the ball. My eyes are in between the middle of the clock and six o'clock. But my target is over there at nine o'clock. My target's like way me. So why am I interested in? Why do I care about what's behind me? Because in if I am a shortstop in baseball, I pick the ball up, where am I looking? You're looking, You're looking at the guy and the bas to throw it. If I'm shooting a basket, I'm not thinking what I'm doing back here. I'm looking at the
basket and I'm going to the basket. So golfers somehow managed to get too many people thinking about what's behind them rather than what's in front of him. Because golf's a target game. It's not a golf swing game. It's a target game still, and if you can create the right reactions and the right forces to your target because you can't look there because you've got to look down at the ball, but you can have your your mind
over there. And that's really the biggest key to getting people to get better is once they understand the through part, which is drill three. It's basically done. Because I could make any backswing I wanted to get back to that full thirty path. I could go outside and drop it in. I could go inside and stay there. I could go wide and load it. I can do any of those backswings as long as I know what four thirty is and I've trained to hit it from there.
I hit it from there and I keep going on the way through.
And that doesn't mean I have to swing full out force all the time. I just have to match those two products of entry and exit that that they feel like they're the same speed, but kind of To make that happen, you always have to feel the after impact is quicker than the entry, because everyone has a hit instinct on the ball.
For like you, I've I have a fairly short backswing that I've made somewhat longer, and I, you know, would love to be able to have like a full backswing. You know, But are you is that you're saying that that is far less important.
Than as long as you have shoulders.
Yeah, as long as you get as long as you about shelters, and I don't care how far the hands are the club go. Now, people will laugh at this. We'll go back to Hogan again. If I said to someone, I'd probably get laughed off the stage if I said this, But I would typically say that Ben Hogan actually had a pretty short backswing.
Even at the driver right now.
Why would I say that because people go, oh, no, hang on, the club was over here, like John Daily, But if you.
Look where his hands were rare, his hands really didn't look that far. But the reason he went long.
I don't know if this is video or not that I'll try to explain it in words too, is at the top of the swing he had so much forearm rotation. See what happens to my wrist, So that's not the wrisk and that's the forearms rotating. So now the club goes over here, but his hands are only here.
So he managed to.
Work out how to do short arm travel with big turn and long club travel, so he had as much energy as he wanted to put on the swing.
Now he did swing short of his shorter clubs, of course, because.
In that day particularly, it wasn't how far you hit a nine on? It was how far do I need to hit a night? Can I hit thirty five yards every time? I don't need to hit a nine nine hundred and sixty yards? So it was a slightly obviously different game back then, but distance control was more important than distance, and that's one of the big arguments myself
and John Erickson, who we did the drills together. You know, we talked to a lot of people about this, and we say, all right, let's say you've got to pass seventy two course, and let's be perfect and break it up to thirty six hits and thirty six parts. You know, not that that rarely ever happens, but that's the perfect round of golf apparently. So out of those thirty six parts, how many parts are you trying to hit as far as you can? Now, how many chips you're trying to
hit as far as you can. You're not trying to hit a nine nine as far as you can. You're trying to hit it at a certain distance. You're not trying to hit a four iron as far as you can. You're trying to hit it two hundred and five five yards or whatever to the hole. So if we're not really trying to eat three woods as far as you can.
So let's say there's.
Fourteen holes that you need a driver or three wood on or maybe something like that, you know, four path for threes and fourteen other holes. Out of those fourteen holes, you may hit an iron or three wood off a couple of them. So that's gone. There's maybe ten holes left.
Now.
Of those ten holes that you've still got driver in your hand, how many you're trying to eat as far as you can. Probably two you might be cutting one around the corner. You might be just trying to get one in play. You might lay out, not hit one too hard and just kind of get it on the fairway. So out of seventy two shots, were really may be trying to hit two or three shots as far as we can. Yet that's become the whole game of golf, and that's it's.
A crazy CROs do right.
It's a crazy right because I mean that yeah, but they wouldn't do.
It if they had a well we won't get into the equipment. But obviously a big club that you can swing with less fear, you're not going to miss it. I mean, it's got trampoline effect.
It's got. But the courses they play quite wide open.
Now there's not you know, but you see you get them on an oak mont like last year's US Open, what one or two over or something. Now, when the rough's there and you can't do that kind of thing, they just become a bit more like mere mortals.
Like the rest of us, but it's yeah, they like scoring.
The PGA two are liked scoring, So set the courses up accordingly, and the guys here at three hundred and sixty yards and this becomes a wedge off.
That's about it. Wedge and powder.
So that to me is kind of boring golf. And I know I sound old when I'm doing that, but I'll saying that.
But no, I think we're about the same age, so I know exactly.
I just think.
