In this video I’ll show you one of the secrets to both distance and accuracy off the tee. It has to do with the way you start your swing.

I noticed the last time I played that on some shots I was starting my swing incorrectly. When you start your swing correctly you have the best chance for great shots. Start your swing incorrectly, however, and it’s almost impossible to recover. The early hinge I describe in the video certainly led to some disastrous shots.

Watch the video to see how I use Low & Slow – one of the drills from my training program The 5 Keys To Distance – to fix an issue with my golf swing. Then read more below the video to see the benefits of this drill.

Don’t Fix Your Golf Swing On The Course

When you play golf you should always keep a mental note of tendencies and issues that need to be addressed. You never want to try to “fix” your swing on the course. That never works.

When you play you need to keep your focus on the target, not swing mechanics.

When you are in the middle of a round it’s important to understand that the swing you have is the one you have to play with. You have to “dance with the one you brung.” The best way to keep your scores low is to adjust, rather than fix.

Save your fixing for the range.

The Problem With Cocking the Wrists Too Soon

When I got to the range I prioritized my initial take-away move as an area to focus on. As you saw in the video I was hinging my wrists too early in the backswing.

I know some well-known golf instructors actually advocate an early wrist hinge. But for most golfers I think that advice is disastrous for two reasons:

1. It forces you to have excellent timing on every single shot. Most golfers don’t have the countless hours logged on the practice range to develop that kind of consistent timing.

Plus … timing always goes out the window the minute there is any pressure on the shot.

2. An early hinge creates two competing forces of momentum – the club going up vs the arms going back.

When you hinge the wrists the club wants to go up. And it wants to take the arms with it.

When the arms go up it shortens up the swing arc, which cuts your distance.

It also tends to pull your club off plane and across the line at the top – both of which lead to poor contact issues and off-line shots.

Your arms, on the other hand, want to go back to create a wider arc. A wider arc leads to more club head speed and more distance.

It’s very difficult to hinge the club up AND make the arms go back at the same time.

How To Fix Your Takeaway Move

It’s far easier to adopt a one-piece takeaway that eliminates the conflicting forces on the backswing.

Keep the arms and club in a straight line for the first couple feet of the backswing, or until the hands reach your belt level. THEN the hands can hinge.

There are four benefits to adopting a one-piece takeaway:
1. It helps pull your shoulder under your chin, which promotes more shoulder turn with less effort;
2. It helps produce more core rotation, which brings the big muscles into play for more power;
3. It produces a wider arc, which allows you to use physics to your advantage to get more club head speed and more distance with less effort;
4. It keeps your club on path and on plane longer, which results in more consistent contact and better directional accuracy.

Hit It Solid, Not Harder

The last lesson from the video has to do with the mental side of the swing and your intentions.

During my round my “intention” was to hit the ball as far as I could. That never works. All I really needed to do was hit it solid. When you hit the golf ball solid distance takes care of itself.

Sometimes it’s hard to do the right thing, even when you know better.

So even though I had some mechanical swing issues to address in my practice session, it was actually the mental thought process that led to the mechanical swing issue.

The complete fix involves adjusting my mental process together with the technique work. I focused on a one-piece takeaway and hitting the ball as solidly as I could.

TAKE AWAYS

1. Fix your Mental Process at the same time you fix your swing mechanics.
2. Adopt a one-piece takeaway for more solid contact and better accuracy.
3. Don’t fix your swing on the course. Save it for the range.