Butch Harmon on Golf Channel’s Academy Live Living Room Lesson. Classic clip from Butch Harmon trying to fix a callers golf swing with the driver. Butch explains how to correct the flat backswing and flipping hands of the caller with simple to follow tips. These tips will help any golf swing.
I used to love this show on the Golf Channel Academy live the living room lesson this lesson is from golf teaching Legend Butch Harman welcome back tonight we have as a guest over the phone but we’ve got a swing in the studio Ed Barrett Jr how are you tonight sir hi Peter just fine hi Butch hey Ed how are you good uh Ed let me ask you a couple question what’s your handicap handicap’s uh 12 good do you get to play a lot I play a good bit I’m retired I play about three four times a week and I’m a raage junkie on the other days why you you play about as much as uh Kesler does yeah right yeah well let’s take a look at Ed swing and we can see if we can help you here Ed okay well first of all what I would say posture wise do you use an extra long driver 46 45 Ines at 45 I believe yeah I to me you look like you’re bent over quite a bit and a little too far from the ball so I would tell you to probably stand a little taller nice knee flexed but don’t be bent over so far and I think a lot of that is because you went to the the longer driver mhm if we look at your takeaway here you really have a tendency and this is what a longer Club does to you to really get this club Behind you but with very little wrist so the club has gone back quite a bit on the inside but yet you haven’t cocked your wrist much and this is where your loss of power comes from as we go on a little even to that position there you really haven’t gotten much risk Hawk at all we can see how flat the plane of your left arm is that’s pretty much the top of your back s swing right there so what happens from this position is you’re going to have to throw your hands at it you can see how laid off the club shaft is and how flat a plane you have now you’ve made a good turn in your shoulders but because you’ve never got your wrist you really don’t have anything to hit it with coming down as we watch the start of this downswing we see a pretty good release of the right hand very early we also see that that shaft gets underneath the right forearm meaning because you took the P back so far on the inside it’s coming from so far behind you and now coming into the Hitting Zone you’re going to have to really throw your hands at you can see that shaft underneath your right forearm we’d like that on the right forearm or really above the right forearm if possible and I’ll show you how to do that in a second so we come into the hitting area we see a very closed Club face because you’ve thrown The Club at it you’re very flat footed because your weight has stayed on the back foot which causes your spine to back up as you can see this is the throwing of the hand hands at the ball from here unfortunately you’ve lost a lot of power you haven’t gotten your left side and you’ve really used a lot of hands and arms and not allowed yourself to come from a right position from here on the swing actually looks pretty good with the ex exception of the arms extending too far I’d really like to have you have the feeling of letting those forearm re hinge themsel that would help you release the club more and I’ll show you how to do that in just a second there is that extension of the left arm we don’t see that wanting to fold any you’re still on your right foot if we look at the picture on the right you still haven’t gotten off of that as we go to the Finish you actually end up in a nice finish position because you give it a little bit of a fake finish there at the end end after the ball’s gone so a couple things I’d like to tell you that will help you get more solid contact and’ll help you hit the ball better if you think about first of all in your setup if I can get you in your setup not to be so extended out this way and that 45 in driver is what’s done that for you it’s really got you out this way I would have you get just a little closer to the ball to get your spine angle a little better I would actually have you feel like you’re taking the club on the outside by hinging your wrists a little more if we looked at your swing you got all the way to here and there wasn’t any RIS coock and at the top of the Swing you were about here and there wasn’t any RIS coock in the very flat position the flat position here is because the club just started so far on the inside so I would have you get a better spine angle feel like you let the club head go before the handle of the club goes actually feel like it is going a little on the outside then as your body turns continue to allow these wrists to hinge to take the club up this will get you in a much higher position with your hands because as you can see you’re very flat and because this left arm is across your chest when you start down this is why the shaft gets so far underneath your spine angle backs up you throw your hands at it your weight stays back if we can get the club head going before the handle and continue to let this go up this way and then just get off of your right foot coming down you’re going to hit the ball a lot more solidly and you’re going to have a lot more feel there you’re not going to have to flip your hands at it so much to try and square the club head now when you do this I’d like you to make slow motion swings you can do that in your living room right now you can get the feeling of the hinge off the ball this way as you hinge it let the thing go up Let the club head let your left arm go up then just go ahead and let your weight transfer I know this sounds like a lot you have good flexibility I think you make a good shoulder turn the problem is you went so far on the inside with your shoulder turn that your left arm PLS too flat the takeaway will help get your left arm up this will help get your arms in front of your body you’re the type of person that probably plays a lot and you practice a lot so these things won’t be too difficult for you to do didn’t you want to say something unless I miss it about the forearm and the shaft on the way down well the reason that the club gets underneath the forearm is because it comes from too flat a position and it starts down in this position here and gets way underneath by letting the club go up a little more this way and the left arm go up as he starts down that’ll correct itself not everybody’s built like tiger and not everybody’s body responds like him what would you tell him about getting his Center out of the way which you suggested was a little in his way in his through swing well the only reason it was in his way is because where he came from Peter by getting the club shaft up a little better going back with a hinge in the wrist he’s going to be able to get his arms in front of his body more ed uh how old are you Ed 62 Ed you look like you’re in very good shape you’ve taken care of yourself you’re strong I know you don’t hit the ball as far as you’d like to that’s that’s why you’ve got the 45 in driver trying to give yourself a little more hit by getting this better takeaway the better plane of this left arm it’s going to allow you really to generate a lot more speed by any more speed you’re not going to have to work as hard and I hope you play better thanks a lot