You know, if you've got fourteen clubs in your bag, you should have to hit all of them. So typically, you know there's a past four path threes you might hit a long time with mid irons, a short iron, four part fives. There might be one you can't reach. You know, you're lay it up. There's two that you could reach with a fairway wood or a two iron or one iron back in the day, and one you know, if you bomb to drive, you might have five iron in. And then the part fours, if there's of them, there
should be three holes, three hit wedges in. There should be four Holdrey hit mid irons. It should be three Holdrey hit long irons. Because you want to challenge every part of everyone's game. But right now in golf, it's just challenging, smash it and have a wedge in and who basically who puts the best. And it's kind of like I said, people won't agree with that logic, but it's really how golf was and how it had been for four hundred three hundred years, however long it was.
So I don't see why golf had to change to become more athletic or the athlete. It's not so much the athlete. There was a certain skill to playing golf that Elie Jansen had and a Corey Paven had that you'll never see yet. I think that's sad because unless you are now six foot three you can swing at one hundred and twenty miles an hour, you're not going to make a living playing golf.
There is no old per semon tournaments.
There is worth money that someone that likes that game could go and invest and kind of have a career out there. There's nothing there, So it's it's kind of a weird get up or set up where golf has got to because it doesn't encompass all people anymore.
Right well, And and I mean you know also, I mean you know I've said this to a couple of people I've interviewed from what I you know, from what I've gathered, you know, because I grew up playing with persimmons, you know, and with with irons, with you know, little bleaded heads this big that you know, we're like hitting
a board. But like the average handicap, with all this technology and the changes in the ball, and the big heads on the club and all the all that have that, people have not gotten better, right, I mean for the right but but but the average, the average handicap is about the same, right, right.
And that's you know, due to a number of factors.
Of course.
Now people with the big clubheads swing for the fences because they want to tell their buddy they hit one three hundred yards, so you know, they hit it off, they hit it off the toe and it goes out of bounds, and they they lose like ten balls around because they're going for the Grand Slam rather than actually
playing golf. So there's a lot of you know, yeah, and you've also got your seven year old guy at the club who bunts it up the fairly, bunts it near the green, chips it up and holds apart and makes a par or bogie on every hole and he beats all these guys. It's yeah, the handicap is weird because if it was true, everyone would be better because the pros are now shooting twenty under every week. But
obviously there they get to do it every day. They've worked out all the technology to their advantage where they're getting the maximum launch with the least spin, and they're doing all these things that your average guy is not going to do, and of course they practice. Most amateur golfers don't really put in the work. I'm not saying everyone, but most of them just turn up and that's fine. But if you're going to do that, don't be serious about it, Like, don't get mad when you don't play well.
Now you're not going to put him work. You're not going to get a resolve.
So and that's why I love my drill stuff because you don't even have to hit balls. You can just work the drills and train your body to do something and it's going to change their swing for the better. I have a great example that, you know, even a world class athlete like Pete Sampras. I've done a few lessons with him in Australia and in California and like great tennis player, very strong, fast served volley, all one hand,
all that stuff. When he did my first drill, he stopped after about five of them.
He looked at me, goes, why does my arm hurt?
Oh?
Yeah, that's a good thing. I said.
That means you're now using golf muscles. He isn't entirely different muscles in different sports. So he's a big, strong guy. But he felt the burn of the first drill after five of them, which you wouldn't think he would.
So that's what I mean, is that that's how you change your swing.
Is I'm changing people's swings by work the muscle structure so they can react and do it accordingly, rather than just saying all right, you've got to be here and you've got to do this like it's not it's not the same. It's you know, I could teach some people like that, but it's not as effective. And also with the drills, even though I'm telling them what to do, they still have their own They gain their own observations from it as they do it. Because I'll get questions,
what should I feel this? I go, probably, yeah, that's fine. I don't see any issue, that's your feels. You know, I might say something different, but if that's what you feel and can see that, so it gives them encouragement and work, and like.
I said, it it just works.
So that's that's why I've never changed my philosophy in seventeen years. And it's not a swing philosophy. I you know, I could show you one hundred students and they all look different, but they're all doing the same.
Physics on the ball, right right, So yeah, so what I mean, you know, obviously being squared impact is essential, but what else? I mean, you know, what else are you know, does the average golfer have to you know, I mean I know they're all different, but you know, what are the things, you know, like the two or three biggest things that people come into you and you see, you know right away that need to be helped with with these drills.
Yeah, so the biggest flaws Basically, what would you classify as a bad golfer?
Twenty handicap and above?
Well, I think that's an average. I mean that's actually I heard somebody said that's an average golfer, right.
All right, So let's say twenty is not good?
I guess, Yeah, let's say try what is the degrading lane.
Right, So using that as a baseline, most of those people that handicap and above and obviously some below.
One, they don't turn enough. They lift. They just lift the club up.
They don't get any shoulder turn because they're trying to just get the club up here and they don't care.
How they do it. They just lift it up.
