A Malaska Golf Member shares his experience with the Front Loader Drill. He hits the ball better when he puts the club out in front and starts his swing. He said it also keeps him from being too static over the ball.
Mike talks about how, for many years, golfers would set up to the ball and take a slight movement forward before hitting the ball. This triggered the backswing and was called a forward press.
In the 1980s, the prevailing thought in the golf industry changed to a more static start. Unfortunately, this locked a lot of people up. You will notice in many sports, you have to move left to go right. You do the same for the opposite way; go right to go left.
Another problem was taking the club away first. Mike emphasizes that this is a mistake because you will be late with your change of direction.
The Front Loader Drill puts the club out in front. As you bring it back, you are already on your right side, your hips are out of your way, and force is in your right foot. You are set up and can begin to change direction. If you start from a static position, it won’t be until the top of your swing or transition point that your body changes direction. This is too late!
The Front Loader Drill, having the club already out in front, allows you to go left foot, right foot, back to left foot, and then hit. This is your golf swing timing.
When you implement this into your swing without having the club in front of you, you have a slight forward kick or press before swinging backward. This gets you started on your swing.
Again, it is left, right, left, swing. The forward press is the trigger to get you to swing.
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13 Comments
Excellent point 👍
Excellent information once again. I’m sure this will help my synchronization / Timing issues⛳️
Great information…!
You have helped simplify my golf game to where I’m playing much better and enjoying the game more….!!! Thank you.
“A few people start doing it so now it’s O.K.”! Funny and so true.
Love your advice and instruction…based in natural athletic body movement coupled with technical detail about how to maximize your ability to play the game. Thank you!
Mike, I'll guess that you won't get to comment on all or any of these comments, but you are so right. When I played goalkeeper in college in soccer, prior to a shot being taken, you have to be moving your feet, so that you get into the flow of moving. You just can't be static. Thanks for the excellent reminder
Nicklaus used to call it "constant motion". I think DJ is basically doing this front loader type of motion. I also noticed the front loader drill will almost automagically create a good backswing if you relax and let the weight of the club swing back perfectly efficiently. Long distance drivers talk about pushing off with the front foot to start the swing. Same basic idea. It's working for me.
Not b.s. ing here but just yesterday I asked a our local club fitting guru and golf swing teacher/coach what he observed in my swing that could be causing my loss of distance and general feeling of being out of 'time". He watched four 7 iron swings and said it looked to him that I was stagnate and swing all arms with a very late hip and lower body turn. He said this may be whats causing the longer sloppy backswing and the feeling of a need to "catch things up" before ball impact. He said bump a hint toward the target line then focus on the feeling of turning the left shoulder back first then turn to the right out of the "clubs way" (Im right handed). This feel he explained seemed tremendous but feel VS real always looks different to a bystander. Anyway, my backswing shortened slightly, I was able to get back to the ball more solid and on the 3rd swing I was hitting my old medium draw with a huge improvement in accuracy. This bump forward you spoke of was what really solved at least 3 issues, 1) too long of a backswing. 2). rigid body at address. 3). inconsistent contact. Thanks again Mr. M for making this video, goodluck out there.
I love your channel Mike. You have really helped me to become a good ball striker. A slight forward movement as you explained it makes so much sense. I have another starting move I like to use together with that. I like to give the ball a slight "stink eye" with my left eye as I'm starting out. It's a fun thought and by doing so I'm using my neck to turn my head slightly but consciously making sure to do so in line with the backswing plane. I feel this helps to keep me loose while reinforcing a good swing plane.
Thanks Mike
Great job Mike. I believe Harvey Penick had a similar drill in "The Little Red Book" He talked about swinging a bucket of water. A slight lean toward the target to start the momentum away from the target. You are right, this used to be taught quite often.
Great advice as always 👏👏
I've been doing this for a couple of weeks now, and can confidently say that it works. I've always had a little press forward with my putter, so it's not to hard to incorporate into my swing…thanks Mike !