Doesn’t time fly? It feels like I blinked and it’s already that time again.
“What time is it?,” you ask. It’s 5i Tricks of the Trade time, baby! Featuring PRACTICE STATION NATION!
In this installment of 5iTotT, we cover how to best create Practice Stations to optimize your Club Path.
We start with our focus on the slicers of the world, by creating an Avoidance Drill to help create a more inside-out Club Path. As a reminder, Club Path creates curvature. Assuming we have a somewhat neutral Face Angle, swinging more inside-out creates draw bias and swinging more outside-in creates fade bias. To help a more inside-out path, we can simply utilize our bag of clubs to create the Practice Station. (Pro Tip: you can always use a 5i house set if you didn’t bring your own! 😉)
Here’s a few simple steps:
- Place the golf bag just OUTSIDE and BEHIND the ball.
- Balance a club across the top of the bag so the grip hovers just outside your handline.
- After you’re set up, work on making some swings, hitting the ball while avoiding the extra club.
This is an avoidance drill that forces the club to move in a different direction. If the path does not move more inside-out when you successfully miss the club, you may need to move the bag closer to yourself.
If you are someone who swings too far inside-out and battles pushes and hooks, you can improve your pattern with the drill just now with the bag OUTSIDE and IN FRONT of the ball. From here, the focus becomes getting the hands to travel back to the inside to neutralize the path.
Do not underestimate the power of avoidance drills!
Dan McCracken
NYC Director of Instruction
@danmccrackengolf