Two, they just lose angle straight away because there's a hit instinct. There's a hit instinct to hit the ball, but the better golfer hits it really late, and the poor golfer starts hitting early. So obviously they cast the club away, which normally equates to a couple of things. An okay player when they cast the club away may drop their arms behind them so they come from the inside.
But most people that cast the club away throw the clubhead outside the line, and they're just going to continually.
Come across the ball.
So we get cast becomes mainly slicing and casting, trying to hit the ball too soon, losing all the anger of the club basically is the form of fats and thin shots. Club's going to hit the ground before the ball or if they get jack of that they'll start standing their body up and then they just thin it as well, so they're kind of the main things. Obviously, some people don't have great grips, but I'm not a huge grip guy because Hall of Fame's phillips and junkie grips.
So is the grip of true fundamental, Yes to a degree. But again with people do the drill my first drill with the one handed, left handed, and then right handed. What happens is you can't do it with a bad grip, so it kind of molds their grip to where it should be without.
Them even noticing.
Because if I stood on the range you came to me for a lesson, I said, oh, your grip stinks, let's do this. It's a basic waste of the next fifty minutes because it's not going to feel good and it's not going to prob get much resulted. You're going to revert back to trying to get a good shot because the grip doesn't feel right. But when you do
the impact drill, there is no result. So you're working the form and all of a sudden, the grip starts to go where it has to go, and that would generally mean a little bit weaker left hand and a little bit more angled right hand with the fingers on top rather than you know, the claw underneath, which is not good at all for any golf of the right hand. Claw too strong.
Now let's talk about Sam Snead for a second. I mean what you know obviously, I mean for me, that is like, you know, I would you know, give up about the last ten years of my life if I could swing like that? So what what what can you know? What can what can golfers learn from watching sneed other than just how beautiful his swing is and you know how incredibly rhythmic and athletic and natural, you know, the way he swings the club is.
Yeah, So basically him and Hogan are very similar. Is a great In one of Sam's books, he has a description with a clock again clocks of good visuals, and he talked about trying to get his hands to only go to ten o'clock. So he's now talking at a clock that's upright, you know, not on the ground like we're looking at when I was talking about up behind him,
So twelve o'clock is now above his head. So he's trying to fill his hands only go to ten o'clock, but his shoulders feel like they turned to one o'clock. So again there's the shoulder turn thin, not the lift, so he's shorthands. Hogan had short hands. There, they're talking the same language. They did their downswing differently because Hogan went into a pretty straight right leg transition and fell forwards a little bit, but not with his top half.
He just fell forwards.
With his lower half, and that delayed his body action for later on, which again is perfect because that's after impave. You start pulling your body too soon, you're going to start casting and come over the top. So sneed did it more into a squat, And you can't do the squat unless you push it in your right foot as well, because if I push him down into both feet, the pressure goes that way, my knees kind of separate, they go out.
It's like he squat did again. That's why I hate people talking about get onto your.
Left foot, because you're going to get onto your left foot eventually.
But you've got to be able to.
Shift weight through pressure, not from just shifting weight, and that's one of the big things, right.
Yeah, So you've got to push.
Right because your body won't want to fall down to the right. When you push into your right leg, your left hip will counterbalance you and you balance yourself out. That's your body doesn't want to fall over, so you actually get left by trying to go right, which freaks people out.
But I've done a bunch.
Of videos about it, and they've kind of not made me famous, but a lot of people go, oh, yeah, that makes so much sense.
Of course, it makes sense because that's what everyone is doing.
You're going to get left now if you lose all your pressure out your right leg too soon. Again, Nay, you've lose resistance to be able to do the through swing with the left side, so that they were very much similar. Hogan talked about three right hands in his book and his videos or whatever he talked about. He wanted to basically hit as hard as he could with his right hand. Now I'm under the impression that's actually right forearm, but you end up feeling it in your
hand if I just use my hand. If I use my hand, the grip slows down. If I use my forearm, the grip speeds up, so I'm not flipped the matter and Sneed had the same diagram in his book again that he poured the power and I think he had it about eighteen inches before. Himpig said at this spot, I poured my right hand into the shot. So again they're basically saying the same thing. I don't think Snead was as good the after impact stuff as strong as
Hogan was. Hogan, if you look at this swing, his swing was very up tempo, right fast back, fast down, fast through. Now you can only do that if you're fast on the way through. If you think of Nick Price, fast back, fast down, fast through. So they can have a more upbeat tempo because they're so strong after impact with their body and everything. Now, Sneed wasn't quite as strong on the way through, so his swing had a bit more rhythm to it. It was slower because it's
like Ernie Els Ernie. He's not great on the way through. It looks beautiful, but he has a nice tempo and he creates a big arc, and he creates a lot of speed still because of his size, and then when he releases and all that, but he collapses a little bit.
On the way through. He's not as good on the way through. If he was, he might have been.
