rock and block

Question
QUESTION: Hello Eddie
I am a male golfer 6'5" tall.(my body build is similar to Davis Love III) My clubs are extended 2" and are 2 degrees upright.(I was fitted for these by a pro). I have a problem with a "rock and block" swing. My left side goes down (collapses-also probably a reverse pivot) the club gets very steep in the backswing with a overswing. Then I rock forward with hips/belly button leading, left side coming up out of the shot, right shoulder rocks down and then the ball goes right. No slice-just a big block shot. I have tried a lot of solutions including shortening my swing-which has proven impossible to do. Thanks in advance for any light you can shed on this. Regards

Ken

ANSWER: Hi Ken:

Sorry to hear of your dilemma.  Common though.  If you were my student, here is what I would do with you.  Let's talk about the exact opposite of the "rock and block", because that is what you need.  The opposite of that is a baseball swing.  A swing that is really flat, a swing that is more around you instead of so much up and down.  Can you picture it?  So, I would take you out (at the course I teach at) to the back of the range, and put balls on a sidehill lie so that the ball is way above your feet.  I would start you with a 5 iron, the ball is approximately knee to thigh high.  If you are on a sidehill lie where the ball is that far above your feet, can you picture the swing shape you would have to make to hit it?  If you make your "rock and block" move on that lie, you'll hit about 2 feet behind the ball and you might hurt yourself.  Your swing MUST get more rounded.  Making baseball swings around your body on both sides of the ball is how you fix your problem.  If you had a tee that was belt high, and you had a ball on the tee, you would try to make a level swing into the ball so you could hit it solid.  Now go ahead and do that yourself right now.  As you make a level baseball backswing, feel what your left shoulder is doing now.  Feel how the club swings more around, more level, not up and down.  Then, swing the club forward past the ball and feel what your left shoulder does.  Feel how it turns out of the way instead of going up.  Once you do this enough, I would then have you hit balls.  It wouldn't take you more than 40 or 50 shots off the sidehill, ball above feet lie to get a sense of the correct motion.  Then, we would gradually back you down the hill until you were able to creat the same swing with a flat lie.  You need to fix your swingshape, not shorten your swing.  The club needs to swing more around you, despite being 6'5".  Watch Davis Love turn his shoulders behind the golf ball.  Your left shoulder would go down towards the ball and stay in front of the ball.  After making tons of baseball swings, you to will turn your left shoulder more behind the ball and be on your way to fixing the "rock and block".  

Eddie Kilthau
PGA Member

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello again Eddie,
Thanks for answering my question yesterday. I had a beautiful day here today to work on what you prescribed. I think I have found the root cause of my rock and block.
I am 99.9% sure it is being caused by a move to get under the ball and lift it into the air. I had a lesson a few years ago and the pro said I was doing this. Can you pass along any info to help me correct a "lift" move? It is extremely bad with the driver and fairway woods. Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you.  Ken

Answer
Ken:

Put a tee in the ground 3-4 inches in front of the ball on the target line.  Using a 7 iron, make sure you strike your ball and take the tee out as well.  If you are trying to lift, you'll never hit the tee in front of the ball.  You should feel a more descending angle of attack and the clubhead moving lower longer through impact.  With your driver, tee the ball way down for a while until you level off your angle of attack.  If you tee it high, you'll instinctively try to swing up or under it lifting it into the air.  But if you tee it real low (as a drill), you simply cannot swing up on it or you'll hit the turf way behind the ball.  It forces you to round out your swing and make it more level.  

Eddie