Yeah, he could have challenged Tiger, I think, but everyone has one thing that they're not that good at, whether it's swing, whether it's Jack Nicholas and the Great Chipper, you know, all these different things that there's kind of one thing that holds every gulf of ba. They don't give them everything set maybe Tiger got nil everything. Oh they weren't the best driver of the ball. Stuff like that.
So there's there's swing. Philosophies were very similar. They said important things the same, but their swings again looked different. And that's the that's the observation of whose brain is it coming from. Someone says it one way, someone says it another way, but they're basically trying to speak the same terms. They just have different ways of nunciating it.
Now in terms of you know, like going back to the footwork for a second, you know, and like looking at somebody like sneed or I'm trying to remember who you're talking about before. But oh, Norman, yep, I'm guessing. You know, like the average person when they come to you has no idea other than just getting their feet planted.
On the ground, right, no idea none. They don't even know how to use it.
But everyone says the swing works from the ground up, but no one knows how to do it right.
So so just I mean literally, you know, if you don't mind, just describe literally physically what like you were saying Norman was doing. Because even I mean, I'm you know, I'm slightly better than the average, but I'm not, you know. I always I'm like, okay, how do I use my feet here? And I never feel like I get what you're talking you know, like what they're talking about when they say, you know, pushing their feet into the ground, right.
So it can do it two ways.
So I have a product that I've used in all my lessons called it down underboard, and you put it between your feet and you grab it with the inside of your feet. So that's kind of teaching you the pressures because what you'll find is when there's something there to grip against, you can grip it firmly. It's harder to do it when there's this ground there because there's nothing to you know, compress against with your feet. So the board teaches you to squeeze inwards to provide the pressure.
I don't do it that. I actually just push downwards to the same tension level.
And let's say you know, like you said, the normal golfer just stands that he's not really doing it. He's got body weight, so that would be one out of ten. You know, there's tens as hard as you could do it. His body weight's giving him one out of ten just because he's there, and he might just push him a little bit or squeeze a little bit to get things going and that might get a two out of ten.
So if he's going back with a two out of ten in his feet and then that transition hits in where his brain nose, I've got to push downwards because I'm changing direction like I'm throwing, shooting and jumping, that too, now becomes a six or a seven. So there's a big shift in what your body is feeling. Your feet have gone from a two up to a six or seven, so your brain can't compute that and it wants to
just give it all up again. So that's where you see people start jumping in the air or sliding laterally too much.
Or you know, all that that body can't keep.
You can't add that much and then expect to hold it again, it's going to dissipate. So with the board there, what I trained people to do is start with at least a seven out of ten, and then when you push, that's seven now only becomes maybe an eight, possibly a nine. So now that shifting pressure in your feet when you press in transition, it's less, so your body doesn't react to it as much and it goes Ah, I want to keep pushing now because I've felt a little bit,
but it's not extreme. So now I'm going to I know I don't want to go from a seven or eight down to a two again because I started with a seven. So basically teaches them to keep using the ground for longer. Now, if you keep using your feet for longer, it means you push down to the ground, you're not going to stand up. And if you don't stand up, you don't have to straighten your right arm to hit the ball either, because you're not getting further
from the ball, you're getting closer. So now your right arm can be more stable. You don't need to straighten it the the ball. And then what happens is now your wrist stays better. Now You're right arms stays bamp like it was it a dress, and you haven't changed the pitch of the shaft from address to impact and you haven't changed the face, so it just becomes much much more consistent. And that's that's obviously the essence of golf is that we don't need to you know, and
everyone said this for Donkeys' years. It's not the one that it's the best shots. It is the one that hits the least bad shots or the bad shots are still okay.
Rights, And what is the average prace?
They hit three balls out of bounds, they top a couple into the drink, they're taking penalties, they're having two or three chips on a hole. It is basically wasting shots. So refew can hit the ball straighter, more consistent. And of course all these things I talk about create extra speed because forearms uncock your wrists that speed, the hands go faster through the ball, and they kick the shaft
flexed other than kick the shaft that speed. You generally line the club up on the ball better because you're rotating the center of gravity of the club onto the ball rather than just slapping it at the ball.
That's a better hit. That's more speed.
Now you're using the ground to pull your body from so that's more speed. So everything that I teach is it's speed, but it's also control. So you know, I've had many people think with the first drill, some people lose a little bit of speed because they're not using their hands as much and just flicking the.
Club at the ball. They're using the whole club.
And they haven't learned to do that with speed yet. But once they do the after impact stuff they start, you know, they pick up ten percent of their normal distance they go because they're now creating an accelerating club all the way through impact and beyond rather than just.
A velocitized club.
So it's pretty cool stuff to watch people change because and the way I do it is, you know, I have five main drills and I call them obviously one, two, three, four, five, but I relate it to like playing music. Pardon me.
First drill is called a sit there with a guitar.
And you go hey yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah, boring. But then you do coord B and you go bbbbb, and then you go AB, like you learn how to put the two together. And then you add the third drill, which is called C, and then you go footooball ab and they start making music. So you can't teach a swing all once because there's too many fine nique for night differences and things that your body needs to adjust to,
your brain needs to adjust to. And that's kind of why when people try and do a swing change, they'll get their camera out. I don't film much when I do lessons. I do a little bit and they just to show them the difference. But once, you know, after a month of doing the drill, then their swing actually changes. So I'm not going to film them that afternoon. It's not going to look too different, but the ball's going
to behave differently. So you know, people get their camera and they're saying, right, I am going to do this, and I'm going to do that, and they film it and they replay and they look and they go, that doesn't look anything different, And of course it's not because you're not going to change your swing by a thought. You've got to change the muscle structure of what's happening with your body in certain aspects to be able to slop the club deeper, or move the club faster than
the impact, move your body faster beyond him. You know, you've got to do all these It's basically strength training through repetition that then transfers onto the course or the ball, because you take the bag away and just put a ball on, you do the same thing.
How now I'm going to just go back to the feet one more time, so I get it. So since I'm not going to be jumping right, I'm not shooting a basketball right, and is it literally I'm just pressing my feet as hard as I can. And how can I do that for me? I mean, you know like it? I always feel like the last the free of my body is right, the last tuson I've got right, the better I sweat good.
But hang on one night you go on great point.
Yes, So the down underboard that I use, you train it between your feet.
Where is now all the pressure it's in your feet? Isn't that all the pressure?
Yeah, when you squeeze on the board, you're putting all the pressure on your feet. So that allows you to be softer in your shoulders.
And your arms.
So if you put But most people that have nothing in their feet, what do they do? And they get really tight upstairs and then they can't move or turn. So I just wanted to say that because you you kind of stumbled on the answer right there with what you were saying, can you remember the rest of what you're going to say?
So?
So okay, So how so what am I? What am I doing? When I stand up to the ball and want to get my feet into the ground like.
That, Initially.
You can't stand okay, so this is your press. Yeah, you can't stand there and press your feet while you're waggling and looking for So I would typically say, when I'm out of dress, I'm getting as comfortable as I can. My arms are soft, my feet are soft. I'm waggling to feel my wrists move, and yeah, not relaxed, because I think I think the hands should have a pretty good hold on the club. You don't want to grip the club lightly. If it's moving one hundred miles an hour,
needs some type of grip on it. And of course, again, if you grip a club to light when you swing, you're going to regrip it and strengthen it. So there's an extra element added in that you don't need. So why not just start with a firmer grip. So this is something that I did with Brendon Todd when we
were working on getting him out of his funk. He's right before he about five months before he won again, got his card back and one we did this drill, and I said, I asked him to rate his hands, his arms, and his feet at a dress before he hit a shot. He said, my feet are at two, my arms are a six, and my hands are a eight. I mean, all right, well that's not good. So I said, let's get your feet to a seven. Let's get your grip to a five. I'm talking out of ten, you know,
and your arms out of two. So we call it the seven five to two. So basically, now you've got the two things that are holding something. Your feet a hold in the ground. They have the most pressure, your hands are holding the club they have the second most pressure, and everything else is free to move. But of course it's going to tense up as you swing because you're creating motion, but it's never going to reach the standards because if your feet start a seven, they're going to
get to an eight or nine. If your hands start a five, they're going to get to a six or a seven. If your arms started two, they're probably going to get to a three or four.
So you're still.
Keeping the freedom in your swing, but you're using the force in the right spot. So before I hit a shot, and I'm waggling and I'm doing nothing, and I've looked at my target and I'm back to my checking my hands with my ball position and all that. When I feel ready to go, I push my feet and within a second I start my swing. So I don't think of it when I swing, I just ingrain.
I've worked on.
It enough to ingrain it so it for friends and it should And then I don't think of it when I swing.
I just build it in and go. So it's a pre set condition.
And the crazy thing is with this once you get really good at I'm letting my secrets out now, is if I want to hit a normal eye and distance, So I hit my seven nine even though I'm fifty eight years old now, I still hit my seven eye like one hundred and seventy two in the air, which is decent.
I could play golf.
Pity, I can't git my driver to go far, but my eyes I'm still pretty long with relatively speaking. So if I if I had one hundred and seventy to one hundred and seventy three four yards before I take the club away, I push my feet to a seven out of ten and then I swing and I will get that distance. Now, if I had to hit at one hundred and sixty four yards, I wouldn't swing slower. I just push my feet to a five before I swing,
and now my release can't work as hard. My feet don't push as much, and my body won't rip as hard because I don't have as much resistance in my feet. So I change distance out of my feet, not my swing.
That's really interesting, and that makes total sunse right because.
I further, I would push to a nine, And if I hit a driver, I'd push to a nine every drive if I want to hit it far, because that's going to make my swing function at its fastest. But when I do those subtle differences, it's only out of my feet. I swing the same length. I do everything the same. It feels like I'm swinging exactly the same. But my seven is my standard. My five out of ten pressure everything goes a bit softer, and my nine
out of ten pressure everything goes a bit faster. So then it's a way easier way to play golf because imagine standing they go, I had to hit at one sixty four, how far I've got to take the club to eleven fifteen. I've got to swing like it now, you're not thinking of your swing. Your foot pressure does it all for you. And of course, right swing works from the ground up. And if you understand that, it's really simple logic to do. And I know you sort of your eye could see your eyebrows go up. When
I've told about that. No one talks about it. I might be the only person that talks about that, because every time I show that to a student, their jaw hits the four. They're like, no way, I got yeap man, Because it's way easier to do every day. You know what a five or seven or nine. See, It's like you don't know what eleven o'clock feels or this, or how hard do I need to swing or do I need to swing hard? If I do it in the wrong spot, it just all balances out.
It's very cool, right, Yeah, that's that's really interesting. That's all I'll have to give that, because I mean, that is one thing.
I've done it, done that since I was twelve years old, right of course, so for me it's easy.
I don't even have to think of it now.
Of course, I don't practice much anymore, play much, so I'm sure my legs are weaker than they used to be because I don't use them, so I'm not perfect at it now, but I can still go out and do it basically every day and it's still understand how to do it, and it still works even without practicing doing it. But you have to ingrain it in there first, so it becomes a reaction and not an action.
Last question, if you if you know average, you know, say fifteen handicap walks under you or doesn't you walk into you just as you're talking to them, and you know, a coffee shop or restaurant, whatever they say. If I had to think about two things that to work on without you seeing the swing, like two things to make me a better golfer, swing the club better, what would be the two things you would tell somebody to.
Go out and do. What do you think people? What do I think?
Most people would say, yeah.
You know, I don't know.
I mean, I think you know what. I don't have an answer. I'm not a coach, but I guess you've.
Got to you've got to have a good grip. You've got to take the club away on plane.
Right, they right, right? Or they tell they got to rotate, you know, like like watching a pro right, which is not the way anybody.
Like learn the foot pressure number one? Okay, second thing posting pact. If I can control I can control shots out here, just like the the foot pressure. I can control distance. I can control curve and trajectory over here after I've hit the ball feel wise, because what I'm what I'm focused on over here. You know, I talked about the left side, but I can switch that up.
I can use my right shoulder to it a drawer, and I can use my left shoulder here to fade instead of that left side to hit a straight one. And I can aim the same. I can aim perfectly the same, or I can aim where I want to aim to make the show happen. The problem is aiming perfect is then you've got to swing perfect right. So right, I don't care about aim. You know, I'm very right eye dominant, so I tend to aim a little.
Bit right and kind of look backwards.
So my aim is generally slightly right. But to me it looks straight, so that doesn't really matter. But I can control my If I can hit it high, I can hit it low, I can draw it, and I can fade it, and I can do a combo of a couple of those with all my thought, not how I take the club away, not where I'm aimed, and not how my downswing is. All I think about is over post impact, because really what happens is what I'm feeling over there after impact. The down swing prepares for it.
If I know I'm going to pull my right shoulder over and hit it like a top spin cross cord like in tennis, that would be a drawer for me. I'm not doing my hands, I'm doing my shoulder. So for my brain to know I'm going to rip my right.
Shoulder four foot past the ball.
My right shoulder starts coming down and I sloped the club a little bit below myself, so my right shoulder can move and I can hit a draw. And then the beauty of that is you can aim wherever you like. It doesn't matter because if there's trouble. Let's say the flag is on the right side of a green and it looks like you want to fade it in there, that would normally be the observation. Right for a good player that can control the ball, I got to start
it over there. I'm going to fade it to that pin that's on the right hand side of the green. But on the left there's water, whether there's a pine tree or there's something there that is in your visual or your mind that says I can't aim over there because I'm worried about the water or the hitting the tree or something like that and messes you up. I
could aim ten yard. I could aim ten yards right of that flag, miss like I'm going to miss the green right and after impact, rip my left shoulder instead of my left side and the ball start left me cut back.
Now.
But okay, now that's advanced stuff, right, that's advanced stuff.
I would love to be able to do.
I've had twelve fifteen handicappers like yourself be able to do it. Because they are they get it like one side sharm. They go, that's pretty easy, and believe it or not, the drawer is easiest one. Be able to draw it with your right shoulder is the simplest thing to do because all it does is shift the paths. It doesn't shift the face because you're not using hands and you're not aiming any different. You just shift the path because you right shoulders, you're going to come higher on the way.
Through, so you start playing golf with less perfection.
You don't need to worry about perfection if you think about who are two of the best ball stripe Because everyone talks about Mo, Norman, Lee Trevino. Watch them, watch them on the course or on the range. They don't even line up. Moe just puts a ball down and line and hits it straight at it and Trevino just shuffles his feet around until he feels right and then he hits it.
So they're not being perfect, they're just aiming or whatever they want, what looks right right.
So that's the freedom that I had playing golf, or even now today, is that I don't even think golf s when if I think of anything, I think, build my foot pressure, do what I need to do after impact, and my swing will function perfectly well to correspond to that. Now, it's a kind of a brains It messes with your brain because everyone is so intent on what's behind them rather than what's in front of him. But once you understand it, it just makes golf really simple.
One one last last thing. So I read you were talking about the head, and you know the whole thing of Nicholas you know, saying he never moved his head, and then you have the video of the pictures of him turning his head. What's what's your feeling on the You know, the head does not have to stay.
Well, it can't stay.
Because if you're set up with the ball in your head still, as soon as you turn your shoulders, your head's going to move to some degree, and then as soon as you can press down in your legs in transition, when you push a bit more, your head's going to drop.
And then a lot of players because remember a golf club when it swings, got a lot of centrifugal force on it because the heavier the bottom end is heavier than the top end, so that the bottom end is trying to move away from you when you swim forcefully away from the body.
So that's why what I teach it it stops the clubway.
You basically keep the club in a tighter circle with that plus and minus entry and exit.
So what that what that does?
I forgot what we were talking about. Now I went off on a slightly different tangent there. What was the original question.
I was I was asking you about the head moving the head?
That's right, correct?
So it can move on the backswim because you're going to turn your shoulder, so your spine moves a bit and your weight shifts a bit. It's going to drop in transition because you can press you feet down into the ground. Your knees probably flecks a little bit. And then some people Donald Palmer is a great example, and even Nicholas did it. Tom Watson did it a bit is on the way through. Their head often also goes backwards again because this is where the centrifugal force came
from that I was talking about. They're fighting centrifugal force. If they keep moving with that centrifugal force, the club's going to try fly off, so that they actually their head drops back, particularly.
With the driver or three.
Would you know when you've got the ball teat up a bit, they fight that centrifical force to make the club not fly right. They actually hang back even more so even though a lot of people will saying Nicholas, like we talked about, he said his head didn't move, or Jack Groud apparently used to hold his hair or something. He used to have something right, But the idea is to not get excessive with it. But Curtis strange went way over here, and then he went way over there.
So if your spine moves and your weight transfers, your head's going to move.
But I think the important thing.
Is just as long as your eyes are fixated somewhere in the same vicinity, that you don't change your eye position, that you're not looking at the ball from now inside when you're actually looking at it from the top to start with. So I think it's more it's more the levelness of your eyes rather than the head movement.
Right. Well, it's fine.
I tried, you know, I was watching some videos of Nicholas and you know he's got the head to turn to the left and he's the left eye. And when you were saying you're a right e dominant, I really I went out to I tried to hit by doing that because I was like, oh, I'll get a bigger turn, you know, because you know, freeze up the buddy. I was absolutely, I mean, you know, I tried twice.
I mean, you know, because my now my right right.
Funny story though, so that time for this, yeah, of course.
Nineteen ninety seven US Open at Congressional I was hitting it, okay. I had a couple three parts and I ate a couple just missed the green and I whipped the chip and I'm the first day, I'm seven over through seven holes, like holy.
Cow, get me out of here.
And for some reason, even though I don't like it, because I on the eighth tee, I thought, I feel some on top of the ball. I'm going to do my Jack Nicholas head thing. And I tilted my head back like we're just talking about. I could hardly see the ball and I played and I birdied the eighth and I off I went, and I so seven over through seven. The next sixty five holes, I played two underpar.
Came sixteenth and I got in the Masters. I was ready to go home after seven holes and I ended up and my only swing thought was Jack Nicholas head because I felt I felt like I was two on top of the ball, so I shifted my eyes back to that, even though I didn't feel comfortable, and I played great, but that was it. I never did it again. But it's funny how some little keys just work.
Yeah, no, it's I mean, it's so funny. I mean because I, you know, like I was watching him swing and I was like, God, you know, he's got that great you know, vertical, you know, swinging, and I was like, you know, and if I could just get get that kind of turn. I mean obviously not his turn, but I mean, you know my room of that, and I mean I felt like I'd never played golf before. All right, It's difficult because it was such a change.
If I hadn't a birdied the eight sol, I probably would have quit it right there and then. But so I'll give you, I'll give you two one tip about you creating a longer backswing. So you got to take a club away with how do you feel? Do you feel shoulders, arms hips, hands on, what what do you feel?
You know, I try to do with my shoulders, you know. And like one thing you know, and it's I am. You know, when you were talking about like the grip pressure. One of the things I noticed was I I took I took a lesson from a guy who worked with Mike Austin, right, you know, the guy who hit the five hundred and fifteen year drive. And it actually for
about three weeks worked great. And I was, I mean, and I was, you know, not that it's all about distance, but I was hitting the ball thirty yards longer off the tee and straighter than I've ever hit the ball. But then what started happening is, you know, I try to hold the club pretty loose just because that kind of you know, has helped me, not you know, help me get rid of attention when I'm when I'm swinging. But I realized that I was regripping once I lost
that sweat. It was because I was putting so much force coming down with I was regripping the club on the way now, and I actually had so I had I didn't think I could get along swing like that, and then I've abandoned it. So so tell me, tell me.
That's why I asked you what you feel your backswing goes with? So typically if I if I feel I turned my shoulders, it comes a maximum spot that I can't turn them anymore in that right now, where are my hands when I do that? If my hands are only halfway up my waist, I'm going to swing short?
Right? How to swing along? All I'm going to do is lift my arms up.
You know, So that that may be what you were doing, But then you got rid of that after a while because you literally would teach people to here's how I teach people to do a proper backswing sequence and long enough with good enough turn that everything's coiled up basically, so step right foot pressure. If you push your feet into the ground, you create a stable base, and then what happens is your hips won't turn too early.
So the worst thing.
People do is slide off the ball or turn their hips too soon. Because if I turn my hips, what are my shoulders?
Do? They turn as well? Right?
They go with them, and to complete the swing, I have to lift, So I may only get sixty five or seventy degrees a turn, even though I feel like I've turned like crazy correct because if I turn it early and then lift, I don't really get the shoulder turn I'm after. So what I get people to do is push the ground. Think about their core so that you center your belly button. Think of the right side of view belly button moving like you like you start in a lawnmower, but.
Not with your arm.
Just that right side is can you see me here? That right side here is pulling that way. So what that does is it creates a one piece motion. Your arms won't just won't break arms arms are going to move with it because they're connected. What happens is when I do the core. See how my shoulders have not turned a lot yet, right, my hands.
Are still all the way back here.
So now all I do is turn my shoulders and my arms lift up and they reach a point where they can't go any further. So people should use the ground and then their right side core for right hands obviously to get the initial takeaway. So it's almost like you don't turn here and then you turn the second party backswing. And why that's so good is generally what stops first on the backswing tries to start first on the down swing. So if I overturn and then lift stopped first. When I do that, my.
Shoulders starts first.
Yeah, my shoulders, right, yeah, so they're they're going to want to start down. Now if I do it the other way, if I go core and then shoulders, it feels like my shoulders kept going, So then I'll just start down that way and I'll slought it because my shoulders don't want to spin because they felt like they were completing the back swing rather than starting the backs.
That's no, that's great, actually, that actually understand that completely.
So that's you've got to have foot pressure to do it, because you need resistance in the ground to pull the core from and then to turn against.
Now I'm not saying you've.
Got to keep you right hip still. It will still turn, but I'm not trying to turn my hip. I'm basically my shoulder turn is now going to turn that hip a little bit, but it's not going to overturn. I'm just going to get deeper into it so i'd feel all loaded on my right leg, which now I can start my downswing with rather than up here.
Right, Okay, all right, I'm going to I'm maybe hit bars today even though it's fifty degrees, so I'm going to give it a shot.
It works, It works well.
It's one piece take where you're not manipulating anything with your wrists or getting the club too far off plane. Not that that's a great big deal, but it's going to be pretty pretty even there. But just seeing whatever stops last, so when you feel your shoulders stopping last, they're not going to want to start first.
Right, Okay, cool, thank you? That is like, this is a victory. I'm excited.
So you're is that will That's an easy thing to remember and to keep doing because now remember every little swing change you make does have an effect on something, but right that won that'll only have a good effect because it's not going to make you do crazy things. It's going to put you on the right path coming down. Okay, and foot pressure.
All right, I'm working on the foot pressure and on the turn. Bradley, thank you so much for taking the time to do this. I really appreciate you it a lot.
Hopefully everyone gets a good bars out of some of that and gets some great info that's going to help their game.
And if not, come see me awesome.
Yeah, while you tell everybody just quickly where you're at May You're Bradley hughesgolf dot com.
That's what I do you want to So I'm based out in Greenville, South Carolina, and at Holytree Country Club. At the moment, our course is getting renovated, but the range is not, so I'll be there for lessons, short game putting, all that stuff. Just no on course stuff. But yeah, our weather's pretty good all year round. You'll find links to the lessons on my website bradleyhuesgolf dot com.
And then if you liked what I talked about today, you'll find some more video work and talk about it on Instagram, at Twitter x whatever it is, and they're all b Hughes Golf terrific.
Thank you so much, Bradley, appreciate it.
You're welcome, look forward to watching and hope everyone had a good time.
And thanks for asking me to be on.
Thank you.